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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stephen A. Douglas, by Allen Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stephen A. Douglas
+       A Study in American Politics
+
+Author: Allen Johnson
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2005 [EBook #15508]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
++---------------------------------------------------------------+
+|              Transcriber's Note:                              |
+|                                                               |
+|Original spellings and inconsistent hyphenation have been kept,|
+|including the earlier spelling variant Douglass.               |
+|                                                               |
++---------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS:
+
+A STUDY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
+
+
+By ALLEN JOHNSON
+
+PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN BOWDOIN COLLEGE;
+SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN IOWA COLLEGE
+
+New York
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+COPYRIGHT 1908
+
+By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published February 1908
+
+THE MASON-HENRY PRESS SYRACUSE, N.Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+To
+
+PROFESSOR JESSE MACY
+
+whose wisdom and kindliness have inspired
+a generation of students
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+To describe the career of a man who is now chiefly remembered as the
+rival of Abraham Lincoln, must seem to many minds a superfluous, if
+not invidious, undertaking. The present generation is prone to forget
+that when the rivals met in joint debate fifty years ago, on the
+prairies of Illinois, it was Senator Douglas, and not Mr. Lincoln, who
+was the cynosure of all observing eyes. Time has steadily lessened the
+prestige of the great Democratic leader, and just as steadily enhanced
+the fame of his Republican opponent.
+
+The following pages have been written, not as a vindication, but as an
+interpretation of a personality whose life spans the controversial
+epoch before the Civil War. It is due to the chance reader to state
+that the writer was born in a New England home, and bred in an
+anti-slavery atmosphere where the political creed of Douglas could not
+thrive. If this book reveals a somewhat less sectional outlook than
+this personal allusion suggests, the credit must be given to those
+generous friends in the great Middle West, who have helped the writer
+to interpret the spirit of that region which gave both Douglas and
+Lincoln to the nation.
+
+The material for this study has been brought together from many
+sources. Through the kindness of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield,
+Illinois, I have had access to a valuable collection of letters
+written by Douglas to her father, Charles H. Lanphier, Esq., editor of
+the Illinois _State Register_. Judge Robert M. Douglas of North
+Carolina has permitted me to use an autobiographical sketch of his
+father, as well as other papers in the possession of the family. Among
+those who have lightened my labors, either by copies of letters penned
+by Douglas or by personal recollections, I would mention with
+particular gratitude the late Mrs. L.K. Lippincott ("Grace
+Greenwood"); Mr. J.H. Roberts and Stephen A. Douglas, Esq. of Chicago;
+Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller and the late Hon. Robert E. Hitt of
+Washington. With his wonted generosity, Mr. James F. Rhodes has given
+me the benefit of his wide acquaintance with the newspapers of the
+period, which have been an invaluable aid in the interpretation of
+Douglas's career. Finally, by personal acquaintance and conversation
+with men who knew him, I have endeavored to catch the spirit of those
+who made up the great mass of his constituents.
+
+Brunswick, Maine,
+
+November, 1907.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    BOOK I. THE CALL OF THE WEST
+
+    CHAPTER I
+    FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES       3
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN                    18
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    LAW AND POLITICS                              51
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON             68
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    MANIFEST DESTINY                              84
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    WAR AND POLITICS                             109
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+    THE MEXICAN CESSION                          127
+
+
+    BOOK II. THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+    SENATOR AND CONSTITUENCY                     145
+
+    CHAPTER IX
+    MEASURES OF ADJUSTMENT                       166
+
+    CHAPTER X
+    YOUNG AMERICA                                191
+
+    CHAPTER XI
+    THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT                      220
+
+    CHAPTER XII
+    BLACK REPUBLICANISM                          260
+
+    CHAPTER XIII
+    THE TESTING OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY           281
+
+
+    BOOK III. THE IMPENDING CRISIS
+
+    CHAPTER XIV
+    THE PERSONAL EQUATION                        309
+
+    CHAPTER XV
+    THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS                        324
+
+    CHAPTER XVI
+    THE JOINT DEBATES WITH LINCOLN               348
+
+    CHAPTER XVII
+    THE AFTERMATH                                393
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII
+    THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860                         412
+
+    CHAPTER XIX
+    THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT   442
+
+    CHAPTER XX
+    THE SUMMONS                                  475
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+THE CALL OF THE WEST
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES
+
+
+The dramatic moments in the colonizing of coastal New England have
+passed into song, story, and sober chronicle; but the farther
+migration of the English people, from tide-water to interior, has been
+too prosaic a theme for poets and too diverse a movement for
+historians. Yet when all the factors in our national history shall be
+given their full value, none will seem more potent than the great
+racial drift from the New England frontier into the heart of the
+continent. The New Englanders who formed a broad belt from Vermont and
+New York across the Northwest to Kansas, were a social and political
+force of incalculable power, in the era which ended with the Civil
+War. The New Englander of the Middle West, however, ceased to be
+altogether a Yankee. The lake and prairie plains bred a spirit which
+contrasted strongly with the smug provincialism of rock-ribbed and
+sterile New England. The exultation born of wide, unbroken, horizon
+lines and broad, teeming, prairie landscapes, found expression in the
+often-quoted saying, "Vermont is the most glorious spot on the face of
+this globe for a man to be born in, _provided_ he emigrates when he is
+very young." The career of Stephen Arnold Douglas is intelligible only
+as it is viewed against the background of a New England boyhood, a
+young manhood passed on the prairies of Illinois, and a wedded life
+pervaded by the gentle culture of Southern womanhood.
+
+In America, observed De Tocqueville two generations ago, democracy
+disposes every man to forget his ancestors. When the Hon. Stephen A.
+Douglas was once asked to prepare an account of his career for a
+biographical history of Congress, he chose to omit all but the barest
+reference to his forefathers.[1] Possibly he preferred to leave the
+family tree naked, that his unaided rise to eminence might the more
+impress the chance reader. Yet the records of the Douglass family are
+not uninteresting.[2] The first of the name to cross the ocean was
+William Douglass, who was born in Scotland and who wedded Mary Ann,
+daughter of Thomas Marble of Northampton. Just when this couple left
+Old England is not known, but the birth of a son is recorded in
+Boston, in the year 1645. Soon after this event they removed to New
+London, preferring, it would seem, to try their luck in an outlying
+settlement, for this region was part of the Pequot country. Somewhat
+more than a hundred years later, Benajah Douglass, a descendant of
+this pair and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, pushed still
+farther into the interior, and settled in Rensselaer County, in the
+province of New York. The marriage of Benajah Douglass to Martha
+Arnold, a descendant of Governor William Arnold of Rhode Island, has
+an interest for those who are disposed to find Celtic qualities in the
+grandson, for the Arnolds were of Welsh stock, and may be supposed to
+have revived the strain in the Douglass blood.
+
+Tradition has made Benajah Douglass a soldier in the war of the
+Revolution, but authentic records go no farther back than the year
+1795, when he removed with his family to Brandon, Vermont. There he
+purchased a farm of about four hundred acres, which he must have
+cultivated with some degree of skill, since it seems to have yielded
+an ample competency. He is described as a man of genial, buoyant
+disposition, with much self-confidence. He was five times chosen
+selectman of Brandon; and five times he was elected to represent the
+town in the General Assembly. The physical qualities of the grandson
+may well have been a family inheritance, since of Benajah we read that
+he was of medium height, with large head and body, short neck, and
+short limbs.[3]
+
+The portrait of Benajah's son is far less distinct. He was a graduate
+of Middlebury College and a physician by profession. He married Sally
+Fisk, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer in Brandon, by whom he had
+two children, the younger of whom was Stephen Arnold Douglass, born
+April 23, 1813. The promising career of the young doctor was cut short
+by a sudden stroke, which overtook him as he held his infant son in
+his arms. The plain, little one-and-a-half story house, in which the
+boy first saw the light, suggests that the young physician had been
+unable to provide for more than the bare necessities of his family.[4]
+
+Soon after the death of Dr. Douglass, his widow removed to the farm
+which she and her unmarried brother had inherited from her father. The
+children grew to love this bachelor uncle with almost filial
+affection. Too young to take thought for the morrow, they led the
+wholesome, natural life of country children. Stephen went to the
+district school on the Brandon turnpike, and had no reason to bemoan
+the fate which left him largely dependent upon his uncle's generosity.
+An old school-mate recalls young Douglass through the haze of years,
+as a robust, healthy boy, with generous instincts though tenacious of
+his rights.[5] After school hours work and play alternated. The
+regular farm chores were not the least part in the youngster's
+education; he learned to be industrious and not to despise honest
+labor.[6]
+
+This bare outline of a commonplace boyhood must be filled in with many
+details drawn from environment. Stephen fell heir to a wealth of
+inspiring local traditions. The fresh mountain breezes had also once
+blown full upon the anxious faces of heroes and patriots; the quiet
+valleys had once echoed with the noise of battle; this land of the
+Green Mountains was the Wilderness of colonial days, the frontier for
+restless New Englanders, where with good axe and stout heart they had
+carved their home plots out of the virgin forest. Many a legend of
+adventure, of border warfare, and of personal heroism, was still
+current among the Green Mountain folk. Where was the Vermont lad who
+did not fight over again the battles of Bennington, Ticonderoga, and
+Plattsburg?
+
+Other influences were scarcely less formative in the life of the
+growing boy. Vermont was also the land of the town meeting. Whatever
+may be said of the efficiency of town government, it was and is a
+school of democracy. In Vermont it was the natural political
+expression of social forces. How else, indeed, could the general will
+find fit expression, except through the attrition of many minds? And
+who could know better the needs of the community than the commonalty?
+Not that men reasoned about the philosophy of their political
+institutions: they simply accepted them. And young Douglass grew up in
+an atmosphere friendly to local self-government of an extreme type.
+
+Stephen was nearing his fourteenth birthday, when an event occurred
+which interrupted the even current of his life. His uncle, who was
+commonly regarded as a confirmed old bachelor, confounded the village
+gossips by bringing home a young bride. The birth of a son and heir
+was the nephew's undoing. While the uncle regarded Stephen with
+undiminished affection, he was now much more emphatically _in loco
+parentis_. An indefinable something had come between them. The subtle
+change in relationship was brought home to both when Stephen proposed
+that he should go to the academy in Brandon, to prepare for college.
+That he was to go to college, he seems to have taken for granted.
+There was a moment of embarrassment, and then the uncle told the lad,
+frankly but kindly, that he could not provide for his further
+education. With considerable show of affection, he advised him to give
+up the notion of going to college and to remain on the farm, where he
+would have an assured competence. In after years the grown man related
+this incident with a tinge of bitterness, averring that there had been
+an understanding in the family that he was to attend college.[7]
+Momentary disappointment he may have felt, to be sure, but he could
+hardly have been led to believe that he could draw indefinitely upon
+his uncle's bounty.
+
+Piqued and somewhat resentful, Stephen made up his mind to live no
+longer under his uncle's roof. He would show his spirit by proving
+that he was abundantly able to take care of himself. Much against the
+wishes of his mother, who knew him to be mastered by a boyish whim, he
+apprenticed himself to Nahum Parker, a cabinet-maker in Middlebury.[8]
+He put on his apron, went to work sawing table legs from two-inch
+planks, and, delighted with the novelty of the occupation and
+exhilarated by his newly found sense of freedom, believed himself on
+the highway to happiness and prosperity. He found plenty of companions
+with whom he spent his idle hours, young fellows who had a taste for
+politics and who rapidly kindled in the newcomer a consuming
+admiration for Andrew Jackson. He now began to read with avidity such
+political works as came to hand. Discussion with his new friends and
+with his employer, who was an ardent supporter of Adams and Clay,
+whetted his appetite for more reading and study. In after years he was
+wont to say that these were the happiest days of his life.[9]
+
+Toward the end of the year, he became dissatisfied with his employer
+because he was forced to perform "some menial services in the
+house."[10] He wished his employer to know that he was not a household
+servant, but an apprentice. Further difficulties arose, which
+terminated his apprenticeship in Middlebury. Returning to Brandon, he
+entered the shop of Deacon Caleb Knowlton, also a cabinet-maker; but
+in less than a year he quit this employer on the plea of
+ill-health.[11] It is quite likely that the confinement and severe
+manual labor may have overtaxed the strength of the growing boy; but
+it is equally clear that he had lost his taste for cabinet work. He
+never again expressed a wish to follow a trade. He again took up his
+abode with his mother; and, the means now coming to hand from some
+source, he enrolled as a student in Brandon Academy, with the avowed
+purpose of preparing for a professional career.[12] It was a wise
+choice. Vermont may have lost a skilled handworker--there are those
+who vouch for the excellence of his handiwork[13]--but the Union
+gained a joiner of first-rate ability.
+
+Wedding bells rang in another change in his fortunes. The marriage of
+his sister to a young New Yorker from Ontario County, was followed by
+the marriage of his mother to the father, Gehazi Granger. Both couples
+took up their residence on the Granger estate, and thither also went
+Stephen, with perhaps a sense of loneliness in his boyish heart.[14]
+He was then but seventeen. This removal to New York State proved to be
+his first step along a path which Vermonters were wearing toward the
+West.
+
+Happily, his academic course was not long interrupted by this
+migration, for Canandaigua Academy, which offered unusual advantages,
+was within easy reach from his new home. Under the wise instruction of
+Professor Henry Howe, he began the study of Latin and Greek; and by
+his own account made "considerable improvement," though there is
+little evidence in his later life of any acquaintance with the
+classics. He took an active part in the doings of the literary
+societies of the academy, distinguishing himself by his readiness in
+debate. His Democratic proclivities were still strong; and he became
+an ardent defender of Democracy against the rising tide of
+Anti-Masonry, which was threatening to sweep New York from its
+political moorings. Tradition says that young Douglass mingled much
+with local politicians, learning not a little about the arts and
+devices by which the Albany Regency controlled the Democratic
+organization in the State. In this school of practical politics he was
+beyond a peradventure an apt pupil.
+
+A characteristic story is told of Douglass during these school days at
+Canandaigua.[15] A youngster who occupied a particularly desirable
+seat at table had been ousted by another lad, who claimed a better
+right to the place. Some one suggested that the claimants should have
+the case argued by counsel before a board of arbitration. The
+dispossessed boy lost his case, because of the superior skill with
+which Douglass presented the claims of his client. "It was the first
+assertion of the doctrine of squatter sovereignty," said the defeated
+claimant, recalling the incident years afterward, when both he and
+Douglas were in politics.
+
+Douglass was now maturing rapidly. His ideals were clearer; his native
+tastes more pronounced. It is not improbable that already he looked
+forward to politics as a career. At all events he took the proximate
+step toward that goal by beginning the study of law in the office of
+local attorneys, at the same time continuing his studies begun in the
+academy. What marked him off from his comrades even at this period was
+his lively acquisitiveness. He seemed to learn quite as much by
+indirection as by persevering application to books.[16]
+
+In the spring of 1833, the same unrest that sent the first Douglass
+across the sea to the new world, seized the young man. Against the
+remonstrances of his mother and his relatives, he started for the
+great West which then spelled opportunity to so many young men. He was
+only twenty years old, and he had not yet finished his academic
+course; but with the impatience of ambition he was reluctant to spend
+four more years in study before he could gain admission to the bar. In
+the newer States of the West conditions were easier. Moreover, he was
+no longer willing to be a burden to his mother, whose resources were
+limited. And so, with purposes only half formed and with only enough
+money for his immediate needs, he began, not so much a journey, as a
+drift in a westerly direction, for he had no particular destination in
+view.[17]
+
+After a short stay in Buffalo and a visit to Niagara Falls and the
+battle ground of Chippewa, the boy took a steamboat to Cleveland,
+where happily he found a friend in Sherlock J. Andrews, Esquire, a
+successful attorney and a man of kindly impulses. Finding the city
+attractive and the requirements for the Ohio bar less rigorous,
+Douglass determined to drop anchor in this pleasant port. Mr. Andrews
+encouraged him in this purpose, offering the use of his office and
+law library. In a single year Douglass hoped to gain admission to the
+bar. With characteristic energy, he began his studies. Fate ruled,
+however, that his career should not be linked with the Western
+Reserve. Within a few days he was prostrated by that foe which then
+lurked in the marshes and lowlands of the West--foe more dreaded than
+the redman--malarial typhoid. For four weary months he kept his bed,
+hovering between life and death, until the heat of summer was spent
+and the first frosts of October came to revive him. Urgent appeals now
+came to him to return home; but pride kept him from yielding. After
+paying all his bills, he still had forty dollars left. He resolved to
+push on farther into the interior.[18]
+
+He was far from well when he took the canal boat from Cleveland to
+Portsmouth on the Ohio river; but he was now in a reckless and
+adventurous mood. He would test his luck by pressing on to Cincinnati.
+He had no well-defined purpose: he was in a listless mood, which was
+no doubt partly the result of physical exhaustion. From Cincinnati he
+drifted on to Louisville, and then to St. Louis. His small funds were
+now almost all spent. He must soon find occupation or starve. His
+first endeavor was to find a law office where he could earn enough by
+copying and other work to pay his expenses while he continued his law
+studies. No such opening fell in his way and he had no letters of
+introduction here to smooth his path. He was now convinced that he
+must seek some small country town. Hearing that Jacksonville,
+Illinois, was a thriving settlement, he resolved to try his luck in
+this quarter. With much the same desperation with which a gambler
+plays his last stake, he took passage on a river boat up the Illinois,
+and set foot upon the soil of the great prairie State.[19]
+
+A primitive stage coach plied between the river and Jacksonville. Too
+fatigued to walk the intervening distance, Douglass mounted the
+lumbering vehicle and ruefully paid his fare. From this point of
+vantage he took in the prairie landscape. Morgan County was then but
+sparsely populated. Timber fringed the creeks and the river bottoms,
+while the prairie grass grew rank over soil of unsuspected fertility.
+Most dwellings were rude structures made of rough-hewn logs and
+designed as makeshifts. Wildcats and wolves prowled through the timber
+lands in winter, and game of all sorts abounded.[20] As the stage
+swung lazily along, the lad had ample time to let the first impression
+of the prairie landscape sink deep. In the timber, the trees were
+festooned with bitter-sweet and with vines bearing wild grapes; in the
+open country, nothing but unmeasured stretches of waving grass caught
+the eye.[21] To one born and bred among the hills, this broad horizon
+and unbroken landscape must have been a revelation. Weak as he was,
+Douglass drew in the fresh autumnal air with zest, and unconsciously
+borrowed from the face of nature a sense of unbounded capacity. Years
+afterward, when he was famous, he testified, "I found my mind
+liberalized and my opinions enlarged, when I got on these broad
+prairies, with only the heavens to bound my vision, instead of having
+them circumscribed by the little ridges that surrounded the valley
+where I was born."[22] But of all this he was unconscious, when he
+alighted from the stage in Jacksonville. He was simply a wayworn lad,
+without a friend in the town and with only one dollar and twenty-five
+cents in his pocket.[23]
+
+Jacksonville was then hardly more than a crowded village of log cabins
+on the outposts of civilized Illinois.[24] Comfort was not among the
+first concerns of those who had come to subdue the wilderness. Comfort
+implied leisure to enjoy, and leisure was like Heaven,--to be attained
+only after a wearisome earthly pilgrimage. Jacksonville had been
+scourged by the cholera during the summer; and those who had escaped
+the disease had fled the town for fear of it.[25] By this time,
+however, the epidemic had spent itself, and the refugees had returned.
+All told, the town had a population of about one thousand souls, among
+whom were no less than eleven lawyers, or at least those who called
+themselves such.[26]
+
+A day's lodging at the Tavern ate up the remainder of the wanderer's
+funds, so that he was forced to sell a few school books that he had
+brought with him. Meanwhile he left no stone unturned to find
+employment to his liking. One of his first acquaintances was Murray
+McConnell, a lawyer, who advised him to go to Pekin, farther up the
+Illinois River, and open a law office. The young man replied that he
+had no license to practice law and no law books. He was assured that
+a license was a matter of no consequence, since anyone could practice
+before a justice of the peace, and he could procure one at his
+leisure. As for books, McConnell, with true Western generosity,
+offered to loan such as would be of immediate use. So again Douglass
+took up his travels. At Meredosia, the nearest landing on the river,
+he waited a week for the boat upstream. There was no other available
+route to Pekin. Then came the exasperating intelligence, that the only
+boat which plied between these points had blown up at Alton. After
+settling accounts with the tavern-keeper, he found that he had but
+fifty cents left.[27]
+
+There was now but one thing to do, since hard manual labor was out of
+the question: he would teach school. But where? Meredosia was a
+forlorn, thriftless place, and he had no money to travel. Fortunately,
+a kind-hearted farmer befriended him, lodging him at his house over
+night and taking him next morning to Exeter, where there was a
+prospect of securing a school. Disappointment again awaited him; but
+Winchester, ten miles away, was said to need a teacher. Taking his
+coat on his arm--he had left his trunk at Meredosia--he set off on
+foot for Winchester.[28]
+
+Accident, happily turned to his profit, served to introduce him to the
+townspeople of Winchester. The morning after his arrival, he found a
+crowd in the public square and learned that an auction sale of
+personal effects was about to take place. Everyone from the
+administrator of the estate to the village idler, was eager for the
+sale to begin. But a clerk to keep record of the sales and to draw the
+notes was wanting. The eye of the administrator fell upon Douglass;
+something in the youth's appearance gave assurance that he could
+"cipher.". The impatient bystanders "'lowed that he might do," so he
+was given a trial. Douglass proved fully equal to the task, and in two
+days was in possession of five dollars for his pains.[29]
+
+Through the good will of the village storekeeper, who also hailed from
+Vermont, Douglass was presented to several citizens who wished to see
+a school opened in town; and by the first Monday in December he had a
+subscription list of forty scholars, each of whom paid three dollars
+for three months' tuition.[30] Luck was now coming his way. He found
+lodgings under the roof of this same friendly compatriot, the village
+storekeeper, who gave him the use of a small room adjoining the
+store-room.[31] Here Douglass spent his evenings, devoting some hours
+to his law books and perhaps more to comfortable chats with his host
+and talkative neighbors around the stove. For diversion he had the
+weekly meetings of the Lyceum, which had just been formed.[32] He owed
+much to this institution, for the the debates and discussions gave him
+a chance to convert the traditional leadership which fell to him as
+village schoolmaster, into a real leadership of talent and ready wit.
+In this Lyceum he made his first political speech, defending Andrew
+Jackson and his attack upon the Bank against Josiah Lamborn, a lawyer
+from Jacksonville.[33] For a young man he proved himself astonishingly
+well-informed. If the chronology of his autobiography may be accepted,
+he had already read the debates in the Constitutional Convention of
+1787, the _Federalist_, the works of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
+and the recent debates in Congress.
+
+Even while he was teaching school, Douglass found time to practice law
+in a modest way before the justices of the peace; and when the first
+of March came, he closed the schoolhouse door on his career as
+pedagogue. He at once repaired to Jacksonville and presented himself
+before a justice of the Supreme Court for license to practice law.
+After a short examination, which could not have been very searching,
+he was duly admitted to the bar of Illinois. He still lacked a month
+of being twenty-one years of age.[34] Measured by the standard of
+older communities in the East, he knew little law; but there were few
+cases in these Western courts which required much more than
+common-sense, ready speech, and acquaintance with legal procedure.
+_Stare decisis_ was a maxim that did not trouble the average lawyer,
+for there were few decisions to stand upon.[35] Besides, experience
+would make good any deficiencies of preparation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: There can be little doubt that he supplied the data for
+the sketch in Wheeler's Biographical and Political History of
+Congress.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical
+Society, 1901, pp. 113-114.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Vermont Historical Gazetteer, III, p. 457.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Mr. B.F. Field in the _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]
+
+[Footnote 6: For many facts relating to Douglas's life, I am indebted
+to an unpublished autobiographical sketch in the possession of his
+son, Judge R.M. Douglas, of Greensboro, North Carolina.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 61; also
+MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Troy _Whig_, July 6, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 9: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 10: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 11: MS. Autobiography; see Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 13: _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]
+
+[Footnote 14: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 15: This story was repeated to me by Judge Douglas, on the
+authority, I believe, of Senator Lapham of New York.]
+
+[Footnote 16: This is the impression of all who knew him personally,
+then and afterward. See Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]
+
+[Footnote 17: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 18: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 19: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Kirby, Sketch of Joseph Duncan in Fergus Historical
+Series No. 29; also Historic Morgan, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 21: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 22: Speech at Jonesboro, in the debate with Lincoln, Sept.
+15, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 23: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Kirby, Joseph Duncan.]
+
+[Footnote 25: James S. Anderson in Historic Morgan.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Peck, _Gazetteer of Illinois_, 1834.]
+
+[Footnote 27: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 28: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 29: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 30: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 31: Letter of E.G. Miner, January, 1877, in Proceedings of
+the Illinois Association of Sons of Vermont.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 33: _Ibid._; MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 34: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Hon. J.C. Conkling in Fergus Historical Series,
+No. 22.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN
+
+
+The young attorney who opened a law office in the Court House at
+Jacksonville, bore little resemblance to the forlorn lad who had
+vainly sought a livelihood there some months earlier. The winter winds
+of the prairies, so far from racking the frame of the convalescent,
+had braced and toned his whole system. When spring came, he was in the
+best of health and full of animal spirits. He entered upon his new
+life with zest. Here was a people after his own heart; a generous,
+wholesome, optimistic folk. He opened his heart to them, and, of
+course, hospitable doors opened to him. He took society as he found
+it, rude perhaps, but genuine. With plenty of leisure at command, he
+mingled freely with young people of his own age; he joined the
+boisterous young fellows in their village sports; he danced with the
+maidens; and he did not forget to cultivate the good graces of their
+elders. Mothers liked his animation and ready gallantry; fathers found
+him equally responsive on more serious matters of conversation.
+Altogether, he was a very general favorite in a not too fastidious
+society.[36]
+
+Nor was the circle of the young attorney's acquaintances limited to
+Jacksonville. As the county seat and most important town in Morgan
+County, Jacksonville was a sort of rural emporium. Thither came
+farmers from the country round about, to market their produce and to
+purchase their supplies. The town had an unwontedly busy aspect on
+Saturdays. This was the day which drew women to town. While they did
+their shopping, the men loitered on street corners, or around the
+Court House, to greet old acquaintances. Douglass was sure to be found
+among them, joining in that most subtle of all social processes, the
+forming of public opinion. Moving about from group to group, with his
+pockets stuffed with newspapers, he became a familiar figure.[37]
+Plain farmers, in clothes soiled with the rich loam of the prairies,
+enjoyed hearing the young fellow express so pointedly their own
+nascent convictions.
+
+This forum was an excellent school for the future politician. The dust
+might accumulate upon his law books: he was learning unwritten law in
+the hearts of these countrymen. And yet, even at this time, he
+exhibited a certain maturity. There seems never to have been a time
+when the arts of the politician were not instinctive in him. He had no
+boyish illusions to outlive regarding the nature and conditions of
+public life. His perfect self-possession attested this mental
+maturity.
+
+One of the first friendships which the young lawyer formed in his new
+home was with S.S. Brooks, Esq., editor of the Jacksonville _News_.
+While Douglass was still in Winchester, the first issue of this sheet
+had appeared; and he had written a complimentary letter to Brooks,
+congratulating him on his enterprise. The grateful editor never forgot
+this kindly word of encouragement.[38] The intimacy which followed
+was of great value to the younger man, who needed just the advertising
+which the editor was in a position to give. The bond between them was
+their devotion to the fortunes of Andrew Jackson. Together they
+labored to consolidate the Democratic forces of the county, with
+results which must have surprised even the sanguine young lawyer.
+
+The political situation in Morgan County, as the State election
+approached, is not altogether clear. President Jackson's high-handed
+acts, particularly his attitude toward the National Bank, had alarmed
+many men who had supported him in 1832. There were defections in the
+ranks of the Democracy. The State elections would surely turn on
+national issues. The Whigs were noisy, assertive, and confident.
+Largely through the efforts of Brooks and Douglass, the Democrats of
+Jacksonville were persuaded to call a mass-meeting of all good
+Democrats in the county. It was on this occasion, very soon after his
+arrival in town, that Douglass made his début on the political stage.
+
+It is said that accident brought the young lawyer into prominence at
+this meeting. A well-known Democrat who was to have presented
+resolutions, demurred, at the last minute, and thrust the copy into
+Douglass' hands, bidding him read them. The Court House was full to
+overflowing with interested observers of this little by-play.
+Excitement ran high, for the opposition within the party was vehement
+in its protest to cut-and-dried resolutions commending Jackson. An
+older man with more discretion and modesty, would have hesitated to
+face the audience; but Douglass possessed neither retiring modesty
+nor the sobriety which comes with years. He not only read the
+resolutions, but he defended them with such vigorous logic and with
+such caustic criticism of Whigs and half-hearted Democrats, that he
+carried the meeting with him in tumultuous approval of the course of
+Andrew Jackson, past and present.[39]
+
+The next issue of the _Patriot_, the local Whig paper, devoted two
+columns to the speech of this young Democratic upstart; and for weeks
+thereafter the editor flayed him on all possible occasions. The result
+was such an enviable notoriety for the young attorney among Whigs and
+such fame among Democrats, that he received collection demands to the
+amount of thousands of dollars from persons whom he had never seen or
+known. In after years, looking back on these beginnings, he used to
+wonder whether he ought not to have paid the editor of the _Patriot_
+for his abuse, according to the usual advertising rates.[40] The
+political outcome was not in every respect so gratifying. The
+Democratic county ticket was elected and a Democratic congressman from
+the district; but the Whigs elected their candidate for governor.
+
+A factional quarrel among members of his own party gave Douglass his
+reward for services to the cause of Democracy, and his first political
+office. Captain John Wyatt nursed a grudge against John J. Hardin,
+Esq., who had been elected State's attorney for the district through
+his influence, but who had subsequently proved ungrateful. Wyatt had
+been re-elected member of the legislature, however, in spite of
+Hardin's opposition, and now wished to revenge himself, by ousting
+Hardin from his office. With this end in view, Wyatt had Douglass
+draft a bill making the State's attorneys elective by the legislature,
+instead of subject to the governor's appointment. Since the new
+governor was a Whig, he could not be used by the Democrats. The bill
+met with bitter opposition, for it was alleged that it had no other
+purpose than to vacate Hardin's office for the benefit of Douglass.
+This was solemnly denied;[41] but when the bill had been declared
+unconstitutional by the Council of Revision, Douglass' friends made
+desperate exertions to pass the bill over the veto, with the now
+openly avowed purpose to elect him to the office. The bill passed, and
+on the 10th of February, 1835, the legislature in joint session
+elected the boyish lawyer State's attorney for the first judicial
+district, by a majority of four votes over an attorney of experience
+and recognized merit. It is possible, as Douglass afterward averred,
+that he neither coveted the office nor believed himself fitted for it;
+and that his judgment was overruled by his friends. But he accepted
+the office, nevertheless.
+
+When Douglas,--for he had now begun to drop the superfluous s in the
+family name, for simplicity's sake,[42]--set out on his judicial
+circuit, he was not an imposing figure. There was little in his boyish
+face to command attention, except his dark-blue, lustrous eyes. His
+big head seemed out of proportion to his stunted figure. He measured
+scarcely over five feet and weighed less than a hundred and ten
+pounds. Astride his horse, he looked still more diminutive. His mount
+was a young horse which he had borrowed. He carried under his arm a
+single book, also loaned, a copy of the criminal law.[43] His chief
+asset was a large fund of Yankee shrewdness and good nature.
+
+An amusing incident occurred in McLean County at the first court which
+Douglas attended. There were many indictments to be drawn, and the new
+prosecuting attorney, in his haste, misspelled the name of the
+county--M Clean instead of M'Lean. His professional brethren were
+greatly amused at this evidence of inexperience; and made merry over
+the blunder. Finally, John T. Stuart, subsequently Douglas's political
+rival, moved that all the indictments be quashed. Judge Logan asked
+the discomfited youth what he had to say to support the indictments.
+Smarting under the gibes of Stuart, Douglas replied obstinately that
+he had nothing to say, as he supposed the Court would not quash the
+indictments until the point had been proven. This answer aroused more
+merriment; but the Judge decided that the Court could not rule upon
+the matter, until the precise spelling in the statute creating the
+county had been ascertained. No one doubted what the result would be;
+but at least Douglas had the satisfaction of causing his critics some
+annoyance and two days' delay, for the statutes had to be procured
+from an adjoining county. To the astonishment of Court and Bar, and of
+Douglas himself, it appeared that Douglas had spelled the name
+correctly. To the indescribable chagrin of the learned Stuart, the
+Court promptly sustained all the indictments. The young attorney was
+in high feather; and he made the most of his triumph. The incident
+taught him a useful lesson: henceforth he would admit nothing, and
+require his opponents to prove everything that bore upon the case in
+hand. Some time later, upon comparing the printed statute of the
+county with the enrolled bill in the office of the Secretary of State,
+Douglas found that the printer had made a mistake and that the name of
+the county should have been M'Lean.[44]
+
+On the whole Douglas seems to have discharged his not very onerous
+duties acceptably. The more his fellow practitioners saw of him, the
+more respect they had for him. Moreover, they liked him personally.
+His wholesome frankness disarmed ill-natured opponents; his generosity
+made them fast friends. There was not an inn or hostelry in the
+circuit, which did not welcome the sight of the talkative,
+companionable, young district attorney.
+
+Politically as well as socially, Illinois was in a transitional stage.
+Although political parties existed, they were rather loose
+associations of men holding similar political convictions than parties
+in the modern sense with permanent organs of control. He who would
+might stand for office, either announcing his own candidacy in the
+newspapers, or if his modesty forbade this course, causing such an
+announcement to be made by "many voters." In benighted districts,
+where the light of the press did not shine, the candidate offered
+himself in person. Even after the advent of Andrew Jackson in national
+politics, allegiance to party was so far subordinated to personal
+ambition, that it was no uncommon occurrence for several candidates
+from each party to enter the lists.[45] From the point of view of
+party, this practice was strategically faulty, since there was always
+the possibility that the opposing party might unite on a single
+candidate. What was needed to insure the success of party was the
+rationale of an army. But organization was abhorrent to people so
+tenacious of their personal freedom as Illinoisans, because
+organization necessitated the subordination of the individual to the
+centralized authority of the group. To the average man organization
+spelled dictation.
+
+The first step in the effective control of nominations by party in
+Illinois, was taken by certain Democrats, foremost among whom was S.A.
+Douglas, Esq. His rise as a politician, indeed, coincides with this
+development of party organization and machinery. The movement began
+sporadically in several counties. At the instance of Douglas and his
+friend Brooks of the _News_, the Democrats of Morgan County put
+themselves on record as favoring a State convention to choose
+delegates to the national convention of 1836.[46] County after county
+adopted the suggestion, until the movement culminated in a
+well-attended convention at Vandalia in April, 1835. Not all counties
+were represented, to be sure, and no permanent organization was
+effected; but provision was made for a second convention in December,
+to nominate presidential electors.[47] Among the delegates from Morgan
+County in this December convention was Douglas, burning with zeal for
+the consolidation of his party. Signs were not wanting that he was in
+league with other zealots to execute a sort of _coup d'état_ within
+the party. Early in the session, one Ebenezer Peck, recently from
+Canada, boldly proposed that the convention should proceed to nominate
+not only presidential electors but candidates for State offices as
+well. A storm of protests broke upon his head, and for the moment he
+was silenced; but on the second day, he and his confidants succeeded
+in precipitating a general discussion of the convention system.
+Peck--contemptuously styled "the Canadian" by his enemies--secured the
+floor and launched upon a vigorous defense of the nominating
+convention as a piece of party machinery. He thought it absurd to talk
+of a man's having a right to become a candidate for office without the
+indorsement of his party. He believed it equally irrational to allow
+members of the party to consult personal preferences in voting. The
+members of the party must submit to discipline, if they expected to
+secure control of office. Confusion again reigned. The presiding
+officer left the chair precipitately, denouncing the notions of Peck
+as anti-republican.[48]
+
+In the exciting wrangle that followed, Douglas was understood to say
+that he had seen the workings of the nominating convention in New
+York, and he knew it to be the only way to manage elections
+successfully. The opposition had overthrown the great DeWitt Clinton
+only by organizing and adopting the convention system. Gentlemen were
+mistaken who feared that the people of the West had enjoyed their own
+opinions too long to submit quietly to the wise regulations of a
+convention. He knew them better: he had himself had the honor of
+introducing the nominating convention into Morgan County, where it had
+already prostrated one individual high in office. These wise
+admonitions from a mere stripling failed to mollify the conservatives.
+The meeting broke up in disorder, leaving the party with divided
+counsels.[49]
+
+Successful county and district conventions did much to break down the
+resistance to the system. During the following months, Morgan County,
+and the congressional district to which it belonged, became a
+political experiment station. A convention at Jacksonville in April
+not only succeeded in nominating one candidate for each elective
+office, but also in securing the support of the disappointed aspirants
+for office, which under the circumstances was in itself a triumph.[50]
+Taking their cue from the enemy, the Whigs of Morgan County also
+united upon a ticket for the State offices, at the head of which was
+John J. Hardin, a formidable campaigner. When the canvass was fairly
+under way, not a man could be found on the Democratic ticket to hold
+his own with Hardin on the hustings. The ticket was then reorganized
+so as to make a place for Douglas, who was already recognized as one
+of the ablest debaters in the county. Just how this transposition was
+effected is not clear. Apparently one of the nominees of the
+convention for State representative was persuaded to withdraw.[51] The
+Whigs promptly pointed out the inconsistency of this performance.
+"What are good Democrats to do?" asked the Sangamo _Journal_
+mockingly. Douglas had told them to vote for no man who had not been
+nominated by a caucus![52]
+
+The Democrats committed also another tactical blunder. The county
+convention had adjourned without appointing delegates to the
+congressional district convention, which was to be held at Peoria.
+Such of the delegates as had remained in town, together with resident
+Democrats, were hastily reassembled to make good this omission.[53]
+Douglas and eight others were accredited to the Peoria convention; but
+when they arrived, they found only four other delegates present, one
+from each of four counties. Nineteen counties were unrepresented.[54]
+Evidently there was little or no interest in this political
+innovation. In no wise disheartened, however, these thirteen delegates
+declared themselves a duly authorized district convention and put
+candidates in nomination for the several offices. Again the Whig press
+scored their opponents. "Our citizens cannot be led at the dictation
+of a dozen unauthorized individuals, but will act as freemen," said
+the Sangamo _Journal_.[55] There were stalwart Democrats, too, who
+refused to put on "the Caucus collar." Douglas and his "Peoria Humbug
+Convention" were roundly abused on all sides. The young politician
+might have replied, and doubtless did reply, that the rank and file
+had not yet become accustomed to the system, and that the bad roads
+and inclement weather were largely responsible for the slim attendance
+at Peoria.
+
+The campaign was fought with the inevitable concomitants of an
+Illinois election. The weapons that slew the adversary were not always
+forged by logic. In rude regions, where the rougher border element
+congregated, country stores were subsidized by candidates, and liquor
+liberally dispensed. The candidate who refused to treat was doomed. He
+was the last man to get a hearing, when the crowds gathered on
+Saturday nights to hear the candidates discuss the questions at issue.
+To speak from an improvised rostrum--"the stump"--to a boisterous
+throng of men who had already accepted the orator's hospitality at the
+store, was no light ordeal. This was the school of oratory in which
+Douglas was trained.[56]
+
+The election of all but one of the Democratic nominees was hailed as a
+complete vindication of the nominating convention as a piece of party
+machinery. Douglas shared the elation of his fellow workers, even
+though he was made to feel that his nomination was not due to this
+much-vaunted caucus system. At all events, the value of organization
+and discipline had been demonstrated. The day of the professional
+politician and of the machine was dawning in the frontier State of
+Illinois.
+
+During the campaign there had been much wild talk about internal
+improvements. The mania which had taken possession of the people in
+most Western States had affected the grangers of Illinois. It amounted
+to an obsession. The State was called upon to use its resources and
+unlimited credit to provide a market for their produce, by supplying
+transportation facilities for every aspiring community. Elsewhere
+State credit was building canals and railroads: why should Illinois,
+so generously endowed by nature, lag behind? Where crops were spoiling
+for a market, farmers were not disposed to inquire into the mysteries
+of high finance and the nature of public credit. All doubts were laid
+to rest by the magic phrase "natural resources."[57] Mass-meetings
+here and there gave propulsion to the movement.[58] Candidates for
+State office were forced to make the maddest pledges. A grand
+demonstration was projected at Vandalia just as the legislature
+assembled.
+
+The legislature which met in December, 1836, is one of the most
+memorable, and least creditable, in the annals of Illinois. In full
+view of the popular demonstrations at the capital, the members could
+not remained unmoved and indifferent to the demands of their
+constituents, if they wished. Besides, the great majority were already
+committed in favor of internal improvements in some form. The subject
+dwarfed all others. For a time two sessions a day were held; and
+special committees prolonged their labors far into the night.
+Petitions from every quarter deluged the assembly.[59]
+
+A plan for internal improvements had already taken shape in the mind
+of the young representative from Morgan County.[60] He made haste to
+lay it before his colleagues. First of all, he would have the State
+complete the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improve the navigation
+of the Illinois and Wabash rivers. Then he would have two railroads
+constructed which would cross the State from north to south, and from
+east to west. For these purposes he would negotiate a loan, pledging
+the credit of the State, and meet the interest payments by judicious
+sales of the public lands which had been granted by the Federal
+government for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.
+The most creditable feature of these proposals is their moderation.
+This youth of twenty-three evinced far more conservatism than many
+colleagues twice his age.
+
+There was not the slightest prospect, however, that moderate views
+would prevail. Log-rolling had already begun; the lobby was active;
+and every member of the legislature who had pledged himself to his
+constituents was solicitous that his section of the State should not
+be passed over, in the general scramble for appropriations. In the end
+a bill was drawn, which proposed to appropriate no less than
+$10,230,000 for public works. A sum of $500,000 was set aside for
+river improvements, but the remainder was to be expended in the
+construction of eight railroads. A sop of $200,000 was tossed to those
+counties through which no canal or railroad was to pass.[61] What were
+prudent men to do? Should they support this bill, which they believed
+to be thoroughly pernicious, or incur the displeasure of their
+constituents by defeating this, and probably every other, project for
+the session? Douglas was put in a peculiarly trying position. He had
+opposed this "mammoth bill," but he knew his constituents favored it.
+With great reluctance, he voted for the bill.[62] He was not minded
+to immolate himself on the altar of public economy at the very
+threshold of his career.[63]
+
+Much the same issue was forced upon Douglas in connection with the
+Illinois and Michigan canal. Unexpected obstacles to the construction
+of the canal had been encountered. To allow the waters of Lake
+Michigan to flow through the projected canal, it was found that a cut
+eighteen feet deep would have to be made for twenty-eight miles
+through solid rock. The cost of such an undertaking would exceed the
+entire appropriation. It was then suggested that a shallow cut might
+be made above the level of Lake Michigan which would then permit the
+Calumet River or the Des Plaines, to be used as a feeder. The problem
+was one for expert engineers to solve; but it devolved upon an
+ignorant assembly, which seems to have done its best to reduce the
+problem to a political equation. A majority of the House--Douglas
+among them--favored a shallow cut, while the Senate voted for the deep
+cut. The deadlock continued for some weeks, until a conference
+committee succeeded in agreeing upon the Senate's programme. As a
+member of the conferring committee, Douglas vigorously opposed this
+settlement, but on the final vote in the House he yielded his
+convictions. In after years he took great satisfaction in pointing
+out--as evidence of his prescience--that the State became financially
+embarrassed and had finally to adopt the shallow cut.[64]
+
+The members of the 10th General Assembly have not been wont to point
+with pride to their record. With a few notable exceptions they had
+fallen victims to a credulity which had become epidemic. When the
+assembly of 1840 repealed this magnificent act for the improvement of
+Illinois, they encountered an accumulated indebtedness of over
+$14,000,000. There are other aspects of the assembly of 1836-37 upon
+which it is pleasanter to dwell.
+
+As chairman of a committee on petitions Douglas rendered a real
+service to public morality. The general assembly had been wont upon
+petition to grant divorces by special acts. Before the legislature had
+been in session ten days, no less than four petitions for divorces had
+been received. It was a custom reflecting little credit upon the
+State.[65] Reporting for his committee, Douglas contended that the
+legislature had no power to grant divorces, but only to enact salutary
+laws, which should state the circumstances under which divorces might
+be granted by the courts. The existing practice, he argued, was
+contrary to those provisions of the constitution which expressly
+separated the three departments of government. Moreover, everyone
+recognized the injustice and unwisdom of dissolving marriage contracts
+by act of legislature, upon _ex parte_ evidence.[66] Without
+expressing an opinion on the constitutional questions involved, the
+assembly accepted the main recommendation of the committee, that
+henceforth the legislature should not grant bills of divorce.[67]
+
+One of the recurring questions during this session was whether the
+State capital should be moved. Vandalia was an insignificant town,
+difficult of access and rapidly falling far south of the center of
+population in the State. Springfield was particularly desirous to
+become the capital, though there were other towns which had claims
+equally strong. The Sangamon County delegation was annoyingly
+aggressive in behalf of their county seat. They were a conspicuous
+group, not merely because of their stature, which earned for them the
+nickname of "the Long Nine," but also because they were men of real
+ability and practical shrewdness. By adroit management, a vote was
+first secured to move the capital from Vandalia, and then to locate it
+at Springfield. Unquestionably there was some trading of votes in
+return for special concessions in the Internal Improvements bill. It
+is said that Abraham Lincoln was the virtual head of the Sangamon
+delegation, and the chief promoter of the project.[68]
+
+Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, Douglas resigned his
+seat to become Register of the Land Office at Springfield; and when
+"the Long Nine" returned to their constituents and were fęted and
+banqueted by the grateful citizens of Springfield, Douglas sat among
+the guests of honor.[69] It began to be rumored about that the young
+man owed his appointment to the Sangamon delegation, whose schemes he
+had industriously furthered in the legislature. Finally, the Illinois
+_Patriot_ made the direct accusation of bargain.[70] Touched to the
+quick, Douglas wrote a letter to the editor which fairly bristles with
+righteous indignation. His circumstantial denial of the charge,--his
+well-known opposition to the removal of the capital and to all the
+schemes of the Sangamon delegation during the session,--cleared him of
+all complicity. Indeed, Douglas was too zealous a partisan to play
+into the hands of the Sangamon Whigs.[71]
+
+The advent of the young Register at the Land Office was noted by the
+Sangamo Whig _Journal_ in these words: "The Land Office at this place
+was opened on Monday last. We are told the _little man_ from Morgan
+was perfectly astonished, at finding himself making money at the rate
+of from one to two hundred dollars a day!"[72] This sarcastic comment
+is at least good evidence that the office was doing a thriving
+business. In two respects Douglas had bettered himself by this change
+of occupation. He could not afford to hold his seat in the legislature
+with its small salary. Now he was assured of a competence. Besides, as
+a resident of Springfield, he could keep in touch with politics at the
+future capital and bide his time until he was again promoted for
+conspicuous service to his party.
+
+The educative value of his new office was no small consideration to
+the young lawyer. He not only kept the records and plans of surveys
+within his district, but put up each tract at auction, in accordance
+with the proclamation of the President, and issued certificates of
+sale to all purchasers, describing the land purchased. The duties were
+not onerous, but they required considerable familiarity with land laws
+and with the practical difficulties arising from imperfect surveys,
+pre-emption rights, and conflicting claims.[73] Daily contact with the
+practical aspects of the public land policy of the country, seems to
+have opened his eyes to the significance of the public domain as a
+national asset. With all his realism, Douglas was gifted with a
+certain sort of imagination in things political. He not only saw what
+was obvious to the dullest clerk,--the revenue derived from land
+sales,--but also those intangible and prospective gains which would
+accrue to State and nation from the occupation and cultivation of the
+national domain. He came to believe that, even if not a penny came
+into the treasury, the government would still be richer from having
+parcelled out the great uninhabited wastes in the West. Beneath the
+soiled and uncomely exterior of the Western pioneer, native or
+foreigner, Douglas discerned not only a future tax-bearer, but the
+founder of Commonwealths.
+
+Only isolated bits of tradition throw light upon the daily life of the
+young Register of the Land Office. All point to the fact that politics
+was his absorbing interest. He had no avocations; he had no private
+life, no esoteric tastes which invite a prying curiosity; he had no
+subtle aspects of character and temperament which sometimes make even
+commonplace lives dramatic. His life was lived in the open. Lodging at
+the American Tavern, he was always seen in company with other men.
+Diller's drug-store, near the old market, was a familiar rendezvous
+for him and his boon companions. Just as he had no strong interests
+which were not political, so his intimates were likely to be his
+political confrčres. He had no literary tastes: if he read at all, he
+read law or politics.[74] Yet while these characteristics suggest
+narrowness, they were perhaps the inevitable outcome of a society
+possessing few cultural resources and refinements, but tremendous
+directness of purpose.
+
+One of the haunts of Douglas in these Springfield days was the office
+of the _Republican_, a Democratic journal then edited by the Webers.
+There he picked up items of political gossip and chatted with the
+chance comer, or with habitués like himself. He was a welcome visitor,
+just the man whom a country editor, mauling over hackneyed matter,
+likes to have stimulate his flagging wits with a jest or a racy
+anecdote. Now and then Douglas would take up a pen good-naturedly, and
+scratch off an editorial which would set Springfield politicians by
+the ears. The tone of the _Republican_, as indeed of the Western press
+generally at this time, was low. Editors of rival newspapers heaped
+abuse upon each other, without much regard to either truth or decency.
+Feuds were the inevitable product of these editorial amenities.
+
+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.
+
+Before many weeks of the campaign had passed, Douglas had ceased to be
+merely a consultative specialist on party ailments. Not at all
+unwillingly, he was drawn into active service. It was commonly
+supposed that the Honorable William L. May, who had served a term in
+Congress acceptably, would again become the nominee of the Democratic
+party without opposition. If the old-time practice prevailed, he would
+quietly assume the nomination "at the request of many friends." Still,
+consistency required that the nomination should be made in due form by
+a convention. The Springfield _Republican_ clamored for a convention;
+and the Jacksonville _News_ echoed the cry.[80] Other Democratic
+papers took up the cry, until by general agreement a congressional
+district convention was summoned to meet at Peoria. The Jacksonville
+_News_ was then ready with a list of eligible candidates among whom
+Douglas was mentioned. At the same time the enterprising Brooks
+announced "authoritatively" that _if_ Mr. May concluded to become a
+candidate, he would submit his claims to the consideration of the
+convention.[81] This was the first intimation that the gentleman's
+claims were likely to be contested in the convention. Meantime, good
+friends in Sangamon County saw to it that the county delegation was
+made up of men who were favorably disposed toward Douglas, and bound
+them by instructions to act as a unit in the convention.[82]
+
+The history of the district convention has never been written: it
+needs no historian. Under the circumstances the outcome was a foregone
+conclusion. Not all the counties were represented; some were poorly
+represented; most of the delegates came without any clearly defined
+aims; all were unfamiliar with the procedure of conventions. The
+Sangamon County delegation alone, with the possible exception of that
+from Morgan County, knew exactly what it wanted. When a ballot was
+taken, Douglas received a majority of votes cast, and was declared to
+be the regular nominee of the party for Congress.[83]
+
+There was much shaking of heads over this machine-made nomination. An
+experienced public servant had been set aside to gratify the ambition
+of a mere stripling. Even Democrats commented freely upon the
+untrustworthiness of a device which left nominations to the caprice of
+forty delegates representing only fourteen counties out of
+thirty-five.[84] The Whigs made merry over the folly of their
+opponents. "No nomination could suit us better," declared the Sangamo
+_Journal_.[85]
+
+The Democratic State convention met at the appointed time, and again
+new methods prevailed. In spite of strong opposition, a slate was made
+up and proclaimed as the regular ticket of the party. Unhappily, the
+nominee for governor fell under suspicion as an alleged defaulter to
+the government, so that his deposition became imperative.[86] The
+Democrats were in a sorry plight. Defeat stared them in the face.
+There was but one way to save the situation, and that was to call a
+second convention. This was done. On June 5th, a new ticket was put in
+the field, without further mention of the discredited nominee of the
+earlier convention.[87] It so happened that Carlin, the nominee for
+Governor, and McRoberts, candidate for Congress from the first
+district, were receivers in land offices. This "Land Office Ticket"
+became a fair mark for wags in the Whig party.[88]
+
+In after years, Douglas made his friends believe that he accepted the
+nomination with no expectation of success: his only purpose was to
+"consolidate the party."[89] If this be true, his buoyant optimism
+throughout the canvass is admirable. He was pitted against a
+formidable opponent in the person of Major John T. Stuart, who had
+been the candidate of the Whigs two years before. Stuart enjoyed great
+popularity. He was "an old resident" of Springfield,--as Western
+people then reckoned time. He had earned his title in the Black Hawk
+War, since which he had practiced law. For the arduous campaign, which
+would range over thirty-four counties,--from Calhoun, Morgan and
+Sangamon on the south to Cook County on the north,--Stuart was
+physically well-equipped.[90]
+
+Douglas was eager to match himself against Stuart. They started off
+together, in friendly rivalry. As they rode from town to town over
+much the same route, they often met in joint debate; and at night,
+striking a truce, they would on occasion, when inns were few and far
+between, occupy the same quarters. Accommodations were primitive in
+the wilderness of the northern counties. An old resident relates how
+he was awakened one night by the landlord of the tavern, who insisted
+that he and his companion should share their beds with two belated
+travelers. The late arrivals turned out to be Douglas and Stuart.
+Douglas asked the occupants of the beds what their politics were, and
+on learning that one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, he said to
+Stuart, "Stuart, you sleep with the Whig, and I'll sleep with the
+Democrat."[91]
+
+Douglas never seemed conscious of the amusing discrepancy between
+himself and his rival in point of physique. Stuart was fully six feet
+tall and heavily built, so that he towered like a giant above his
+boyish competitor. Yet strange to relate, the exposure to all kinds of
+weather, the long rides, and the incessant speaking in the open air
+through five weary months, told on the robust Stuart quite as much as
+on Douglas. In the midst of the canvass Douglas found his way to
+Chicago. He must have been a forlorn object. His horse, his clothes,
+his boots, and his hat were worn out. His harness was held together
+only by ropes and strings. Yet he was still plucky. And so his friends
+fitted him out again and sent him on his way rejoicing.[92]
+
+The rivals began the canvass good-naturedly, but both gave evidence of
+increasing irritability as the summer wore on. Shortly before the
+election, they met in joint debate at Springfield, in front of the
+Market House. In the course of his speech, Douglas used language that
+offended his big opponent. Stuart then promptly tucked Douglas's head
+under his arm, and carried him _hors de combat_ around the square. In
+his efforts to free himself, Douglas seized Stuart's thumb in his
+mouth and bit it vigorously, so that Stuart carried a scar, as a
+memento of the occasion, for many a year.[93]
+
+As the canvass advanced, the assurance of the Whigs gave way to
+ill-disguised alarm. Disquieting rumors of Douglas's popularity among
+some two thousand Irishmen, who were employed on the canal excavation,
+reached the Whig headquarters.[94] The young man was assiduously
+cultivating voters in the most inaccessible quarters. He was a far
+more resourceful campaigner than his older rival.
+
+The election in August was followed by weeks of suspense. Both parties
+claimed the district vociferously. The official count finally gave the
+election to Stuart by a majority of thirty-five, in a total vote of
+over thirty-six thousand.[95] Possibly Douglas might have successfully
+contested the election.[96] There were certain discrepancies in the
+counting of the votes; but he declined to vex Congress with the
+question, so he said, because similar cases were pending and he could
+not hope to secure a decision before Congress adjourned. It is
+doubtful whether this merciful consideration for Congress was
+uppermost in his mind in the year 1838. The fact is, that Douglas
+wrote to Senator Thomas H. Benton to ascertain the proper procedure in
+such cases;[97] and abandoned the notion of carrying his case before
+Congress, when he learned how costly such a contest would be.[98] He
+had resigned his position as Register of the Land Office to enter the
+campaign, and he had now no other resources than his profession.
+
+It was comforting to the wounded pride of the young man to have the
+plaudits of his own party, at least. He had made a gallant fight; and
+when Democrats from all over the State met at a dinner in honor of
+Governor-elect Carlin, at Quincy, they paid him this generous tribute:
+"Although so far defeated in the election that the certificate will be
+given to another, yet he has the proud gratification of knowing that
+the people are with him. His untiring zeal, his firm integrity, and
+high order of talents, have endeared him to the Democracy of the State
+and they will remember him two years hence."[99] Meantime there was
+nothing left for him to do but to solicit a law practice. He entered
+into partnership with a Springfield attorney by the name of Urquhart.
+
+By the following spring, Douglas was again dabbling in local politics,
+and by late fall he was fully immersed in the deeper waters of
+national politics. Preparations for the presidential campaign drew him
+out of his law office,--where indeed there was nothing to detain
+him,--and he was once again active in party conclaves. He presided
+over a Democratic county convention, and lent a hand in the drafting
+of a platform.[100] In November he was summoned to answer Cyrus
+Walker, a Whig who was making havoc of the Democratic programme at a
+mass-meeting in the Court House. In the absence of any reliable
+records, nothing more can be said of Douglas's rejoinder than that it
+moved the Whigs in turn to summon reinforcements, in the person of the
+awkward but clever Lincoln. The debate was prolonged far into the
+night; and on which side victory finally folded her wings, no man can
+tell.[101] Douglas made the stronger impression, though Whigs
+professed entire satisfaction with the performance of their
+protagonist. There were some in the audience who took exception to
+Lincoln's stale anecdotes, and who thought his manner clownish.[102]
+
+Not long after this encounter, Douglas came in for his share of public
+ridicule. Considering himself insulted by a squib in the Sangamo
+_Journal_, Douglas undertook to cane the editor. But as Francis was
+large and rotund, and Douglas was not, the affair terminated
+unsatisfactorily for the latter. Lincoln described the incident with
+great relish, in a letter to Stuart: "Francis caught him by the hair
+and jammed him back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by
+Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous
+that Francis and everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing
+about it ever since."[103] The Illinois _State Register_ tried to save
+Douglas's dignity by the following account of the rencontre: "Mr.
+Francis had applied scurrilous language to Mr. Douglas, which could be
+noticed in no other way. Mr. Douglas, therefore, gave him a sound
+caning, which Mr. Francis took with Abolition patience, and is now
+praising God that he was neither killed nor scathed."
+
+The executive talents of Douglas were much in demand. First he was
+made a member of the Sangamon County delegation to the State
+convention;[104] then chairman of the State Central Committee; and
+finally, virtual manager of the Democratic campaign in Illinois.[105]
+He was urged to stand for election to the legislature; but he steadily
+refused this nomination. "Considerations of a private nature," he
+wrote, "constrain me to decline the nomination, and leave the field to
+those whose avocations and private affairs will enable them to devote
+the requisite portion of their time to the canvass."[106] Inasmuch as
+Sangamon County usually sent a Whig delegation to the legislature,
+this declination could hardly have cost him many hours of painful
+deliberation.[107] At all events his avocations did not prevent him
+from making every effort to carry the State for the Democratic party.
+
+An unfortunate legal complication had cost the Democrats no end of
+worry. Hitherto the party had counted safely on the vote of the aliens
+in the State; that is, actual inhabitants whether naturalized or
+not.[108] The right of unnaturalized aliens to vote had never been
+called in question. But during the campaign, two Whigs of Galena
+instituted a collusive suit to test the rights of aliens, hoping, of
+course, to embarrass their opponents.[109] The Circuit Court had
+already decided the case adversely, when Douglas assumed direction of
+the campaign. If the decision were allowed to stand, the Democratic
+ticket would probably lose some nine thousand votes and consequently
+the election. The case was at once appealed.[110] Douglas and his old
+friend and benefactor, Murray McConnell, were retained as counsel for
+the appellant. The opposing counsel were Whigs. The case was argued in
+the winter term of the Supreme Court, but was adjourned until the
+following June, a scant six months before the elections.
+
+It was regrettable that a case, which from its very nature was
+complicated by political considerations, should have arisen in the
+midst of a campaign of such unprecedented excitement as that of 1840.
+It was taken for granted, on all sides, that the judges would follow
+their political predilections--and what had Democrats to expect from a
+bench of Whigs? The counsel for the appellant strained every nerve to
+secure another postponement. Fortune favored the Democrats. When the
+court met in June, Douglas, prompted by Judge Smith, the only Democrat
+on the bench, called attention to clerical errors in the record, and
+on this technicality moved that the case be dismissed. Protracted
+arguments _pro and con_ ensued, so that the whole case finally was
+adjourned until the next term of court in November, after the
+election.[111] Once more, at all events, the Democrats could count on
+the alien vote. Did ever lawyer serve politician so well?
+
+As Chairman of the State Central Committee, Douglas had no perfunctory
+position. The Whigs were displaying unusual aggressiveness. Their
+leaders were adroit politicians and had taken a leaf from Democratic
+experience in the matter of party organization. The processions, the
+torch-light parades, the barbecues and other noisy demonstrations of
+the Whigs, were very disconcerting. Such performances could not be
+lightly dismissed as "Whig Humbuggery," for they were alarmingly
+effective in winning votes. In self-defense, the Democratic managers
+were obliged to set on foot counter-demonstrations. On the whole, the
+Democrats were less successful in manufacturing enthusiasm. When one
+convention of young Democrats failed, for want of support, Douglas
+saved the situation only by explaining that hard-working Democrats
+could not leave their employment to go gadding. They preferred to
+leave noise and sham to their opponents, knowing that in the end "the
+quiet but certain influence of truth and correct principles" would
+prevail.[112] And when the Whigs unwittingly held a great
+demonstration for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," on the birthday of King
+George III, Douglas saw to it that an address was issued to voters,
+warning them against the chicane of unpatriotic demagogues. As a
+counter-blast, "All Good Democrats" were summoned to hold
+mass-meetings in the several counties on the Fourth of July. "We
+select the Fourth of July," read this pronunciamento, "not to
+desecrate it with unhallowed shouts ... but in cool and calm devotion
+to our country, to renew upon the altars of its liberties, a sacred
+oath of fidelity to its principles."[113]
+
+Both parties now drew upon their reserves. Douglas went to the front
+whenever and wherever there was hard fighting to be done.[114] He
+seemed indefatigable. Once again he met Major Stuart on the
+platform.[115] He was pitted against experienced campaigners like
+ex-Governor Duncan and General Ewing of Indiana. Douglas made a
+fearless defence of Democratic principles in a joint debate with both
+these Whig champions at Springfield.[116] The discussion continued far
+into the night. In his anxiety to let no point escape, Douglas had his
+supper brought to him; and it is the testimony of an old Whig who
+heard the debate, that Duncan was "the worst used-up man" he ever
+saw.[117] Whether Douglas took the field as on this occasion, or
+directed the campaign from headquarters, he was cool, collected, and
+resourceful. If the sobriquet of "the Little Giant" had not already
+been fastened upon him, it was surely earned in this memorable
+campaign of 1840. The victory of Van Buren over Harrison in Illinois
+was little less than a personal triumph for Douglas, for Democratic
+reverses elsewhere emphasized the already conspicuous fact that
+Illinois had been saved only by superior organization and leadership.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 36: Joseph Wallace in a letter to the Illinois _State
+Register_, April 30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Illinois _State Register_, April 30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Sheahan, Life of Douglas, pp. 16-17.]
+
+[Footnote 39: Sheahan's account of this incident (pp. 18-20) is
+confused. The episode is told very differently in the MS.
+Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 40: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 41: In the Autobiography, Douglas makes a vigorous defense
+of his connection with the whole affair.]
+
+[Footnote 42: Just when he dropped the final s, I am unable to say.
+Joseph Wallace thinks that he did so soon after coming to Illinois.
+See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1901, p.
+114.]
+
+[Footnote 43: Joseph Wallace in the Illinois _State Register_, April
+30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 44: Douglas tells the story with great relish in his
+autobiography. The title of the act reads "An Act creating M'Lean
+County," but the body of the act gives the name as McLean. Douglas had
+used the exact letters of the name, though he had twisted the capital
+letters, writing a capital C for a capital L.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 285-286; see contemporary
+newspapers.]
+
+[Footnote 46: Illinois _Advocate_, May 4, 1835.]
+
+[Footnote 47: _Ibid._, May 6, 1835.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Illinois _Advocate_, Dec. 17, 1835; Sangamo _Journal_,
+Feb. 6, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 49: Sangamo _Journal_, February 6, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 50: There was one exception, see Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 51: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26; Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 67; Sangamo _Journal_, May 7, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Sangamo _Journal_, May 7, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 53: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 54: _Ibid._, May 14, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 55: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 56: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 103-105.]
+
+[Footnote 57: See letter of "M--" in the Illinois _State Register_,
+July 29, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Illinois _State Register_, October 28, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 59: _Ibid._, December 8, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 29; MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 61: Act of February 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 62: In his Autobiography Douglas says that the friends of
+the bill persuaded his constituents to instruct him to vote for the
+bill; hence his affirmative vote was the vote of his constituents.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Douglas was in good company at all events. Abraham
+Lincoln was one of those who voted for the bill.]
+
+[Footnote 64: See Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, Chapter 40;
+Wheeler, Biographical History, pp. 68-70; Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+32-33.]
+
+[Footnote 65: But it was no worse than the English custom before the
+Act of 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 66: House Journal, p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 67: The assembly substituted the word "inexpedient" for
+"unconstitutional," in the resolution submitted by Douglas. House
+Journal, p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, I, pp. 137-138.]
+
+[Footnote 69: _Ibid._, p. 139.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 111.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, pp. 111-112. The Sangamo _Journal_, August 5, 1837, says that
+Douglas owed his appointment to the efforts of Senator Young in his
+behalf.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Sangamo _Journal_, August 29, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Douglas describes his duties in Cutts, Const. and Party
+Questions, pp. 160 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 74: Conversation with Charles A. Keyes, Esq., of
+Springfield, and with Dr. A.W. French, also of Springfield, Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Sangamo _Journal_, July 1, 1837. The newspaper accounts
+of this affair are confusing; but they are in substantial agreement as
+to the causes and outcome of the attack upon the office of the
+_Republican_.]
+
+[Footnote 76: Illinois _State Register_, July 22, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 77: Illinois _State Register_, July 22, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 78: _Ibid._, November 4, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 79: _Ibid._, October 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 80: Illinois _State Register_, October 13, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Jacksonville _News_, quoted by Illinois _State
+Register_, Oct. 13, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Illinois _State Register_, October 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Illinois _State Register_, December 9, 1837; Sangamo
+_Journal_, November 25, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Sangamo _Journal_, November 25, 1837; but see also
+Peoria _Register_, November 25, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 85: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 86: See Illinois _State Register_, May 11, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 87: Illinois _State Register_, June 8, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 88: Sangamo _Journal_, July 21, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 89: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress I, pp. 72-73;
+Sheahan, Douglas, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 90: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 36-37; Transactions of the
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1902, pp. 109 ff; Peoria
+_Register_, May 19, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 91: Palmer, Personal Recollections, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 92: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1902,
+p. 110.]
+
+[Footnote 94: Sangamo _Journal_, August 25, 1838; Peoria _Register_,
+August 11, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 95: Election returns in the Office of the Secretary of
+State.]
+
+[Footnote 96: See Sheahan, Douglas, p. 37; also Illinois _State
+Register_, October 12, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 97: MS. Letter, Benton to Douglas, October 27, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 98: For correspondence between Douglas and Stuart, see
+Illinois _State Register_, April 5, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 99: Illinois _State Register_, October 26, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 100: _Ibid._, April 5, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 101: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 102: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 103: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, I, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 104: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 105: _Ibid._, February 21, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 106: _Ibid._, April 24, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 107: See Illinois _State Register_, August 7, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 108: The Constitution of 1819 bestowed the suffrage upon
+every white male "inhabitant" twenty-one years of age.]
+
+[Footnote 109: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 44-45.]
+
+[Footnote 110: The title of the case was Thomas Spraggins, appellant
+_vs._ Horace H. Houghton, appellee.]
+
+[Footnote 111: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 45-46; Wheeler, Biographical
+History of Congress, p. 76.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Illinois _State Register_, May 15, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 113: _Ibid._, June 12, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 114: Illinois _State Register_, July 10, 1840; Forney,
+Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 115: _Ibid._, September 4, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 116: _Ibid._, October 2, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 117: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago, to the
+writer; see also Illinois _State Register_, October 2, 1840.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LAW AND POLITICS
+
+
+The years were passing rapidly during which Douglas should have laid
+broad and deep the foundations of his professional career, if indeed
+law was to be more than a convenient avocation. These were formative
+years in the young man's life; but as yet he had developed neither the
+inclination nor the capacity to apply himself to the study of the more
+intricate and abstruse phases of jurisprudence. To be sure, he had
+picked up much practical information in the courts, but it was not of
+the sort which makes great jurists. Besides, his law practice had
+been, and was always destined to be, the handmaid of his political
+ambition. In such a school, a naturally ardent, impulsive temperament
+does not acquire judicial poise and gravity. After all, he was only a
+soldier of political fortune, awaiting his turn for promotion. A
+reversal in the fortunes of his party might leave him without hope of
+preferment, and bind him to a profession which is a jealous mistress,
+and to which he had been none too constant. Happily, his party was now
+in power, and he was entitled to first consideration in the
+distribution of the spoils. Under somewhat exceptional circumstances
+the office of Secretary of State fell vacant in the autumn of 1840,
+and the chairman of the Democratic Central Committee entered into his
+reward.
+
+When Governor Carlin took office in 1838, he sent to the Senate the
+nomination of John A. McClernand as Secretary of State, assuming that
+the office had been vacated and that a new Governor might choose his
+advisers.[118] Precedent, it is true, militated against this theory,
+for Secretary Field had held office under three successive governors;
+but now that parties had become more sharply defined, it was deemed
+important that the Secretary of State should be of the same political
+persuasion as the Governor,--and Field was a Whig. The Senate refused
+to indorse this new theory. Whereupon the Governor waited until the
+legislature adjourned, and renewed his appointment of McClernand, who
+promptly brought action against the tenacious Field to obtain
+possession of the office. The case was argued in the Circuit Court
+before Judge Breese, who gave a decision in favor of McClernand. The
+case was then appealed. Among the legal talent arrayed on the side of
+the claimant, when the case appeared on the docket of the Supreme
+Court, was Douglas--as a matter of course. Everyone knew that this was
+not so much a case at law as an issue in politics. The decision of the
+Supreme Court reversing the judgment of the lower court was received,
+therefore, as a partisan move to protect a Whig office-holder.[119]
+
+For a time the Democrats, in control elsewhere, found themselves
+obliged to tolerate a dissident in their political family; but the
+Democratic majority in the new legislature came promptly to the aid of
+the Governor's household. Measures were set on foot to terminate
+Secretary Field's tenure of office by legislative enactment. Just at
+this juncture that gentleman prudently resigned; and Stephen A.
+Douglas was appointed to the office which he had done his best to
+vacate.[120]
+
+This appointment was a boon to the impecunious young attorney. He
+could now count on a salary which would free him from any concern
+about his financial liabilities,--if indeed they ever gave him more
+than momentary concern. Besides, as custodian of the State Library, he
+had access to the best collection of law books in the State. The
+duties of his office were not so exacting but that he could still
+carry on his law studies, and manage such incidental business as came
+his way. These were the obvious and tangible advantages which Douglas
+emphasized in the mellow light of recollection.[121] Yet there were
+other, less obvious, advantages which he omitted to mention.
+
+The current newspapers of this date make frequent mention of an
+institution popularly dubbed "the Third House," or "Lord Coke's
+Assembly."[122] The archives of state do not explain this unique
+institution. Its location was in the lobby of the State House. Like
+many another extra-legal body it kept no records of its proceedings;
+yet it wielded a potent influence. It was attended regularly by those
+officials who made the lobby a rendezvous; irregularly, by politicians
+who came to the Capitol on business; and on pressing occasions, by
+members of the legislature who wished to catch the undertone of party
+opinion. The debates in this Third House often surpassed in interest
+the formal proceedings behind closed doors across the corridor.
+Members of this house were not held to rigid account for what they
+said. Many a political _coup_ was plotted in the lobby. The grist
+which came out of the legislative mill was often ground by
+irresponsible politicians out of hearing of the Speaker of the House.
+The chance comer was quite as likely to find the Secretary of State in
+the lobby as in his office among his books.
+
+The lobby was a busy place in this winter session of 1840-41. It was
+well known that Democratic leaders had planned an aggressive
+reorganization of the Supreme Court, in anticipation of an adverse
+decision in the famous Galena alien case. The Democratic programme was
+embodied in a bill which proposed to abolish the existing Circuit
+Courts, and to enlarge the Supreme Court by the addition of five
+judges. Circuit Courts were to be held by the nine judges of the
+Supreme Court.[123] Subsequent explanations did not, and could not,
+disguise the real purpose of this chaste reform.[124]
+
+While this revolutionary measure was under fire in the legislature and
+in the Third House, the Supreme Court rendered its opinion in the
+alien case. To the amazement of the reformers, the decision did not
+touch the broad, constitutional question of the right of aliens to
+vote, but simply the concrete, particular question arising under the
+Election Law of 1829.[125] Judge Smith alone dissented and argued the
+larger issue. The admirable self-restraint of the Court, so far from
+stopping the mouths of detractors, only excited more unfavorable
+comment. The suspicion of partisanship, sedulously fed by angry
+Democrats, could not be easily eradicated. The Court was now condemned
+for its contemptible evasion of the real question at issue.
+
+Douglas made an impassioned speech to the lobby, charging the Court
+with having deliberately suppressed its decision on the paramount
+issue, in order to disarm criticism and to avert the impending
+reorganization of the bench.[126] He called loudly for the passage of
+the bill before the legislature; and the lobby echoed his sentiments.
+McClernand in the House corroborated this charge by stating, "under
+authorization," that the judges had withdrawn the opinion which they
+had prepared in June.[127] Thereupon four of the five judges made an
+unqualified denial of the charge.[128] McClernand fell back helplessly
+upon the word of Douglas. Pushed into a corner, Douglas then stated
+publicly, that he had made his charges against the Court on the
+explicit information given to him privately by Judge Smith. Six others
+testified that they had been similarly informed, or misinformed, by
+the same high authority.[129] At all events, the mischief had been
+done. Under the party whip the bill to reorganize the Supreme Court
+was driven through both houses of the legislature, and unofficially
+ratified by Lord Coke's Assembly in the lobby.
+
+Already it was noised abroad that Douglas was "slated" for one of the
+newly created judgeships. The Whig press ridiculed the suggestion but
+still frankly admitted, that if party services were to qualify for
+such an appointment, the "Generalessimo of the Loco-focos of Illinois"
+was entitled to consideration. When rumor passed into fact, and
+Douglas was nominated by the Governor, even Democrats demurred. It
+required no little generosity on the part of older men who had
+befriended the young man, to permit him to pass over their heads in
+this fashion.[130] Besides, what legal qualifications could this young
+man of twenty-seven possess for so important a post?
+
+The new judges entered upon their duties under a cloud. Almost their
+first act was to vacate the clerkship of the court, for the benefit of
+that arch-politician, Ebenezer Peck; and that, too,--so men
+said,--without consulting their Whig associates on the bench. It was
+commonly reported that Peck had changed his vote in the House just
+when one more vote was needed to pass the Judiciary Bill.[131] Very
+likely this rumor was circulated by some malicious newsmonger, but the
+appointment of Peck certainly did not inspire confidence in the newly
+organized court.
+
+Was it to make his ambition seem less odious, that Douglas sought to
+give the impression that he accepted the appointment with reluctance
+and at a "pecuniary sacrifice"; or was he, as Whigs maintained, forced
+out of the Secretaryship of State to make way for one of the
+Governor's favorites?[132] He could not have been perfectly sincere,
+at all events, when he afterward declared that he supposed he was
+taking leave of political life forever.[133] No one knew better than
+he, that a popular judge is a potential candidate for almost any
+office in the gift of the people.
+
+Before starting out on his circuit Douglas gave conspicuous proof of
+his influence in the lobby, and incidentally, as it happened, cast
+bread upon the waters. The Mormons who had recently settled in Nauvoo,
+in Hancock County, had petitioned the legislature for acts
+incorporating the new city and certain of its peculiar institutions.
+Their sufferings in Missouri had touched the people of Illinois, who
+welcomed them as a persecuted sect. For quite different reasons,
+Mormon agents were cordially received at the Capitol. Here their
+religious tenets were less carefully scrutinized than their political
+affiliations. The Mormons found little trouble in securing lobbyists
+from both parties. Bills were drawn to meet their wishes and presented
+to the legislature, where parties vied with each other in befriending
+the unfortunate refugees from Missouri.[134]
+
+Chance--or was it design?--assigned Judge Douglas to the Quincy
+circuit, within which lay Hancock County and the city of Nauvoo. The
+appointment was highly satisfactory to the Mormons, for while they
+enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy by virtue of their new
+charter, they deemed it advantageous to have the court of the vicinage
+presided over by one who had proved himself a friend. Douglas at once
+confirmed this good impression. He appointed the commander of the
+Nauvoo Legion a master in chancery; and when a case came before him
+which involved interpretation of the act incorporating this peculiar
+body of militia, he gave a constructive interpretation which left the
+Mormons independent of State officers in military affairs.[135]
+Whatever may be said of this decision in point of law, it was at least
+good politics; and the dividing line between law and politics was none
+too sharply drawn in the Fifth Judicial District.
+
+Politicians were now figuring on the Mormon vote in the approaching
+congressional election. The Whigs had rather the better chance of
+winning their support, if the election of 1840 afforded any basis for
+calculation, for the Mormons had then voted _en bloc_ for Harrison and
+Tyler.[136] Stuart was a candidate for re-election. It was generally
+believed that Ralston, whom the Democrats pitted against him, had
+small chance of success. Still, Judge Douglas could be counted on to
+use his influence to procure the Mormon vote.
+
+Undeterred by his position on the bench, Douglas paid a friendly visit
+to the Mormon city in the course of the campaign; and there
+encountered his old Whig opponent, Cyrus Walker, Esq., who was also on
+a mission. Both made public addresses of a flattering description. The
+Prophet, Joseph Smith, was greatly impressed with Judge Douglas's
+friendliness. "Judge Douglas," he wrote to the Faithful, "has ever
+proved himself friendly to this people; and interested himself to
+obtain for us our several charters, holding at the same time the
+office of Secretary of State." But what particularly flattered the
+Mormon leader, was the edifying spectacle of representatives from
+both parties laying aside all partisan motives to mingle with the
+Saints, as "brothers, citizens, and friends."[137] This touching
+account would do for Mormon readers, but Gentiles remained somewhat
+skeptical.
+
+In spite of this coquetting with the Saints, the Democratic candidate
+suffered defeat. It was observed with alarm that the Mormons held the
+balance of power in the district, and might even become a makeweight
+in the State elections, should they continue to increase in
+numbers.[138] The Democrats braced themselves for a new trial of
+strength in the gubernatorial contest. The call for a State convention
+was obeyed with alacrity;[139] and the outcome justified the high
+expectations which were entertained of this body. The convention
+nominated for governor, Adam W. Snyder, whose peculiar availability
+consisted in his having fathered the Judiciary Bill and the several
+acts which had been passed in aid of the Mormons. The practical wisdom
+of this nomination was proved by a communication of Joseph Smith to
+the official newspaper of Nauvoo. The pertinent portion of this
+remarkable manifesto read as follows: "The partisans in this county
+who expected to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will
+find themselves mistaken,--we care not a fig for _Whig or Democrat_:
+they are both alike to us; but we shall go for our _friends_, our
+TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of _human liberty_ which is the cause of
+God.... DOUGLASS is a _Master Spirit_, and _his friends are our
+friends_--we are willing to cast our banners on the air, and fight by
+his side in the cause of humanity, and equal rights--the cause of
+liberty and the law. SNYDER and MOORE, are _his_ friends--they are
+_ours_.... Snyder, and Moore, are _known_ to be our friends; their
+friendship is _vouched_ for by those whom we have tried. We will never
+be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude--they _have_ served us,
+and we _will_ serve them."[140]
+
+This was a discomfiting revelation to the Whigs, who had certainly
+labored as industriously as the Democrats, to placate the Saints of
+Nauvoo. From this moment the Whigs began a crusade against the
+Mormons, who were already, it is true, exhibiting the characteristics
+which had made them odious to the people of Missouri.[141] Rightly or
+wrongly, public opinion was veering; and the shrewd Duncan, who headed
+the Whig ticket, openly charged Douglas with bargaining for the Mormon
+vote.[142] The Whigs hoped that their opponents, having sowed the
+wind, would reap the whirlwind.
+
+Only three months before the August elections of 1844, the Democrats
+were thrown into consternation by the death of Snyder, their
+standard-bearer. Here was an emergency to which the convention system
+was not equal, in the days of poor roads and slow stage-coaches. What
+happened was this, to borrow the account of the chief Democratic
+organ, "A large number of Democratic citizens from almost all parts of
+the State of Illinois met together by a general and public call"--and
+nominated Judge Thomas Ford for governor.[143] It adds significance to
+this record to note that this numerous body of citizens met in the
+snug office of the _State Register_. Democrats in distant parts of the
+State were disposed to resent this action on the part of "the
+Springfield clique"; but the onset of the enemy quelled mutiny. In one
+way the nomination of Ford was opportune. It could not be said of him
+that he had showed any particular solicitude for the welfare of the
+followers of Joseph Smith.[144] The ticket could now be made to face
+both ways. Ford could assure hesitating Democrats who disliked the
+Mormons, that he had not hobnobbed with the Mormon leaders, while
+Douglas and his crew could still demonstrate to the Prophet that the
+cause of human liberty, for which he stood so conspicuously, was safe
+in Democratic hands. The game was played adroitly. Ford carried
+Hancock County by a handsome majority and was elected governor.[145]
+
+It has already been remarked that as judge, Douglas was potentially a
+candidate for almost any public office. He still kept in touch with
+Springfield politicians, planning with them the moves and
+counter-moves on the checker-board of Illinois politics. There was
+more than a grain of truth in the reiterated charges of the Whig
+press, that the Democratic party was dominated by an arbitrary
+clique.[146] It was a matter of common observation, that before
+Democratic candidates put to sea in the troubled waters of State
+politics, they took their dead-reckoning from the office of the _State
+Register_. It was noised abroad in the late fall that Douglas would
+not refuse a positive call from his party to enter national politics;
+and before the year closed, his Springfield intimates were actively
+promoting his candidacy for the United States Senate, to succeed
+Senator Young. This was an audacious move, since even if Young were
+passed over, there were older men far more justly entitled to
+consideration. Nevertheless, Douglas secured in some way the support
+of several delegations in the legislature, so that on the first ballot
+in the Democratic caucus he stood second, receiving only nine votes
+less than Young. A protracted contest followed. Nineteen ballots were
+taken. Douglas's chief competitor proved to be, not Young, but Breese,
+who finally secured the nomination of the caucus by a majority of five
+votes.[147] The ambition of Judge Douglas had overshot the mark.
+
+In view of the young man's absorbing interest in politics, his slender
+legal equipment, and the circumstances under which he received his
+appointment, one wonders whether the courts he held could have been
+anything but travesties on justice. But the universal testimony of
+those whose memories go back so far, is that justice was on the whole
+faithfully administered.[148] The conditions of life in Illinois were
+still comparatively simple. The suits instituted at law were not such
+as to demand profound knowledge of jurisprudence. The wide-spread
+financial distress which followed the crisis of 1837, gave rise to
+many processes to collect debts and to set aside fraudulent
+conveyances. "Actions of slander and trespass for assault and battery,
+engendered by the state of feeling incident to pecuniary
+embarrassment, were frequent."[149]
+
+The courts were in keeping with the meagre legal attainments of those
+who frequented them. Rude frame, or log houses served the purposes of
+bench and bar. The judge sat usually upon a platform with a plain
+table, or pine board, for a desk. A larger table below accommodated
+the attorneys who followed the judge in his circuit from county to
+county. "The relations between the Bench and the Bar were free and
+easy, and flashes of wit and humor and personal repartee were
+constantly passing from one to the other. The court rooms in those
+days were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses
+and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier
+settlements."[150] In this little world, popular reputations were made
+and unmade.
+
+Judge Douglas was thoroughly at home in this primitive environment.
+His freedom from affectation and false dignity recommended him to the
+laity, while his fairness and good-nature put him in quick sympathy
+with his legal brethren and their clients. Long years afterward, men
+recalled the picture of the young judge as he mingled with the crowd
+during a recess. "It was not unusual to see him come off the bench, or
+leave his chair at the bar, and take a seat on the knee of a friend,
+and with one arm thrown familiarly around a friend's neck, have a
+friendly talk, or a legal or political discussion."[151] An attorney
+recently from the East witnessed this familiarity with dismay. "The
+judge of our circuit," he wrote, "is S.A. Douglas, a youth of 28....
+He is a Vermonter, a man of considerable talent, and, in the way of
+despatching business, is a perfect 'steam engine in breeches.' ... He
+is the most democratic judge I ever knew.... I have often thought we
+should cut a queer figure if one of our Suffolk bar should
+accidentally drop in."[152]
+
+Meantime, changes were taking place in the political map of Illinois,
+which did not escape the watchful eye of Judge Douglas. By the census
+of 1840, the State was entitled to seven, instead of four
+representatives in Congress.[153] A reapportionment act was therefore
+to be expected from the next legislature. Democrats were already at
+work plotting seven Democratic districts on paper, for, with a
+majority in the legislature, they could redistrict the State at will.
+A gerrymander was the outcome.[154] If Douglas did not have a hand in
+the reapportionment, at least his friends saw to it that a desirable
+district was carved out, which included the most populous counties in
+his circuit. Who would be a likelier candidate for Congress in this
+Democratic constituency than the popular judge of the Fifth Circuit
+Court?
+
+Seven of the ten counties composing the Fifth Congressional District
+were within the so-called "military tract," between the Mississippi
+and Illinois rivers; three counties lay to the east on the lower
+course of the Illinois. Into this frontier region population began to
+flow in the twenties, from the Sangamo country; and the organization
+of county after county attested the rapid expansion northward. Like
+the people of southern Illinois, the first settlers were of Southern
+extraction; but they were followed by Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and
+New Englanders. In the later thirties, the Northern immigration, to
+which Douglas belonged, gave a somewhat different complexion to
+Peoria, Fulton, and other adjoining counties. Yet there were diverse
+elements in the district: Peoria had a cosmopolitan population of
+Irish, English, Scotch, and German immigrants; Quincy became a city of
+refuge for "Young Germany," after the revolutionary disturbances of
+1830 in Europe.[155]
+
+No sooner had the reapportionment act passed than certain members of
+the legislature, together with Democrats who held no office, took it
+upon themselves to call a nominating convention, on a basis of
+representation determined in an equally arbitrary fashion.[156] The
+summons was obeyed nevertheless. Forty "respectable Democats"
+assembled at Griggsville, in Pike County, on June 5, 1843. It was a
+most satisfactory body. The delegates did nothing but what was
+expected of them. On the second ballot, a majority cast their votes
+for Douglas as the candidate of the party for Congress. The other
+aspirants then graciously withdrew their claims, and pledged their
+cordial support to the regular nominee of the convention.[157] Such
+machine-like precision warmed the hearts of Democratic politicians.
+The editor of the _People's Advocate_ declared the integrity of
+Douglas to be "as unspotted as the vestal's fame--as untarnished and
+as pure as the driven snow."
+
+The Griggsville convention also supplied the requisite machinery for
+the campaign: vigilant precinct committees; county committees; a
+district corresponding committee; a central district committee. The
+party now pinned its faith to the efficiency of its organization, as
+well as to the popularity of its candidate.
+
+Douglas made a show of declining the nomination on the score of
+ill-health, but yielded to the urgent solicitations of friends, who
+would fain have him believe that he was the only Democrat who could
+carry the district.[158] Secretly pleased to be overruled, Douglas
+burned his bridges behind him by resigning his office, and plunged
+into the thick of the battle. His opponent was O.H. Browning, a
+Kentuckian by birth and a Whig by choice. It was Kentucky against
+Vermont, South against North, for neither was unwilling to appeal to
+sectional prejudice. Time has obscured the political issues which they
+debated from Peoria to Macoupin and back; but history has probably
+suffered no great loss. Men, not measures, were at stake in this
+campaign, for on the only national issue which they seemed to have
+discussed--Oregon--they were in practical agreement.[159] Both
+cultivated the little arts which relieve the tedium of politics.
+Douglas talked in heart to heart fashion with his "esteemed
+fellow-citizens," inquired for the health of their families, expressed
+grief when he learned that John had the measles and that Sally was
+down with the chills and fever.[160] And if Browning was less
+successful in this gentle method of wooing voters, it was because he
+had less genuine interest in the plain common people, not because he
+despised the petty arts of the politician.
+
+The canvass was short but exhausting. Douglas addressed public
+gatherings for forty successive days; and when election day came, he
+was prostrated by a fever from which he did not fully recover for
+months.[161] Those who gerrymandered the State did their work well.
+Only one district failed to elect a Democratic Congressman. Douglas
+had a majority over Browning of four hundred and sixty-one votes.[162]
+This cheering news hastened his convalescence, so that by November he
+was able to visit his mother in Canandaigua. Member of Congress at the
+age of thirty! He had every reason to be well satisfied with himself.
+He was fully conscious that he had begun a new chapter in his career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 118: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 213-214.]
+
+[Footnote 119: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 454-455.]
+
+[Footnote 120: Why McClernand was passed over is not clear. Douglas
+entered upon the duties of his office November 30, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 121: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 43.]
+
+[Footnote 123: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 217.]
+
+[Footnote 124: _Ibid._, pp. 212-222.]
+
+[Footnote 125: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, p. 456.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Illinois _State Register_, January 29, 1841; Ford,
+History of Illinois, p. 220.]
+
+[Footnote 127: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 457-458.]
+
+[Footnote 128: _Ibid._, pp. 457-458.]
+
+[Footnote 129: Illinois _State Register_, February 5, 1841. Judge
+Smith is put in an unenviable light by contemporary historians. There
+seems to be no reason to doubt that he misinformed Douglas and others.
+See Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 458-459.]
+
+[Footnote 130: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 131: Sangamo _Journal_, March 19, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 132: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]
+
+[Footnote 134: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 263-265; Linn, Story of
+the Mormons, pp. 236-237.]
+
+[Footnote 135: Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 237-238.]
+
+[Footnote 136: _Ibid._, p. 244.]
+
+[Footnote 137: _Times and Seasons_, II, p. 414.]
+
+[Footnote 138: Illinois _State Register_, August 13, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 139: _Ibid._, September 24, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 140: _Times and Seasons_, III, p. 651.]
+
+[Footnote 141: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 269.]
+
+[Footnote 142: Illinois _State Register_, June 17, 1842. Douglas
+replied in a speech of equal tartness. See _Register_, July 1, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 143: Illinois _State Register_, June 10, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 144: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 277-278.]
+
+[Footnote 145: Gregg, History of Hancock County, p. 419.]
+
+[Footnote 146: Illinois _State Register_, November 4, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 147: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 148: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 149: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22]
+
+[Footnote 150: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 151: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]
+
+[Footnote 152: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, p. 698.]
+
+[Footnote 153: Statute of June 25, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 154: A sheet called _The Gerrymander_ was published in March
+1843, which contained a series of cartoons exhibiting the
+monstrosities of this apportionment. The Fifth District is called "the
+Nondescript."]
+
+[Footnote 155: Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois, Fergus
+Historical Series No. 14; Körner, Das deutsche Element in den
+Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 245, 277; Baker, America as the Political
+Utopia of Young Germany; Peoria _Register_, June 30, 1838; Ballance,
+History of Peoria, pp. 201-202.]
+
+[Footnote 156: Illinois _State Register_, March 10, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 157: Illinois _State Register_, June 16, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 158: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 55; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 159: _Globe_, 28 Cong. 1 Sess. App. pp. 598 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 160: Alton _Telegraph_, July 20, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 161: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 56; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75; Alton _Telegraph_, August 26, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 162: According to the returns in the office of the Secretary
+of State. The _Whig Almanac_ gives 451 as Douglas's majority.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON
+
+
+In his own constituency a member of the national House of
+Representatives may be a marked man; but his office confers no
+particular distinction at the national capital. He must achieve
+distinction either by native talent or through fortuitous
+circumstance; rarely is greatness thrust upon him. A newly elected
+member labors under a peculiar and immediate necessity to acquire
+importance, since the time of his probation is very brief. The
+representative who takes his seat in December of the odd year, must
+stand for re-election in the following year. Between these termini,
+lies only a single session. During his absence eager rivals may be
+undermining his influence at home, and the very possession of office
+may weaken his chances among those disposed to consider rotation in
+office a cardinal principle of democracy. If a newly elected
+congressman wishes to continue in office, he is condemned to do
+something great.
+
+What qualities had Douglas which would single him out from the crowd
+and impress his constituents with a sense of his capacity for public
+service? What had he to offset his youth, his rawness, and his
+legislative inexperience? None of his colleagues cared a fig about his
+record in the Illinois Legislature and on the Bench. In Congress, as
+then constituted, every man had to stand on his own feet, unsupported
+by the dubious props of a local reputation.
+
+There was certainly nothing commanding in the figure of the gentleman
+from Illinois. "He had a herculean frame," writes a contemporary,
+"with the exception of his lower limbs, which were short and small,
+dwarfing what otherwise would have been a conspicuous figure.... His
+large round head surmounted a massive neck, and his features were
+symmetrical, although his small nose deprived them of dignity."[163]
+It was his massive forehead, indeed, that redeemed his appearance from
+the commonplace. Beneath his brow were deep-set, dark eyes that also
+challenged attention.[164] It was not a graceful nor an attractive
+exterior surely, but it was the very embodiment of force. Moreover,
+the Little Giant had qualities of mind and heart that made men forget
+his physical shortcomings. His ready wit, his suavity, and his
+heartiness made him a general favorite almost at once.[165] He was
+soon able to demonstrate his intellectual power.
+
+The House was considering a bill to remit the fine imposed upon
+General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans for contempt of court. It was a
+hackneyed theme. No new, extenuating circumstances could be adduced to
+clear the old warrior of high-handed conduct; but a presidential
+election was approaching and there was political capital to be made by
+defending "Old Hickory." From boyhood Douglas had idolized Andrew
+Jackson. With much the same boyish indignation which led him to tear
+down the coffin handbills in old Brandon, he now sprang to the defense
+of his hero. The case had been well threshed already. Jackson had
+been defended eloquently, and sometimes truthfully. A man of less
+audacity would have hesitated to swell this tide of eloquence, and at
+first, it seemed as though Douglas had little but vehemence to add to
+the eulogies already pronounced. There was nothing novel in the
+assertion that Jackson had neither violated the Constitution by
+declaring martial law at New Orleans, nor assumed any authority which
+was not "fully authorized and legalized by his position, his duty, and
+the unavoidable necessity of the case." The House was used to these
+dogmatic reiterations. But Douglas struck into untrodden ways when he
+contended, that even if Jackson had violated the laws and the
+Constitution, his condemnation for contempt of court was "unjust,
+irregular and illegal." Every unlawful act is not necessarily a
+contempt of court, he argued. "The doctrine of contempts only applies
+to those acts which obstruct the proceedings of the court, and against
+which the general laws of the land do not afford adequate
+protection.... It is incumbent upon those who defend and applaud the
+conduct of the judge to point out the specific act done by General
+Jackson which constituted a contempt of court. The mere declaration of
+martial law is not of that character.... It was a matter over which
+the civil tribunals had no jurisdiction, and with which they had no
+concern, unless some specific crime had been committed or injury done;
+and not even then until it was brought before them according to the
+forms of law."[166]
+
+The old hero had never had a more adroit counsel. Like a good lawyer,
+Douglas seemed to feel himself in duty bound to spar for every
+technical advantage, and to construe the law, wherever possible, in
+favor of his client. At the same time he did not forget that the House
+was the jury in this case, and capable of human emotions upon which he
+might play. At times he became declamatory beyond the point of good
+taste. In voice and manner he betrayed the school in which he had been
+trained. "When I hear gentlemen," he cried in strident tones,
+"attempting to justify this unrighteous fine upon General Jackson upon
+the ground of non-compliance with rules of court and mere formalities,
+I must confess that I cannot appreciate the force of the argument. In
+cases of war and desolation, in times of peril and disaster, we should
+look at the substance and not the shadow of things. I envy not the
+feelings of the man who can reason coolly and calmly about the force
+of precedents and the tendency of examples in the fury of the war-cry,
+when 'booty and beauty' is the watchword. Talk not to me about rules
+and forms in court when the enemy's cannon are pointed at the door,
+and the flames encircle the cupola! The man whose stoicism would
+enable him to philosophize coolly under these circumstances would
+fiddle while the Capitol was burning, and laugh at the horror and
+anguish that surrounded him in the midst of the conflagration! I claim
+not the possession of these remarkable feelings. I concede them all to
+those who think that the savior of New Orleans ought to be treated
+like a criminal for not possessing them in a higher degree. Their
+course in this debate has proved them worthy disciples of the doctrine
+they profess. Let them receive all the encomiums which such sentiments
+are calculated to inspire."[167]
+
+His closing words were marked with much the same perfervid rhetoric,
+only less objectionable because they were charged with genuine
+emotion: "Can gentlemen see nothing to admire, nothing to commend, in
+the closing scenes, when, fresh from the battlefield, the victorious
+general--the idol of his army and the acknowledged savior of his
+countrymen--stood before Judge Hall, and quelled the tumult and
+indignant murmurs of the multitude by telling him that 'the same arm
+which had defended the city from the ravages of a foreign enemy should
+protect him in the discharge of his duty?' Is this the conduct of a
+lawless desperado, who delights in trampling upon Constitution, and
+law, and right? Is there no reverence for the supremacy of the laws
+and the civil institutions of the country displayed on this occasion?
+If such acts of heroism and moderation, of chivalry and submission,
+have no charms to excite the admiration or soften the animosities of
+gentlemen in the Opposition, I have no desire to see them vote for
+this bill. The character of the hero of New Orleans requires no
+endorsement from such a source. They wish to fix a mark, a stigma of
+reproach, upon his character, and send him to his grave branded as a
+criminal. His stern, inflexible adherence to Democratic principles,
+his unwavering devotion to his country, and his intrepid opposition to
+her enemies, have so long thwarted their unhallowed schemes of
+ambition and power, that they fear the potency of his name on earth,
+even after his spirit shall have ascended to heaven."
+
+"An eloquent, sophistical speech, prodigiously admired by the slave
+Democracy of the House," was the comment of John Quincy Adams; words
+of high praise, for the veteran statesman had little patience with
+the style of oratory affected by this "homunculus."[168] A
+correspondent of a Richmond newspaper wrote that this effort had given
+Douglas high rank as a debater.[169] Evidence on every hand confirms
+the impression that by a single, happy stroke the young Illinoisan had
+achieved enviable distinction; but whether he had qualities which
+would secure an enduring reputation, was still open to question.
+
+In the long run, the confidence of party associates is the surest
+passport to real influence in the House. It might easily happen,
+indeed, that Douglas, with all his rough eloquence, would remain an
+impotent legislator. The history of Congress is strewn with oratorical
+derelicts, who have often edified their auditors, but quite as often
+blocked the course of legislation. No one knew better than Douglas,
+that only as he served his party, could he hope to see his wishes
+crystallize into laws, and his ambitions assume the guise of reality.
+His opportunity to render effective service came also in this first
+session.
+
+Four States had neglected to comply with the recent act of Congress
+reapportioning representation, having elected their twenty-one members
+by general ticket. The language of the statute was explicit: "In every
+case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the
+number to which each State shall be entitled under this apportionment
+shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory equal in
+number to the number of Representatives, to which said State may be
+entitled, no one district electing more than one Representative."[170]
+Now all but two of these twenty-one Representatives were Democrats.
+Would a Democratic majority punish this flagrant transgression of
+Federal law by unseating the offenders?
+
+In self-respect the Democratic members of the House could not do less
+than appoint a committee to investigate whether the representatives in
+question had been elected "in conformity to the Constitution and the
+law."[171] Thereupon it devolved upon the six Democratic members of
+this committee of nine to construct a theory, by which they might seat
+their party associates under cover of legality. Not that they held
+_any_ such explicit mandate from the party, nor that they deliberately
+went to work to pervert the law; they were simply under psychological
+pressure from which only men of the severest impartiality could free
+themselves. The work of drafting the majority report (it was a
+foregone conclusion that the committee would divide), fell to Douglas.
+It pronounced the law of 1842 "not a _law_ made in pursuance of the
+Constitution of the United States, and valid, operative, and binding
+upon the States." Accordingly, the representatives of the four States
+in question were entitled to their seats.
+
+By what process of reasoning had Douglas reached this conclusion? The
+report directed its criticism chiefly against the second section of
+the Act of 1842, which substituted the district for the general ticket
+in congressional elections. The Constitution provides that "the Times,
+Places, and Manner of holding elections for Senators and
+Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
+thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
+Regulations." But by the law of 1842, contended the report, Congress
+had only partially exercised its power, and had attempted "to subvert
+the entire system of legislation adopted by the several States of the
+Union, and to compel them to conform to certain rules established by
+Congress for their government." Congress "may" make or alter such
+regulations, but "the right to change State laws or to enact others
+which shall suspend them, does not imply the right to compel the State
+legislatures to make such change or new enactments." Congress may
+exercise the privilege of making such regulations, only when the State
+legislatures refuse to act, or act in a way to subvert the
+Constitution. If Congress acts at all in fixing times, places, and
+manner of elections, it must act exhaustively, leaving nothing for the
+State legislatures to do. The Act of 1842 was general in its nature,
+and inoperative without State legislation. The history of the
+Constitutional Convention of 1787 was cited to prove that it was
+generally understood that Congress would exercise this power only in a
+few specified cases.[172]
+
+Replying to the attacks which this report evoked, Douglas took still
+higher ground. He was ready to affirm that Congress had no power to
+district the States. To concede to Congress so great a power was to
+deny those reserved rights of the States, without which their
+sovereignty would be an empty title. "Congress may alter, but it
+cannot supersede these regulations [of the States] till it supplies
+others in their places, so as to leave the right of representation
+perfect."[173]
+
+The argument of the report was bold and ingenious, if not convincing.
+The minority were ready to admit that the case had been cleverly
+stated, although hardly a man doubted that political considerations
+had weighed most heavily with the chairman of the committee. Douglas
+resented the suggestion with such warmth, however, that it is
+charitable to suppose he was not conscious of the bias under which he
+had labored.
+
+Upon one auditor, who to be sure was inexpressibly bored by the whole
+discussion of the "everlasting general ticket elections," Douglas made
+an unhappy impression. John Quincy Adams recorded in his diary,--that
+diary which was becoming a sort of Rogues' Gallery: "He now raved out
+his hour in abusive invectives upon the members who had pointed out
+its slanders and upon the Whig party. His face was convulsed, his
+gesticulation frantic, and he lashed himself into such a heat that if
+his body had been made of combustible matter, it would have burnt out.
+In the midst of his roaring, to save himself from choking, he stripped
+off and cast away his cravat, and unbuttoned his waist-coat, and had
+the air and aspect of a half-naked pugilist. And this man comes from a
+judicial bench, and passes for an eloquent orator."[174]
+
+No one will mistake this for an impartial description. Nearly every
+Democrat who spoke upon this tedious question, according to Adams,
+either "raved" or "foamed at the mouth." The old gentleman was too
+wearied and disgusted with the affair to be a fair reporter. But as a
+caricature, this picture of the young man from Illinois certainly hits
+off the style which he affected, in common with most Western orators.
+
+Notwithstanding his very substantial services to his party, Douglas
+had sooner or later to face his constituents with an answer to the
+crucial question, "What have you done for us?" It is a hard, brutal
+question, which has blighted many a promising career in American
+politics. The interest which Douglas exhibited in the Western Harbors
+bill was due, in part at least, to his desire to propitiate those by
+virtue of whose suffrages he was a member of the House of
+Representatives. At the same time, he was no doubt sincerely devoted
+to the measure, because he believed profoundly in its national
+character. Local and national interests were so inseparable in his
+mind, that he could urge the improvement of the Illinois River as a
+truly national undertaking. "Through this channel, and this alone," he
+declared all aglow with enthusiasm, "we have a connected and
+uninterrupted navigation for steamboats and large vessels from the
+Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, to all the northern lakes."
+Considerations of war and defense, as well as of peace and commerce,
+counselled the proposed expenditure. "We have no fleet upon the lakes;
+we have no navy-yard there at which we could construct one, and no
+channel through which we could introduce our vessels from the
+sea-board. In times of war, those lakes must be defended, if defended
+at all, by a fleet from the naval depot and a yard on the Mississippi
+River." After the State of Illinois had expended millions on the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, was Congress to begrudge a few thousands
+to remove the sand-bars which impeded navigation in this "national
+highway by an irrevocable ordinance"?[175]
+
+This special plea for the Illinois River was prefaced by a lengthy
+exposition of Democratic doctrine respecting internal improvements,
+for it was incumbent upon every good Democrat to explain a measure
+which seemed to countenance a broad construction of the powers of the
+Federal government. Douglas was at particular pains to show that the
+bill did not depart from the principles laid down in President
+Jackson's famous Maysville Road veto-message.[176] To him Jackson
+incarnated the party faith; and his public documents were a veritable,
+political testament. In the art of reading consistency into his own,
+or the conduct of another, Douglas had no equal. To the end of his
+days he possessed in an extraordinary degree the subtle power of
+redistributing emphasis so as to produce a desired effect. It was the
+most effective and the most insidious of his many natural gifts, for
+it often won immediate ends at the permanent sacrifice of his
+reputation for candor and veracity. The immediate result of this essay
+in interpretation of Jacksonian principles, was to bring down upon
+Douglas's devoted head the withering charge, peculiarly blighting to a
+budding statesman, that he was conjuring with names to the exclusion
+of arguments. With biting sarcasm, Representative Holmes drew
+attention to the gentleman's disposition, after the fashion of little
+men, to advance to the fray under the seven-fold shield of the
+Telamon Ajax--a classical allusion which was altogether lost on the
+young man from Illinois.
+
+The appropriation for the Illinois River was stricken from the Western
+Harbors bill much to Douglas's regret.[177] Still, he had evinced a
+genuine concern for the interests of his constituents and his reward
+was even now at hand. Early in the year the Peoria _Press_ had
+recommended a Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for
+Congress.[178] The _State Register_, and other journals friendly to
+Douglas, took up the cry, giving the movement thus all the marks of
+spontaneity. The Democratic organization was found to be intact; the
+convention was held early in May at Pittsfield; and the Honorable
+Stephen A. Douglas was unanimously re-nominated for Representative to
+Congress from the Fifth Congressional District.[179]
+
+Soon after this well-ordered convention in the little Western town of
+Pittsfield, came the national convention of the Democratic party at
+Baltimore, where the unexpected happened. To Douglas, as to the rank
+and file of the party, the selection of Polk must have come as a
+surprise; but whatever predilections he may have had for another
+candidate, were speedily suppressed.[180] With the platform, at least,
+he found himself in hearty accord; and before the end of the session
+he convinced his associates on the Democratic side of the House, that
+he was no lukewarm supporter of the ticket.
+
+While the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriations bill was under
+discussion in the House, a desultory debate occurred on the politics
+of Colonel Polk. Such digressions were not unusual on the eve of a
+presidential election. Seizing the opportunity, Douglas obtained
+recognition from the Speaker and launched into a turgid speech in
+defence of Polk, "the standard-bearer of Democracy and freedom." It
+had been charged that Colonel Polk was "the industrious follower of
+Andrew Jackson." Douglas turned the thrust neatly by asserting, "He is
+emphatically a Young Hickory--the unwavering friend of Old Hickory in
+all his trials--his bosom companion--his supporter and defender on all
+occasions, in public and private, from his early boyhood until the
+present moment. No man living possessed General Jackson's confidence
+in a greater degree.... That he has been the industrious follower of
+General Jackson in those glorious contests for the defence of his
+country's rights, will not be deemed the unpardonable sin by the
+American people, so long as their hearts beat and swell with gratitude
+to their great benefactor. He is the very man for the times--a 'chip
+of the old block'--of the true hickory stump. The people want a man
+whose patriotism, honesty, ability, and devotion to democratic
+principles, have been tested and tried in the most stormy times of the
+republic, and never found wanting. That man is James K. Polk of
+Tennessee."[181]
+
+There could be no better evidence that Douglas felt sure of his own
+fences, than his willingness to assist in the general campaign outside
+of his own district and State. He not only addressed a mass-meeting of
+delegates from many Western States at Nashville, Tennessee,[182] but
+journeyed to St. Louis and back again, in the service of the
+Democratic Central Committee, speaking at numerous points along the
+way with gratifying success, if we may judge from the grateful words
+of appreciation in the Democratic press.[183] It was while he was in
+attendance on the convention in Nashville that he was brought face to
+face with Andrew Jackson. The old hero was then living in retirement
+at the Hermitage. Thither, as to a Mecca, all good Democrats turned
+their faces after the convention. Douglas received from the old man a
+greeting which warmed the cockles of his heart, and which, duly
+reported by the editor of the Illinois _State Register_, who was his
+companion, was worth many votes at the cross-roads of Illinois. The
+scene was described as follows:
+
+"Governor Clay, of Alabama, was near General Jackson, who was himself
+sitting on a sofa in the hall, and as each person entered, the
+governor introduced him to the hero and he passed along. When Judge
+Douglas was thus introduced, General Jackson raised his still
+brilliant eyes and gazed for a moment in the countenance of the judge,
+still retaining his hand. 'Are you the Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, who
+delivered a speech last session on the subject of the fine imposed on
+me for declaring martial law at New Orleans?'" asked General Jackson.
+
+"'I have delivered a speech in the House of Representatives upon that
+subject,' was the modest reply of our friend.
+
+"'Then stop,' said General Jackson; 'sit down here beside me. I desire
+to return you my thanks for that speech. You are the first man that
+has ever relieved my mind on a subject which has rested upon it for
+thirty years. My enemies have always charged me with violating the
+Constitution of my country by declaring martial law at New Orleans,
+and my friends have always admitted the violation, but have contended
+that circumstances justified me in that violation. I never could
+understand how it was that the performance of a solemn duty to my
+country--a duty which, if I had neglected, would have made me a
+traitor in the sight of God and man, could properly be pronounced a
+violation of the Constitution. I felt convinced in my own mind that I
+was not guilty of such a heinous offense; but I could never make out a
+legal justification of my course, nor has it ever been done, sir,
+until you, on the floor of Congress, at the late session, established
+it beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt. I thank you, sir, for
+that speech. It has relieved my mind from the only circumstance that
+rested painfully upon it. Throughout my whole life I never performed
+an official act which I viewed as a violation of the Constitution of
+my country; and I can now go down to the grave in peace, with the
+perfect consciousness that I have not broken, at any period of my
+life, the Constitution or laws of my country.'
+
+"Thus spoke the old hero, his countenance brightened by emotions which
+it is impossible for us to describe. We turned to look at Douglas--he
+was speechless. He could not reply, but convulsively shaking the aged
+veteran's hand, he rose and left the hall. Certainly General Jackson
+had paid him the highest compliment he could have bestowed on any
+individual."[184]
+
+When the August elections had come and gone, Douglas found himself
+re-elected by a majority of fourteen hundred votes and by a plurality
+over his Whig opponent of more than seventeen hundred.[185] He was to
+have another opportunity to serve his constituents; but the question
+was still open, whether his talents were only those of an adroit
+politician intent upon his own advancement, or those of a statesman,
+capable of conceiving generous national policies which would efface
+the eager ambitions of the individual and the grosser ends of party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 163: Poore, Reminiscences, I, pp. 316-317.]
+
+[Footnote 164: Joseph Wallace in the Illinois _State Register_, April
+19, 1885.]
+
+[Footnote 165: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, 1, p. 146.]
+
+[Footnote 166: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 167: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 45.]
+
+[Footnote 168: J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 478.]
+
+[Footnote 169: Richmond _Enquirer_, Jan. 6, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 170: Act of June 25, 1842; United States Statutes at Large,
+V, p. 491.]
+
+[Footnote 171: December 14, 1843. _Globe_, 28 Cong. I Sess. p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Niles' _Register_, Vol. 65, pp. 393-396.]
+
+[Footnote 173: _Globe_, 28 Cong. I Sess. pp. 276-277.]
+
+[Footnote 174: J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 510.]
+
+[Footnote 175: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 549-550. For the trend
+of public opinion in the district which Douglas represented, see
+Peoria _Register,_ September 21, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 176: _Globe,_28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 527-528]
+
+[Footnote 177: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 534.]
+
+[Footnote 178: Illinois _State Register_, February 9, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 179: _Ibid._, May 17, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 180: It was intimated that he had at first aided Tyler in
+his forlorn hope of a second term.]
+
+[Footnote 181: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 598 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 182: Illinois _State Register_, August 30, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 183: _Ibid._, September 27, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 184: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 70-71.]
+
+[Footnote 185: Official returns in the office of the Secretary of
+State.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MANIFEST DESTINY
+
+
+The defeat of President Tyler's treaty in June, 1844, just on the eve
+of the presidential campaign, gave the Texas question an importance
+which the Democrats in convention had not foreseen, when they inserted
+the re-annexation plank in the platform. The hostile attitude of Whig
+senators and of Clay himself toward annexation, helped to make Texas a
+party issue. While it cannot be said that Polk was elected on this
+issue alone, there was some plausibility in the statement of President
+Tyler, that "a controlling majority of the people, and a majority of
+the States, have declared in favor of immediate annexation." At all
+events, when Congress reassembled, President Tyler promptly acted on
+this supposition. In his annual message, and again in a special
+message a fortnight later, he urged "prompt and immediate action on
+the subject of annexation." Since the two governments had already
+agreed on terms of annexation, he recommended their adoption by
+Congress "in the form of a joint resolution, or act, to be perfected
+and made binding on the two countries, when adopted in like manner by
+the government of Texas."[186] A policy which had not been able to
+secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate was now to be endorsed
+by a majority of both houses. In short, a legislative treaty was to be
+enacted by Congress.
+
+The Hon. Stephen A. Douglas had taken his seat in the House with
+augmented self-assurance. He had not only secured his re-election and
+the success of his party in Illinois, but he had served most
+acceptably as a campaign speaker in Polk's own State. Surely he was
+entitled to some consideration in the councils of his party. In the
+appointment of standing committees, he could hardly hope for a
+chairmanship. It was reward enough to be made a member of the
+Committee of Elections and of the Committee on the Judiciary. On the
+paramount question before this Congress, he entertained strong
+convictions, which he had no hesitation in setting forth in a series
+of resolutions, while older members were still feeling their way. The
+preamble of these "Joint Resolutions for the annexation of Texas" was
+in itself a little stump speech: "Whereas the treaty of 1803 had
+provided that the people of Texas should be incorporated into the
+Union and admitted as soon as possible to citizenship, and whereas the
+present inhabitants have signified their willingness to be re-annexed;
+therefore".... Particular interest attaches to the Eighth Resolution
+which proposed to extend the Missouri Compromise line through Texas,
+"inasmuch as the compromise had been made prior to the treaty of 1819,
+by which Texas was ceded to Spain."[187] The resolutions never
+commanded any support worth mentioning, attention being drawn to the
+joint resolution of the Committee on Foreign Affairs which was known
+to have the sanction of the President. The proposal of Douglas to
+settle the matter of slavery in Texas in the act of annexation itself,
+was perhaps his only contribution to the discussion of ways and
+means. An aggressive Southern group of representatives readily caught
+up the suggestion.
+
+The debate upon the joint resolution was well under way before Douglas
+secured recognition from the Speaker. The opposition was led by
+Winthrop of Massachusetts and motived by reluctance to admit slave
+territory, as well as by constitutional scruples regarding the process
+of annexation by joint resolution. Douglas spoke largely in rejoinder
+to Winthrop. A clever retort to Winthrop's reference to "this odious
+measure devised for sinister purposes by a President not elected by
+the people," won for Douglas the good-natured attention of the House.
+It was President Adams and not President Tyler, Douglas remonstrated,
+who had first opened negotiations for annexation; but perhaps the
+gentleman from Massachusetts intended to designate his colleague, Mr.
+Adams, when he referred to "a president not elected by the
+people"![188] Moreover, it was Mr. Adams, who as Secretary of State
+had urged our claims to all the country as far as the Rio del Norte,
+under the Treaty of 1803. In spite of these just boundary claims and
+our solemn promise to admit the inhabitants of the Louisiana purchase
+to citizenship, we had violated that pledge by ceding Texas to Spain
+in 1819. These people had protested against this separation, only a
+few months after the signing of the treaty; they now asked us to
+redeem our ancient pledge. Honor and violated faith required the
+immediate annexation of Texas.[189] Had Douglas known, or taken pains
+to ascertain, who these people were, who protested against the treaty
+of 1819, he would hardly have wasted his commiseration upon them.
+Enough: the argument served his immediate purpose.
+
+To those who contended that Congress had no power to annex territory
+with a view to admitting new States, Douglas replied that the
+Constitution not only grants specific powers to Congress, but also
+general power to pass acts necessary and proper to carry out the
+specific powers. Congress may admit new States, but in the present
+instance Congress cannot exercise that power without annexing
+territory. "The annexation of Texas is a prerequisite without the
+performance of which Texas cannot be admitted."[190] The Constitution
+does not state that the President and Senate may admit new States, nor
+that they shall make laws for the acquisition of territory in order to
+enable Congress to admit new States. The Constitution declares
+explicitly, "_Congress_ may admit new States." "When the grant of
+power is to Congress, the authority to pass all laws necessary to its
+execution is also in Congress; and the treaty-making power is to be
+confined to those cases where the power is not located elsewhere by
+the Constitution."[191]
+
+With those weaklings who feared lest the extension of the national
+domain should react unfavorably upon our institutions, and who
+apprehended war with Mexico, Douglas had no patience. The States of
+the Union were already drawn closer together than the thirteen
+original States in the first years of the Union, because of the
+improved means of communication. Transportation facilities were now
+multiplying more rapidly than population. "Our federal system," he
+exclaimed, with a burst of jingoism that won a round of applause from
+Western Democrats as he resumed his seat, "Our federal system is
+admirably adapted to the whole continent; and, while I would not
+violate the laws of nations, nor treaty stipulations, nor in any
+manner tarnish the national honor, I would exert all legal and
+honorable means to drive Great Britain and the last vestiges of royal
+authority from the continent of North America, and extend the limits
+of the republic from ocean to ocean. I would make this an ocean-bound
+republic, and have no more disputes about boundaries, or 'red lines'
+upon the maps."[192]
+
+In this speech there was one notable omission. The slavery question
+was not once touched upon. Those who have eyes only to see plots
+hatched by the slave power in national politics, are sure to construe
+this silence as part of an ignoble game. It is possible that Douglas
+purposely evaded this question; but it does not by any means follow
+that he was deliberately playing into the hands of Southern leaders.
+The simple truth is, that it was quite possible in the early forties
+for men, in all honesty, to ignore slavery, because they regarded it
+either as a side issue or as no issue at all. It was quite possible to
+think on large national policies without confusing them with slavery.
+Men who shared with Douglas the pulsating life of the Northwest wanted
+Texas as a "theater for enterprise and industry." As an Ohio
+representative said, they desired "a West for their sons and daughters
+where they would be free from family influences, from associated
+wealth and from those thousand things which in the old settled country
+have the tendency of keeping down the efforts and enterprises of
+young people." The hearts of those who, like Douglas, had carved out
+their fortunes in the new States, responded to that sentiment in a way
+which neither a John Quincy Adams nor a Winthrop could understand.
+
+Yet the question of slavery in the proposed State of Texas was thrust
+upon the attention of Congress by the persistent tactics of Alexander
+H. Stephens and a group of Southern associates. They refused to accept
+all terms of annexation which did not secure the right of States
+formed south of the Missouri Compromise line to come into the Union
+with slavery, if they desired to do so.[193] Douglas met this
+opposition with the suggestion that not more than three States besides
+Texas should be created out of the new State, but that such States
+should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the
+people of each should determine, at the time of their application to
+Congress for admission. As the germ of the doctrine of Popular
+Sovereignty, this resolution has both a personal and a historic
+interest. While it failed to pass,[194] it suggested to Stephens and
+his friends a mode of adjustment which might satisfy all sides. It was
+at his suggestion that Milton Brown of Tennessee proposed resolutions
+providing for the admission of not more than four States besides
+Texas, out of the territory acquired. If these States should be formed
+south of the Missouri Compromise line, they were to be admitted with
+or without slavery, as the people of each should determine. Northern
+men demurred, but Douglas saved the situation by offering as an
+amendment, "And in such States as shall be formed north of said
+Missouri Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude, except for
+crime, shall be prohibited."[195] The amendment was accepted, and thus
+amended, the joint resolution passed by an ample margin of votes. In
+view of later developments, this extension of the Missouri Compromise
+line is a point of great significance in the career of Douglas.
+
+Not long after Douglas had voiced his vision of "an ocean-bound
+republic," he was called upon to assist one of the most remarkable
+emigrations westward, from his own State. The Mormons in Hancock
+County had become the most undesirable of neighbors to his
+constituents. Once the allies of the Democrats, they were now held in
+detestation by all Gentiles of adjoining counties, irrespective of
+political affiliations. The announcement of the doctrine of polygamy
+by the Prophet Smith had been accompanied by acts of defiance and
+followed by depredations, which, while not altogether unprovoked,
+aroused the non-Mormons to a dangerous pitch of excitement. In the
+midst of general disorder in Hancock County, Joseph Smith was
+murdered. Every deed of violence was now attributed to the Danites, as
+the members of the militant order of the Mormon Church styled
+themselves. Early in the year 1845, the Nauvoo Charter was repealed;
+and Governor Ford warned his quondam friends confidentially that they
+had better betake themselves westward, suggesting California as "a
+field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern
+times." Disgraceful outrages filled the summer months of 1845 in
+Hancock County. A band of Mormon-haters ravaged the county, burning
+houses, barns, and grain stacks, and driving unprotected Mormon
+settlers into Nauvoo. To put an end to this state of affairs, Governor
+Ford sent Judge Douglas and Attorney-General McDougal, with a force of
+militia under the command of General Hardin, into Hancock County.
+Public meetings in all the adjoining counties were now demanding the
+expulsion of the Mormons in menacing language.[196] While General
+Hardin issued a proclamation bidding Mormons and anti-Mormons to
+desist from further violence, and promised that his scanty force of
+four hundred would enforce the laws impartially, the commissioners
+entered into negotiations with the Mormon authorities. On the pressing
+demand of the commissioners and of a deputation from the town of
+Quincy, Brigham Young announced that the Mormons purposed to leave
+Illinois in the spring, "for some point so remote that there will not
+need to be a difficulty with the people and ourselves."
+
+There can be little doubt that Douglas's advice weighed heavily with
+the Mormons. As a judge, he had administered the law impartially
+between Mormon and non-Mormon; and this was none too common in the
+civic history of the Mormon Church. As an aspirant for office, he had
+frankly courted their suffrages; but times had changed. The reply of
+the commissioners, though not unkindly worded, contained some
+wholesome advice. "We think that steps should be taken by you to make
+it apparent that you are actually preparing to remove in the spring.
+By carrying out, in good faith, your proposition to remove, as
+submitted to us, we think you should be, and will be, permitted to
+depart peaceably next spring for your destination, west of the Rocky
+Mountains.... We recommend to you to place every possible restraint in
+your power over the members of your church, to prevent them from
+committing acts of aggression or retaliation on any citizens of the
+State, as a contrary course may, and most probably will, bring about a
+collision which will subvert all efforts to maintain the peace in this
+county; and we propose making a similar request of your opponents in
+this and the surrounding counties."[197]
+
+Announcing the result of their negotiations to the anti-Mormon people
+of Hancock County, the commissioners gave equally good advice:
+"Remember, whatever may be the aggression against you, the sympathy of
+the public may be forfeited. It cannot be denied that the burning of
+the houses of the Mormons ... was an act criminal in itself, and
+disgraceful to its perpetrators.... A resort to, or persistence in,
+such a course under existing circumstances will make you forfeit all
+the respect and sympathy of the community."
+
+Unhappily this advice was not long heeded by either side. While
+Douglas was giving his vote for men and money for the Mexican War and
+the gallant Hardin was serving his country in command of a regiment,
+"the last Mormon war" broke out, which culminated in the siege and
+evacuation of Nauvoo. Passing westward into No-man's-land, the Mormons
+became eventually the founders of one of the Territories by which
+Douglas sought to span the continent.
+
+It was only in the Northwest that the cry for the re-occupation of
+Oregon had the ring of sincerity; elsewhere it had been thought of as
+a response to the re-annexation of Texas,--more or less of a
+vote-catching device. The sentiment in Douglas's constituency was
+strongly in favor of an aggressive policy in Oregon. The first band of
+Americans to go thither, for the single purpose of settlement and
+occupation, set out from Peoria.[198] These were "young men of the
+right sort," in whom the eternal _Wanderlust_ of the race had been
+kindled by tales of returned missionaries. Public exercises were held
+on their departure, and the community sanctioned this outflow of its
+youthful strength. Dwellers in the older communities of the East had
+little sympathy with this enterprise. It was ill-timed, many hundred
+years in advance of the times. Why emigrate from a region but just
+reclaimed from barbarism, where good land was still abundant?[199]
+Perhaps it was in reply to such doubts that an Illinois rhymester bade
+his New England brother
+
+    "Scan the opening glories of the West,
+      Her boundless prairies and her thousand streams,
+    The swarming millions who will crowd her breast,
+      'Mid scenes enchanting as a poet's dreams:
+    And then bethink you of your own stern land,
+      Where ceaseless toil will scarce a pittance earn,
+    And gather quickly to a hopeful band,--
+      Say parting words,--and to the westward turn."[200]
+
+Douglas tingled to his fingers' ends with the sentiment expressed in
+these lines. The prospect of forfeiting this Oregon country,--this
+greater Northwest,--to Great Britain, stirred all the belligerent
+blood in his veins. Had it fallen to him to word the Democratic
+platform, he would not have been able to choose a better phrase than
+"re-occupation of Oregon." The elemental jealousy and hatred of the
+Western pioneer for the claim-jumper found its counterpart in his
+hostile attitude toward Great Britain. He was equally fearful lest a
+low estimate of the value of Oregon should make Congress indifferent
+to its future. He had endeavored to have Congress purchase copies of
+Greenhow's _History of the Northwest Coast of North America_, so that
+his colleagues might inform themselves about this El Dorado.[201]
+
+There was, indeed, much ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.
+To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia
+River, a vast region on the northwest coast. As defined by the
+authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon
+was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of
+42° and 54° 40' north latitude.[202] Treaties between Russia and Great
+Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the
+southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54° 40'; a
+treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second
+parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a
+joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States
+in 1818,--renewed in 1827,--had established a _modus vivendi_ between
+the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on
+twelve months' notice. Meantime Great Britain and the United States
+were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and
+islands between Spanish and Russian America. Whether the technical
+questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was
+something that did not concern the resolute expansionist. It was
+enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of
+discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger
+"national right," by virtue of the process by which their people were
+settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West. This was but
+another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.
+
+No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their
+force unless followed up by vigorous action. Priority of occupation
+was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the
+government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two
+isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of
+suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the
+establishment of the territory of Nebraska;[203] the other, for the
+establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and
+Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico
+and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.[204] Though neither
+bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be
+forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their
+persistent author.
+
+A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories,
+boldly extending the government of the United States over the whole
+disputed area.[205] Conservatives in both parties deprecated such
+action as both hasty and unwise, in view of negotiations then in
+progress; but the Hotspurs would listen to no prudential
+considerations. Sentiments such as those expressed by Morris of
+Pennsylvania irritated them beyond measure. Why protect this wandering
+population in Oregon? he asked. Let them take care of themselves; or
+if they cannot protect themselves, let the government defend them
+during the period of their infancy, and then let them form a republic
+of their own. He did not wish to imperil the Union by crossing
+barriers beyond which nature had intended that we should not go.
+
+This frank, if not cynical, disregard of the claims of American
+emigrants,--"wandering and unsettled" people, Morris had called
+them,--brought Douglas to his feet. Memories of a lad who had himself
+once been a wanderer from the home of his fathers, spurred him to
+resent this thinly veiled contempt for Western emigrants and the part
+which they were manfully playing in the development of the West. The
+gentleman should say frankly, retorted Douglas, that he is desirous of
+dissolving the Union. Consistency should force him to take the ground
+that our Union must be dissolved and divided up into various, separate
+republics by the Alleghanies, the Green and the White Mountains.
+Besides, to cede the territory of Oregon to its inhabitants would be
+tantamount to ceding it to Great Britain. He, for one, would never
+yield an inch of Oregon either to Great Britain or any other
+government. He looked forward to a time when Oregon would become a
+considerable member of the great American family of States. Wait for
+the issue of the negotiations now pending? When had negotiations not
+been pending! Every man in his senses knew that there was no hope of
+getting the country by negotiation. He was for erecting a government
+on this side of the Rockies, extending our settlements under military
+protection, and then establishing the territorial government of
+Oregon. Facilitate the means of communication across the Rocky
+Mountains, and let the people there know and feel that they are a part
+of the government of the United States, and under its protection; that
+was his policy.
+
+As for Great Britain: she had already run her network of possessions
+and fortifications around the United States. She was intriguing for
+California, and for Texas, and she had her eye on Cuba; she was
+insidiously trying to check the growth of republican institutions on
+this continent and to ruin our commerce. "It therefore becomes us to
+put this nation in a state of defense; and when we are told that this
+will lead to war, all I have to say is this, violate no treaty
+stipulations, nor any principle of the law of nations; preserve the
+honor and integrity of the country, but, at the same time, assert our
+right to the last inch, and then, if war comes, let it come. We may
+regret the necessity which produced it, but when it does come, I would
+administer to our citizens Hannibal's oath of eternal enmity, and not
+terminate the war until the question was settled forever. I would blot
+out the lines on the map which now mark our national boundaries on
+this continent, and make the area of liberty as broad as the continent
+itself. I would not suffer petty rival republics to grow up here,
+engendering jealousy of each other, and interfering with each other's
+domestic affairs, and continually endangering their peace. I do not
+wish to go beyond the great ocean--beyond those boundaries which the
+God of nature has marked out, I would limit myself only by that
+boundary which is so clearly defined by nature."[206]
+
+The vehemence of these words startled the House, although it was not
+the only belligerent speech on the Oregon question. Cooler heads, like
+J.Q. Adams, who feared the effect of such imprudent utterances falling
+upon British ears, remonstrated at the unseemly haste with which the
+bill was being "driven through" the House, and counselled with all the
+weight of years against the puerility of provoking war in this
+fashion. But the most that could be accomplished in the way of
+moderation was an amendment, which directed the President to give
+notice of the termination of our joint treaty of occupation with Great
+Britain. This precaution proved to be unnecessary, as the Senate
+failed to act upon the bill.
+
+No one expected from the new President any masterful leadership of the
+people as a whole or of his party. Few listened with any marked
+attention, therefore, to his inaugural address. His references to
+Texas and Oregon were in accord with the professions of the Democratic
+party, except possibly at one point, which was not noted at the time
+but afterward widely commented upon. "Our title to the country of the
+Oregon," said he, "is clear and unquestionable." The text of the
+Baltimore platform read, "Our title to the _whole_ of the territory of
+Oregon is clear and unquestionable." Did President Polk mean to be
+ambiguous at this point? Had he any reason to swerve from the strict
+letter of the Democratic creed?
+
+In his first message to Congress, President Polk alarmed staunch
+Democrats by stating that he had tried to compromise our clear and
+unquestionable claims, though he assured his party that he had done so
+only out of deference to his predecessor in office. Those inherited
+policies having led to naught, he was now prepared to reassert our
+title to the whole of Oregon, which was sustained "by irrefragable
+facts and arguments." He would therefore recommend that provision be
+made for terminating the joint treaty of occupation, for extending the
+jurisdiction of the United States over American citizens in Oregon,
+and for protecting emigrants in transit through the Indian country.
+These were strong measures. They might lead to war; but the temper of
+Congress was warlike; and a group of Democrats in both houses was
+ready to take up the programme which the President had outlined.
+"Fifty-four forty or fight" was the cry with which they sought to
+rally the Chauvinists of both parties to their standard. While Cass
+led the skirmishing line in the Senate, Douglas forged to the fore in
+the House.[207]
+
+It is good evidence of the confidence placed in Douglas by his
+colleagues that, when territorial questions of more than ordinary
+importance were pending, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on
+Territories.[208] If there was one division of legislative work in
+which he showed both capacity and talent, it was in the organization
+of our Western domain and in its preparation for statehood. The vision
+which dazzled his imagination was that of an ocean-bound republic; to
+that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any
+self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his
+imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by
+contact with actual Western conditions. Finance, the tariff, and
+similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to
+leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a
+continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness. He had
+now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be
+indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was
+made chairman of a similar committee. His career must be measured by
+the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was
+called upon to solve concerning the public domain. In this sphere he
+laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required;
+but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound
+up more or less intimately with the slavery question. Upon this
+delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to
+bear? Time only could tell. Meantime, the House Committee on
+Territories had urgent business on hand.
+
+Texas was now knocking at the door of the Union, and awaited only a
+formal invitation to become one of the family of States, as the
+chairman was wont to say cheerily. Ten days after the opening of the
+session Douglas reported from his committee a joint resolution for
+the admission of Texas, "on an equal footing with the original states
+in all respects whatever."[209] There was a certain pleonasm about
+this phrasing that revealed the hand of the chairman: the simple
+statement must be reinforced both for legal security and for
+rhetorical effect. Six days later, after but a single speech, the
+resolution went to a third reading and was passed by a large
+majority.[210] Voted upon with equal dispatch by the Senate, and
+approved by the President, the joint resolution became law, December
+29, 1845.
+
+While the belligerent spirit of Congress had abated somewhat since the
+last session, no such change had passed over the gentleman from
+Illinois. No sooner had the Texas resolution been dispatched than he
+brought in a bill to protect American settlers in Oregon, while the
+joint treaty of occupation continued. He now acquiesced, it is true,
+in the more temperate course of first giving Great Britain twelve
+months' notice before terminating this treaty; but he was just as
+averse as ever to compromise and arbitration. "For one," said he, "I
+never will be satisfied with the valley of the Columbia, nor with 49°,
+nor with 54° 40'; nor will I be, while Great Britain shall hold
+possession of one acre on the northwest coast of America. And, Sir, I
+never will agree to any arrangement that shall recognize her right to
+one inch of soil upon the northwest coast; and for this simple reason:
+Great Britain never did own, she never did have a valid title to one
+inch of the country."[211] He moved that the question of title should
+not be left to arbitration.[212] His countrymen, he felt sure, would
+never trust their interests to European arbitrators, prejudiced as
+they inevitably would be by their monarchical environment.[213] This
+feeling was, indeed, shared by the President and his cabinet advisers.
+
+With somewhat staggering frankness, Douglas laid bare his inmost
+motive for unflinching opposition to Great Britain. The value of
+Oregon was not to be measured by the extent of its seacoast nor by the
+quality of its soil. "The great point at issue between us and Great
+Britain is for the freedom of the Pacific Ocean, for the trade of
+China and Japan, of the East Indies, and for the maritime ascendency
+on all these waters." Oregon held a strategic position on the Pacific,
+controlling the overland route between the Atlantic and the Orient. If
+this country were yielded to Great Britain--"this power which holds
+control over all the balance of the globe,"--it would make her
+maritime ascendency complete.[214]
+
+Stripped of its rhetorical garb, Douglas's speech of January 27, 1846,
+must be acknowledged to have a substratum of good sense and the
+elements of a true prophecy. When it is recalled that recent
+developments in the Orient have indeed made the mastery of the Pacific
+one of the momentous questions of the immediate future, that the
+United States did not then possess either California or Alaska, and
+that Oregon included the only available harbors on the coast,--the
+pleas of Douglas, which rang false in the ears of his own generation,
+sound prophetic in ours. Yet all that he said was vitiated by a
+fallacy which a glance at a map of the Northwest will expose. The line
+of 49° eventually gave to the United States Puget Sound with its
+ample harbors.
+
+Perhaps it was the same uncompromising spirit that prompted Douglas's
+constituents in far away Illinois to seize the moment to endorse his
+course in Congress. Early in January, nineteen delegates, defying the
+inclemency of the season, met in convention at Rushville, and
+renominated Douglas for Congress by acclamation.[215] History
+maintains an impenetrable silence regarding these faithful nineteen;
+it is enough to know that Douglas had no opposition to encounter in
+his own bailiwick.
+
+When the joint resolution to terminate the treaty of occupation came
+to a vote, the intransigeants endeavored to substitute a declaration
+to the effect that Oregon was no longer a subject for negotiation or
+compromise. It was a silly proposition, in view of the circumstances,
+yet it mustered ten supporters. Among those who passed between the
+tellers, with cries of "54° 40' forever," amid the laughter of the
+House, were Stephen A. Douglas and four of his Illinois
+colleagues.[216] Against the substitute, one hundred and forty-six
+votes were recorded,--an emphatic rebuke, if only the ten had chosen
+so to regard it.
+
+While the House resolution was under consideration in the Senate, it
+was noised abroad that President Polk still considered himself free to
+compromise with Great Britain on the line of 49°. Consternation fell
+upon the Ultras. In the words of Senator Hannegan, they had believed
+the President committed to 54° 40' in as strong language as that
+which makes up the Holy Book. As rumor passed into certainty, the
+feelings of Douglas can be imagined, but not described. He had
+committed himself, and,--so far as in him lay,--his party, to the line
+of 54° 40', in full confidence that Polk, party man that he was, would
+stubbornly contest every inch of that territory. He had called on the
+dogs of war in dauntless fashion, and now to find "the standard-bearer
+of Democracy," "Young Hickory," and many of his party, disposed to
+compromise on 49°,--it was all too exasperating for words. In contrast
+to the soberer counsels that now prevailed, his impetuous advocacy of
+the whole of Oregon seemed decidedly boyish. It was greatly to his
+credit, however, that, while smarting under the humiliation of the
+moment, he imposed restraint upon his temper and indulged in no bitter
+language.
+
+Some weeks later, Douglas intimated that some of his party associates
+had proved false to the professions of the Baltimore platform. No
+Democrat, he thought, could consistently accept part of Oregon instead
+of the whole. "Does the gentleman," asked Seddon, drawing him out for
+the edification of the House, "hold that the Democratic party is
+pledged to 54° 40'?" Douglas replied emphatically that he thought the
+party was thus solemnly pledged. "Does the gentleman," persisted his
+interrogator, "understand the President to have violated the
+Democratic creed in offering to compromise on 49°?" Douglas replied
+that he did understand Mr. Polk in his inaugural address "as standing
+up erect to the pledge of the Baltimore Convention." And if ever
+negotiations were again opened in violation of that pledge, "sooner
+let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth than he would defend
+that party which should yield one inch of Oregon."[217] Evidently he
+had made up his mind to maintain his ground. Perhaps he had faint
+hopes that the administration would not compromise our claims. He
+still clung tenaciously to his bill for extending governmental
+protection over American citizens in Oregon and for encouraging
+emigration to the Pacific coast; and in the end he had the empty
+satisfaction of seeing it pass the House.[218]
+
+Meantime a war-cloud had been gathering in the Southwest. On May 11th,
+President Polk announced that war existed by act of Mexico. From this
+moment an amicable settlement with Great Britain was assured. The most
+bellicose spirit in Congress dared not offer to prosecute two wars at
+the same time. The warlike roar of the fifty-four forty men subsided
+into a murmur of mild disapprobation. Yet Douglas was not among those
+who sulked in their tents. To the surprise of his colleagues, he
+accepted the situation, and he was among the first to defend the
+President's course in the Mexico imbroglio.
+
+A month passed before Douglas had occasion to call at the White House.
+He was in no genial temper, for aside from personal grievances in the
+Oregon affair, he had been disappointed in the President's recent
+appointments to office in Illinois. The President marked his
+unfriendly air, and suspecting the cause, took pains to justify his
+course not only in the matter of the appointments, but in the Oregon
+affair. If not convinced, Douglas was at least willing to let bygones
+be bygones. Upon taking his departure, he assured the President that
+he would continue to support the administration. The President
+responded graciously that Mr. Douglas could lead the Democratic party
+in the House if he chose to do so.[219]
+
+When President Polk announced to Congress the conclusion of the Oregon
+treaty with Great Britain, he recommended the organization of a
+territorial government for the newly acquired country, at the earliest
+practicable moment. Hardly had the President's message been read, when
+Douglas offered a bill of this tenor, stating that it had been
+prepared before the terms of the treaty had been made public. His
+committee had not named the boundaries of the new Territory in the
+bill, for obvious reasons. He also stated, parenthetically, that he
+felt so keenly the humiliation of writing down the boundary of 49°,
+that he preferred to leave that duty to those who had consented to
+compromise our claims. In drafting the bill, he had kept in mind the
+provisional government adopted by the people of Oregon: as they had in
+turn borrowed nearly all the statutes of Iowa, it was to be presumed
+that the people knew their own needs better than Congress.[220]
+
+Before the bill passed the House it was amended at one notable point.
+Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should ever exist in the
+Territory, following the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 for the
+Northwest Territory. Presumably Douglas was not opposed to this
+amendment,[221] though he voted against the famous Wilmot Proviso two
+days later. Already Douglas showed a disposition to escape the toils
+of the slavery question by a _laissez faire_ policy, which was
+compounded of indifference to the institution itself and of a strong
+attachment to states-rights. When Florida applied for admission into
+the Union with a constitution that forbade the emancipation of slaves
+and permitted the exclusion of free negroes, he denied the right of
+Congress to refuse to receive the new State. The framers of the
+Federal Constitution never intended that Congress should pass upon the
+propriety or expediency of each clause in the constitutions of States
+applying for admission. The great diversity of opinion resulting from
+diversity of climate, soil, pursuits, and customs, made uniformity
+impossible. The people of each State were to form their constitution
+in their own way, subject to the single restriction that it should be
+republican in character. "They are subject to the jurisdiction and
+control of Congress during their infancy, their minority; but when
+they obtain their majority and obtain admission into the Union, they
+are free from all restraints ... except such as the Constitution of
+the United States has imposed."[222]
+
+The absorbing interest of Douglas at this point in his career is
+perfectly clear. To span the continent with States and Territories, to
+create an ocean-bound republic, has often seemed a gross,
+materialistic ideal. Has a nation no higher destiny than mere
+territorial bigness? Must an intensive culture with spiritual aims be
+sacrificed to a vulgar exploitation of physical resources? Yet the
+ends which this strenuous Westerner had in view were not wholly gross
+and materialistic. To create the body of a great American Commonwealth
+by removing barriers to its continental expansion, so that the soul of
+Liberty might dwell within it, was no vulgar ambition. The conquest of
+the continent must be accounted one of the really great achievements
+of the century. In this dramatic exploit Douglas was at times an
+irresponsible, but never a weak nor a false actor.
+
+The session ended where it had begun, so far as Oregon was concerned.
+The Senate failed to act upon the bill to establish a territorial
+government; the earlier bill to protect American settlers also failed
+of adoption; and thus American caravans continued to cross the plains
+unprotected and ignored. But Congress had annexed a war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 186: Message of December 3, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 187: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 188: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 189: _Ibid._, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 190: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 191: _Ibid._, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 192: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 193: _American Historical Review_, VIII, pp. 93-94.]
+
+[Footnote 194: It was voted down 107 to 96; _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 192.]
+
+[Footnote 195: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.]
+
+[Footnote 196: Linn's Story of the Mormons, Chs. 10-20, gives in great
+detail the facts connected with this Mormon emigration. I have
+borrowed freely from this account for the following episode.]
+
+[Footnote 197: Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 340-341.]
+
+[Footnote 198: Lyman, History of Oregon, III, p. 188.]
+
+[Footnote 199: See the letter of a New England Correspondent in the
+Peoria _Register_, May, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 200: Peoria _Register_, June 8, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 201: _Globe_,28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 198 and 201.]
+
+[Footnote 202: Greenhow, Northwest Coast of North America, p. 200.]
+
+[Footnote 203: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 41.]
+
+[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 205: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 206: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 225-226.]
+
+[Footnote 207: His capacity for leadership was already recognized. His
+colleagues conceded that he was "a man of large faculties." See
+Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 208: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 209: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 210: _Ibid._, p. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, p. 259.]
+
+[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, p. 86.]
+
+[Footnote 213: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 260.]
+
+[Footnote 214: _Ibid._, pp. 258-259.]
+
+[Footnote 215: Illinois _State Register_, Jan. 15, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 216: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 347; Wheeler, History of
+Congress, pp. 114-115.]
+
+[Footnote 217: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess. p. 497.]
+
+[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, pp. 85, 189, 395, 690-691.]
+
+[Footnote 219: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 17, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 220: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1203.]
+
+[Footnote 221: He voted for a similar amendment in 1844; see _Globe_,
+28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 236.]
+
+[Footnote 222: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 284.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WAR AND POLITICS
+
+
+A long and involved diplomatic history preceded President Polk's
+simple announcement that "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United
+States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon
+American soil." Rightly to evaluate these words, the reader should
+bear in mind that the mission of John Slidell to Mexico had failed;
+that the hope of a peaceable adjustment of the Texas boundary and of
+American claims against Mexico had vanished; and that General Taylor
+had been ordered to the Rio Grande in disregard of Mexican claims to
+that region. One should also know that, from the beginning of his
+administration, Polk had hoped to secure from our bankrupt neighbor
+the cession of California as an indemnity.[223] A motive for
+forbearance in dealing with the distraught Mexican government was thus
+wholly absent from the mind of President Polk.
+
+Such of these facts as were known at the time, supplied the Whig
+opposition in Congress with an abundance of ammunition against the
+administration. Language was used which came dangerously near being
+unparliamentary. So the President was willing to sacrifice Oregon to
+prosecute this "illegal, unrighteous and damnable war" for Texas,
+sneered Delano. "Where did the gentleman from Illinois stand now? Was
+he still in favor of 61?" This sally brought Douglas to his feet and
+elicited one of his cleverest extempore speeches. He believed that
+such words as the gentleman had uttered could come only from one who
+desired defeat for our arms. "All who, after war is declared, condemn
+the justice of our cause, are traitors in their hearts. And would to
+God that they would commit some overt act for which they could be
+dealt with according to their deserts." Patriots might differ as to
+the expediency of entering upon war; but duty and honor forbade
+divided counsels after American blood had been shed on American soil.
+Had he foreseen the extraordinary turn of the discussion, he assured
+his auditors, he could have presented "a catalogue of aggressions and
+insults; of outrages on our national flag--on persons and property of
+our citizens; of the violation of treaty stipulations, and the murder,
+robbery, and imprisonment of our countrymen." These were all anterior
+to the annexation of Texas, and perhaps alone would have justified a
+declaration of war; but "magnanimity and forbearance toward a weak and
+imbecile neighbor" prevented hostilities. The recent outrages left the
+country no choice but war. The invasion of the country was the last of
+the cumulative causes for war.
+
+But was the invaded territory properly "our country"? This was the
+_crux_ of the whole matter. On this point Douglas was equally
+confident and explicit. Waiving the claims which the treaty of San
+Ildefonso may have given to the boundary of the Rio Grande, he rested
+the whole case upon "an immutable principle"--the Republic of Texas
+held the country on the left bank of that river by virtue of a
+successful revolution. The United States had received Texas as a State
+with all her territory, and had no right to surrender any portion of
+it.[224]
+
+The evidence which Douglas presented to confirm these claims is highly
+interesting. The right of Texas to have and to hold the territory from
+the Nueces to the Rio Grande was, in his opinion, based
+incontrovertibly on the treaty made by Santa Anna after the battle of
+San Jacinto, which acknowledged the independence of Texas and
+recognized the Rio Grande as its boundary. To an inquiry whether the
+treaty was ever ratified by the government of Mexico, Douglas replied
+that he was not aware that it had been ratified by anyone except Santa
+Anna, for the very good reason that he was the government at the time.
+"Has not that treaty with Santa Anna been since discarded by the
+Mexican government?" asked the venerable J.Q. Adams. "I presume it
+has," replied Douglas, "for I am not aware of any treaty or compact
+which that government ever entered into that has not either been
+violated or repudiated by them afterwards." But Santa Anna, as
+recognized dictator, was the _de facto_ government, and the acts of a
+_de facto_ government were binding on the nation as against foreign
+nations. "It is immaterial, therefore, whether Mexico has or has not
+since repudiated Santa Anna's treaty with Texas. It was executed at
+the time by competent authority. She availed herself of all its
+benefits." Forthwith Texas established counties beyond the Nueces,
+even to the Rio Grande, and extended her jurisdiction over that
+region, while in a later armistice Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as
+the boundary. It was in the clear light of these facts that Congress
+had passed an act extending the revenue laws of the United States
+over the country between the Rio Grande and the Nueces--the very
+country in which American soldiers had been slain by an invading
+force.
+
+All things considered, Douglas's line of argument was as well
+sustained as any presented by the supporters of the war. The absence
+of any citations to substantiate important points was of course due to
+the impromptu nature of the speech. Two years later,[225] in a
+carefully prepared speech constructed on much the same principles, he
+made good these omissions, but without adding much, it must be
+confessed, to the strength of his argument. The chain of evidence was
+in fact no stronger than its weakest link, which was the so-called
+treaty of Santa Anna with the President of the Republic of Texas.
+Nowhere in the articles, public or secret, is there an express
+recognition of the independence of the Republic, nor of the boundary.
+Santa Anna simply pledged himself to do his utmost to bring about a
+recognition of independence, and an acknowledgment of the claims of
+Texas to the Rio Grande as a boundary.[226] Did Douglas misinterpret
+these articles, or did he chance upon an unauthentic version of them?
+In the subsequent speech to which reference has been made, he cited
+specific articles which supported his contention. These citations do
+not tally with either the public or secret treaty. It may be doubted
+whether the secret articles were generally known at this time; but the
+open treaty had been published in Niles' _Register_ correctly, and had
+been cited by President Polk.[227] The inference would seem to be
+that Douglas unwittingly used an unauthenticated version, and found in
+it a conclusive argument for the claim of Texas to the disputed
+territory.
+
+Mr. John Quincy Adams had followed Douglas with the keenest interest,
+for with all the vigor which his declining strength permitted, he had
+denounced the war as an aggression upon a weaker neighbor. He had
+repeatedly interrupted Douglas, so that the latter almost insensibly
+addressed his remarks to him. They presented a striking contrast: the
+feeble, old man and the ardent, young Westerner. When Douglas alluded
+to the statement of Mr. Adams in 1819, that "our title to the Rio del
+Norte is as clear as to the island of New Orleans," the old man
+replied testily, "I never said that our title was good to the Rio del
+Norte from its mouth to its source." But the gentleman surely did
+claim the Rio del Norte in general terms as the boundary under the
+Louisiana treaty, persisted Douglas. "I have the official evidence
+over his own signature.... It is his celebrated dispatch to Don Onis,
+the Spanish minister." "I wrote that dispatch as Secretary of State,"
+responded Mr. Adams, somewhat disconcerted by evidence from his own
+pen, "and endeavored to make out the best case I could for my own
+country, as it was my duty; but I utterly deny that I claimed the Rio
+del Norte in its whole extent. I only claimed it as the line a short
+distance up, and then took a line northward, some distance from the
+river." "I have heard of this line to which the gentleman refers,"
+replied Douglas. "It followed a river near the gorge of the mountains,
+certainly more than a hundred miles above Matamoras. Consequently,
+taking the gentleman on his own claim, the position occupied by
+General Taylor opposite Matamoras, and every inch of the ground upon
+which an American soldier has planted his foot, were clearly within
+our own territory as claimed by him in 1819."[228]
+
+It seemed to an eyewitness of this encounter that the veteran
+statesman was decidedly worsted. "The House was divided between
+admiration for the new actor on the great stage of national affairs
+and reverence for the retiring chief," wrote a friend in after years,
+with more loyalty than accuracy.[229] The Whig side of the chamber was
+certainly in no mood to waste admiration on any Democrat who defended
+"Polk the Mendacious."
+
+Hardly had the war begun when there was a wild scramble among
+Democrats for military office. It seemed to the distressed President
+as though every Democratic civilian became an applicant for some
+commission. Particularly embarrassing was the passion for office that
+seized upon members of Congress. Even Douglas felt the spark of
+military genius kindling within him. His friends, too, were convinced
+that he possessed qualities which would make him an intrepid leader
+and a tactician of no mean order. The entire Illinois delegation
+united to urge his appointment as Brigadier Major of the Illinois
+volunteers. Happily for the President, his course in this instance was
+clearly marked out by a law, which required him to select only
+officers already in command of State militia.[230] Douglas was keenly
+disappointed. He even presented himself in person to overrule the
+President's objection. The President was kind, but firm. He advised
+Douglas to withdraw his application. In his judgment, Mr. Douglas
+could best serve his country in Congress. Shortly afterward Douglas
+sent a letter to the President, withdrawing his application--"like a
+sensible man," commented the relieved Executive.[231] It is not likely
+that the army lost a great commander by this decision.
+
+In a State like Illinois, which had been staunchly Democratic for many
+years, elections during a war waged by a Democratic administration
+were not likely to yield any surprises. There was perhaps even less
+doubt of the result of the election in the Fifth Congressional
+District. By the admission of his opponents Douglas was stronger than
+he had been before.[232] Moreover, the war was popular in the counties
+upon whose support he had counted in other years. He had committed no
+act for which he desired general oblivion; his warlike utterances on
+Oregon, which had cost him some humiliation at Washington, so far from
+forfeiting the confidence of his followers, seem rather to have
+enhanced his popularity. Douglas carried every county in his district
+but one, and nearly all by handsome majorities. He had been first sent
+to Congress by a majority over Browning of less than five hundred
+votes; in the following canvass he had tripled his majority; and now
+he was returned to Congress by a majority of over twenty-seven hundred
+votes.[233] He had every reason to feel gratified with this showing,
+even though some of his friends were winning military glory on Mexican
+battlefields. So long as he remained content with his seat in the
+House, there were no clouds in his political firmament. Not even the
+agitation of Abolitionists and Native Americans need cause him any
+anxiety, for the latter were wholly a negligible political quantity
+and the former practically so.[234] Everywhere but in the Seventh
+District, from which Lincoln was returned, Democratic Congressmen were
+chosen; and to make the triumph complete, a Democratic State ticket
+was elected and a Democratic General Assembly again assured.
+
+Early in the fall, on his return from a Southern trip, Douglas called
+upon the President in Washington. He was cordially welcomed, and not a
+little flattered by Polk's readiness to talk over the political
+situation before Congress met.[235] Evidently his support was
+earnestly desired for the contemplated policies of the administration.
+It was needed, as events proved. No sooner was Congress assembled than
+the opposition charged Polk with having exceeded his authority in
+organizing governments in the territory wrested from Mexico. Douglas
+sprang at once to the President's defense. He would not presume to
+speak with authority in the matter, but an examination of the
+accessible official papers had convinced him that the course of the
+President and of the commanders of the army was altogether defensible.
+"In conducting the war, conquest was effected, and the right growing
+out of conquest was to govern the subdued provinces in a temporary and
+provisional manner, until the home government should establish a
+government in another form."[236] And more to this effect, uttered in
+the heated language of righteous indignation.
+
+For thus throwing himself into the breach, Douglas was rewarded by
+further confidences. Before Polk replied to the resolution of inquiry
+which the House had voted, he summoned Douglas and a colleague to the
+White House, to acquaint them with the contents of his message and
+with the documents which would accompany it, so "that they might be
+prepared to meet any attacks." And again, with four other members of
+the House, Douglas was asked to advise the President in the matter of
+appointing Colonel Benton to the office of lieutenant-general in
+command of the armies in the field. At the same time, the President
+laid before them his project for an appropriation of two millions to
+purchase peace; _i.e._ to secure a cession of territory from Mexico.
+With one accord Douglas and his companions advised the President not
+to press Benton's appointment, but all agreed that the desired
+appropriation should be pushed through Congress with all possible
+speed.[237] Yet all knew that such a bill must run the gauntlet of
+amendment by those who had attached the Wilmot Proviso to the
+two-million-dollar bill of the last session.
+
+While Douglas was thus rising rapidly to the leadership of his party
+in the House, the Legislature of his State promoted him to the Senate.
+For six years he had been a potential candidate for the office,
+despite his comparative youth.[238] What transpired in the Democratic
+caucus which named him as the candidate of the party, history does not
+record. That there was jealousy on the part of older men, much
+heart-burning among the younger aspirants, and bargaining on all
+sides, may be inferred from an incident recorded in Polk's diary.[239]
+Soon after his election, Douglas repaired to the President's office to
+urge the appointment of Richard M. Young of Illinois as Commissioner
+of the General Land Office. This was not the first time that Douglas
+had urged the appointment, it would seem. The President now inquired
+of Senator Breese, who had accompanied Douglas and seconded his
+request, whether the appointment would be satisfactory to the Illinois
+delegation. Both replied that it would, if Mr. Hoge, a member of the
+present Congress, who had been recommended at the last session, could
+not be appointed. The President repeated his decision not to appoint
+members of Congress to office, except in special cases, and suggested
+another candidate. Neither Douglas nor Breese would consent. Polk then
+spoke of a diplomatic charge for Young, but they would not hear of it.
+
+Next morning Douglas returned to the attack, and the President, under
+pressure, sent the nomination of Young to the Senate; before five
+o'clock of the same day, Polk was surprised to receive a notification
+from the Secretary of the Senate that the nomination had been
+confirmed. The President was a good deal mystified by this unusual
+promptness, until three members of the Illinois delegation called some
+hours later, in a state of great excitement, saying that Douglas and
+Breese had taken advantage of them. They had no knowledge that Young's
+nomination was being pressed, and McClernand in high dudgeon intimated
+that this was all a bargain between Young and the two Senators.
+Douglas and Breese had sought to prevent Young from contesting their
+seats in the Senate, by securing a fat office for him. All this is _ex
+parte_ evidence against Senator Douglas; but there is nothing
+intrinsically improbable in the story. In these latter days, so
+comparatively innocent a deal would pass without comment.
+
+Immediately upon taking his seat in the Senate, Douglas was appointed
+chairman of the Committee on Territories. It was then a position of
+the utmost importance, for every question of territorial organization
+touched the peculiar interests of the South. The varying currents of
+public opinion crossed in this committee. Senator Bright of Indiana is
+well described by the hackneyed and often misapplied designation, a
+Northern Democrat with Southern principles; Butler was Calhoun's
+colleague; Clayton of Delaware was a Whig and represented a border
+State which was vacillating between slavery and freedom; while Davis
+was a Massachusetts Whig. Douglas was placed, as it appeared, in the
+very storm center of politics, where his well-known fighting qualities
+would be in demand. It was not so clear to those who knew him, that he
+possessed the not less needful qualities of patience and tact for
+occasions when battles are not won by fighting. Still, life at the
+capital had smoothed his many little asperities of manner. He had
+learned to conform to the requirements of a social etiquette to which
+he had been a stranger; yet without losing the heartiness of manner
+and genial companionableness with all men which was, indeed, his
+greatest personal charm. His genuineness and large-hearted regard for
+his friends grappled them to him and won respect even from those who
+were not of his political faith.[240]
+
+An incident at the very outset of his career in the Senate, betrayed
+some little lack of self-restraint. When Senator Cass introduced the
+so-called Ten Regiments bill, Calhoun asked that its consideration
+might be postponed, in order to give him opportunity to discuss
+resolutions on the prospective annexation of Mexico. Cass was disposed
+to yield for courtesy's sake; but Douglas resented the interruption.
+He failed to see why public business should be suspended in order to
+discuss abstract propositions. He believed that this doctrine of
+courtesy was being carried to great lengths.[241] Evidently the young
+Senator, fresh from the brisk atmosphere of the House, was restive
+under the conventional restraints of the more sedate Senate. He had
+not yet become acclimated.
+
+Douglas made his first formal speech in the Senate on February 1,
+1848. Despite his disclaimers, he had evidently made careful
+preparation, for his desk was strewn with books and he referred
+frequently to his authorities. The Ten Regiments bill was known to be
+a measure of the administration; and for this reason, if for no other,
+it was bitterly opposed. The time seemed opportune for a vindication
+of the President's policy. Douglas indignantly repelled the charge
+that the war had from the outset been a war of conquest. "It is a war
+of self-defense, forced upon us by our enemy, and prosecuted on our
+part in vindication of our honor, and the integrity of our territory.
+The enemy invaded our territory, and we repelled the invasion, and
+demanded satisfaction for all our grievances. In order to compel
+Mexico to do us justice, it was necessary to follow her retreating
+armies into her territory ... and inasmuch as it was certain that she
+was unable to make indemnity in money, we must necessarily take it in
+land. Conquest was not the motive for the prosecution of the war;
+satisfaction, indemnity, security, was the motive--conquest and
+territory the means."[242]
+
+Once again Douglas reviewed the origin of the war re-arguing the case
+for the administration. If the arguments employed were now well-worn,
+they were repeated with an incisiveness that took away much of their
+staleness. This speech must be understood as complementary to that
+which he had made in the House at the opening of hostilities. But he
+had not changed his point of view, nor moderated his contentions. Time
+seemed to have served only to make him surer of his evidence. Douglas
+exhibited throughout his most conspicuous excellencies and his most
+glaring defects. From first to last he was an attorney, making the
+best possible defense of his client. Nothing could excel his adroit
+selection of evidence, and his disposition and massing of telling
+testimony. Form and presentation were admirably calculated to disarm
+and convince. It goes without saying that Douglas's mental attitude
+was the opposite of the scientific and historic spirit. Having a
+proposition to establish, he cared only for pertinent evidence. He
+rarely inquired into the character of the authorities from which he
+culled his data.
+
+That this attitude of mind and these unscholarly habits often were his
+undoing, was inevitable. He was often betrayed by fallacies and hasty
+inferences. The speech before us illustrates this lamentable mental
+defect. With the utmost assurance Douglas pointed out that Texas had
+actually extended her jurisdiction over the debatable land between the
+Nueces and the Rio Grande, fixing by law the times of holding court in
+the counties of San Patricio and Bexar. This was in the year 1838. The
+conclusion was almost unavoidable that when Texas came into the Union,
+her actual sovereignty extended to the Rio Grande. But further
+examination would have shown Douglas, that the only inhabited portion
+of the so-called counties were the towns on the right bank of the
+Nueces: beyond, lay a waste which was still claimed by Mexico. Was he
+misinformed, or had he hastily selected the usable portion of the
+evidence? Once again, in his eagerness to show that Mexico, so
+recently as 1842, had tacitly recognized the Rio Grande as a boundary
+in her military operations, he controverted his own argument that
+Texas had been in undisturbed possession of the country. He
+corroborated the conviction of those who from the first had asserted
+that, in annexing Texas, the United States had annexed a war. This
+from the man who had formerly declared that the danger of war was
+remote, because there had been no war between Mexico and Texas for
+nine years!
+
+Before a vote could be reached on the Ten Regiments bill, the draft
+of the Mexican treaty had been sent to the Senate. What transpired in
+executive session and what part Douglas sustained in the discussion of
+the treaty, may be guessed pretty accurately by his later admissions.
+He was one of an aggressive minority who stoutly opposed the provision
+of the fifth article of the treaty, which was to this effect: "The
+boundary-line established by this article shall be religiously
+respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be
+made therein except by the express and free consent of both nations,
+lawfully given by the general government of each, in conformity with
+its own Constitution." This statement was deemed a humiliating avowal
+that the United States had wrongfully warred upon Mexico, and a solemn
+pledge that we would never repeat the offense. The obvious retort was
+that certain consciences now seemed hypersensitive about the war.
+However that may be, eleven votes were recorded for conscience' sake
+against the odious article.
+
+This was not the only ground of complaint. Douglas afterward stated
+the feeling of the minority in this way: "It violated a great
+principle of public policy in relation to this continent. It pledges
+the faith of this Republic that our successors shall not do that which
+duty to the interests and honor of the country, in the progress of
+events, may compel them to do." But he hastened to add that he
+meditated no aggression upon Mexico. In short, the Republic,--such was
+his hardly-concealed thought,--might again fall out with its imbecile
+neighbor and feel called upon to administer punishment by demanding
+indemnity. There was no knowing what "the progress of events" might
+make a national necessity.[243]
+
+As yet Douglas had contributed nothing to the solution of the problem
+which lurked behind the Mexican cession; nor had he tried his hand at
+making party opinion on new issues. He seemed to have no concern
+beyond the concrete business on the calendar of the Senate. He classed
+all anticipatory discussion of future issues as idle abstraction. Had
+he no imagination? Had he no eyes to see beyond the object immediately
+within his field of vision? Had his alert intelligence suddenly become
+myopic?
+
+On the subject of Abolitionism, at least, he had positive convictions,
+which he did not hesitate to express. An exciting episode in the
+Senate drew from him a sharp arraignment of the extreme factions North
+and South. An acrimonious debate had been precipitated by a bill
+introduced by that fervid champion of Abolitionism, Senator Hale of
+New Hampshire, which purported to protect property in the District of
+Columbia against rioters. A recent attack upon the office of the
+_National Era_, the organ of Abolitionism, at the capital, as everyone
+understood, inspired the bill, and inevitably formed the real subject
+of debate.[244] It was in the heated colloquy that ensued that Senator
+Foote of Mississippi earned his sobriquet of "Hangman," by inviting
+Hale to visit Mississippi and to "grace one of the tallest trees of
+the forest, with a rope around his neck." Calhoun, too, was excited
+beyond his wont, declaring that he would as soon argue with a maniac
+from Bedlam as with the Senator from New Hampshire.
+
+With cool audacity and perfect self-possession, Douglas undertook to
+recall the Senate to its wonted composure,--a service not likely to be
+graciously received by the aggrieved parties. Douglas remarked
+sarcastically that Southern gentlemen had effected just what the
+Senator from New Hampshire, as presidential candidate of the
+Abolitionists, had desired: they had unquestionably doubled his vote
+in the free States. The invitation of the Senator from Mississippi
+alone was worth not less than ten thousand votes to the Senator from
+New Hampshire. "It is the speeches of Southern men, representing slave
+States, going to an extreme, breathing a fanaticism as wild and as
+reckless as that of the Senator from New Hampshire, which creates
+Abolitionism in the North." These were hardly the words of the
+traditional peacemaker. Senator Foote was again upon his feet
+breathing out imprecations. "I must again congratulate the Senator
+from New Hampshire," resumed Douglas, "on the accession of the five
+thousand votes!" Again a colloquy ensued. Calhoun declared Douglas's
+course "at least as offensive as that of the Senator from New
+Hampshire." Douglas was then permitted to speak uninterruptedly. He
+assured his Southern colleagues that, as one not altogether
+unacquainted with life in the slave States, he appreciated their
+indignation against Abolitionists and shared it; but as he had no
+sympathy for Abolitionism, he also had none for that extreme course of
+Southern gentlemen which was akin to Abolitionism. "We stand up for
+all your constitutional rights, in which we will protect you to the
+last.... But we protest against being made instruments--puppets--in
+this slavery excitement, which can operate only to your interest and
+the building up of those who wish to put you down."[245]
+
+Dignified silence, however, was the last thing to be expected from the
+peppery gentleman from Mississippi. He must speak "the language of
+just indignation." He gladly testified to the consideration with which
+Douglas was wont to treat the South, but he warned the young Senator
+from Illinois that the old adage--_"in medio tutissimus ibis"_--might
+lead him astray. He might think to reach the goal of his ambitions by
+keeping clear of the two leading factions and by identifying himself
+with the masses, but he was grievously mistaken.
+
+The reply of Douglas was dignified and guarded. He would not speak for
+or against slavery. The institution was local and sustained by local
+opinion; by local sentiment it would stand or fall. "In the North it
+is not expected that we should take the position that slavery is a
+positive good--a positive blessing. If we did assume such a position,
+it would be a very pertinent inquiry. Why do you not adopt this
+institution? We have moulded our institutions at the North as we have
+thought proper; and now we say to you of the South, if slavery be a
+blessing, it is your blessing; if it be a curse, it is your curse;
+enjoy it--on you rest all the responsibility! We are prepared to aid
+you in the maintenance of all your constitutional rights; and I
+apprehend that no man, South or North, has shown more consistently a
+disposition to do so than myself.... But I claim the privilege of
+pointing out to you how you give strength and encouragement to the
+Abolitionists of the North."[246]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 223: See Garrison, Westward Extension, Ch. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 224: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 815.]
+
+[Footnote 225: February 1, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 226: See Bancroft's History of Mexico, pp. 173-174 note.]
+
+[Footnote 227: Niles' _Register_, Vol. 50, p. 336.]
+
+[Footnote 228: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 816-817.]
+
+[Footnote 229: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 230: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 22, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 231: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 23, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 232: Even the Alton _Telegraph_, a Whig paper, and in times
+past no admirer of Douglas, spoke (May 30, 1846) of the "most
+admirable" speech of Judge Douglas in defense of the Mexican War (May
+13th).]
+
+[Footnote 233: The official returns were as follows:
+
+    Douglas          9629
+    Vandeventer      6864
+    Wilson            395
+]
+
+[Footnote 234: The Abolitionist candidate in 1846 showed no marked
+gain over the candidate in 1844; Native Americanism had no candidates
+in the field.]
+
+[Footnote 235: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for September 4, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 236: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 13-14.]
+
+[Footnote 237: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 14, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 238: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 390.]
+
+[Footnote 239: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for January 6, 1847.]
+
+[Footnote 240: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, pp. 146-147.]
+
+[Footnote 241: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 242: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 222.]
+
+[Footnote 243: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 172.]
+
+[Footnote 244: The debate is reported in the _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., App., pp. 500 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 245: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 506.]
+
+[Footnote 246: _Ibid._, p. 507.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MEXICAN CESSION
+
+
+When Douglas entered Washington in the fall of 1847, as junior Senator
+from Illinois, our troops had occupied the city of Mexico and
+negotiations for peace were well under way. Perplexing problems
+awaited Congress. President Polk sternly reminded the two Houses that
+peace must bring indemnity for the past and security for the future,
+and that the only indemnity which Mexico could offer would be a
+cession of territory. Unwittingly, he gave the signal for another
+bitter controversy, for in the state of public opinion at that moment,
+every accession of territory was bound to raise the question of the
+extension of slavery. The country was on the eve of another
+presidential election. Would the administration which had precipitated
+the war, prove itself equal to the legislative burdens imposed by that
+war? Could the party evolve a constructive programme and at the same
+time name a candidate that would win another victory at the polls?
+
+It soon transpired that the Democratic party was at loggerheads. Of
+all the factions, that headed by the South Carolina delegation
+possessed the greatest solidarity. Under the leadership of Calhoun,
+its attitude toward slavery in the Territories was already clearly
+stated in almost syllogistic form: the States are co-sovereigns in the
+Territories; the general government is only the agent of the
+co-sovereigns; therefore, the citizens of each State may settle in the
+Territories with whatever is recognized as property in their own
+State. The corollary of this doctrine was: Congress may not exclude
+slavery from the Territories.
+
+At the other pole of political thought, stood the supporters of the
+Wilmot Proviso, who had twice endeavored to attach a prohibition of
+slavery to all territory which should be acquired from Mexico, and who
+had retarded the organization of Oregon by insisting upon a similar
+concession to the principle of slavery-restriction in that Territory.
+Next to these Ultras were those who doubted the necessity of the
+Wilmot Proviso, believing that slavery was already prohibited in the
+new acquisitions by Mexican law. Yet not for an instant did they doubt
+the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories.
+
+Between these extremes were grouped the followers of Senator Cass of
+Michigan, who was perhaps the most conspicuous candidate for the
+Democratic nomination. In his famous Nicholson letter of December 24,
+1847, he questioned both the expediency and constitutionality of the
+Wilmot Proviso. It seemed to him wiser to confine the authority of the
+general government to the erection of proper governments for the new
+countries, leaving the inhabitants meantime to regulate their internal
+concerns in their own way. In all probability neither California nor
+New Mexico would be adapted to slave labor, because of physical and
+climatic conditions. Dickinson of New York carried this doctrine,
+which was promptly dubbed "Squatter Sovereignty," to still greater
+lengths. Not only by constitutional right, but by "inherent," "innate"
+sovereignty, were the people of the Territories vested with the power
+to determine their own concerns.
+
+Beside these well-defined groups there were others which professed no
+doctrines and no policies. Probably the rank and file of the party
+were content to drift: to be non committal was safer than to be
+doctrinaire; besides, it cost less effort. Such was the plight of the
+Democratic party on the eve of a presidential election. If harmony was
+to proceed out of this diversity, the process must needs be
+accelerated.
+
+The fate of Oregon had been a hard one. Without a territorial
+government through no fault of their own, the settlers had been
+repeatedly visited by calamities which the prompt action of Congress
+might have averted.[247] The Senate had failed to act on one
+territorial bill; twice it had rejected bills which had passed the
+House, and the only excuse for delay was the question of slavery,
+which everybody admitted could never exist in Oregon. On January 10,
+1848, for the fourth time, Douglas presented a bill to provide a
+territorial government for Oregon;[248] but before he could urge its
+consideration, he was summoned to the bed-side of his father-in-law.
+His absence left a dead-lock in the Committee on Territories:
+Democrats and Whigs could not agree on the clause in the bill which
+prohibited slavery in Oregon. What was the true inwardness of this
+unwillingness to prohibit slavery where it could never go?
+
+The Senate seemed apathetic; but its apathy was more feigned than
+real. There was, indeed, great interest in the bill, but equally great
+reluctance to act upon it. What the South feared was not that Oregon
+would be free soil,--that was conceded,--but that an unfavorable
+precedent would be established. Were it conceded that Congress might
+exclude slavery from Oregon, a similar power could not be denied
+Congress in legislating for the newly acquired Territories where
+slavery was possible.[249]
+
+As a last resort, a select committee was appointed, of which Senator
+Clayton became chairman. Within a week, a compromise was reported
+which embraced not only Oregon, but California and New Mexico as well.
+The laws of the provisional government of Oregon were to stand until
+the new legislature should alter them, while the legislatures of the
+prospective Territories of California and New Mexico were forbidden to
+make laws touching slavery. The question whether, under existing laws,
+slaves might or might not be carried into these two Territories, was
+left to the courts with right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the
+United States.[250] The Senate accepted this compromise after a
+prolonged debate, but the House laid it on the table without so much
+as permitting it to be read.[251]
+
+Douglas returned in time to give his vote for the Clayton
+compromise,[252] but when this laborious effort to adjust controverted
+matters failed, he again pressed his original bill.[253] Hoping to
+make this more palatable, he suggested an amendment to the
+objectionable prohibitory clause: "inasmuch as the said territory is
+north of the parallel of 36° 30' of north latitude, usually known as
+the Missouri Compromise." It was the wish of his committee, he told
+the Senate, that "no Senator's vote on the bill should be understood
+as committing him on the great question."[254] In other words, he
+invited the Senate to act without creating a precedent; to extend the
+Missouri Compromise line without raising troublesome constitutional
+questions in the rest of the public domain; to legislate for a special
+case on the basis of an old agreement, without predicating anything
+about the future. When this amendment came to vote, only Douglas and
+Bright supported it.[255]
+
+Douglas then proposed to extend the Missouri Compromised line to the
+Pacific, by an amendment which declared the old agreement "revived ...
+and in full force and binding for the future organization of the
+Territories of the United States, in the same sense and with the same
+understanding with which it was originally adopted."[256] This was
+President Polk's solution of the question. It commended itself to
+Douglas less on grounds of equity than of expediency. It was a
+compromise which then cost him no sacrifice of principle; but though
+the Senate agreed to the proposal, the House would have none of
+it.[257] In the end, after an exhausting session, the Senate gave
+way,[258] and the Territory of Oregon was organized with the
+restrictive clause borrowed from the Ordinance of 1787. All this
+turmoil had effected nothing except ill-feeling, for the final act was
+identical with the bill which Douglas had originally introduced in the
+House.
+
+In the meantime, national party conventions for the nomination of
+presidential candidates had been held. The choice of the Democrats
+fell upon Cass; but his nomination could not be interpreted as an
+indorsement of his doctrine of squatter sovereignty. By a decisive
+vote, the convention rejected Yancey's resolution favoring
+"non-interference with the rights of property of any portion of the
+people of this confederation, be it in the States or in the
+Territories, by any other than the parties interested in them."[259]
+The action of the convention made it clear that traditional principles
+and habitual modes of political thought and action alone held the
+party together. The Whig party had no greater organic unity. The
+nomination of General Taylor, who was a doubtful Whig, was a
+confession that the party was non-committal on the issues of the hour.
+There was much opposition to both candidates. Many anti-slavery Whigs
+could not bring themselves to vote for Taylor, who was a slave-owner;
+Democrats who had supported the Wilmot Proviso, disliked the evasive
+doctrine of Cass.
+
+The disaffected of both parties finally effected a fusion in the
+Free-Soil convention, and with other anti-slavery elements nominated
+Van Buren as their presidential candidate. With the cry of "Free soil,
+free speech, free labor, and free men," the new party threatened to
+upset the calculations of politicians in many quarters of the country.
+
+The defeat of the Democratic party in the election of 1848 was
+attributed to the war of factions in New York. Had the Barnburners
+supported Cass, he would have secured the electoral vote of the State.
+They were accused of wrecking the party out of revenge. Certain it is
+that the outcome was indecisive, so far as the really vital questions
+of the hour were concerned. A Whig general had been sent to the White
+House, but no one knew what policies he would advocate. The Democrats
+were still in control of the Senate; but thirteen Free-Soilers held
+the balance of power in the House.[260]
+
+Curiosity was excited to know what the moribund administration of the
+discredited Polk would do. Douglas shared this inquisitiveness. He had
+parted with the President in August rather angrily, owing to a fancied
+grievance. On his return he called at the White House and apologized
+handsomely for his "imprudent language."[261] The President was more
+than glad to patch up the quarrel, for he could ill afford now, in
+these waning hours of his administration, to part company with one
+whom he regarded as "an ardent and active political supporter and
+friend." Cordial relations resumed, Polk read to Douglas
+confidentially such portions of his forthcoming message as related to
+the tariff, the veto power, and the establishment of territorial
+governments in California and New Mexico. In the spirit of compromise
+he was still willing to approve an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line through our new possessions. Should this prove
+unacceptable, he would give his consent to a bill which would leave
+the vexing question of slavery in the new Territories to the
+judiciary, as Clayton had proposed. Douglas was now thoroughly
+deferential. He gratified the President by giving the message his
+unqualified approval.[262]
+
+However, by the time Congress met, Douglas had made out his own
+programme; and it differed in one respect from anything that the
+President, or for that matter anyone else, had suggested. He proposed
+to admit both New Mexico and California; _i.e._ all of the territory
+acquired from Mexico, into the Union _as a State_. Some years later,
+Douglas said that he had introduced his California bill with the
+approval of the President;[263] but in this his memory was surely at
+fault. The full credit for this innovation belongs to Douglas.[264] He
+justified the departure from precedent in this instance, on the score
+of California's astounding growth in population. Besides, a
+territorial bill could hardly pass in this short session, "for reasons
+which may be apparent to all of us." Three bills had already been
+rejected.[265]
+
+Now while California had rapidly increased in population, there were
+probably not more than twenty-six thousand souls within its borders,
+and of these more than a third were foreigners.[266] One would
+naturally suppose that a period of territorial tutelage would have
+been peculiarly fitting for this distant possession. Obviously,
+Douglas did not disclose his full thought. What he really proposed,
+was to avoid raising the spectre of slavery again. If the people of
+California could skip the period of their political minority and leap
+into their majority, they might then create their own institutions: no
+one could gainsay this right, when once California should be a
+"sovereign State." This was an application of squatter sovereignty at
+which Calhoun, least of all, could mock.
+
+The President and his cabinet were taken by surprise. Frequent
+consultations were held. Douglas was repeatedly closeted with the
+President. All the members of the cabinet agreed that the plan of
+leaving the slavery question to the people of the new State was
+ingenious; but many objections were raised to a single State. In
+repeated interviews, Polk urged Douglas to draft a separate bill for
+New Mexico; but Douglas was obdurate.[267]
+
+To Douglas's chagrin, the California bill was not referred to his
+committee, but to the Committee on the Judiciary. Perhaps this course
+was in accord with precedent, but it was noted that four out of the
+five members of this committee were Southerners, and that the vote to
+refer was a sectional one.[268] An adverse report was therefore to be
+expected. Signs were not wanting that if the people of the new
+province were left to work out their own salvation, they would exclude
+slavery.[269] The South was acutely sensitive to such signs. Nothing
+of this bias, however, appeared in the report of the committee. With
+great cleverness and circumspection they chose another mode of attack.
+
+The committee professed to discover in the bill a radical departure
+from traditional policy. When had Congress ever created a State out of
+"an unorganized body of people having no constitution, or laws, or
+legitimate bond of union?" California was to be a "sovereign State,"
+yet the bill provided that Congress should interpose its authority to
+form new States out of it, and to prescribe rules for elections to a
+constitutional convention. What sort of sovereignty was this?
+Moreover, since Texas claimed a part of New Mexico, endless
+litigations would follow. In the judgment of the committee, it would
+be far wiser to organize the usual territorial governments for
+California and New Mexico.[270]
+
+To these sensible objections, Douglas replied ineffectively. The
+question of sovereignty, he thought, did not depend upon the size of a
+State: without doing violence to the sovereignty of California,
+Congress could surely carve new States out of its territory; but if
+there were doubts on this point, he would move to add the saving
+clause, "with the consent of the State." He suggested no expedient for
+the other obstacles in the way of State sovereignty. As for
+precedents, there were the first three States admitted into the
+Union,--Kentucky, Vermont, and Tennessee,--none of which had any
+organized government recognized by Congress.[271] They never furnished
+their constitutions to Congress for inspection. Here Douglas hit wide
+of the mark. No one had contended that a State must present a written
+constitution before being recognized, but only that the people must
+have some form of political organization, before they could be treated
+as constituting a State in a constitutional sense.[272]
+
+At the same time, halting as this defense was, Douglas gave ample
+proof of his disinterestedness in advocating a State government for
+California. "I think, Sir," he said, "that the only issue now
+presented, is whether you will admit California as a State, or whether
+you will leave it without government, exposed to all the horrors of
+anarchy and violence. I have no hope of a Territorial government this
+session. No man is more willing to adopt such a form of government
+than I would be; no man would work with more energy and assiduity to
+accomplish that object at this session than I would."[273] Indeed, so
+far from questioning his motives, the members of the Judiciary
+Committee quite overwhelmed Douglas by their extreme deference.[274]
+Senator Butler, the chairman, assured him that the committee was
+disposed to treat the bill with all the respect due to its author; for
+his own part, he had always intended to show marked respect to the
+Senator from Illinois.[275] Douglas responded somewhat grimly that he
+was quite at a loss to understand "why these assurances came so thick
+on this point."
+
+Most men would have accepted the situation as thoroughly hopeless; but
+Douglas was nothing if not persistent. In quick succession he framed
+two more bills, one of which provided for a division of California and
+for the admission of the western part as a State;[276] and then when
+this failed to win support, he reverted to Folk's suggestion--the
+admission of New Mexico and California as two States.[277] But the
+Senate evinced no enthusiasm for this patch-work legislation.[278]
+
+The difficulty of legislating for California was increased by the
+disaffection of the Southern wing of the Democratic party. Calhoun was
+suspected of fomenting a conspiracy to break up the Union.[279] Yet in
+all probability he contemplated only the formation of a distinctly
+Southern party based on common economic and political interests.[280]
+He not only failed in this, because Southern Whigs were not yet ready
+to break with their Northern associates; but he barely avoided
+breaking up the solidarity of Southern Democrats, and he made it
+increasingly difficult for Northern and Southern Democrats to act
+together in matters which did not touch the peculiar institution of
+the South.[281] Thenceforth, harmonious party action was possible only
+through a deference of Northern Democrats to Southern, which was
+perpetually misinterpreted by their opponents.
+
+Senator Hale thought the course of Northern representatives and
+senators pusillanimous and submissive to the last degree; and no
+considerations of taste prevented him from expressing his opinions on
+all occasions. Nettled by his taunts, and no doubt sensitive to the
+grain of truth in the charge, perplexed also by the growing
+factionalism in his party, Douglas retorted that the fanaticism of
+certain elements at the North was largely responsible for the growth
+of sectional rancor. For the first time he was moved to state publicly
+his maturing belief in the efficacy of squatter sovereignty, as a
+solvent of existing problems in the public domain.
+
+"Sir, if we wish to settle this question of slavery, let us banish
+the agitation from these halls. Let us remove the causes which produce
+it; let us settle the territories we have acquired, in a manner to
+satisfy the honor and respect the feelings of every portion of the
+Union.... Bring those territories into this Union as States upon an
+equal footing with the original States. Let the people of such States
+settle the question of slavery within their limits, as they would
+settle the question of banking, or any other domestic institution,
+according to their own will."[282]
+
+And again, he said, "No man advocates the extension of slavery over a
+territory now free. On the other hand, they deny the propriety of
+Congress interfering to restrain, upon the great fundamental principle
+that the people are the source of all power; that from the people must
+emanate all government; that the people have the same right in these
+territories to establish a government for themselves that we have to
+overthrow our present government and establish another, if we please,
+or that any other government has to establish one for itself."[283]
+
+Not the least interesting thing about these utterances, is the fact
+that even Douglas could not now avoid public reference to the slavery
+question. He could no longer point to needed legislation quite apart
+from sectional interests; he could no longer treat slavery with
+assumed indifference; he could no longer affect to rise above such
+petty, local concerns to matters of national importance. He was now
+bound to admit that slavery stood squarely in the way of national
+expansion. This change of attitude was brought about in part, at
+least, by external pressure applied by the legislature of Illinois.
+With no little chagrin, he was forced to present resolutions from his
+own State legislature, instructing him and his colleagues in Congress
+to use their influence to secure the prohibition of slavery in the
+Mexican cession.[284] It was not easy to harmonize these instructions
+with the principle of non-interference which he had just enunciated.
+
+Ten days before the close of the session, the California question
+again came to the fore. Senator Walker of Wisconsin proposed a rider
+to the appropriations bill, which would extend the Constitution and
+laws in such a way as to authorize the President to set up a
+quasi-territorial government, in the country acquired from
+Mexico.[285] It was a deliberate hold-up, justified only by the
+exigencies of the case, as Walker admitted. But could Congress thus
+extend the Constitution, by this fiat? questioned Webster. The
+Constitution extends over newly acquired territory _proprio vigore_,
+replied Calhoun.[286] Douglas declined to enter into the subtle
+questions of constitutional law thus raised. The "metaphysics" of the
+subject did not disturb him. If the Senate would not pass his
+statehood bill, he was for the Walker amendment. A fearful
+responsibility rested upon Congress. The sad fate of a family from his
+own State, which had moved to California, had brought home to him the
+full measure of his responsibility. He was not disposed to quibble
+over points of law, while American citizens in California were
+exposed to the outrages of desperadoes, and of deserters from our own
+army and navy.[287]
+
+While the Senate yielded to necessity and passed the appropriations
+bill, rider and all, the House stubbornly clung to its bill organizing
+a territorial government for California, excluding slavery.[288] The
+following days were among the most exciting in the history of
+Congress. A conference committee was unable to reach any agreement.
+Then Douglas tried to seize the psychological moment to persuade the
+Senate to accept the House bill. "I have tried to get up State bills,
+territorial bills, and all kinds of bills in all shapes, in the hope
+that some bill, in some shape, would satisfy the Senate; but thus far
+I have found their taste in relation to this matter too fastidious for
+my humble efforts. Now I wish to make another and a final effort on
+this bill, to see if the Senate are disposed to do anything towards
+giving a government to the people of California."[289]
+
+Both Houses continued in session far into the night of March 3d.
+Sectional feeling ran high. Two fist-fights occurred in the House and
+at least one in the Senate.[290] It seemed as though Congress would
+adjourn, leaving our civil and diplomatic service penniless. Douglas
+frankly announced that for his part he would rather leave our
+office-holders without salaries, than our citizens without the
+protection of law.[291] Inauguration Day was dawning when the
+dead-lock was broken. The Senate voted the appropriations bill
+without the rider, but failed to act on the House bill.[292] The
+people of California were thus left to their own devices.
+
+The outcome was disheartening to the chairman of the Committee on
+Territories. His programme had miscarried at every important point.
+Only his bill for the organization of Minnesota became law.[293] A
+similar bill for Nebraska failed to receive consideration. The future
+of California remained problematic. Indeed, political changes in
+Illinois made his own future somewhat problematic.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 247: This was Benton's opinion; see _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 804.]
+
+[Footnote 248: _Ibid._, pp. 136, 309.]
+
+[Footnote 249: See remarks of Mason of Virginia, _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 903.]
+
+[Footnote 250: _Ibid._, p. 950. The bill is printed on pp. 1002-1005.]
+
+[Footnote 251: _Ibid._, p. 1007.]
+
+[Footnote 252: _Ibid._, p. 1002.]
+
+[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, p. 1027.]
+
+[Footnote 254: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1048.]
+
+[Footnote 255: _Ibid._, p. 1061.]
+
+[Footnote 256: _Ibid._, pp. 1061-1062.]
+
+[Footnote 257: _Ibid._, pp. 1062-1063.]
+
+[Footnote 258: Douglas voted finally to recede from his amendment,
+_Ibid._, p. 1078.]
+
+[Footnote 259: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 236.]
+
+[Footnote 260: Garrison, Westward Extension, p. 284.]
+
+[Footnote 261: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for November 13, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 262: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 263: See Douglas's Speech of December 23, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 264: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 11, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 265: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 21.]
+
+[Footnote 266: Hunt, Genesis of California's First Constitution, in
+Johns Hopkins University Studies, XIII, pp. 16, 30.]
+
+[Footnote 267: Polk, MS. Diary, Entries for December 11, 12, 13, 14,
+1848.]
+
+[Footnote 268: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 46-49.]
+
+[Footnote 269: See the petition of the people of New Mexico, _Ibid._,
+p. 33.]
+
+[Footnote 270: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 190-192.]
+
+[Footnote 271: _Ibid._, pp. 192-193.]
+
+[Footnote 272: _Ibid._, p. 196; particularly the incisive reply of
+Westcott.]
+
+[Footnote 273: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.]
+
+[Footnote 274: _Ibid._, p. 196.]
+
+[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, p. 194.]
+
+[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, p. 381.]
+
+[Footnote 278: _Ibid._, pp. 435, 551, 553.]
+
+[Footnote 279: Von Holst, Constitutional History of the United States,
+III, p. 418.]
+
+[Footnote 280: Calhoun, Works, VI, pp. 290-303.]
+
+[Footnote 281: Von Holst, Const. History, III, pp. 422-423.]
+
+[Footnote 282: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 208.]
+
+[Footnote 283: _Ibid._, p. 314.]
+
+[Footnote 284: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 394.]
+
+[Footnote 285: _Ibid._, p. 561.]
+
+[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, App., pp. 253 ff. The debate summarized by Von
+Holst, III, pp. 444-451.]
+
+[Footnote 287: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., App., pp. 275-276.]
+
+[Footnote 288: _Ibid._, pp. 595, 665.]
+
+[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, p. 668.]
+
+[Footnote 290: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 277.]
+
+[Footnote 291: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 685.]
+
+[Footnote 292: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 691-692.]
+
+[Footnote 293: _Ibid._, pp. 635-637; p. 693.]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SENATOR AND CONSTITUENCY
+
+
+When Douglas took his seat in Congress for the first time, an unknown
+man in unfamiliar surroundings, he found as his near neighbor, one
+David S. Reid, a young lawyer from North Carolina, who was of his own
+age, of his own party, and like him, serving a first term. An
+acquaintance sprang up between these young Democrats, which, in spite
+of their widely different antecedents, deepened into intimacy. It was
+a friendship that would have meant much to Douglas, even if it had not
+led to an interesting romance. Intercourse with this able young
+Southerner[294] opened the eyes of this Western Yankee to the finer
+aspects of Southern social life, and taught him the quality of that
+Southern aristocracy, which, when all has been said, was the truest
+aristocracy that America has seen. And when Reid entertained his
+friends and relatives in Washington, Douglas learned also to know the
+charm of Southern women.
+
+Among the most attractive of these visitors was Reid's cousin, Miss
+Martha Denny Martin, daughter of Colonel Robert Martin of Rockingham
+County, North Carolina. Rumor has it that Douglas speedily fell
+captive to the graces of this young woman. She was not only charming
+in manner and fair of face, but keen-witted and intelligent. In spite
+of the gay badinage with which she treated this young Westerner, she
+revealed a depth and positiveness of character, to which indeed her
+fine, broad forehead bore witness on first acquaintance. In the give
+and take of small talk she more than held her own, and occasionally
+discomfited her admirer by sallies which were tipped with wit and
+reached their mark unerringly.[295] Did she know that just such
+treatment--strange paradox--won, while it at times wounded, the heart
+of the unromantic Westerner?
+
+Colonel Robert Martin was a typical, western North Carolina planter.
+He belonged to that stalwart line of Martins whose most famous
+representative was Alexander, of Revolutionary days, six times
+Governor of the State. On the banks of the upper Dan, Colonel Martin
+possessed a goodly plantation of about eight hundred acres, upon which
+negro slaves cultivated cotton and such of the cereals as were needed
+for home consumption.[296] Like other planters, he had felt the
+competition of the virgin lands opened up to cotton culture in the
+gulf plains of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and like his
+fellow planters, he had invested in these Western lands, on the Pearl
+River in Mississippi. This Pearl River plantation was worked by about
+one hundred and fifty negroes and was devoted to the raising of
+cotton.
+
+When Douglas accepted Reid's invitation to visit North Carolina, the
+scene of the romance begun on the Potomac shifted to the banks of the
+Dan. Southern hospitality became more than a conventional phrase on
+Douglas's lips. He enjoyed a social privilege which grew rarer as
+North and South fell apart. Intercourse like this broke down many of
+those prejudices unconsciously cherished by Northerners. Slavery in
+the concrete, on a North Carolina plantation, with a kindly master
+like Colonel Martin,[297] bore none of the marks of a direful tyranny.
+Whatever may have been his mental reservations as to slavery as a
+system of labor, Douglas could not fail to feel the injustice of the
+taunts hurled against his Southern friends by the Abolitionist press.
+As he saw the South, the master was not a monster of cruelty, nor the
+slave a victim of malevolent violence.
+
+The romance on the banks of the Dan flowed far more clearly and
+smoothly toward its goal than the waters of that turbid stream. On
+April 7, 1847, Miss Martin became the wife of the Honorable Stephen
+Arnold Douglas, who had just become Senator from the State of
+Illinois. It was in every way a fateful alliance. Next to his Illinois
+environment, no external circumstance more directly shaped his career
+than his marriage to the daughter of a North Carolina planter. The
+subtle influences of a home and a wife dominated by Southern culture,
+were now to work upon him. Constant intercourse with Southern men and
+women emancipated him from the narrowness of his hereditary
+environment.[298] He was bound to acquire an insight into the nature
+of Southern life; he was compelled to comprehend, by the most tender
+and intimate of human relationships, the meaning and responsibility
+of a social order reared upon slave labor.
+
+A year had hardly passed when the death of Colonel Martin left Mrs.
+Douglas in possession of all his property in North Carolina. It had
+been his desire to put his Pearl River plantation, the most valuable
+of his holdings, in the hands of his son-in-law. But Douglas had
+refused to accept the charge, not wishing to hold negroes. Indeed, he
+had frankly told Colonel Martin that the family already held more
+slaves than was profitable.[299] In his will, therefore, Colonel
+Martin was constrained to leave his Mississippi plantation and slaves
+to Mrs. Douglas and her children. It was characteristic of the man and
+of his class, that his concern for his dependents followed him to the
+grave. A codicil to his will provided, that if Mrs. Douglas should
+have no children, the negroes together with their increase were to be
+sent to Liberia, or to some other colony in Africa. By means of the
+net proceeds of the last crop, they would be able to reach Africa and
+have a surplus to aid them in beginning planting. "I trust in
+Providence," wrote this kindly master, "she will have children and if
+so I wish these negroes to belong to them, as nearly every head of the
+family have expressed to me a desire to belong to you and your
+children rather than go to Africa; and to set them free where they
+are, would entail on them a greater curse, far greater in my opinion,
+as well as in that of the intelligent among themselves, than to have a
+humane master whose duty it would be to see they were properly
+protected ... and properly provided for in sickness as well as in
+health."[300]
+
+The legacy of Colonel Martin gave a handle to Douglas's enemies. It
+was easy to believe that he had fallen heir to slave property. That
+the terms of the bequest were imperfectly known, did not deter the
+opposition press from malevolent insinuations which stung Douglas to
+the quick. It was fatal to his political career to allow them to go
+unchallenged. In the midsummer of 1850, while Congress was wrestling
+with the measures of compromise, Douglas wrote to his friend, the
+editor of the Illinois _State Register_," It is true that my wife does
+own about 150 negroes in Mississippi on a cotton plantation. My
+father-in-law in his lifetime offered them to me and I refused to
+accept them. _This fact is stated in his will_, but I do not wish it
+brought before the public as the public have no business with my
+private affairs, and besides anybody would see that the information
+must have come from me. My wife has no negroes except those in
+Mississippi. We have other property in North Carolina, but no negroes.
+It is our intention, however, to remove all our property to Illinois
+as soon as possible."[301] To correct the popular rumor, Douglas
+enclosed a statement which might be published editorially, or
+otherwise.
+
+The dictated statement read as follows: "The Quincy _Whig_ and other
+Whig papers are publishing an article purporting to be copied from a
+Mississippi paper abusing Judge Douglas as the owner of 100 slaves
+and at the same time accusing him of being a Wilmot Free-soiler. That
+the article originated in this State, and was sent to Mississippi for
+publication in order that it might be re-published here we shall not
+question nor take the trouble to prove. The paternity of the article,
+the malice that prompted it, and the misrepresentations it contains
+are too obvious to require particular notice. If it had been written
+by a Mississippian he would have known that the statement in regard to
+the ownership of the negroes was totally untrue. No one will pretend
+that Judge Douglas has any other property in Mississippi than that
+which was acquired in the right of his wife by inheritance upon the
+death of her father, and anyone who will take the trouble to examine
+the statutes of that State in the Secretary's office in this City will
+find that by the laws of Mississippi all the property of a married
+woman, whether acquired by will, gift or otherwise, becomes her
+separate and exclusive estate and is not subject to the control or
+disposal of her husband nor subject to his debts. We do not pretend to
+know whether the father of Mrs. Douglas at the time of his death owned
+slaves in Mississippi or not. We have heard the statement made by the
+Whigs but have not deemed it of sufficient importance to inquire into
+its truth. If it should turn out so, in no event could Judge Douglas
+become the owner or have the disposal of or be responsible for them.
+The laws of the State forbid it, and also forbid slaves under such
+circumstances from being removed without or emancipated within the
+limits of the State."
+
+Born a Yankee, bred a Westerner, wedded to the mistress of a Southern
+plantation, Douglas represented a Commonwealth whose population was
+made up of elements from all sections. The influences that shaped his
+career were extraordinarily complex. No account of his subsequent
+public life would be complete, without reference to the peculiar
+social and political characteristics of his constituency.
+
+The people of early Illinois were drawn southward by the pull of
+natural forces: the Mississippi washes the western border on its
+gulf-ward course; and the chief rivers within the State have a general
+southerly trend.[302] But quite as important historically is the
+convergence of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee on the
+southern border of Illinois; for it was by these waterways that the
+early settlers reached the Illinois Territory from the States of
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. The apex of the
+irregular, inverted triangle of Illinois, thrust down to the 37th
+parallel of latitude, brought the first settlers well within the
+sphere of Southern influence. Two slave States flanked this southern
+end. Nearly one-half of Illinois lay south of a direct, westward
+extension of Mason and Dixon's line.
+
+In the early days, the possession by the Indians of the northern areas
+accentuated the southern connections of Illinois. At the same time the
+absence at the North of navigable waterways and passable highways
+between East and West, left the Ohio and its tributaries the only
+connecting lines of travel with the remote northern Atlantic States.
+Had Illinois been admitted into the Union with the boundaries first
+proposed, it would have been, by all those subtle influences which go
+to make public sentiment, a Southern State. But the extension of the
+northern boundary to 42° 30' gave Illinois a frontage of fifty miles
+on Lake Michigan, and deflected the whole political and social history
+of the Commonwealth. This contact with the great waterways of the
+North brought to the State, in the course of time, an immense share of
+the lake traffic and a momentous connection with the northern central
+and northern Atlantic States. The passing of the Indians, the opening
+up of the great northern prairies to occupation, and the completion of
+the Illinois-Michigan canal made the northern part of Illinois fallow
+for New England seeding. Geographically, Illinois became the
+connecting link in the slender chain which bound the men of the lake
+and prairie plains with the men of the gulf plains. The inevitable
+interpenetration of Northern and Southern interests in Illinois,
+resulting from these contacts, is the most important fact in the
+social and political history of the State. It bred in Illinois
+statesmen a disposition to compromise for the sake of political
+harmony and economic progress, a passionate attachment to the Union as
+the _sine qua non_ of State unity, and a glowing nationalism. Illinois
+was in short a microcosm: the larger problems of the nation existed
+there in miniature.
+
+When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, all the organized
+counties lay to the south of the projected national road between Terre
+Haute and Alton, hence well within the sphere of surrounding Southern
+influences. The society of Illinois was at this time predominantly
+Southern in its origin and characteristics.[303] Social life and
+political thought were shaped by Southern life and Southern thought.
+Whatever points of contact there were with the outside world were with
+the Southern world. The movement to make Illinois a slave State was
+motived by the desire to accelerate immigration from the South.
+
+But people had already begun to come into the State who were not of
+Southern origin, and who succeeded in deflecting the current of
+Illinois politics at this critical juncture. The fertile river bottoms
+and intervening prairies of southern Illinois no longer sufficed. The
+new comers were impelled toward the great, undulating prairies which
+expand above the 39th parallel. The rise of new counties marks the
+volume of this immigration;[304] the attitude of the older settlers
+toward it, fixes sufficiently its general social character. This was
+the beginning of the "Yankee" invasion, New York and Pennsylvania
+furnishing the vanguard.
+
+As the northern prairies became accessible by the lake route and the
+stage roads, New England and New York poured a steady stream of
+homeseekers into the Commonwealth. By the middle of the century, this
+Northern immigration had begun to inundate the northern counties and
+to overflow into the interior, where it met and mingled with the
+counter-current. These Yankee settlers were viewed with hostility, not
+unmixed with contempt, by those whose culture and standards of taste
+had been formed south of Mason and Dixon's line.[305]
+
+This sectional antagonism was strengthened by the rapid commercial
+advance of northern Illinois. Yankee enterprise and thrift worked
+wonders in a decade. Governor Ford, all of whose earlier associations
+were with the people of southern Illinois, writing about the middle of
+the century, admits that although the settlers in the southern part of
+the State were twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years in advance, on
+the score of age, they were ten years behind in point of wealth and
+all the appliances of a higher civilization.[306] The completion of
+the canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, however much
+it might contribute to the general welfare of the State, seemed likely
+to profit the northern rather than the southern portion. It had been
+opposed at the outset by Southerners, who argued soberly that it would
+flood the State with Yankees;[307] and at every stage in its progress
+it had encountered Southern obstruction, though the grounds for this
+opposition were more wisely chosen.
+
+Political ideals and customs were also a divisive force in Illinois
+society. True to their earlier political training, the Southern
+settlers had established the county as a unit of local government. The
+Constitution of 1818 put the control of local concerns in the hands of
+three county commissioners, who, though elected by the people, were
+not subjected to that scrutiny which selectmen encountered in the New
+England town meeting. To the democratic New Englander, every system
+seemed defective which gave him no opportunity to discuss neighborhood
+interests publicly, and to call local officers to account before an
+assembly of the vicinage. The new comers in northern Illinois became
+profoundly dissatisfied with the autocratic board of county
+commissioners. Since the township might act as a corporate body for
+school purposes, why might they not enjoy the full measure of township
+government? Their demands grew more and more insistent, until they won
+substantial concessions from the convention which framed the
+Constitution of 1848. But all this agitation involved a more or less
+direct criticism of the system which the people of southern Illinois
+thought good enough for Yankees, if it were good enough for
+themselves.[308]
+
+In the early history of Illinois, negro slavery was a bone of
+contention between men of Northern and of Southern antecedents. When
+Illinois was admitted as a State, there were over seven hundred
+negroes held in servitude. In spite of the Ordinance of 1787, Illinois
+was practically a slave Territory. There were, to be sure, stalwart
+opponents of slavery even among those who had come from slave-holding
+communities; but taken in the large, public opinion in the Territory
+sanctioned negro slavery as it existed under a loose system of
+indenture.[309] Even the Constitution of 1818, under which Illinois
+came into the Union as a free State, continued the old system of
+indenture with slight modification.[310]
+
+It was in the famous contest over the proposed constitutional
+convention of 1824 that the influence of Northern opinion respecting
+slavery was first felt. The contest had narrowed down to a struggle
+between those who desired a convention in order to draft a
+constitution legalizing slavery and those who, from policy or
+principle, were opposed to slavery in Illinois. Men of Southern birth
+were, it is true, among the most aggressive leaders of the
+anti-convention forces, but the decisive votes against the convention
+were cast in the seven counties recently organized, in which there was
+a strong Northern element.[311]
+
+This contest ended, the anti-slavery sentiment evaporated. The "Black
+Laws" continued in force. Little or no interest was manifested in the
+fate of indentured black servants, who were to all intents and
+purposes as much slaves as their southern kindred. The leaven of
+Abolitionism worked slowly in Illinois society. By an almost unanimous
+vote, the General Assembly adopted joint resolutions in 1837 which
+condemned Abolitionism as "more productive of evil than of moral and
+political good." There were then not a half-dozen anti-slavery
+societies in the State, and these soon learned to confine their labors
+to central and northern Illinois, abandoning Egypt as hopelessly
+inaccessible to the light.[312]
+
+The issues raised by the Mexican War and the prospective acquisition
+of new territory, materially changed the temper of northern Illinois.
+Moreover, in the later forties a tide of immigration from the
+northeastern States, augmented by Germans who came in increasing
+numbers after the European agitation of 1848, was filling the
+northernmost counties with men and women who held positive convictions
+on the question of slavery extension. These transplanted New
+Englanders were outspoken advocates of the Wilmot Proviso. When they
+were asked to vote upon that article of the Constitution of 1848 which
+proposed to prevent the immigration of free negroes, the fourteen
+northern counties voted no, only to find themselves outvoted two to
+one.[313] A new factor had appeared in Illinois politics.
+
+Many and diverse circumstances contributed to the growth of
+sectionalism in Illinois. The disruptive forces, however, may be
+easily overestimated. The unifying forces in Illinois society were
+just as varied, and in the long run more potent. As in the nation at
+large so in Illinois, religious, educational, and social organizations
+did much to resist the strain of countervailing forces. But no
+organization proved in the end so enduring and effective as the
+political party. Illinois had by 1840 two well-developed party
+organizations, which enveloped the people of the State, as on a large
+scale they embraced the nation. These parties came to have an
+enduring, institutional character. Men were born Democrats and Whigs.
+Southern and Northern Whigs, Northern and Southern Democrats there
+were, of course; but the necessity of harmony for effective action
+tended to subordinate individual and group interests to the larger
+good of the whole. Parties continued to be organized on national
+lines, after the churches had been rent in twain by sectional forces.
+Of the two party organizations in Illinois, the Democratic party was
+numerically the larger, and in point of discipline, the more
+efficient. It was older; it had been the first to adopt the system of
+State and district nominating conventions; it had the advantage of
+prestige and of the possession of office. The Democratic party could
+"point with pride" to an unbroken series of victories in State and
+presidential elections. By successful gerrymanders it had secured the
+lion's share of congressional districts. Above all it had intelligent
+leadership. The retirement of Senator Breese left Stephen A. Douglas
+the undisputed leader of the party.
+
+The dual party system in Illinois, as well as in the nation, was
+seriously threatened by the appearance of a third political
+organization with hostility to slavery as its cohesive force. The
+Liberty party polled its first vote in Illinois in the campaign of
+1840, when its candidate for the presidency received 160 votes.[314]
+Four years later its total vote in Illinois was 3,469, a notable
+increase.[315] The distribution of these votes, however, is more
+noteworthy than their number, for in no county did the vote amount to
+more than thirty per cent of the total poll of all parties. The
+heaviest Liberty vote was in the northern counties. The votes cast in
+the central and southern parts of the State were indicative, for the
+most part, of a Quaker or New England element in the population.[316]
+As yet the older parties had no reason to fear for their prestige; but
+in 1848 the Liberty party gave place to the Free-Soil party, which
+developed unexpected strength in the presidential vote. It rallied
+anti-slavery elements by its cry of "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free
+Labor, and Free Men!" and for the first time broke the serried ranks
+of the older parties. Van Buren, the candidate of the Free-Soilers,
+received a vote of 15,774, concentrated in the northeastern counties,
+but reaching formidable proportions in the counties of the northwest
+and west.[317] Of the older organizations, the Whig party seemed less
+affected, Taylor having received 53,047 votes, an increase of 7,519
+over the Whig vote of 1844. The Democratic candidate, Cass, received
+only 56,300, an absolute decrease of 1,620. This was both an absolute
+and a relative decline, for the total voting population had increased
+by 24,459. Presumptive evidence points to a wholesale desertion of the
+party by men of strong anti-slavery convictions. Whither they had
+gone--whether into the ranks of Whigs or Free-Soilers,--concerned
+Democratic leaders less than the palpable fact that they had gone
+somewhere.
+
+At the close of this eventful year, the political situation in
+Illinois was without precedent. To offset Democratic losses in the
+presidential election, there were, to be sure, the usual Democratic
+triumphs in State and district elections. But the composition of the
+legislature was peculiar. On the vote for Speaker of the House, the
+Democrats showed a handsome majority: there was no sign of a third
+party vote. A few days later the following resolution was carried by a
+vote which threw the Democratic ranks into confusion: "That our
+senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested,
+to use all honorable means in their power, to procure the enactment of
+such laws by Congress for the government of the countries and
+territories of the United States, acquired by the treaty of peace,
+friendship, limits, and settlement, with the republic of Mexico,
+concluded February 2, A.D. 1848; as shall contain the express
+declaration, that there shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary
+servitude in said territories, otherwise than for the punishment of
+crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."[318]
+
+At least fifteen representatives of what had hitherto been Democratic
+constituencies, had combined with the Whigs to embarrass the
+Democratic delegation at Washington.[319] Their expectation seems to
+have been that they could thus force Senator Douglas to resign his
+seat, for he had been an uncompromising opponent of the Wilmot
+Proviso. Free-Soilers, Whigs, and Northern Democrats with anti-slavery
+leanings had voted for the instructions; only the Democrats from the
+southern counties voted solidly to sustain the Illinois delegation in
+its opposition to the Proviso.[320] While not a strict sectional vote,
+it showed plainly enough the rift in the Democratic party. A
+disruptive issue had been raised. For the moment a re-alignment of
+parties on geographical lines seemed imminent. This was precisely the
+trend in national politics at this moment.
+
+There was a traditional remedy for this sectional malady--compromise.
+It was an Illinois senator, himself a slave-owner, who had proposed
+the original Missouri proviso. Senator Douglas had repeatedly proposed
+to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, in the same
+spirit in which compromise had been offered in 1820, but the essential
+conditions for a compromise on this basis were now wanting.
+
+It was precisely at this time, when the Illinois legislature was
+instructing him to reverse his attitude toward the Wilmot Proviso,
+that Senator Douglas began to change his policy. Believing that the
+combination against him in the legislature was largely accidental and
+momentary, he refused to resign.[321] Events amply justified his
+course; but the crisis was not without its lessons for him. The
+futility of a compromise based on an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line was now apparent. Opposition to the extension of
+slavery was too strong; and belief in the free status of the acquired
+territory too firmly rooted in the minds of his constituents. There
+remained the possibility of reintegrating the Democratic party through
+the application of the principle of "squatter sovereignty," Was it
+possible to offset the anti-slavery sentiment of his Northern
+constituents by an insistent appeal to their belief in local
+self-government?
+
+The taproot from which squatter sovereignty grew and flourished, was
+the instinctive attachment of the Western American to local
+government; or to put the matter conversely, his dislike of external
+authority. So far back as the era of the Revolution, intense
+individualism, bold initiative, strong dislike of authority, elemental
+jealousy of the fruits of labor, and passionate attachment to the soil
+that has been cleared for a home, are qualities found in varying
+intensity among the colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. Nowhere,
+however, were they so marked as along the Western border, where
+centrifugal forces were particularly strong and local attachments were
+abnormally developed. Under stress of real or fancied wrongs, it was
+natural for settlers in these frontier regions to meet for joint
+protest, or if the occasion were grave enough, to enter into political
+association, to resist encroachment upon what they felt to be their
+natural rights. Whenever they felt called upon to justify their
+course, they did so in language that repeated, consciously or
+unconsciously, the theory of the social contract, with which the
+political thought of the age was surcharged. In these frontier
+communities was born the political habit that manifested itself on
+successive frontiers of American advance across the continent, and
+that finally in the course of the slavery controversy found apt
+expression in the doctrine of squatter sovereignty.[322]
+
+None of the Territories carved out of the original Northwest had shown
+greater eagerness for separate government than Illinois. The isolation
+of the original settlements grouped along the Mississippi, their
+remoteness from the seat of territorial government on the Wabash, and
+the consequent difficulty of obtaining legal protection and efficient
+government, predisposed the people of Illinois to demand a territorial
+government of their own, long before Congress listened to their
+memorials. Bitter controversy and even bloodshed attended their
+efforts.[323]
+
+A generation later a similar contest occurred for the separation of
+the fourteen northern counties from the State. When Congress changed
+the northern boundary of Illinois, it had deviated from the express
+provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, which had drawn the line through
+the southern bend of Lake Michigan. This departure from the Magna
+Charta of the Northwest furnished the would-be secessionists with a
+pretext. But an editorial in the _Northwestern Gazette and Galena
+Advertiser_, January 20, 1842, naively disclosed their real motive.
+Illinois was overwhelmed with debt, while Wisconsin was "young,
+vigorous, and free from debt." "Look at the district as it is now,"
+wrote the editor fervidly, "the _fag end_ of the State of
+Illinois--its interest wholly disregarded in State legislation--in
+short, treated as a mere _province_--taxed; laid under tribute in the
+form of taxation for the benefit of the South and Middle." The right
+of the people to determine by vote whether the counties should be
+annexed to Illinois, was accepted without question. A meeting of
+citizens in Jo Daviess County resolved, that "until the Ordinance of
+1787 was altered by common consent, the free inhabitants of the region
+had, in common with the free inhabitants of the Territory of
+Wisconsin, an absolute, vested, indefeasible right to form a permanent
+constitution and State government."[324] This was the burden of many
+memorials of similar origin.
+
+The desire of the people of Illinois to control local interests
+extended most naturally to the soil which nourished them. That the
+Federal Government should without their consent dispose of lands which
+they had brought under cultivation, seemed to verge on tyranny. It
+mattered not that the settler had taken up lands to which he had no
+title in law. The wilderness belonged to him who subdued it.
+Therefore land leagues and claim associations figure largely in the
+history of the Northwest. Their object was everywhere the same, to
+protect the squatter against the chance bidder at a public land sale.
+
+The concessions made by the constitutional convention of 1847, in the
+matter of local government, gave great satisfaction to the Northern
+element in the State. The new constitution authorized the legislature
+to pass a general law, in accordance with which counties might
+organize by popular vote under a township system. This mode of
+settling a bitter and protracted controversy was thoroughly in accord
+with the democratic spirit of northern Illinois. The newspapers of the
+northern counties welcomed the inauguration of the township system as
+a formal recognition of a familiar principle. Said the _Will County
+Telegraph_:[325] "The great principle on which the new system is based
+is this: that except as to those things which pertain to State unity
+and those which are in their nature common to the whole county, it is
+right that each small community should regulate its own local matters
+without interference." It was this sentiment to which popular
+sovereignty made a cogent appeal.
+
+No man was more sensitive than Senator Douglas to these subtle
+influences of popular tradition, custom, and current sentiment. Under
+the cumulative impression of the events which have been recorded, his
+confidence in popular sovereignty as an integrating force in national
+and local politics increased, and his public utterances became more
+assured and positive.[326] By the close of the year 1850, he had the
+satisfaction of seeing the collapse of the Free-Soil party in
+Illinois, and of knowing that the joint resolutions had been repealed
+which had so nearly accomplished his overthrow. A political storm had
+been weathered. Yet the diverse currents in Illinois society might
+again roil local politics. So long as a bitter commercial rivalry
+divided northern and southern Illinois, and social differences held
+the sections apart, misunderstandings dangerous to party and State
+alike would inevitably follow. How could these diverse elements be
+fused into a true and enduring union? To this task Douglas set his
+hand. The ways and means which he employed, form one of the most
+striking episodes in his career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 294: Reid was afterward Governor of North Carolina and
+United States Senator.]
+
+[Footnote 295: For many of the facts relating to Douglas's courtship
+and marriage, I am indebted to his son, Judge Robert Martin Douglas,
+of North Carolina.]
+
+[Footnote 296: At the death of Colonel Martin, this plantation was
+worked by some seventeen slaves, according to his will.]
+
+[Footnote 297: This impression is fully confirmed by the terms of his
+will.]
+
+[Footnote 298: He was himself fully conscious of this influence. See
+his speech at Raleigh, August 30, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 299: The facts are so stated in Colonel Martin's will, for a
+transcript of which I am indebted to Judge R.M. Douglas.]
+
+[Footnote 300: Extract from the will of Colonel Martin.]
+
+[Footnote 301: This letter, dated August 3, 1850, is in the possession
+of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield, Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 302: The characteristics of Illinois as a constituency in
+1850 are set forth in greater detail, in an article by the writer in
+the _Iowa Journal of History and Politics_, July, 1905.]
+
+[Footnote 303: See Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois in
+the Fergus Historical Series, No. 14. Also Ford, History of Illinois,
+pp. 38, 279-280; and Greene, Sectional forces in the History of
+Illinois--in the Publications of Illinois Historical Library, 1903.]
+
+[Footnote 304: Between 1818 and 1840, fifty-seven new counties were
+organized, of which fourteen lay in the region given to Illinois by
+the shifting of the northern boundary. See Publications of the
+Illinois Historical Library, No. 8, pp. 79-80.]
+
+[Footnote 305: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 280-281.]
+
+[Footnote 306: _Ibid._, p. 280.]
+
+[Footnote 307: See Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, Chapter on
+"State Policy."]
+
+[Footnote 308: Shaw, Local Government in Illinois, in the Johns
+Hopkins University Studies, Vol. I; Newell, Township Government in
+Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 309: Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, Chapter II.]
+
+[Footnote 310: _Ibid._, Chapter III. See Article VI of the
+Constitution.]
+
+[Footnote 311: _Ibid._, Chapter IV. See also Moses, History of
+Illinois, Vol. I, p. 324.]
+
+[Footnote 312: Harris, Negro Servitude, pp. 125, 136-357]
+
+[Footnote 313: Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, pp.
+453-456.]
+
+[Footnote 314: _Whig Almanac_, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, 1845.]
+
+[Footnote 316: Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 326-327.]
+
+[Footnote 317: Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 328-329.]
+
+[Footnote 318: House Journal, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 319: All these fifteen voted for the Democratic candidate
+for Speaker of the House.]
+
+[Footnote 320: House Journal, p. 52; Senate Journal, p. 44. See also
+Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, p. 177.]
+
+[Footnote 321: See Speech in Senate, December 23, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 322: See the writer's article on "The Genesis of Popular
+Sovereignty" in the _Iowa Journal of History and Politics_ for
+January, 1905.]
+
+[Footnote 323: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 241-242.]
+
+[Footnote 324: _Northwestern Gazette_, March 19, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 325: September 27, 1849.]
+
+[Footnote 326: Compare his utterances on the following dates: January
+10, 1849; January 22, 1849; October 23, 1849 at Springfield, Illinois;
+February 12, 1850; June 3, 1850.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MEASURES OF ADJUSTMENT
+
+
+When Congress assembled in December, 1849, statesmen of the old
+school, who could agree in nothing else, were of one mind in this: the
+Union was in peril. In the impressive words of Webster, "the
+imprisoned winds were let loose. The East, the North, and the stormy
+South combined to throw the whole sea into commotion, to toss its
+billows to the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths." Clay and
+Calhoun were equally apprehensive. Yet there were younger men who
+shared none of these fears. To be sure, the political atmosphere of
+Washington was electric. The House spent weeks wrangling over the
+Speakership, so that when the serious work of legislation began, men
+were overwrought and excitable. California with a free constitution
+was knocking at the door of the Union. President Taylor gave Congress
+to understand that at no distant day the people of New Mexico would
+take similar action. And then, as though he were addressing a body of
+immortals, he urged Congress to await calmly the action of the people
+of the Territories.
+
+Douglas was among those unimpressionable younger men who would not
+believe the Union to be in danger. Perhaps by his Southern connections
+he knew better than most Northern men, the real temper of the South.
+Perhaps he did not give way to the prevailing hysteria, because he was
+diverted from the great issues by the pressing, particular interests
+of his constituents. At all events, he had this advantage over Clay,
+Webster, and Calhoun, that when he did turn his attention to schemes
+of compromise, his vision was fresh, keen, and direct. He escaped that
+subtle distortion of mental perception from which others were likely
+to suffer because of long-sustained attention. To such, Douglas must
+have seemed unemotional, unsensitive, and lacking in spiritual
+fineness.
+
+Illinois with its North and its South was also facing a crisis. To the
+social and political differences that bisected the State, was added a
+keen commercial rivalry between the sections. While the State
+legislature under northern control was appropriating funds for the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, it exhibited far less liberality in
+building railroads, which alone could be the arteries of traffic in
+southern Illinois. At a time when railroads were extending their lines
+westward from the Atlantic seaboard, and reaching out covetously for
+the produce of the Mississippi Valley, Illinois held geographically a
+commanding position. No roads could reach the great river, north of
+the Ohio at least, without crossing her borders. The avenues of
+approach were given into her keeping. To those who directed State
+policy, it seemed possible to determine the commercial destinies of
+the Commonwealth by controlling the farther course of the railroads
+which now touched the eastern boundary. Well-directed effort, it was
+thought, might utilize these railroads so as to build up great
+commercial cities on the eastern shore of the Mississippi. State
+policy required that none of these cross-roads should in any event
+touch St. Louis, and thus make it, rather than the Illinois towns now
+struggling toward commercial greatness, the entrepôt between East and
+West. With its unrivalled site at the mouth of the Missouri, Alton was
+as likely a competitor for the East and West traffic, and for the
+Mississippi commerce, as St. Louis. Alton, then, must be made the
+terminus of the cross-roads.[327]
+
+The people of southern Illinois thought otherwise. Against the
+background of such distant hopes, they saw a concrete reality. St.
+Louis was already the market for their produce. From every railroad
+which should cross the State and terminate at St. Louis, they
+anticipated tangible profits. They could not see why these very real
+advantages should be sacrificed on the altar of northern interests.
+After the opening of the northern canal, they resented this exclusive
+policy with increased bitterness.
+
+Upon one point, and only one, the people of northern and southern
+Illinois were agreed: they believed that every possible encouragement
+should be given to the construction of a great central railroad, which
+should cross the State from north to south. Such a railroad had been
+projected as early as 1836 by a private corporation. Subsequently the
+State took up the project, only to abandon it again to a private
+company, after the bubble of internal improvements had been pricked.
+Of this latter corporation,--the Great Western Railroad
+Company,--Senator Breese was a director and the accredited agent in
+Congress. It was in behalf of this corporation that he had petitioned
+Congress unsuccessfully for pre-emption rights on the public
+domain.[328]
+
+Circumstances enlisted Douglas's interest powerfully in the proposed
+central railroad. These circumstances were partly private and
+personal; partly adventitious and partly of his own making. The
+growing sectionalism in Illinois gave politicians serious concern. It
+was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the integrity of
+political parties, when sectional issues were thrust into the
+foreground of political discussion. Yankee and Southerner did not mix
+readily in the caldron of State politics. But a central railroad which
+both desired, might promote a mechanical mixture of social and
+commercial elements. Might it not also, in the course of time, break
+up provincial feeling, cause a transfusion of ideas, and in the end
+produce an organic union?
+
+In the summer of 1847, Senator-elect Douglas took up his residence in
+Chicago, and identified himself with its commercial interests by
+investing in real estate.[329] Few men have had a keener instinct for
+speculation in land.[330] By a sort of sixth sense, he foresaw the
+growth of the ugly but enterprising city on Lake Michigan. He saw that
+commercially Chicago held a strategic position, commanding both the
+lake traffic eastward, and the interior waterway gulfward by means of
+the canal. As yet, however, these advantages were far from
+realization. The city was not even included within the route of the
+proposed central railroad. Influential business men, Eastern
+capitalists, and shippers along the Great Lakes were not a little
+exercised over this neglect. In some way the claims of Chicago must be
+urged upon the promoters of the railroad. Just here Douglas could
+give invaluable aid. He pointed out that if the railroad were to
+secure a land grant, it would need Eastern votes in Congress. The old
+Cairo-Galena line would seem like a sectional enterprise, likely to
+draw trade down the Mississippi and away from the Atlantic seaports.
+But if Chicago were connected with the system, as a terminal at the
+north, the necessary congressional support might be secured.[331]
+
+During the summer, Douglas canvassed the State, speaking repeatedly in
+behalf of this larger project. For a time he hoped that Senator Breese
+would co-operate with him. Numerous conferences took place both before
+and after Congress had assembled; but Douglas found his colleague
+reluctant to abandon his pre-emption plan. Regardless of the memorials
+which poured in upon him from northern Illinois, Breese introduced his
+bill for pre-emption rights on the public domain, in behalf of the
+Holbrook Company, as the Great Western Railway Company was popularly
+called. Thereupon Douglas offered a bill for a donation of public
+lands to aid the State of Illinois in the construction of a central
+railroad from Cairo to Galena, with a branch from Centralia to
+Chicago.[332] Though Breese did not actively oppose his colleague, his
+lack of cordiality no doubt prejudiced Congress against a grant of any
+description. From the outset, Douglas's bill encountered obstacles:
+the opposition of those who doubted the constitutional power of
+Congress to grant lands for internal improvements of this sort; the
+opposition of landless States, which still viewed the public domain
+as a national asset from which revenue should be derived; and,
+finally, the opposition of the old States to the new. Nevertheless,
+the bill passed the Senate by a good majority. In the House it
+suffered defeat, owing to the undisguised opposition of the South and
+of the landless States both East and West. The Middle States showed
+distrust and uncertainty. It was perfectly clear that before such a
+project could pass the House, Eastern and Southern representatives
+would have to be won over.[333]
+
+After Congress adjourned, Douglas journeyed to the State of
+Mississippi, ostensibly on a business trip to his children's
+plantation. In the course of his travels, he found himself in the city
+of Mobile--an apparent digression; but by a somewhat remarkable
+coincidence he met certain directors of the Mobile Railroad in the
+city. Now this corporation was in straits. Funds had failed and the
+construction of the road had been arrested. The directors were casting
+about in search of relief. Douglas saw his opportunity. He offered the
+distraught officials an alliance. He would include in his Illinois
+Central bill a grant of land for their road; in return, they were to
+make sure of the votes of their senators and representatives.[334]
+Such, at least, is the story told by Douglas; and some such bargain
+may well have been made. Subsequent events give the color of veracity
+to the tale.
+
+When Douglas renewed his Illinois Central bill in a revised form on
+January 3, 1850, Senator Breese had been succeeded by Shields, who was
+well-disposed toward the project.[335] The fruits of the Mobile
+conference were at once apparent. Senator King of Alabama offered an
+amendment, proposing a similar donation of public lands to his State
+and to Mississippi, for the purpose of continuing the projected
+central railroad from the mouth of the Ohio to the port of Mobile.
+Douglas afterward said that he had himself drafted this amendment, but
+that he had thought best to have Senator King present it.[336] Be that
+as it may, the suspicion of collusion between them can hardly be
+avoided, since the amendment occasioned no surprise to the friends of
+the bill and was adopted without division.
+
+The project now before Congress was of vastly greater consequence than
+the proposed grant to Illinois. Here was a bill of truly national
+importance. It spoke for itself; it appealed to the dullest
+imagination. What this amended bill contemplated, was nothing less
+than a trunk line connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico.
+Now, indeed, as Douglas well said, "nationality had been imparted to
+the project," At the same time, it offered substantial advantages to
+the two landless States which would be traversed by the railroad, as
+well as to all the Gulf States. As thus devised, the bill seemed
+reasonably sure to win votes.
+
+Yet it must not be inferred that the bill passed smoothly to a third
+reading. There was still much shaking of heads among senators of the
+strict construction school. Many were conquered by expediency and
+threw logic to the winds; some preferred to be consistent and spoil a
+good cause. The bill did not sail on untroubled seas, even after it
+had been steered clear of constitutional shoals. It narrowly ran foul
+of that obstinate Western conviction, that the public lands belonged
+of right to the home-seeker, to whose interests all such grants were
+inimical, by reason of the increased price of adjoining sections of
+land.[337]
+
+The real battleground, however, was not the Senate, but the House. As
+before, the bill passed the upper chamber by an ample margin of
+votes.[338] In the lower house, there was no prolonged debate upon the
+bill. Constitutional scruples do not seem to have been ruffled. The
+main difficulty was to rivet the attention of the members. Several
+times the bill was pushed aside and submerged by the volume of other
+business. Finally, on the same day that it passed the last of the
+compromise measures, on the 17th of September, 1850, the House passed
+the Illinois Central Railroad bill by a vote of 101 to 75.[339]
+
+A comparison of this vote with that on the earlier bill shows a change
+of three votes in the Middle States, one in the South, ten in the Gulf
+States, and five in Tennessee and Kentucky.[340] This was a triumphant
+vindication of Douglas's sagacity, for whatever may have been the
+services of his colleagues in winning Eastern votes,[341] it was his
+bid for the vote of the Gulf States and of the landless, intervening
+States of Kentucky and Tennessee which had been most effective. But
+was all this anything more than the clever manoeuvering of an adroit
+politician in a characteristic parliamentary game? A central railroad
+through Illinois seemed likely to quell factional and sectional
+quarrels in local politics; to merge Northern and Southern interests
+within the Commonwealth; and to add to the fiscal resources of State
+and nation. It was a good cause, but it needed votes in Congress.
+Douglas became a successful procurator and reaped his reward in
+increased popularity.
+
+There is an aspect of this episode, however, which lifts it above a
+mere log-rolling device to secure an appropriation. Here and there it
+fired the imagination of men. There is abundant reason to believe that
+the senior Senator from Illinois was not so sordid in his bargaining
+for votes as he seemed. Above and apart from the commercial welfare of
+the Lake Region, the Mississippi Valley, and the Gulf Plains, there
+was an end subserved, which lay in the background of his consciousness
+and which came to expression rarely if ever. Practical men may see
+visions and dream dreams which they are reluctant to voice. There was
+genuine emotion beneath the materialism of Senator Walker's remarks
+(and he was reared in Illinois), when he said: "Anything that improves
+the connection between the North and the South is a great enterprise.
+To cross parallels of latitude, to enable the man of commerce to make
+up his assorted cargo, is infinitely more important than anything you
+can propose within the same parallels of latitude. I look upon it as a
+great chain to unite North and South."[342] Senator Shields of
+Illinois only voiced the inmost thought of Douglas, when he exclaimed,
+"The measure is too grand, too magnificent a one to meet with such a
+fate at the hands of Congress. And really, as it is to connect the
+North and South so thoroughly, it may serve to get rid of even the
+Wilmot Proviso, and tie us together so effectually that the idea of
+separation will be impossible."[343]
+
+The settlement of the West had followed parallels of latitude. The men
+of the Lake Plains were transplanted New Englanders, New Yorkers,
+Pennsylvanians; the men of the Gulf Plains came from south of Mason
+and Dixon's line,--pioneers both, aggressive, bold in initiative, but
+alienated by circumstances of tremendous economic significance. If
+ever North should be arrayed against South, the makeweight in the
+balance would be these pioneers of the Northwest and Southwest. It was
+no mean conception to plan for the "man of commerce" who would cross
+from one region to the other, with his "assorted cargo,"[344] for in
+that cargo were the destinies of two sections and his greatest
+commerce was to consist in the exchange of imponderable ideas. The
+ideal which inspired Douglas never found nobler expression, than in
+these words with which he replied to Webster's slighting reference to
+the West:
+
+"There is a power in this nation greater than either the North or the
+South--a growing, increasing, swelling power, that will be able to
+speak the law to this nation, and to execute the law as spoken. That
+power is the country known as the great West--the Valley of the
+Mississippi, one and indivisible from the gulf to the great lakes, and
+stretching, on the one side and the other, to the extreme sources of
+the Ohio and Missouri--from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains.
+There, Sir, is the hope of this nation--the resting place of the power
+that is not only to control, but to save, the Union. We furnish the
+water that makes the Mississippi, and we intend to follow, navigate,
+and use it until it loses itself in the briny ocean. So with the St.
+Lawrence. We intend to keep open and enjoy both of these great outlets
+to the ocean, and all between them we intend to take under our
+especial protection, and keep and preserve as one free, happy, and
+united people. This is the mission of the great Mississippi Valley,
+the heart and soul of the nation and the continent."[345]
+
+Meantime Congress was endeavoring to avert the clash of sections by
+other measures of accommodation. The veteran Clay, in his favorite
+rôle of peacemaker, had drafted a series of resolutions as a sort of
+legislative programme; and with his old-time vigor, was pleading for
+mutual forbearance. All wounds might be healed, he believed, by
+admitting California with her free constitution; by organizing
+territorial governments without any restriction as to slavery, in the
+region acquired from Mexico; by settling the Texas boundary and the
+Texas debt on a fair basis; by prohibiting the slave trade, but not
+slavery, in the District of Columbia; and by providing more carefully
+for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Clay, Calhoun, and Webster had
+spoken with all the weight of their years upon these propositions,
+before Douglas was free to address the Senate.
+
+It was characteristic of Douglas that he chose to speak on the
+concrete question raised by the application of California for
+admission into the Union. His opening words betrayed no elevation of
+feeling, no alarmed patriotism transcending party lines, no great
+moral uplift. He made no direct reference to the state of the public
+mind. Clay began with an invocation; Webster pleaded for a hearing,
+not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American
+and as a Senator, with the preservation of the Union as his theme;
+Douglas sprang at once to the defense of his party. With the brush of
+a partisan, he sketched the policy of Northern Democrats in advocating
+the annexation of Texas, repudiating the insinuations of Webster that
+Texas had been sought as a slave State. He would not admit that the
+whole of Texas was bound to be a slave Territory. By the very terms of
+annexation, provision had been made for admitting free States out of
+Texas. As for Webster's "law of nature, of physical geography,--the
+law of the formation of the earth," from which the Senator from
+Massachusetts derived so much comfort, it was a pity that he could not
+have discovered that law earlier. The "law of nature" surely had not
+been changed materially since the election, when Mr. Webster opposed
+General Cass, who had already enunciated this general principle.[346]
+
+In his reply to Calhoun, Douglas emancipated himself successfully from
+his gross partisanship. Planting himself firmly upon the national
+theory of the Federal Union, he hewed away at what he termed Calhoun's
+fundamental error--"the error of supposing that his particular section
+has a right to have a 'due share of the territories' set apart and
+assigned to it." Calhoun had said much about Southern rights and
+Northern aggressions, citing the Ordinance of 1787 as an instance of
+the unfair exclusion of the South from the public domain. Douglas
+found a complete refutation of this error in the early history of
+Illinois, where slavery had for a long time existed in spite of the
+Ordinance. His inference from these facts was bold and suggestive, if
+not altogether convincing.
+
+"These facts furnish a practical illustration of that great truth,
+which ought to be familiar to all statesmen and politicians, that a
+law passed by the national legislature to operate locally upon a
+people not represented, will always remain practically a dead letter
+upon the statute book, if it be in opposition to the wishes and
+supposed interests of those who are to be affected by it, and at the
+same time charged with its execution. The Ordinance of 1787 was
+practically a dead letter. It did not make the country, to which it
+applied, practically free from slavery. The States formed out of the
+territory northwest of the Ohio did not become free by virtue of the
+ordinance, nor in consequence of it ... [but] by virtue of their own
+will."[347]
+
+Douglas was equally convinced that the Missouri Compromise had had no
+practical effect upon slavery. So far from depriving the South of its
+share of the West, that Compromise had simply "allayed an unfortunate
+excitement which was alienating the affections of different portions
+of the Union." "Slavery was as effectually excluded from the whole of
+that country, by the laws of nature, of climate, and production,
+before, as it is now, by act of Congress."[348] As for the exclusion
+of the South from the Oregon Territory, the law of 1848 "did nothing
+more than re-enact and affirm the law which the people themselves had
+previously adopted, and rigorously executed, for the period of twelve
+years." The exclusion of slavery was the deliberate act of the people
+of Oregon: "it was done in obedience to that great Democratic
+principle, that it is wiser and better to leave each community to
+determine and regulate its own local and domestic affairs in its own
+way."[349]
+
+An amendment to the Constitution to establish a permanent equilibrium
+between slave and free States, Douglas rightly characterized as "a
+moral and physical impossibility." The cause of freedom had steadily
+advanced, while slavery had receded. "We all look forward with
+confidence to the time when Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
+and Missouri, and probably North Carolina and Tennessee, will adopt a
+gradual system of emancipation. In the meantime," said he, with the
+exultant spirit of the exuberant West, "we have a vast territory,
+stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific, which is rapidly
+filling up with a hardy, enterprising, and industrious population,
+large enough to form at least seventeen new free States, one half of
+which we may expect to see represented in this body during our day. Of
+these I calculate that four will be formed out of Oregon, five out of
+our late acquisition from Mexico, including the present State of
+California, two out of the territory of Minnesota, and the residue out
+of the country upon the Missouri river, _including Nebraska_. I think
+I am safe in assuming, that each of these will be free territories and
+free States whether Congress shall prohibit slavery or not. Now, let
+me inquire, where are you to find the slave territory with which to
+balance these seventeen free territories, or even any one of
+them?"[350] Truer prophecy was never uttered in all the long
+controversy over the extension of slavery.
+
+With a bit of brag, which was perhaps pardonable tinder the
+circumstances, Douglas reminded the Senate of his efforts to secure
+the admission of California and of his prediction that the people of
+that country would form a free State constitution. A few months had
+sufficed to vindicate his position at the last session. And yet,
+strangely enough, the North was still fearful lest slavery should be
+extended to New Mexico and Utah. "There is no ground for apprehension
+on this point," he stoutly contended. "If there was one inch of
+territory in the whole of our acquisition from Mexico, where slavery
+could exist, it was in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin,
+within the limits of the State of California. It should be borne in
+mind, that climate regulates this matter, and that climate depends
+upon the elevation above the sea as much as upon parallels of
+latitude." Why then leave the question open for further agitation?
+Give the people of California the government to which they are
+entitled. "The country is now free by law and in fact--it is free
+according to those laws of nature and of God, to which the Senator
+from Massachusetts alluded, and must forever remain free. It will be
+free under any bill you may pass, or without any bill at all."[351]
+
+Though he did not discuss the compromise resolutions nor commit
+himself to their support, Douglas paid a noble tribute to the spirit
+in which they had been offered. He spoke feelingly of "the
+self-sacrificing spirit which prompted the venerable Senator from
+Kentucky to exhibit the matchless moral courage of standing undaunted
+between the two great hostile factions, and rebuking the violence and
+excesses of each, and pointing out their respective errors, in a
+spirit of kindness, moderation, and firmness, which made them
+conscious that he was right." Clay's example was already, he believed,
+checking the tide of popular excitement. For his part, he entertained
+no fears as to the future. "The Union will not be put in peril;
+California will be admitted; governments for the territories must be
+established; and thus the controversy will end, and I trust forever."
+A cheerful bit of Western optimism to which the country at large was
+not yet ready to subscribe.
+
+With his wonted aggressiveness Douglas had a batch of bills ready by
+March 25th, covering the controverted question of California and the
+Territories. The origin of these bills is a matter of no little
+interest. A group of Southern Whigs in the House, led by Toombs and
+Stephens of Georgia, had taken a determined stand against the
+admission of California, until assurances were given that concessions
+would be made to the South in the organization of the new
+Territories.[352]
+
+With both Toombs and Stephens, Douglas was on friendly terms, despite
+their political differences. Perhaps it was at his suggestion that
+McClernand of Illinois approached these gentlemen with an olive
+branch. At all events, a conference was arranged at the Speaker's
+house, at which Douglas was represented by his friends McClernand,
+Richardson, and Linn Boyd of Kentucky. Boyd was chairman of the House
+Committee on Territories; and Richardson a member of the committee.
+McClernand announced that he had consulted with Douglas and that they
+were in entire agreement on the points at issue. Douglas had thought
+it better not to be present in person. The Southerners stated their
+position frankly and fully. They would consent to the admission of
+California only upon condition that, in organizing the territorial
+governments, the power should be given to the people to legislate in
+regard to slavery, and to frame constitutions with or without slavery.
+Congress was to bind itself to admit them as States, without any
+restrictions upon the subject of slavery. The wording of the
+territorial bills, which would compass these ends, was carefully
+agreed upon and put in writing. On the basis of this agreement Douglas
+and McClernand drafted bills for both the Senate and the House
+Committees.[353]
+
+But the suggestion had already been made and was growing in favor,
+that a select committee should be intrusted with these and other
+delicate questions, in order to secure a basis of compromise in the
+spirit of Clay's resolutions. Believing that such a course would
+indefinitely delay, and even put in jeopardy, the measure that lay
+nearest to his heart,--the admission of California,--Douglas resisted
+the appointment of such a committee. If it seemed best to join the
+California bill with others now pending, he preferred that the Senate,
+rather than a committee, should decide the conditions. But when he was
+outvoted, Douglas adopted the sensible course of refusing to obstruct
+the work of the Committee of Thirteen by any instructions. He was
+inclined to believe the whole project a farce: well, if it was, the
+sooner it was over, the better; he was not disposed to wrangle and
+turn the farce into a tragedy.[354]
+
+Douglas was not chosen a member of the select Committee of Thirteen.
+He could hardly expect to be; but he contributed not a little to its
+labors, if a traditional story be true. In a chance conversation,
+Clay, who was chairman of the committee, told Douglas that their
+report would recommend the union of his two bills,--the California and
+the Territorial bills,--instead of a bill of their own. Clay intimated
+that the committee felt some delicacy about appropriating Douglas's
+carefully drawn measures. With a courtesy quite equal to Clay's,
+Douglas urged him to use the bills if it was deemed wise. For his
+part, he did not believe that they could pass the Senate as a single
+bill. In that event, he could then urge the original bills separately
+upon the Senate. Then Clay, extending his hand, said, "You are the
+most generous man living. I _will_ unite the bills and report them;
+but justice shall nevertheless be done you as the real author of the
+measures." A pretty story, and not altogether improbable. At all
+events, the first part of "the Omnibus Bill," reported by the
+Committee of Thirteen, consisted of Douglas's two bills joined
+together by a wafer.[355]
+
+There was one highly significant change in the territorial bills
+inside the Omnibus. Douglas's measures had been silent on the slavery
+question; these forbade the territorial legislatures to pass any
+measure in respect to African slavery, restricting the powers of the
+territorial legislatures at a vital point. Now on this question
+Douglas's instructions bound him to an affirmative vote. He was in the
+uncomfortable and hazardous position of one who must choose between
+his convictions, and the retention of political office. It was a
+situation all the more embarrassing, because he had so often asserted
+the direct responsibility of a representative to his constituents. He
+extricated himself from the predicament in characteristic fashion. He
+reaffirmed his convictions; sought to ward off the question; but
+followed instructions when he had to give his vote. He obeyed the
+letter, but violated the spirit of his instructions.
+
+In the debates on the Omnibus Bill, Douglas reiterated his theory of
+non-interference with the right of the people to legislate for
+themselves on the question of slavery. He was now forced to further
+interesting assertions by some pointed questions from Senator Davis of
+Mississippi. "The Senator says that the inhabitants of a territory
+have a right to decide what their institutions shall be. When? By what
+authority? How many of them?" Douglas replied: "Without determining
+the precise number, I will assume that the right ought to accrue to
+the people at the moment they have enough to constitute a
+government.... Your bill concedes that a representative government is
+necessary--a government founded upon the principles of popular
+sovereignty, and the right of the people to enact their own laws; and
+for this reason you give them a legislature constituted of two
+branches, like the legislatures of the different States and
+Territories of the Union; you confer upon them the right to legislate
+upon all rightful subjects of legislation, except negroes. Why except
+negroes?"[356] Forced to a further explanation, he added, "I am not,
+therefore, prepared to say that under the constitution, we have not
+the power to pass laws excluding negro slaves from the territories....
+But I do say that, if left to myself to carry out my own opinions, I
+would leave the whole subject to the people of the territories
+themselves.... I believe it is one of those rights to be conceded to
+the territories the moment they have governments and legislatures
+established for them."[357] In short, this was a policy dictated by
+expediency, and not--as yet--by any constitutional necessity. Douglas
+was not yet ready to abandon the high national ground of supreme,
+Federal control over the Territories.
+
+But the restrictive clause in the territorial bills satisfied the
+radical Southerners as little as it pleased Douglas. Berrien wished to
+make the clause more precise by forbidding the territorial
+legislatures "to establish or prohibit African slavery"; but Hale,
+with his preternatural keenness for the supposed intrigues of the
+slave power, believed that even with these restrictions the
+legislatures might still recognize slavery as an already established
+institution; and he therefore moved to add the word "allow." Douglas
+voted consistently; first against Berrien's amendment, and then, when
+it carried, for Hale's, hoping thereby to discredit the former.[358]
+Douglas's own amendment removing all restrictions, was voted
+down.[359] True to his instructions, he voted for Seward's proposition
+to impose the Wilmot Proviso upon the Territories, but he was happy to
+find himself in the minority.[360] And so the battle went on,
+threatening to end in a draw.
+
+A motion to abolish and prohibit peon slavery elicited an apparently
+spontaneous and sincere expression of detestation from Douglas of
+"this revolting system." Black slavery was not abhorrent to him; but a
+species of slavery not confined to any color or race, which might,
+because of a trifling debt, condemn the free white man and his
+posterity to an endless servitude--this was indeed intolerable. If the
+Senate was about to abolish black slavery, being unwilling to intrust
+the territorial legislature with such measures, surely it ought in all
+consistency to abolish also peonage. But the Senate preferred not to
+be consistent.[361]
+
+By the last of July, the Omnibus--in the words of Benton--had been
+overturned, and all the inmates but one spilled out. The Utah bill was
+the lucky survivor, but even it was not suffered to pass without
+material alterations. Clay now joined with Douglas to secure the
+omission of the clause forbidding the territorial legislature to touch
+the subject of slavery. In this they finally succeeded.[362] The bill
+was thus restored to its original form.[363]
+
+Everyone admitted that the compromise scheme had been wrecked. It was
+highly probable, however, that with some changes the proposals of the
+committee could be adopted, if they were considered separately. Such
+was Douglas's opinion. The eventuality had occurred which he had
+foreseen. He was ready for it. He had promptly called up his original
+California bill and had secured its consideration, when the Utah bill
+passed to a third reading. Then a bill to settle the Texan boundary
+controversy was introduced. The Senate passed many weary days
+discussing first one and then the other. The Texas question was
+disposed of on August 9th; the California bill, after weathering many
+storms, came to port four days later; and two days afterward, New
+Mexico was organized as a Territory under the same conditions as Utah.
+That is to say, the Senate handed on these bills with its approval to
+the lower house, where all were voted. It remained only to complete
+the compromise programme piece-meal, by abolishing the slave trade in
+the District of Columbia and by providing a more stringent fugitive
+slave law. By the middle of September, these measures had become law,
+and the work of Congress went to its final review before the tribunal
+of public opinion.
+
+Douglas voted for all the compromise measures but the Fugitive Slave
+Law. This was an unfortunate omission, for many a Congressman had
+sought to dodge the question.[364] The partisan press did not spare
+him, though he stated publicly that he would have voted for the bill,
+had he not been forced to absent himself. Such excuses were common and
+unconvincing. Irritated by sly thrusts on every side, Douglas at last
+resolved to give a detailed account of the circumstances that had
+prevented him from putting himself on record in the vote. This public
+vindication was made upon the floor of the Senate a year later.[365] A
+"pecuniary obligation" for nearly four thousand dollars was about to
+fall due in New York. Arrangements which he had made to pay the note
+miscarried, so that he was compelled to go to New York at once, or
+suffer the note to be protested. Upon the assurance of his fellow
+senators that the discussion of the bill would continue at least a
+week, he hastened to New York. While dining with some friends from
+Illinois, he was astounded to hear that the bill had been ordered
+engrossed for a third reading. He immediately left the city for
+Washington, but arrived too late. He was about to ask permission then
+to explain his absence, when his colleague dissuaded him. Everyone
+knew, said Shields, that he was in favor of the bill; besides, very
+probably the bill would be returned from the House with amendments.
+
+The circumstantial nature of this defense now seems quite unnecessary.
+After all, the best refutation of the charge lay in Douglas's
+reputation for courageous and manly conduct. He was true to himself
+when he said, "The dodging of votes--the attempt to avoid
+responsibility--is no part of my system of political tactics."
+
+If it is difficult to distribute the credit--or discredit--of having
+passed the compromise measures, it verges on the impossible to fix the
+responsibility on any individual. Clay fathered the scheme of
+adjustment; but he did not work out the details, and it was just this
+matter of details which aggravated the situation. Clay no longer
+coveted glory. His dominant feeling was one of thankfulness. "It was
+rather a triumph for the Union, for harmony and concord." Douglas
+agreed with him: "No man and no party has acquired a triumph, except
+the party friendly to the Union." But the younger man did covet honor,
+and he could not refrain from reminding the Senate that he had played
+"an humble part in the enactment of all these great measures."[366]
+Oddly enough, Jefferson Davis condescended to tickle the vanity of
+Douglas by testifying, "If any man has a right to be proud of the
+success of these measures, it is the Senator from Illinois."[367]
+
+Both Douglas and Toombs told their constituents that Congress had
+agreed upon a great, fundamental principle in dealing with the
+Territories. Both spoke with some degree of authority, for the two
+territorial bills had passed in the identical form upon which they had
+agreed in conference. But what was this principle? Toombs called it
+the principle which the South had unwisely compromised away in
+1820--the principle of non-interference with slavery by Congress, the
+right of the people to hold slaves in the common Territories. Douglas
+called the great principle, "the right of the people to form and
+regulate their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in
+their own way."[368] So stated the principle seems direct and simple.
+But was Toombs willing to concede that the people of a Territory might
+exclude slavery? He never said so; while Douglas conceded both the
+positive power to exclude, and the negative power to permit, slavery.
+Here was a discrepancy.[369] And it was probably because they could
+not agree on this point, that a provision was added to the territorial
+bills, providing that cases involving title to slaves might be
+appealed to the Supreme Court. Whether the people of Utah and New
+Mexico might exclude slaves, was to be left to the judiciary. In any
+case Congress was not to interfere with slavery in the Territories.
+
+One other question was raised subsequently. Was it intended that
+Congress should act on this principle in organizing future
+Territories? In other words, was the principle, newly recovered, to be
+applied retroactively? There was no answer to the question in 1850,
+for the simple reason that no one thought to ask it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 327: See the chapter on "State Policy" in Davidson and
+Stuvé, History of Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 328: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 573-574;
+Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads, in Fergus Historical Series, p.
+32.]
+
+[Footnote 329: Letter of Breese to Douglas, Illinois _State Register_,
+February 6, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 330: Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 18-20.]
+
+[Footnote 331: Letter of Douglas to Breese, _State Register_, January
+20, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 332: _Ibid._, January 20, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 333: Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of
+Railways, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, pp. 27-30.]
+
+[Footnote 334: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp.
+193-194.]
+
+[Footnote 335: Douglas renewed his bill in the short session of
+1848-1849, but did not secure action upon it.]
+
+[Footnote 336: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 195.
+There is so much brag in this account that one is disposed to distrust
+the details.]
+
+[Footnote 337: Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 31-34.]
+
+[Footnote 338: _Globe,_31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 904. The vote was 26 to
+14.]
+
+[Footnote 339: _Ibid._, p. 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 340: Sanborn, Congressional Grants, p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 341: John Wentworth, in his _Congressional Reminiscences_,
+hints at some vote-getting in the East by tariff concessions; but
+Douglas insisted that it was the Chicago branch, promising to connect
+with Eastern roads, which won votes in New York, Pennsylvania and New
+England. See Illinois _State Register_, March 13, 1851. The subject is
+discussed by Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 35-36.]
+
+[Footnote 342: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 853.]
+
+[Footnote 343: _Ibid._, p. 869.]
+
+[Footnote 344: The economic significance of the Illinois Central
+Railroad appears in a letter of Vice-President McClellan to Douglas in
+1856. The management was even then planning to bring sugar from Havana
+directly to the Chicago market, and to take the wheat and pork of the
+Northwest to the West Indies _via_ New Orleans.]
+
+[Footnote 345: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 365.]
+
+[Footnote 346: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 366.]
+
+[Footnote 347: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 369-370.]
+
+[Footnote 348: _Globe,_ 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 370.]
+
+[Footnote 349: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 350: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 371. I have
+italicized one phrase because of its interesting relation to the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.]
+
+[Footnote 351: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 373.]
+
+[Footnote 352: Stephens, Const. View of the War between the States,
+II, pp. 178 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 353: For an account of this interesting episode, see
+Stephens, War Between the States, II, pp. 202-204. Boyd, not
+McClernand, was chairman of the House Committee, but the latter
+introduced the bills by agreement with Richardson.]
+
+[Footnote 354: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 662, 757.]
+
+[Footnote 355: See Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 132-134. See also Douglas's
+speech in the Senate, Dec. 23, 1851, and the testimony of Jefferson
+Davis, _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1830.]
+
+[Footnote 356: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1115.]
+
+[Footnote 357: _Ibid._, p. 1116.]
+
+[Footnote 358: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1134-1135.]
+
+[Footnote 359: _Ibid._, p. 1135.]
+
+[Footnote 360: _Ibid._, p. 1134.]
+
+[Footnote 361: _Ibid._, pp. 1143-1144.]
+
+[Footnote 362: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 305-306; also
+Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 80-81.]
+
+[Footnote 363: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 1480-1481.
+Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 364: Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp. 182-183.]
+
+[Footnote 365: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 366: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1829-1830.]
+
+[Footnote 367: _Ibid._, p. 1830.]
+
+[Footnote 368: See his speech in Chicago; Sheahan, Douglas, p. 169.]
+
+[Footnote 369: When Douglas reported the bills, he announced that
+there was a difference of opinion in the committee on some points, in
+regard to which each member reserved the right of stating his own
+opinion and of acting in accordance therewith. See _Globe_, 31 Cong.,
+1 Sess., p. 592.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+YOUNG AMERICA
+
+
+When Douglas reached Chicago, immediately after the adjournment of
+Congress, he found the city in an uproar. The strong anti-slavery
+sentiment of the community had been outraged by the Fugitive Slave
+Law. Reflecting the popular indignation, the Common Council had
+adopted resolutions condemning the act as a violation of the
+Constitution and a transgression of the laws of God. Those senators
+and representatives who voted for the bill, or "who basely sneaked
+away from their seats and thereby evaded the question," were
+stigmatized as "fit only to be ranked with the traitors, Benedict
+Arnold and Judas Iscariot." This was indeed a sorry home-coming for
+one who believed himself entitled to honors.
+
+Learning that a mass-meeting was about to indorse the action of the
+city fathers, Douglas determined to face his detractors and meet their
+charges. Entering the hall while the meeting was in progress, he
+mounted the platform, and announced that on the following evening he
+would publicly defend all the measures of adjustment. He was greeted
+with hisses and jeers for his pains; but in the end he had the
+satisfaction of securing an adjournment until his defense had been
+heard.
+
+It was infinitely to his credit that when he confronted a hostile
+audience on the next evening, he stooped to no cheap devices to divert
+resentment, but sought to approve his course to the sober
+intelligence of his hearers.[370] It is doubtful if the Fugitive Slave
+Law ever found a more skillful defender. The spirit in which he met
+his critics was admirably calculated to disarm prejudice. Come and let
+us reason together, was his plea. Without any attempt to ignore the
+most obnoxious parts of the act, he passed directly to the discussion
+of the clauses which apparently denied the writ of _habeas corpus_ and
+trial by jury to the fugitive from service. He reminded his hearers
+that this act was supplementary to the Act of 1793. No one had found
+fault with the earlier act because it had denied these rights. Both
+acts, in fact, were silent on these points; yet in neither case was
+silence to be construed as a denial of constitutional obligations. On
+the contrary, they must be assumed to continue in full force under the
+act. Misapprehension arose in these matters, because the recovery of
+the fugitive slave was not viewed as a process of extradition. The act
+provided for the return of the alleged slave to the State from which
+he had fled. Trial of the facts by jury would then follow under the
+laws of the State, just as the fugitive from justice would be tried in
+the State where the alleged crime had been committed. The testimony
+before the original court making the requisition, would necessarily be
+_ex parte_, as in the case of the escaped criminal; but this did not
+prevent a fair trial on return of the fugitive. Regarding the question
+of establishing the identity of the apprehended person with the
+fugitive described in the record, Douglas asserted that the terms of
+the act required proof satisfactory to the judge or commissioner, and
+not merely the presentment of the record. "Other and further evidence"
+might be insisted upon.
+
+At various times Douglas was interrupted by questions which were
+obviously contrived to embarrass him. To all such he replied
+courteously and with engaging frankness. "Why was it," asked one of
+these troublesome questioners, "that the law provided for a fee of ten
+dollars if the commissioner decided in favor of the claimant, and for
+a fee of only five dollars if he decided otherwise? Was this not in
+the nature of an inducement, a bribe?" "I presume," said Douglas,
+"that the reason was that he would have more labor to perform. If,
+after hearing the testimony, the commissioner decided in favor of the
+claimant, the law made it his duty to prepare and authenticate the
+necessary papers to authorize him to carry the fugitive home; but if
+he decided against him, he had no such labor to perform."
+
+After all, as Douglas said good-naturedly, all these objections were
+predicated on a reluctance to return a slave to his master under any
+circumstances. Did his hearers realize, he insisted, that refusal to
+do so was a violation of the Constitution? And were they willing to
+shatter the Union because of this feeling? At this point he was again
+interrupted by an individual, who wished to know if the provisions of
+the Constitution were not in violation of the law of God. "The divine
+law," responded Douglas, "does not prescribe the form of government
+under which we shall live, and the character of our political and
+civil institutions. Revelation has not furnished us with a
+constitution--a code of international law--and a system of civil and
+municipal jurisprudence." If this Constitution were to be repudiated,
+he begged to know, "who is to be the prophet to reveal the will of
+God, and establish a theocracy for us?"
+
+At the conclusion of his speech, Douglas offered a series of
+resolutions expressing the obligation of all good citizens to maintain
+the Constitution and all laws duly enacted by Congress in pursuance of
+the Constitution. With a remarkable revulsion of feeling, the audience
+indorsed these sentiments without a dissenting voice, and subsequently
+repudiated in express terms the resolutions of the Common
+Council.[371] The triumph of Douglas was complete. It was one of those
+rare instances where the current of popular resentment is not only
+deflected, but actually reversed, by the determination and eloquence
+of one man.
+
+There were two groups of irreconcilables to whom such appeals were
+unavailing--radical Abolitionists at the North and Southern Rights
+advocates. Not even the eloquence of Webster could make willing
+slave-catchers of the anti-slavery folk of Massachusetts. The rescue
+of the negro Shadrach, an alleged fugitive slave, provoked intense
+excitement, not only in New England but in Washington. The incident
+was deemed sufficiently ominous to warrant a proclamation by the
+President, counseling all good citizens to uphold the law. Southern
+statesmen of the radical type saw abundant evidence in this episode of
+a deliberate purpose at the North not to enforce the essential
+features of the compromise. Both Whig and Democratic leaders, with few
+exceptions, roundly denounced all attempts to nullify the Fugitive
+Slave Law.[372] None was more vehement than Douglas. He could not
+regard this Boston rescue as a trivial incident. He believed that
+there was an organization in many States to evade the law. It was in
+the nature of a conspiracy against the government. The ring-leaders
+were Abolitionists, who were exciting the negroes to excesses. He was
+utterly at a loss to understand how senators, who had sworn to obey
+and defend the Constitution, could countenance these palpable
+violations of law.[373]
+
+In spite of similar untoward incidents, the vast majority of people in
+the country North and South were acquiescing little by little in the
+settlement reached by the compromise measures. There was an evident
+disposition on the part of both Whig and Democratic leaders to drop
+the slavery issue. When Senator Sumner proposed a repeal of the
+Fugitive Slave Act, Douglas deprecated any attempt to "fan the flames
+of discord that have so recently divided this great people,"[374]
+intimating that Sumner's speech was intended to "operate upon the
+presidential election." It ill became the Senator from Illinois to
+indulge in such taunts, for no one, it may safely be said, was
+calculating his own political chances more intently. "Things look
+well," he had written to a friend, referring to his chances of
+securing the nomination, "and the prospect is brightening every day.
+All that is necessary now to insure success is that the northwest
+should unite and speak out."[375]
+
+When the Democrats of Illinois proposed Douglas's name for the
+presidency in 1848, no one was disposed to take the suggestion
+seriously, outside the immediate circle of his friends. To graybeards
+there was something almost humorous in the suggestion that five years
+of service in Congress gave a young man of thirty-five a claim to
+consideration! Within three short years, however, the situation had
+changed materially. Older aspirants for the chief magistracy were
+forced, with no little alarm, to acknowledge the rise of a really
+formidable rival. By midsummer of 1851, competent observers thought
+that Douglas had the best chance of winning the Democratic nomination.
+In the judgment of certain Whig editors, he was the strongest man. It
+was significant of his growing favor, that certain Democrats of the
+city and county of New York tendered him a banquet, in honor of his
+distinguished services to the party and his devotion to the Union
+during the past two years.
+
+Politicians of both parties shared the conviction that unless the
+Whigs could get together,--which was unlikely,--a nomination at the
+hands of a national Democratic convention was equivalent to an
+election. Consequently there were many candidates in the field. The
+preliminary canvass promised to be eager. It was indeed well under way
+long before Congress assembled in December, and it continued actively
+during the session. "The business of the session," wrote one observer
+in a cynical frame of mind, "will consist mainly in the manoeuvres,
+intrigues, and competitions for the next Presidency." Events justified
+the prediction. "A politician does not sneeze without reference to the
+Presidency," observed the same writer, some weeks after the beginning
+of the session. "Congress does little else but intrigue for the
+respective candidates."[376]
+
+Prospective candidates who sat in Congress had at least this
+advantage, over their outside competitors,--they could keep themselves
+in the public eye by making themselves conspicuous in debate. But the
+wisdom of such devices was questionable. Those who could not point
+with confident pride to their record, wisely chose to remain
+non-committal on matters of personal history. Douglas was one of those
+who courted publicity. Perhaps as a young man pitted against older
+rivals, he felt that he had everything to gain thereby and not much to
+lose. The irrepressible Foote of Mississippi gave all his colleagues a
+chance to mar their reputations, by injecting into the deliberations
+of the Senate a discussion of the finality of the compromise
+measures.[377] It speedily appeared that fidelity to the settlement of
+1850, from the Southern point of view, consisted in strict adherence
+to the Fugitive Slave Act.[378] This was the touchstone by which
+Southern statesmen proposed to test their Northern colleagues.
+Prudence whispered silence into many an ear; but Douglas for one
+refused to heed her admonitions. Within three weeks after the session
+began, he was on his feet defending the consistency of his course,
+with an apparent ingenuousness which carried conviction to the larger
+audience who read, but did not hear, his declaration of political
+faith.
+
+Two features of this speech commended it to Democrats: its
+recognition of the finality of the compromise, and its insistence upon
+the necessity of banishing the slavery question from politics. "The
+Democratic party," he asseverated, "is as good a Union party as I
+want, and I wish to preserve its principles and its organization, and
+to triumph upon its old issues. I desire no new tests--no
+interpolations into the old creed."[379] For his part, he was resolved
+never to speak again upon the slavery question in the halls of
+Congress.
+
+But this was after all a negative programme. Could a campaign be
+successfully fought without other weapons than the well-worn
+blunderbusses in the Democratic arsenal? This was a do-nothing policy,
+difficult to reconcile with the enthusiastic liberalism which Young
+America was supposed to cherish. Yet Douglas gauged the situation
+accurately. The bulk of the party wished a return to power more than
+anything else. To this end, they were willing to toot for old issues
+and preserve the old party alignment. For four years, the Democratic
+office-hunters had not tasted of the loaves and fishes within the gift
+of the executive. They expected liberality in conduct, if not
+liberalism in creed, from their next President. Douglas shared this
+political hunger. He had always been a believer in rotation in office,
+and an exponent of that unhappy, American practice of using public
+office as the spoil of party victory. In this very session, he put
+himself on record against permanence in office for the clerks of the
+Senate, holding that such positions should fall vacant at stated
+intervals.[380]
+
+But had Douglas no policy peculiarly his own, to qualify him for the
+leadership of his party? Distrustful Whigs accused him of being
+willing to offer Cuba for the support of the South.[381] Indeed, he
+made no secret of his desire to acquire the Pearl of the Antilles.
+Still, this was not the sort of issue which it was well to drag into a
+presidential campaign. Like all the other aspirants for the
+presidency, Douglas made what capital he could out of the visit of
+Kossuth and the question of intervention in behalf of Hungary. When
+the matter fell under discussion in the Senate, Douglas formulated
+what he considered should be the policy of the government:
+
+"I hold that the principle laid down by Governor Kossuth as the basis
+of his action--that each State has a right to dispose of her own
+destiny, and regulate her internal affairs in her own way, without the
+intervention of any foreign power--is an axiom in the laws of nations
+which every State ought to recognize and respect.... It is equally
+clear to my mind, that any violation of this principle by one nation,
+intervening for the purpose of destroying the liberties of another, is
+such an infraction of the international code as would authorize any
+State to interpose, which should conceive that it had sufficient
+interest in the question to become the vindicator of the laws of
+nations."[382]
+
+Cass had said much the same thing, but with less virility. Douglas
+scored on his rival in this speech: first, when he declared with a bit
+of Chauvinism, "I do not deem it material whether the reception of
+Governor Kossuth give offence to the crowned heads of Europe,
+provided it does not violate the law of nations, and give just _cause_
+of offence"; and again, scorning the suggestion of an alliance with
+England, "The peculiar position of our country requires that we should
+have an _American policy_ in our foreign relations, based upon the
+principles of our own government, and adapted to the spirit of the
+age."[383] There was a stalwart conviction in these utterances which
+gave promise of confident, masterful leadership. These are qualities
+which the people of this great democracy have always prized, but
+rarely discovered, in their Presidents.
+
+It was at this moment in the canvass that the promoters of Douglas's
+candidacy made a false move. Taking advantage of the popular
+demonstration over Kossuth and the momentary diversion of public
+attention from the slavery question to foreign politics, they sought to
+thrust Douglas upon the Democratic party as the exponent of a
+progressive foreign policy. They presumed to speak in behalf of "Young
+America," as against "Old Fogyism." Seizing upon the _Democratic
+Review_ as their organ, these progressives launched their boom by a
+sensational article in the January number, entitled "Eighteen-Fifty-Two
+and the Presidency." Beginning with an arraignment of "Webster's
+un-American foreign policy, the writer,--or writers,--called upon
+honest men to put an end to this "Quaker policy." "The time has come
+for strong, sturdy, clear-headed and honest men to act; and the
+Republic must have them, should it be compelled, as the colonies were
+in 1776, to drag the hero of the time out of a hole in a wild forest,
+[_sic_] whether in Virginia or the illimitable West." To inaugurate
+such an era, the presidential chair must be filled by a man, not of the
+last generation, but of this. He must not be "trammeled with ideas
+belonging to an anterior era, or a man of merely local fame and local
+affections, but a statesman who can bring young blood, young ideas, and
+young hearts to the councils of the Republic. He must not be a mere
+general, a mere lawyer, a mere wire-puller. "Your beaten horse, whether
+he ran for a previous presidential cup as first or second," will not
+do. He must be 'a tried civilian, not a second and third rate general.'
+"Withal, a practical statesman, not to be discomfited in argument, or
+led wild by theory, but one who has already, in the councils and
+tribunals of the nation, reared his front to the dismay of the shallow
+conservative, to the exposure of the humanitarian incendiary, and the
+discomfiture of the antiquated rhetorician."
+
+If anyone was so dense as not to recognize the portrait here painted,
+he had only to turn to an article entitled "Intervention," to find the
+name of the hero who was to usher in the new era. The author of this
+paper finds his sentiments so nearly identical with those of Stephen
+A. Douglas, that he resorts to copious extracts from his speech
+delivered in the Senate on the welcome of Kossuth, "entertaining no
+doubt that the American people, the _democracy_ of the country will
+endorse these doctrines by an overwhelming majority." Still another
+article in this formidable broadside from the editors of the
+_Democratic Review_, deprecated Foote's efforts to thrust the slavery
+issue again upon Congress, and expressed the pious wish that Southern
+delegates might join with Northern in the Baltimore convention, to
+nominate a candidate who would in future "evince the most profound
+ignorance as to the topographical bearing of that line of discord
+known as 'Mason and Dixon's.'"
+
+If all this was really the work of Douglas's friends,--and it is more
+than likely,--he had reason to pray to be delivered from them. At best
+the whole manoeuvre was clumsily planned and wretchedly executed; it
+probably did him irreparable harm. His strength was not sufficient to
+confront all his rivals; yet the almost inevitable consequence of the
+odious comparisons in the _Review_ was combinations against him. The
+leading article gave mortal offense in quarters where he stood most in
+need of support.[384] Douglas was quick to detect the blunder and
+appreciate its dangers to his prospects. His friends now began
+sedulously to spread the report that the article was a ruse of the
+enemy, for the especial purpose of spoiling his chances at Baltimore.
+It was alleged that proof sheets had been found in the possession of a
+gentleman in Washington, who was known to be hostile to Douglas.[385]
+Few believed this story: the explanation was too far-fetched.
+Nevertheless, one of Douglas's intimates subsequently declared, on the
+floor of the House, that the Judge was not responsible for anything
+that appeared in the _Review_, that he had no interest in or control
+over the magazine, and that he knew nothing about the January number
+until he saw it in print.[386]
+
+In spite of this untoward incident, Douglas made a formidable
+showing.[387] He was himself well pleased at the outlook. He wrote to
+a friend, "Prospects look well and are improving every day. If two or
+three western States will speak out in my favor the battle is over.
+Can anything be done in Iowa and Missouri? That is very important. If
+some one could go to Iowa, I think the convention in that State would
+instruct for me. In regard to our own State, I will say a word. Other
+States are appointing a large number of delegates to the convention,
+... ought not our State to do the same thing so as to ensure the
+attendance of most of our leading politicians at Baltimore?... This
+large number would exert a great moral influence on the other
+delegates."[388]
+
+Among the States which had led off in his favor was California; and it
+was a representative of California who first sounded the charge for
+Douglas's cohorts in the House. In any other place and at any other
+time, Marshall's exordium would have overshot the mark. Indeed, in
+indorsing the attack of the _Review_ on the old fogies in the party,
+he tore open wounds which it were best to let heal; but gauged by the
+prevailing standard of taste in politics, the speech was acceptable.
+It so far commended itself to the editors of the much-abused _Review_
+that it appeared in the April number, under the caption "The Progress
+of Democracy vs. Old Fogy Retrograder."
+
+To clear-headed outsiders, there was something factitious in this
+parade of enthusiasm for Douglas. "What most surprises one," wrote
+the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, "is that these
+Congressmen, with beards and without; that verdant, flippant, smart
+detachment of Young America that has got into the House, propose to
+make a candidate for the Baltimore convention without consulting their
+masters, the people. With a few lively fellows in Congress and the aid
+of the _Democratic Review_, they fancy themselves equal to the
+achievement of a small job like this."[389] As the first of June
+approached, the older, experienced politicians grew confident that
+none of the prominent candidates could command a two-thirds vote in
+the convention. Some had foreseen this months beforehand and had been
+casting about for a compromise candidate. Their choice fell eventually
+upon General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. Friends were active in
+his behalf as early as April, and by June they had hatched their plot.
+It was not their plan to present his name to the convention at the
+outset, but to wait until the three prominent candidates (Cass,
+Douglas, and Buchanan) were disposed of. He was then to be put forward
+as an available, compromise candidate.[390]
+
+Was Douglas cognizant of the situation? While his supporters did not
+abate their noisy demonstrations, there is some ground to believe that
+he did not share their optimistic spirit. At all events, in spite of
+his earlier injunctions, only eleven delegates from Illinois attended
+the convention, while Pennsylvania sent fifty-five, Tennessee
+twenty-seven, and Indiana thirty-nine. Had Douglas sent home the
+intimation that the game was up? The first ballot told the story of
+his defeat. Common rumor had predicted that a large part of the
+Northwest would support him. Only fifteen of his twenty votes came
+from that quarter, and eleven of these were cast by Illinois. It was
+said that the Indiana delegates would divert their strength to him,
+when they had cast one ballot for General Lane; but Indiana cast no
+votes for Douglas. Although his total vote rose to ninety-two and on
+the thirty-first ballot he received the highest vote of any of the
+candidates, there was never a moment when there was the slightest
+prospect of his winning the prize.[391]
+
+On the thirty-fifth ballot occurred a diversion. Virginia cast fifteen
+votes for Franklin Pierce. The schemers had launched their project.
+But it was not until the forty-ninth ballot that they started the
+avalanche. Pierce then received all but six votes. Two Ohio delegates
+clung to Douglas to the bitter end. With the frank manliness which
+made men forget his less admirable qualities, Douglas dictated this
+dispatch to the convention: "I congratulate the Democratic party upon
+the nomination, and Illinois will give Franklin Pierce a larger
+majority than any other State in the Union,"--a promise which he was
+not able to redeem.
+
+If Douglas had been disposed to work out his political prospects by
+mathematical computation, he would have arrived at some interesting
+conclusions from the balloting in the convention. Indeed, very
+probably he drew some deductions in his own intuitive way, without any
+adventitious aid. Of the three rivals, Cass received the most widely
+distributed vote, although Douglas received votes from as many States.
+While they drew votes from twenty-one States, Buchanan received votes
+from only fifteen. Cass and Douglas obtained their highest percentages
+of votes from the West; Buchanan found his strongest support in the
+South. Douglas and Cass received least support in the Middle States;
+Buchanan had no votes from the West. But while Cass had, on his
+highest total, thirty per centum of the whole vote of the Middle
+States, Douglas was relatively weak in the Middle States rather than
+in the South. On the basis of these figures, it is impossible to
+justify the statement that he could expect nothing in future from New
+England and Pennsylvania, but would look to the South for support for
+the presidency.[392] On the contrary, one would say that his strong
+New England following would act as an equipoise, preventing too great
+a dip toward the Southern end of the scales. Besides, Douglas's hold
+on his own constituents and the West was contingent upon the favor of
+the strong New England element in the Northwest. If this convention
+taught Douglas anything, it must have convinced him that narrow,
+sectional policies and undue favor to the South would never land him
+in the White House. To win the prize which he frankly coveted, he must
+grow in the national confidence, and not merely in the favor of a
+single section, however powerful.[393]
+
+Pledges aside, Douglas was bound to give vigorous aid to the party
+candidates. His term as senator was about to expire. His own fortunes
+were inseparably connected with those of his party in Illinois. The
+Washington _Union_ printed a list of his campaign engagements,
+remarking with evident satisfaction that Judge Douglas was "in the
+field with his armor on." His itinerary reached from Virginia to
+Arkansas, and from New York to the interior counties of his own State.
+Stray items from a speech in Richmond suggest the tenuous quality of
+these campaign utterances. It was quite clear to his mind that General
+Scott's acceptance of the Whig nomination could not have been written
+by that manly soldier, but by _Politician_ Scott under the control of
+_General_ Seward. Was it wise to convert a good general into a bad
+president? Could it be true that Scott had promised the entire
+patronage of his administration to the Whigs? Why, "there had never
+been a Democratic administration in this Union that did not retain at
+least one-third of their political opponents in office!"[394] And yet,
+when Pierce had been elected, Douglas could say publicly, without so
+much as a blush, that Democrats must now have the offices. "For every
+Whig removed there should be a competent Democrat put in his place ...
+The best men should be selected, and everybody knows that the best men
+voted for Pierce and King."[395]
+
+The outcome of the elections in Illinois was gratifying save in one
+particular. In consequence of the redistricting of the State, the
+Whigs had increased the number of their representatives in Congress.
+But the re-election of Douglas was assured.[396] His hold upon his
+constituency was unshaken. With right good will he participated in the
+Democratic celebration at Washington. As an influential personage in
+Democratic councils he was called upon to sketch in broad lines what
+he deemed to be sound Democratic policy; but only a casual reference
+to Cuba redeemed his speech from the commonplace. "Whenever the people
+of Cuba show themselves worthy of freedom by asserting and maintaining
+independence, and apply for annexation, they ought to be annexed;
+whenever Spain is ready to sell Cuba, with the consent of its
+inhabitants, we ought to accept it on fair terms; and if Spain should
+transfer Cuba to England or any other European power, we should take
+and hold Cuba anyhow."[397]
+
+Ambition and a buoyant optimism seemed likely to make Douglas more
+than ever a power in Democratic politics, when a personal bereavement
+changed the current of his life. His young wife whom he adored, the
+mother of his two boys, died shortly after the new year. For the
+moment he was overwhelmed; and when he again took his place in the
+Senate, his colleagues remarked in him a bitterness and acerbity of
+temper which was not wonted. One hostage that he had given to Fortune
+had been taken away, and a certain recklessness took possession of
+him. He grew careless in his personal habits, slovenly in his dress,
+disregardful of his associates, and if possible more vehemently
+partisan in his public utterances.
+
+It was particularly regrettable that, while Douglas was passing
+through this domestic tragedy, he should have been drawn into a
+controversy relating to British claims in Central America. It was
+rumored that Great Britain, in apparent violation of the terms of the
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty, had taken possession of certain islands in the
+Bay of Honduras and erected them into the colony of "the Bay Islands."
+On the heels of this rumor came news that aroused widespread
+indignation. A British man-of-war had fired upon an American steamer,
+which had refused to pay port dues on entering the harbor of Greytown.
+Over this city, strategically located at the mouth of the San Juan
+River, Great Britain exercised an ill-disguised control as part of the
+Mosquito protectorate.
+
+In the midst of the excited debate which immediately followed in
+Congress, Cass astonished everybody by producing the memorandum which
+Bulwer had given Clayton just before the signing of the treaty.[398]
+In this remarkable note, the British ambassador stated that his
+government did not wish to be understood as renouncing its existing
+claims to Her Majesty's settlement at Honduras and "its dependencies."
+And Clayton seemed to have admitted the force of this reservation. For
+his part, Cass made haste to say, he wished the Senate distinctly to
+understand that when he had voted for the treaty, he believed Great
+Britain was thereby prevented from establishing any such dependency.
+His object--and he had supposed it to be the object of the treaty--was
+to sweep away all British claims to Central America.
+
+Behind this imbroglio lay an intricate diplomatic history which can
+be here only briefly recapitulated. The interest of the United States
+in the Central American States dated from the discovery of gold in
+California. The value of the control of the means of transportation
+across the isthmus at Nicaragua became increasingly clear, as the gold
+seekers sought that route to the Pacific coast. In the latter days of
+his administration, President Polk had sent one Elijah Hise to
+cultivate friendly relations with the Central American States and to
+offset the paramount influence of Great Britain in that region. Great
+Britain was already in possession of the colony of Belize and was
+exercising an ill-defined protectorate over the Mosquito Indians on
+the eastern coast of Nicaragua. In his ardor to serve American
+interests, Hise exceeded his instructions and secured a treaty with
+Nicaragua, which gave to the United States exclusive privileges over
+the route of the proposed canal, on condition that the sovereignty of
+Nicaragua were guaranteed. The incoming Whig administration would have
+nothing to do with the Hise _entente_, preferring to dispatch its own
+agent to Central America. Though Squier succeeded in negotiating a
+more acceptable treaty, the new Secretary of State, Clayton, was
+disposed to come to an understanding with Great Britain. The outcome
+of these prolonged negotiations was the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty,
+by which both countries agreed to further the construction of a ship
+canal across the isthmus through Nicaragua, and to guarantee its
+neutrality. Other countries were invited to join in securing the
+neutrality of this and other regions where canals might be
+constructed. Both Great Britain and the United States explicitly
+renounced any "dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito
+coast or any part of Central America."[399]
+
+The opposition would have been something less than human, if they had
+not seized upon the occasion to discredit the outgoing administration.
+Cass had already introduced a resolution reaffirming the terms of the
+famous Monroe message respecting European colonization in America, and
+thus furnishing the pretext for partisan attacks upon Secretary of
+State Clayton. But Cass unwittingly exposed his own head to a sidelong
+blow from his Democratic rival from Illinois, who affected the rôle of
+Young America once more.
+
+It is impossible to convey in cold print the biting sarcasm, the
+vindictive bitterness, and the reckless disregard of justice, with
+which Douglas spoke on February 14th. He sneered at this new
+profession of the Monroe Doctrine. Why keep repeating this talk about
+a policy which the United States has almost invariably repudiated in
+fact? Witness the Oregon treaty! "With an avowed policy, of thirty
+years' standing that no future European colonization is to be
+permitted in America--affirmed when there was no opportunity for
+enforcing it, and abandoned whenever a case was presented for carrying
+it into practical effect--is it now proposed to beat another retreat
+under cover of terrible threats of awful consequences when the offense
+shall be repeated? '_Henceforth_' no 'future' European colony is to be
+planted in America '_with our consent!_' It is gratifying to learn
+that the United States are never going to 'consent' to the
+repudiation of the Monroe doctrine again. No more Clayton and Bulwer
+treaties; no more British 'alliances' in Central America, New Granada,
+or Mexico; no more resolutions of oblivion to protect 'existing
+rights!' Let England tremble, and Europe take warning, if the offense
+is repeated. 'Should the attempt be made,' says the resolution, 'it
+will leave the United States _free to adopt_ such measures as an
+independent nation may justly adopt in defense of its rights and
+honor.' Are not the United States now _free_ to adopt such measures as
+an independent nation may _justly adopt_ in defense of its _rights and
+honor_? Have we not given the notice? Is not thirty years sufficient
+notice?"[400]
+
+He taunted Clayton with having suppressed the Hise treaty, which
+secured exclusive privileges for the United States over the canal
+route, in order to form a partnership with England and other
+monarchical powers of Europe. "Exclusive privileges" were sacrificed
+to lay the foundation of an alliance by which European intervention in
+American affairs was recognized as a right!
+
+It was generally known that Douglas had opposed the Clayton-Bulwer
+treaty;[401] but the particular ground of his opposition had been only
+surmised. Deeming the injunction of secrecy removed, he now
+emphatically registered his protest against the whole policy of
+pledging the faith of the Republic, not to do what in the future our
+interests, duty, and even safety, might compel us to do. The time
+might come when the United States would wish to possess some portion
+of Central America. Moreover, the agreement not to fortify any part of
+that region was not reciprocal, so long as Great Britain held Jamaica
+and commanded the entrance to the canal. He had always regarded the
+terms of the British protectorate over the Mosquito coast as
+equivocal; but the insuperable objection to the treaty was the
+European partnership to which the United States was pledged. The two
+parties not only contracted to extend their protection to any other
+practicable communications across the isthmus, whether by canal or
+railway, but invited all other powers to become parties to these
+provisions. What was the purport of this agreement, if it did not
+recognize the right of European powers to intervene in American
+affairs; what then became of the vaunted Monroe Doctrine?
+
+To the undiplomatic mind of Douglas, our proper course was as clear as
+day. Insist upon the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Bay Islands!
+"If we act with becoming discretion and firmness, I have no
+apprehension that the enforcement of our rights will lead to
+hostilities." And then let the United States free itself from
+entangling alliances by annulling the Clayton-Bulwer treaty.[402]
+Surely this was simplicity itself.
+
+The return of Clayton to the Senate, in the special session of March,
+brought the accused before his accusers. An acrimonious debate
+followed, in the course of which Douglas was forced to state his own
+position more explicitly. He took his stand upon the Hise treaty. Had
+the exclusive control of the canal been given into our hands, and the
+canal thrown open to the commerce of all nations upon our own terms,
+we would have had a right which would have been ample security for
+every nation under heaven to keep peace with the United States. "We
+could have fortified that canal at each end, and in time of war could
+have closed it against our enemies." But, suggested Clayton, European
+powers would never have consented to such exclusive control. "Well,
+Sir," said Douglas, "I do not know that they would have consented: but
+of one thing I am certain I would never have asked their
+consent."[403] And such was the temper of Young America that this
+sledge hammer diplomacy was heartily admired.
+
+It was in behalf of Young America again, that Douglas gave free rein
+to his vision of national destiny. Disclaiming any immediate wish for
+tropical expansion in the direction of either Mexico or Central
+America, he yet contended that no man could foresee the limits of the
+Republic. "You may make as many treaties as you please to fetter the
+limits of this giant Republic, and she will burst them all from her,
+and her course will be onward to a limit which I will not venture to
+prescribe." Why, then, pledge our faith never to annex any more of
+Mexico or any portion of Central America?[404]
+
+For this characteristic Chauvinism Douglas paid the inevitable
+penalty. Clayton promptly ridiculed this attitude. "He is fond of
+boasting ... that we are a _giant_ Republic; and the Senator himself
+is said to be a 'little giant;' yes, sir, quite a _giant_, and
+everything that he talks about in these latter days is gigantic. He
+has become so magnificent of late, that he cannot consent to enter
+into a partnership on equal terms with any nation on earth--not he! He
+must have the exclusive right in himself and our noble selves!"[405]
+
+It was inevitable, too, that Douglas should provoke resentment on his
+own side of the chamber. Cass was piqued by his slurs upon Old Fogyism
+and by his trenchant criticism of the policy of reasserting the Monroe
+Doctrine. Badger spoke for the other side of the house, when he
+declared that Douglas spoke "with a disregard to justice and fairness
+which I have seldom seen him exhibit." It is lamentably true that
+Douglas exhibited his least admirable qualities on such occasions.
+Hatred for Great Britain was bred in his bones. Possibly it was part
+of his inheritance from that grandfather who had fought the Britishers
+in the wars of the Revolution. Possibly, too, he had heard as a boy,
+in his native Vermont village, tales of British perfidy in the recent
+war of 1812. At all events, he was utterly incapable of anything but
+bitter animosity toward Great Britain. This unreasoning prejudice
+blinded his judgment in matters of diplomacy, and vitiated his
+utterances on questions of foreign policy.
+
+Replying to Clayton, he said contemptuously, "I do not sympathize with
+that feeling which the Senator expressed yesterday, that it was a pity
+to have a difference with a nation so friendly to us as England. Sir,
+I do not see the evidence of her friendship. It is not in the nature
+of things that she can be our friend. It is impossible that she can
+love us. I do not blame her for not loving us. Sir, we have wounded
+her vanity and humbled her pride. She can never forgive us."[406]
+
+And when Senator Butler rebuked him for this animosity, reminding him
+that England was after all our mother country, to whom we were under
+deeper obligations than to any other, Douglas retorted, "She is and
+ever has been a cruel and unnatural mother." Yes, he remembered the
+illustrious names of Hampden, Sidney, and others; but he remembered
+also that "the same England which gave them birth, and should have
+felt a mother's pride and love in their virtues and services,
+persecuted her noble sons to the dungeon and the scaffold." "He speaks
+in terms of delight and gratitude of the copious and refreshing
+streams which English literature and science are pouring into our
+country and diffusing throughout the land. Is he not aware that nearly
+every English book circulated and read in this country contains
+lurking and insidious slanders and libels upon the character of our
+people and the institutions and policy of our Government?"[407]
+
+For Europe in general, Douglas had hardly more reverence. With a
+positiveness which in such matters is sure proof of provincialism, he
+said, "Europe is antiquated, decrepit, tottering on the verge of
+dissolution. When you visit her, the objects which enlist your highest
+admiration are the relics of past greatness; the broken columns
+erected to departed power. It is one vast graveyard, where you find
+here a tomb indicating the burial of the arts; there a monument
+marking the spot where liberty expired; another to the memory of a
+great man, whose place has never been filled. The choicest products of
+her classic soil consist in relics, which remain as sad memorials of
+departed glory and fallen greatness! They bring up the memories of
+the dead, but inspire no hope for the living! Here everything is
+fresh, blooming, expanding and advancing."[408]
+
+And yet, soon after Congress adjourned, he set out to visit this vast
+graveyard. It was even announced that he proposed to spend five or six
+months in studying the different governments of Europe. Doubtless he
+regarded this study as of negative value chiefly. From the observation
+of relics of departed grandeur, a live American would derive many a
+valuable lesson. His immediate destination was the country against
+which he had but just thundered. Small wonder if a cordial welcome did
+not await him. His admiring biographer records with pride that he was
+not presented to Queen Victoria, though the opportunity was
+afforded.[409] It appears that this stalwart Democrat would not so far
+demean himself as to adopt the conventional court dress for the
+occasion. He would not stoop even to adopt the compromise costume of
+Ambassador Buchanan, and add to the plain dress of an American
+citizen, a short sword which would distinguish him from the court
+lackeys.
+
+At St. Petersburg, his objections to court dress were more
+sympathetically received. Count Nesselrode, who found this
+uncompromising American possessed of redeeming qualities, put himself
+to no little trouble to arrange an interview with the Czar. Douglas
+was finally put under the escort of Baron Stoeckle, who was a member
+of the Russian embassy at Washington, and conducted to the field where
+the Czar was reviewing the army. Mounted upon a charger of huge
+dimensions, the diminutive Douglas was brought into the presence of
+the Czar of all the Russias.[410] It is said that Douglas was the only
+American who witnessed these manoeuvres; but Douglas afterward
+confessed, with a laugh at his own expense, that the most conspicuous
+feature of the occasion for him was the ominous evolutions of his
+horse's ears, for he was too short of limb and too inexperienced a
+horseman to derive any satisfaction from the military pageant.[411]
+
+We are assured by his devoted biographer, Sheahan, that Douglas
+personally examined _all_ the public institutions of the capital
+during his two weeks' stay in St. Petersburg; and that he sought a
+thorough knowledge of the manners, laws, and government of that city
+and the Empire.[412] No doubt, with his nimble perception he saw much
+in this brief sojourn, for Russia had always interested him greatly,
+and he had read its history with more than wonted care.[413] He was
+not content to follow merely the beaten track in central and western
+Europe; but he visited also the Southeast where rumors of war were
+abroad. From St. Petersburg, he passed by carriage through the
+interior to the Crimea and to Sebastopol, soon to be the storm centre
+of war. In the marts of Syria and Asia Minor, he witnessed the contact
+of Orient and Occident. In the Balkan peninsula he caught fugitive
+glimpses of the rule of the unspeakable Turk.[414]
+
+No man with the quick apperceptive powers of Douglas could remain
+wholly untouched by the sights and sounds that crowd upon even the
+careless traveler in the East; yet such experiences are not formative
+in the character of a man of forty. Douglas was still Douglas, still
+American, still Western to the core, when he set foot on native soil
+in late October. He was not a larger man either morally or
+intellectually; but he had acquired a fund of information which made
+him a readier, and possibly a wiser, man. And then, too, he was
+refreshed in body and mind. More than ever he was bold, alert,
+persistent, and resourceful. In his compact, massive frame, were
+stored indomitable pluck and energy; and in his heart the spirit of
+ambition stirred mightily.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 370: The speech is given in part by Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+171 ff; and at greater length by Flint, Douglas, App., pp. 3 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 371: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 186; Flint, Douglas, App., p. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 372: _Globe,_31 Cong., 2 Sess., Debate of February 21 and
+22, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 373: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 312.]
+
+[Footnote 374: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 1120.]
+
+[Footnote 375: MS. Letter dated December 30, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 376: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 351, 358, 362.]
+
+[Footnote 377: Senator Foote introduced the subject December 2, 1851,
+by a resolution pronouncing the compromise measures a "definite
+adjustment and settlement."]
+
+[Footnote 378: Rhodes, History of the United States, 1, p. 230.]
+
+[Footnote 379: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 380: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 63. About this time he
+wrote to a friend, "I shall act on the rule of giving the offices to
+those who fight the battles."]
+
+[Footnote 381: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 354.]
+
+[Footnote 382: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 70.]
+
+[Footnote 383: _Globe,_32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 70-71.]
+
+[Footnote 384: See speech by Breckinridge of Kentucky in _Globe_, 32
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 299 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 385: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 386: Statement by Richardson of Illinois in reply to J.C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky, March 3, 1852. _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 387: "What with his Irish Organs, his Democratic reviews and
+an armful of other strings, each industriously pulled, he makes a
+formidable show." Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 388: MS. Letter, February 25, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 389: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 118.]
+
+[Footnote 390: Burke-Pierce Correspondence, printed in _American
+Historical Review_, X, pp. 110 ff. See also Stanwood, History of the
+Presidency, p. 248, and Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+251-252.]
+
+[Footnote 391: Proceedings of Democratic National Convention of 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 392: See Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+424-425.]
+
+[Footnote 393: To attribute to Douglas, from this time on, as many
+writers have done, a purpose to pander to the South, is not only to
+discredit his political foresight, but to misunderstand his position
+in the Northwest and to ignore his reiterated assertions.]
+
+[Footnote 394: Richmond _Enquirer_, quoted in Illinois _Register_,
+August 3, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 395: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 396: Washington _Union_, November 30, 1852. On a joint
+ballot of the legislature Douglas received 75 out of 95 votes. See
+Illinois _State Register_, January 5, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 397: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 398: Smith, Parties and Slavery, pp. 88-93.]
+
+[Footnote 399: MacDonald, Select Documents of the History of the
+United States, No. 77.]
+
+[Footnote 400: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 170.]
+
+[Footnote 401: Douglas declined to serve on the Senate Committee on
+Foreign Affairs, because he was opposed to the policy of the majority,
+so he afterward intimated. _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 402: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 403: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 404: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 405: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 276.]
+
+[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 407: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 275.]
+
+[Footnote 408: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 273.]
+
+[Footnote 409: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 443-444.]
+
+[Footnote 410: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 444-445.]
+
+[Footnote 411: Major McConnell in the Transactions of the Illinois
+Historical Society, IV, p. 48; Linder, Early Bench and Bar of
+Illinois, pp. 80-82.]
+
+[Footnote 412: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 444.]
+
+[Footnote 413: Conversation with Judge R.M. Douglas.]
+
+[Footnote 414: Washington _Union_, and Illinois _State Register_, May
+26 and November 6, 1853.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
+
+
+With the occupation of Oregon and of the gold fields of California,
+American colonization lost temporarily its conservative character.
+That heel-and-toe process, which had hitherto marked the occupation of
+the Mississippi Valley, seemed too slow and tame; the pace had
+lengthened and quickened. Consequently there was a great
+waste--No-man's-land--between the western boundary of Iowa, Missouri
+and Arkansas, and the scattered communities on the Pacific slope. It
+was a waste broken only by the presence of the Mormons in Utah, of
+nomadic tribes of Indians on the plains, and of tribes of more settled
+habits on the eastern border. In many cases these lands had been given
+to Indian tribes in perpetuity, to compensate for the loss of their
+original habitat in some of the Eastern States. With strange lack of
+foresight, the national government had erected a barrier to its own
+development.
+
+As early as 1844, Douglas had proposed a territorial government for
+the region of which the Platte, or Nebraska, was the central
+stream.[415] The chief trail to Oregon traversed these prairies and
+plains. If the United States meant to assert and maintain its title to
+Oregon, some sort of government was needed to protect emigrants, and
+to supply a military basis for such forces as should be required to
+hold the disputed country. Though the Secretary of War indorsed this
+view,[416] Congress was not disposed to anticipate the occupation of
+the prairies. Nebraska became almost a hobby with Douglas. He
+introduced a second bill in 1848,[417] and a third in 1852,[418] all
+designed to prepare the way for settled government.
+
+The last of these was unique. Its provisions were designed, no doubt,
+to meet the unusual conditions presented by the overland emigration to
+California. Military protection for the emigrant, a telegraph line,
+and an overland mail were among the ostensible objects. The military
+force was to be a volunteer corps, which would construct military
+posts and at the same time provide for its own maintenance by tilling
+the soil. At the end of three years these military farmers were each
+to receive 640 acres along the route, and thus form a sort of military
+colony.[419] Douglas pressed the measure with great warmth; but
+Southerners doubted the advisability of "encouraging new swarms to
+leave the old hives," not wishing to foster an expansion in which they
+could not share,[420] nor forgetting that this was free soil by the
+terms of the Missouri Compromise. All sorts of objections were trumped
+up to discredit the bill. Douglas was visibly irritated. "Sir," he
+exclaimed, "it looks to me as if the design was to deprive us of
+everything like protection in that vast region ... I must remind the
+Senate again that the pointing out of these objections, and the
+suggesting of these large expenditures show us that we are to expect
+no protection at all; they evince direct, open hostility to that
+section of the country."[421]
+
+It was the fate of the Nebraska country to be bound up more or less
+intimately with the agitation in favor of a Pacific railroad. All
+sorts of projects were in the air. Asa Whitney had advocated, in
+season and out, a railroad from Lake Michigan to some available harbor
+on the Pacific. Douglas and his Chicago friends were naturally
+interested in this enterprise. Benton, on the other hand, jealous for
+the interests of St. Louis, advocated a "National Central Highway"
+from that city to San Francisco, with branches to other points. The
+South looked forward to a Pacific railroad which should follow a
+southern route.[422] A northern or central route would inevitably open
+a pathway through the Indian country and force on the settlement and
+organization of the territory;[423] the choice of a southern route
+would in all likelihood retard the development of Nebraska.
+
+While Congress was shirking its duty toward Nebraska, the Wyandot
+Indians, a civilized tribe occupying lands in the fork of the Kansas
+and Missouri rivers, repeatedly memorialized Congress to grant them a
+territorial government.[424] Dogged perseverance may be an Indian
+characteristic, but there is reason to believe that outside
+influences were working upon them. Across the border, in Missouri,
+they had a staunch friend in ex-Senator Benton, who had reasons of his
+own for furthering their petitions. In 1850, the opposition, which had
+been steadily making headway against him, succeeded in deposing the
+old parliamentarian and electing a Whig as his successor in the
+Senate. The _coup d'état_ was effected largely through the efforts of
+an aggressive pro-slavery faction led by Senator David E.
+Atchison.[425] It was while his fortunes were waning in Missouri, that
+Benton interested himself in the Central Highway and in the Wyandots.
+His project, indeed, contemplated grants of land along the route, when
+the Indian title should be extinguished.[426] Possibly it was Benton's
+purpose to regain his footing in Missouri politics by advocating this
+popular measure; possibly, as his opponents hinted, he looked forward
+to residing in the new Territory and some day becoming its first
+senator; at all events, he came to look upon the territorial
+organization of Nebraska as an integral part of his larger railroad
+project.
+
+In this wise, Missouri factional quarrels, Indian titles, railroads,
+territorial government for Nebraska, and land grants had become
+hopelessly tangled, when another bill for the organization of Nebraska
+came before Congress in February, 1853.[427] The measure was presented
+by Willard P. Hall, a representative from Missouri, belonging to the
+Benton faction. His advocacy of the bill in the House throws a flood
+of light on the motives actuating both friends and opponents.
+Representatives from Texas evinced a poignant concern for the rights
+of the poor Indian. Had he not been given these lands as a permanent
+home, after being driven from the hunting ground of his fathers? To be
+sure, there was a saving clause in the bill which promised to respect
+Indian claims, but zeal for the Indian still burned hotly in the
+breasts of these Texans. Finally, Hall retorted that Texas had for
+years been trying to drive the wild tribes from her borders, so as to
+make the northern routes unsafe and thus to force the tide of
+emigration through Texas.[428] "Why, everybody is talking about a
+railroad to the Pacific. In the name of God, how is the railroad to be
+made, if you will never let people live on the lands through which the
+road passes?"[429]
+
+In other words, the concern of the Missourians was less for the
+unprotected emigrant than for the great central railroad; while the
+South cared less for the Indian than for a southern railroad route.
+The Nebraska bill passed the House by a vote which suggests the
+sectional differences involved in it.[430]
+
+It was most significant that, while a bill to organize the Territory
+of Washington passed at once to a third reading in the Senate, the
+Nebraska bill hung fire. Douglas made repeated efforts to gain
+consideration for it; but the opposition seems to have been motived
+here as it was in the House.[431] On the last day of the session, the
+Senate entered upon an irregular, desultory debate, without a quorum.
+Douglas took an unwilling part. He repeated that the measure was "very
+dear to his heart," that it involved "a matter of immense
+importance," that the object in view was "to form a line of
+territorial governments extending from the Mississippi valley to the
+Pacific ocean." The very existence of the Union seemed to him to
+depend upon this policy. For eight years he had advocated the
+organization of Nebraska; he trusted that the favorable moment had
+come.[432] But his trust was misplaced. The Senate refused to consider
+the bill, the South voting almost solidly against it, though Atchison,
+who had opposed the bill in the earlier part of the session, announced
+his conversion,--for the reason that he saw no prospect of a repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise. The Territory might as well be organized now
+as ten years later.[433]
+
+Disappointed by the inaction of Congress, the Wyandots took matters
+into their own hands, and set up a provisional government.[434] Then
+ensued a contest between the Missouri factions to name the territorial
+delegate,--who was to present the claims of the new government to the
+authorities at Washington. On November 7, 1853, Thomas Johnson, the
+nominee of the Atchison faction, was elected.[435] In the meantime
+Senator Atchison had again changed his mind: he was now opposed to the
+organization of Nebraska, unless the Missouri Compromise were
+repealed.[436] The motives which prompted this recantation can only be
+surmised. Presumably, for some reason, Atchison no longer believed the
+Missouri Compromise "irremediable."
+
+The strangely unsettled condition of the great tract whose fate was
+pending, is no better illustrated than by a second election which was
+held on the upper Missouri. One Hadley D. Johnson, sometime member of
+the Iowa legislature, hearing of the proposal of the Wyandots to send
+a territorial delegate to Congress, invited his friends in western
+Iowa to cross the river and hold an election. They responded by
+choosing their enterprising compatriot for their delegate, who
+promptly set out for Washington, bearing their mandate. Arriving at
+the capital, he found Thomas Johnson already occupying a seat in the
+House in the capacity of delegate-elect. Not to be outdone, the Iowa
+Johnson somewhat surreptitiously secured his admission to the floor.
+Subsequently, "the two Johnsons," as they were styled by the members,
+were ousted, the House refusing very properly to recognize either.
+Thomas Johnson exhibited some show of temper, but was placated by the
+good sense of his rival, who proposed that they should strike for two
+Territories instead of one. Why not; was not Nebraska large enough for
+both?[437]
+
+Under these circumstances, the question of Nebraska seemed likely to
+recur. Certain Southern newspapers were openly demanding the removal
+of the slavery restriction in the new Territory.[438] Yet the chairman
+of the Senate Committee on Territories, who had just returned from
+Europe, seems to have been unaware of the undercurrents whose surface
+indications have been pointed out. He wrote confidentially on November
+11th:[439] "It [the administration] has difficulties ahead, but it
+must meet them boldly and fairly. There is a surplus revenue which
+must be disposed of and the tariff reduced to a legitimate revenue
+standard. It will not do to allow the surplus to accumulate in the
+Treasury and thus create a pecuniary revulsion that would overwhelm
+the business arrangements and financial affairs of the country. The
+River and Harbor question must be met and decided. Now in my opinion
+is the time to put those great interests on a more substantial and
+secure basis by a well devised system of Tonnage duties. I do not know
+what the administration will do on this question, but I hope they will
+have the courage to do what we all feel to be right. The Pacific
+railroad will also be a disturbing element. It will never do to
+commence making railroads by the federal government under any pretext
+of necessity. We can grant alternate sections of land as we did for
+the Central Road, but not a dollar from the National Treasury. These
+are the main questions and my opinions are foreshadowed as you are
+entitled to know them."
+
+In the same letter occurs an interesting personal allusion: "I see
+many of the newspapers are holding me up as a candidate for the next
+Presidency. I do not wish to occupy that position. I do not think I
+will be willing to have my name used. I think such a state of things
+will exist that I shall not desire the nomination. Yet I do not intend
+to do any act which will deprive me of the control of my own action. I
+shall remain entirely non-committal and hold myself at liberty to do
+whatever my duty to my principles and my friends may require when the
+time for action arrives. Our first duty is to the cause--the fate of
+individual politicians is of minor consequence. The party is in a
+distracted condition and it requires all our wisdom, prudence and
+energy to consolidate its power and perpetuate its principles. Let us
+leave the Presidency out of view for at least two years to come."
+
+These are not the words of a man who is plotting a revolution. Had
+Nebraska and the Missouri Compromise been uppermost in his thoughts,
+he would have referred to the subject, for the letter was written in
+strict confidence to friends, from whom he kept no secrets and before
+whom he was not wont to pose.
+
+Those better informed, however, believed that Congress would have to
+deal with the territorial question in the near future. The Washington
+_Union_, commonly regarded as the organ of the administration,
+predicted that next to pressing foreign affairs, the Pacific railroad
+and the Territories would occupy the attention of the
+administration.[440] And before Congress assembled, or had been long in
+session, the chairman of the Committee on Territories must have sensed
+the situation, for on December 14, 1853, Senator Dodge of Iowa
+introduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska, which was identical
+with that of the last session.[441] The bill was promptly referred to
+the Committee on Territories, and the Nebraska question entered upon
+its last phase. Within a week, Douglas's friends of the Illinois State
+_Register_ were sufficiently well informed of the thoughts and intents
+of his mind to hazard this conjecture: "We believe they [the people of
+Nebraska] may be safely left to act for themselves.... The territories
+should be admitted to exercise, as nearly as practicable, all the
+rights claimed by the States, and to adopt all such political
+regulations and institutions as their wisdom may suggest."[442] A New
+York correspondent announced on December 30th, that the committee would
+soon report a bill for three Territories on the basis of New Mexico and
+Utah; that is, without excluding or admitting slavery. "Climate and
+nature and the necessary pursuits of the people who are to occupy the
+territories," added the writer complacently, "will settle the
+question--and these will effectually exclude slavery."[443]
+
+These rumors foreshadowed the report of the committee. The problem was
+to find a mode of overcoming the opposition of the South to the
+organization of a Territory which would not only add eventually to the
+number of free States, but also open up a northern route to the
+Pacific. The price of concession from the South on the latter point
+must be some apparent concession to the South in the matter of
+slavery. The report of January 4, 1854, and the bill which accompanied
+it, was Douglas's solution of the problem.[444] The principles of the
+compromise measures of 1850 were to be affirmed and carried into
+practical operation within the limits of the new Territory of
+Nebraska. "In the judgment of your committee," read the report, "those
+measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring
+effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of the
+recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to
+establish certain great principles ... your committee have deemed it
+their duty to incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill,
+the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other
+consideration were necessary, to render the propriety of this course
+imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the
+Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the slavery
+question, as did New Mexico and Utah, when those Territories were
+organized."[445]
+
+Just as it was a disputed point, the report argued, whether slavery
+was prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico, so it is
+questioned whether slavery is prohibited in the Nebraska country by
+_valid_ enactment. "In the opinion of those eminent statesmen, who
+hold that Congress is invested with no rightful authority to legislate
+upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, the 8th section of the
+act preparatory to the admission of Missouri is null and void; while
+the prevailing sentiment in large portions of the Union sustains the
+doctrine that the Constitution of the United States secures to every
+citizen an inalienable right to move into any of the Territories with
+his property, of whatever kind and description, and to hold and enjoy
+the same under the sanction of law. Your committee do not feel
+themselves called upon to enter upon the discussion of these
+controverted questions. They involve the same grave issues which
+produced the agitation, the sectional strife, and the fearful struggle
+of 1850." And just as Congress deemed it wise in 1850 to refrain from
+deciding the matter in controversy, so "your committee are not
+prepared now to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that
+memorable occasion either by affirming or repealing the 8th section of
+the Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the
+Constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute." The essential
+features of the Compromise of 1850, which should again be carried into
+practical operation, were stated as follows:
+
+"First: That all questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories,
+and in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the
+decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate
+representatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose.
+
+"Second: That 'all cases involving title to slaves,' and 'questions of
+personal freedom,' are referred to the adjudication of the local
+tribunals, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
+States.
+
+"Third: That the provision of the Constitution of the United States,
+in respect to fugitives from service, is to be carried into faithful
+execution in all 'the organized Territories,' the same as in the
+States."
+
+The substitute reported by the committee followed the Dodge bill
+closely, but contained the additional statement. "And when admitted as
+a State or States, the said Territory, or any part of the same, shall
+be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their
+Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."[446] This
+phraseology was identical with that of the Utah and New Mexico Acts.
+The bill also made special provision for writs of error and appeals
+from the territorial court to the Supreme Court of the United States,
+in all cases involving title to slaves and personal freedom. This
+feature, too, was copied from the Utah and New Mexico Acts. As first
+printed in the Washington _Sentinel_, January 7th, the bill contained
+no reference to the Missouri Compromise and no direct suggestion that
+the territorial legislature would decide the question of slavery. The
+wording of the bill and its general tenor gave the impression that the
+prohibition of slavery would continue during the territorial status,
+unless in the meantime the courts should declare the Missouri
+Compromise null and void. Three days later, January 10th, the
+_Sentinel_ reprinted the bill with an additional section, which had
+been omitted by a "clerical error." This twenty-first section read,
+"In order to avoid all misconstruction, it is hereby declared to be
+the true intent and meaning of this act, so far as the question of
+slavery is concerned, to carry into practical operation the following
+propositions and principles, established by the compromise measures of
+one thousand eight hundred and fifty, to wit:" then followed the three
+propositions which had accompanied the report of January 4th. The last
+of these three propositions had been slightly abbreviated: all
+questions pertaining to slavery were to be left to the decision of the
+people through their appropriate representatives, the clause "to be
+chosen by them for that purpose" being omitted.
+
+This additional section transformed the whole bill. For the first time
+the people of the Territory are mentioned as the determining agents in
+respect to slavery. And the unavoidable inference followed, that they
+were not to be hampered in their choice by the restrictive feature of
+the Missouri Act of 1820. The omission of this weighty section was
+certainly a most extraordinary oversight. Whose was the "clerical
+error"? Attached to the original draft, now in the custody of the
+Secretary of the Senate, is a sheet of blue paper, in Douglas's
+handwriting, containing the crucial article. All evidence points to
+the conclusion that Douglas added this hastily, after the bill had
+been twice read in the Senate and ordered to be printed; but whether
+it was carelessly omitted by the copyist or appended by Douglas as an
+afterthought, it is impossible to say.[447] After his report of
+January 4th, there was surely no reason why Douglas should have
+hesitated to incorporate the three propositions in the bill; but it is
+perfectly obvious that with the appended section, the Nebraska bill
+differed essentially from its prototypes, though Douglas contended
+that he had only made explicit what was contained implicitly in the
+Utah bill.
+
+Two years later Douglas replied to certain criticisms from Trumbull in
+these words: "He knew, or, if not, he ought to know, that the bill in
+the shape in which it was first reported, as effectually repealed the
+Missouri restriction as it afterwards did when the repeal was put in
+express terms. The only question was whether it should be done in the
+language of the acts of 1850, or in the language subsequently
+employed, but the legal effect was precisely the same."[448] Of course
+Douglas was here referring to the original bill containing the
+twenty-first section.
+
+It has commonly been assumed that Douglas desired the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise in order to open Nebraska to slavery. This was the
+passionate accusation of his anti-slavery contemporaries; and it has
+become the verdict of most historians. Yet there is ample evidence
+that Douglas had no such wish and intent. He had said in 1850, and on
+other occasions, that he believed the prairies to be dedicated to
+freedom by a law above human power to repeal. Climate, topography, the
+conditions of slave labor, which no Northern man knew better, forbade
+slavery in the unoccupied areas of the West.[449] True, he had no such
+horror of slavery extension as many Northern men manifested; he was
+probably not averse to sacrificing some of the region dedicated by law
+to freedom, if thereby he could carry out his cherished project of
+developing the greater Northwest; but that he deliberately planned to
+plant slavery in all that region, is contradicted by the
+incontrovertible fact that he believed the area of slavery to be
+circumscribed definitely by Nature. Man might propose but physical
+geography would dispose.
+
+The regrettable aspect of Douglas's course is his attempt to nullify
+the Missouri Compromise by subtle indirection. This was the device of
+a shifty politician, trying to avert suspicion and public alarm by
+clever ambiguities. That he really believed a new principle had been
+substituted for an old one, in dealing with the Territories, does not
+extenuate the offense, for not even he had ventured to assert in 1850,
+that the compromises of that year had in any wise disturbed the status
+of the great, unorganized area to which Congress had applied the
+restrictive proviso of 1820. Besides, only so recently as 1849, he had
+said, with all the emphasis of sincerity, that the compromise had
+"become canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred
+thing, which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to
+disturb." And while he then opposed the extension of the principle to
+new Territories, he believed that it had been "deliberately
+incorporated into our legislation as a solemn and sacred
+compromise."[450]
+
+By this time Douglas must have been aware of the covert purpose of
+Atchison and others to secure the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
+though he hoped that they would acquiesce in his mode of doing it. He
+was evidently not prepared for the bold move which certain of the
+senators from slave States were contemplating.[451] He was therefore
+startled by an amendment which Dixon of Kentucky offered on January
+16th, to the effect that the restrictive clause of the Act of 1820
+should not be so construed as to apply to Nebraska or any other
+Territory; "but that the citizens of the several States or territories
+shall be at liberty to take and hold their slaves within any of the
+territories of the United States or of the States to be formed
+therefrom," as if the Missouri Act had never been passed. Douglas at
+once left his seat to remonstrate with Dixon, who was on the Whig side
+of the Senate chamber. He disliked the amendment, not so much because
+it wiped out the Missouri Compromise as because it seemed
+"affirmatively to legislate slavery into the Territory."[452] Knowing
+Dixon to be a supporter of the compromise measures of 1850, Douglas
+begged him not to thwart the work of his committee, which was trying
+in good faith to apply the cardinal features of those measures to
+Nebraska. The latter part of Dixon's amendment could hardly be
+harmonized with the principle of congressional non-intervention.[453]
+
+There seems to be no reason to doubt that Dixon moved in this matter on
+his own initiative;[454] but he was a friend to Atchison and he could
+not have been wholly ignorant of the Missouri factional quarrel.[455]
+To be sure, Dixon was a Whig, but Southern Whigs and Democrats were at
+one in desiring expansion for the peculiar institution of their
+section. Pressure was now brought to bear upon Douglas to incorporate
+the direct repeal of the compromise in the Nebraska bill.[456] He
+objected strongly, foreseeing no doubt the storm of protest which would
+burst over his head in the North.[457] Still, if he could unite the
+party on the principle of non-intervention with slavery in the
+Territories, the risk of temporary unpopularity would be worth taking.
+No doubt personal ambition played its part in forming his purpose, but
+party considerations swayed him most powerfully.[458] He witnessed with
+no little apprehension the divergence between the Northern and Southern
+wings of the party; he had commented in private upon "the distracted
+condition" of the party and the need of perpetuating its principles and
+consolidating its power. Might this not be his opportunity?
+
+On Sunday morning, January 22d, just before the hour for church,
+Douglas, with several of his colleagues, called upon the Secretary of
+War, Davis, stating that the Committees on Territories of the Senate
+and House had agreed upon a bill, for which the President's approval
+was desired. They pressed for an immediate interview inasmuch as they
+desired to report the bill on the morrow. Somewhat reluctantly, Davis
+arranged an interview for them, though the President was not in the
+habit of receiving visitors on Sunday. Yielding to their request,
+President Pierce took the proposed bill under consideration, giving
+careful heed to all explanations; and when they were done, both he
+and his influential secretary promised their support.[459]
+
+What was this momentous bill to which the President thus pledged
+himself? The title indicated the most striking feature. There were now
+to be two Territories: Kansas and Nebraska. Bedded in the heart of
+Section 14, however, was a still more important provision which
+announced that the prohibition of slavery in the Act of 1820 had been
+"superseded by the principles of the legislation of eighteen hundred
+and fifty, commonly called the compromise measures," and was therefore
+"inoperative."
+
+It has been commonly believed that Douglas contemplated making one
+free and one slave State out of the Nebraska region. His own simple
+explanation is far more credible: the two Johnsons had petitioned for
+a division of the Territory along the fortieth parallel, and both the
+Iowa and Missouri delegations believed that their local interests
+would be better served by two Territories.[460]
+
+Again Pacific railroad interests seem to have crossed the path of the
+Nebraska bill. The suspicions of Delegate-elect Hadley Johnson had
+been aroused by the neglect of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to
+extinguish the claims of the Omaha Indians, whose lands lay directly
+west of Iowa. At the last session, an appropriation had been made for
+the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title to lands west of both
+Missouri and Iowa; and everyone knew that this was a preliminary step
+to settlement by whites. The appropriation had been zealously
+advocated by representatives from Missouri, who frankly admitted that
+the possession of these lands would make the Pacific railroad route
+available. Now as the Indian Commissioner, who had before shown
+himself an active partisan of Senator Atchison, rapidly pushed on the
+treaties with the Indians west of Missouri and dallied with the
+Omahas, the inference was unavoidable, that Iowa interests were being
+sacrificed to Missouri interests. Such was the story that the Iowa
+Johnson poured into the ear of Senator Douglas, to whom he was
+presented by Senator Dodge.[461] The surest way to safeguard the
+interests of Iowa was to divide the Territory of Nebraska, and give
+Iowa her natural outlet to the West.
+
+Senator Dodge had also come to this conclusion. Nebraska would be to
+Iowa, what Iowa had been to Illinois. Were only one Territory
+organized, the seat of government and leading thoroughfares would pass
+to the south of Iowa.[462] Put in the language of the promoters of the
+Pacific railroad, one Territory meant aid to the central route; two
+Territories meant an equal chance for both northern and central
+routes. As the representative of Chicago interests, Douglas was not
+blind to these considerations.
+
+On Monday, January 23d, Douglas reported the Kansas-Nebraska bill with
+a brief word of explanation. Next day Senator Dixon expressed his
+satisfaction with the amendment, which he interpreted as virtually
+repealing the Missouri Compromise. He disclaimed any other wish or
+intention than to secure the principle which the compromise measures
+of 1850 had established.[463] An editorial in the Washington _Union_
+threw the weight of the administration into the balance: "The
+proposition of Mr. Douglas is a practical execution of the principles
+of that compromise [of 1850], and therefore, cannot but be regarded by
+the administration as a test of Democratic orthodoxy."[464]
+
+While the administration publicly wheeled into line behind Douglas,
+the "Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of
+the United States" summoned the anti-slavery elements to join battle
+in behalf of the Missouri Compromise. This memorable document had been
+written by Chase of Ohio and dated January 19th, but a postscript was
+added after the revised Kansas-Nebraska bill had been reported.[465]
+It was an adroitly worded paper. History has falsified many of its
+predictions; history then controverted many of its assumptions; but it
+was colored with strong emotion and had the ring of righteous
+indignation.
+
+The gist of the appeal was contained in two clauses, one of which
+declared that the Nebraska bill would open all the unorganized
+territory of the Union to the ingress of slavery; the other arraigned
+the bill as "a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal
+betrayal of precious rights." In ominous words, fellow citizens were
+besought to observe how the blight of slavery would settle upon all
+this land, if this bill should become a law. Christians and Christian
+ministers were implored to interpose. "Let all protest, earnestly and
+emphatically, by correspondence, through the press, by memorials, by
+resolutions of public meetings and legislative bodies, and in whatever
+other mode may seem expedient, against this enormous crime." In the
+postscript Douglas received personal mention. "Not a man in Congress
+or out of Congress, in 1850, pretended that the compromise measures
+would repeal the Missouri prohibition. Mr. Douglas himself never
+advanced such a pretence until this session. His own Nebraska bill, of
+last session, rejected it. It is a sheer afterthought. To declare the
+prohibition inoperative, may, indeed, have effect in law as a repeal,
+but it is a most discreditable way of reaching the object. Will the
+people permit their dearest interests to be thus made the mere hazards
+of a presidential game, and destroyed by false facts and false
+inferences?"[466]
+
+This attack roused the tiger in the Senator from Illinois. When he
+addressed the Senate on January 30th, he labored under ill-repressed
+anger. Even in the expurgated columns of the _Congressional Globe_
+enough stinging personalities appeared to make his friends regretful.
+What excited his wrath particularly was that Chase and Sumner had
+asked for a postponement of discussion, in order to examine the bill,
+and then, in the interval, had sent out their indictment of the
+author. It was certainly unworthy of him to taunt them with having
+desecrated the Sabbath day by writing their plea. The charge was not
+only puerile but amusing, when one considers how Douglas himself was
+observing that particular Sabbath.
+
+It was comparatively easy to question and disprove the unqualified
+statement of the _Appeal_, that "the original settled policy of the
+United States was non-extension of slavery." Less convincing was
+Douglas's attempt to prove that the Missouri Compromise was expressly
+annulled in 1850, when portions of Texas and of the former Spanish
+province of Louisiana were added to New Mexico, and also a part of the
+province of Louisiana was joined to Utah. Douglas was in the main
+correct as to geographical data; but he could not, and did not, prove
+that the members of the Thirty-first Congress purposed also to revoke
+the Missouri Compromise restriction in all the other unorganized
+Territories. This contention was one of those _non-sequiturs_ of which
+Douglas, in the heat of argument, was too often guilty. Still more
+regrettable, because it seemed to convict him of sophistry, was the
+mode by which he sought to evade the charge of the _Appeal_, that the
+act organizing New Mexico and settling the boundary of Texas had
+reaffirmed the Missouri Compromise. To establish his point he had to
+assume that _all_ the land cut off from Texas north of 36° 30', was
+added to New Mexico, thus leaving nothing to which the slavery
+restriction, reaffirmed in the act of 1850, could apply. But Chase
+afterward invalidated this assumption and Douglas was forced so to
+qualify his original statement as to yield the point. This was a
+damaging admission and prejudiced his cause before the country. But
+when he brought his wide knowledge of American colonization to bear
+upon the concrete problems of governmental policy, his grasp of the
+situation was masterly.
+
+"Let me ask you where you have succeeded in excluding slavery by an
+act of Congress from one inch of American soil? You may tell me that
+you did it in the northwest territory by the ordinance of 1787. I
+will show you by the history of the country that you did not
+accomplish any such thing. You prohibited slavery there by law, but
+you did not exclude it in fact.... I know of but one territory of the
+United States where slavery does exist, and that one is where you have
+prohibited it by law, and it is in this very Nebraska Territory. In
+defiance of the eighth section of the act of 1820, in defiance of
+Congressional dictation, there have been, not many, but a few slaves
+introduced.... I have no doubt that whether you organize the territory
+of Nebraska or not this will continue for some time to come.... But
+when settlers rush in--when labor becomes plenty, and therefore cheap,
+in that climate, with its productions, it is worse than folly to think
+of its being a slave-holding country.... I do not like, I never did
+like, the system of legislation on our part, by which a geographical
+line, in violation of the laws of nature, and climate, and soil, and
+of the laws of God, should be run to establish institutions for a
+people."[467]
+
+The fate of the bill was determined behind closed doors. After all,
+the Senate chamber was only a public clearing-house, where senators
+elucidated, or per-chance befogged, the issues. The real arena was the
+Democratic caucus. Under the leadership of Douglas, those high in the
+party conclaves met, morning after morning, in the endeavor to compose
+the sharp differences between the Northern and the Southern wings of
+the party.[468] On both sides, there was a disposition to agree on the
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise, though grave misgivings were felt.
+There were Southern men who believed that the repeal would be "an
+unavailing boon"; and there were Northern politicians who foresaw the
+storm of popular indignation that would break upon their heads.[469]
+Southern Democrats were disposed to follow the South Carolina theory
+to its logical extreme: as joint owners of the Territories the
+citizens of all the States might carry their property into the
+Territories without let or hindrance; only the people of the Territory
+in the act of framing a State constitution might exclude slavery.
+Neither Congress nor a territorial legislature might take away
+property in slaves. With equal pertinacity, Douglas and his supporters
+advocated the right of the people in their territorial status, to
+mould their institutions as they chose. Was there any middle ground?
+
+Prolonged discussion made certain points of agreement clear to all. It
+was found that no one questioned the right of a State, with sufficient
+population and a republican constitution, to enter the Union with or
+without slavery as it chose. All agreed that it was best that slavery
+should not be discussed in Congress. All agreed that, whether or no
+Congress had the power to exclude slavery in the Territories, it ought
+not to exercise it. All agreed that if Congress had such power, it
+ought to delegate it to the people. Here agreement ceased. Did
+Congress have such power? Clearly the law of the Constitution could
+alone determine. Then why not delegate the power to control their
+domestic institutions to the people of the Territories, subject to the
+provisions of the Constitution? "And then," said one of the
+participants later, "in order to provide a means by which the
+Constitution could govern ... we of the South, conscious that we were
+right, the North asserting the same confidence in its own doctrines,
+agreed that every question touching human slavery or human freedom
+should be appealable to the Supreme Court of the United States for its
+decision."[470]
+
+While this compromise was being reached in caucus, the bill was under
+constant fire on the floor of the Senate. The _Appeal of the
+Independent Democrats_ had bitterly arraigned the declaratory part of
+the Kansas-Nebraska bill, where the Missouri Compromise was said to
+have been superseded and therefore inoperative. Even staunch Democrats
+like Cass had taken exception to this phraseology, preferring to
+declare the Missouri Compromise null and void in unequivocal terms. To
+Douglas there was nothing ambiguous or misleading in the wording of
+the clause. What was meant was this: the acts of 1850 rendered the
+Missouri Compromise _inoperative_ in Utah and New Mexico; but so far
+as the Missouri Compromise applied to territory not embraced in those
+acts, it was _superseded_ by the great principle established in 1850.
+"Superseded by" meant "inconsistent with" the compromise of 1850.[471]
+The word "supersede," however, continued to cause offense. Cass read
+from the dictionary to prove that the word had a more positive force
+than Douglas gave to it. To supersede meant to set aside: he could
+not bring himself to assent to this statement.[472]
+
+By this time agreement had been reached in the caucus, so that Douglas
+was quite willing to modify the phraseology of the bill. "We see,"
+said he, "that the difference here is only a difference as to the
+appropriate word to be used. We all agree in the principle which we
+now propose to establish." As he was not satisfied with the phrases
+suggested, he desired some time to consult with friends of the bill,
+as to which word would best "carry out the idea which we are intending
+to put into practical operation by this bill."[473]
+
+On the following day, February 7th, Douglas reported, not merely "the
+appropriate word," but an entirely new clause, the product of the
+caucus deliberations.
+
+The eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri
+into the Union is no longer said to be superseded, but "being
+inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with
+slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the
+legislation of 1850, (commonly called the Compromise Measures) is
+hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
+meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
+State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
+perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
+their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
+States."[474]
+
+This part of the bill had now assumed its final form. _Subject only to
+the Constitution of the United States_. The words were clear; but
+what was their implication? A few days later, Douglas wrote to his
+Springfield confidant, "The Democratic party is committed in the most
+solemn manner to the principle of congressional non-interference with
+slavery in the States and Territories. The administration is committed
+to the Nebraska bill and will stand by it at all hazards.... The
+principle of this bill will form the test of parties, and the only
+alternative is either to stand with the Democracy or rally under
+Seward, John Van Buren & Co.... We shall pass the Nebraska bill in
+both Houses by decisive majorities and the party will then be stronger
+than ever, for it will be united upon principle."[475]
+
+Yet there were dissentient opinions. What was in the background of
+Southern consciousness was expressed bluntly by Brown of Mississippi,
+who refused to admit that the right of the people of a Territory to
+regulate their domestic institutions, including slavery, was a right
+to destroy. "If I thought in voting for the bill as it now stands, I
+was conceding the right of the people in the territory, during their
+territorial existence, to exclude slavery, I would withhold my
+vote.... It leaves the question where I am quite willing it should be
+left--to the ultimate decision of the courts."[476] Chase also, though
+for widely different reasons, disputed the power of the people of a
+Territory to exclude slavery, under the terms of this bill.[477] And
+Senator Clayton pointed out that non-interference was a delusion, so
+long as it lay within the power of any member of Congress to move a
+repeal of any and every territorial law which came up for approval,
+for the bill expressly provided for congressional approval of
+territorial laws.[478]
+
+Douglas was irritated by these aspersions on his cherished principle.
+He declared again, in defiant tones, that the right of the people to
+permit or exclude was clearly included in the wording of the measure.
+He was not willing to be lectured about indirectness. He had heard
+cavil enough about his amendments.[479]
+
+In the course of a debate on March 2d, another unforeseen difficulty
+loomed up in the distance. If the Missouri Compromise were repealed,
+would not the original laws of Louisiana, which legalized slavery, be
+revived? How then could the people of the Territories be free to
+legislate against slavery? It was a knotty question, testing the best
+legal minds in the Senate; and it was dispatched only by an amendment
+which stated that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise should not
+revive any antecedent law respecting slavery.[480]
+
+The objection raised by Clayton still remained: how was it possible to
+reconcile congressional non-intervention with the right of Congress to
+revise territorial laws? Now Douglas had never contended that the
+right of the people to self-government in the Territories was complete
+as against the power of Congress. He had never sought to confer upon
+them more than a relative degree of self-government--"the power to
+regulate their domestic institutions." He could not, and he did not,
+deny the truth and awkwardness of Clayton's contention. Where, then,
+demanded his critics, was the guarantee that the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+would banish the slavery controversies from Congress? This challenge
+could not go unanswered. Without other explanation, Douglas moved to
+strike out the provision requiring all territorial laws to be
+submitted to Congress.[481] But did this divest Congress of the power
+of revision? On this point Douglas preserved a discreet silence.
+
+Recognizing also the incongruity of giving an absolute veto power to a
+governor who would be appointed by the President, Douglas proposed a
+suspensive, in place of an absolute, veto power. A two-thirds vote in
+each branch of the territorial legislature would override the
+governor's negative.[482] Chase now tried to push Douglas one step
+farther on the same slippery road. "Can it be said," he asked, "that
+the people of a territory will enjoy self-government when they elect
+only their legislators and are subject to a governor, judges, and a
+secretary appointed by the Federal Executive?" He would amend by
+making all these officers elective.[483] Douglas extricated himself
+from this predicament by saying simply that these officers were
+charged with federal rather than with territorial duties.[484] The
+amendment was promptly negatived. Yet seven years later, this very
+proposition was indorsed by Douglas under peculiar circumstances. At
+this time in 1854, it would have effected nothing short of a
+revolution in American territorial policy; and it might have altered
+the whole history of Kansas.
+
+Despite asseverations to the contrary, there were Southern men in
+Congress who nourished the tacit hope that another slave State might
+be gained west of the Missouri. There was a growing conviction among
+Southern people that the possession of Kansas at least might be
+successfully contested.[485] At all events, no barrier to Southern
+immigration into the Territory was allowed to remain in the bill.
+Objection was raised to the provision, common to nearly all
+territorial bills, that aliens, who had declared their intention of
+becoming citizens, should be permitted to vote in territorial
+elections. In a contest with the North for the possession of the
+territorial government, the South would be at an obvious disadvantage,
+if the homeless aliens in the North could be colonized in Kansas, for
+there was no appreciable alien population in the Southern States.[486]
+So it was that Clayton's amendment, to restrict the right to vote and
+to hold office to citizens of the United States, received the solid
+vote of the South in the Senate. It is significant that Douglas voted
+with his section on this important issue. There can be no better proof
+of his desire that freedom should prevail in the new Territories. The
+Clayton amendment, however, passed the Senate by a close vote.[487]
+
+On the 2d of March the Kansas-Nebraska bill went to a third reading by
+a vote of twenty-nine to twelve; its passage was thus assured.[488]
+Debate continued, however, during the afternoon and evening of the
+next day. Friends of the bill had agreed that it should be brought to
+a vote on this night. The privilege of closing the debate belonged to
+the chairman of the Committee on Territories; but in view of the
+lateness of the hour, he offered to waive his privilege and let a vote
+be taken. Voices were raised in protest, however, and Douglas yielded
+to the urgent request of his friends.[489]
+
+The speech of Douglas was a characteristic performance. It abounded in
+repetitions, and it can hardly be said to have contributed much to the
+understanding of the issues. Yet it was a memorable effort, because it
+exhibited the magnificent fighting qualities of the man. He was
+completely master of himself. He permitted interruptions by his
+opponents; he invited them; indeed, at times, he welcomed them; but at
+no time was he at a loss for a reply. Dialectically he was on this
+occasion more than a match for Chase and Seward. There were no studied
+effects in his oratory. Knowing himself to be addressing a wider
+audience than the Senate chamber and its crowded galleries, he
+appealed with intuitive keenness to certain fundamental traits in his
+constituents. Americans admire self-reliance even in an opponent, and
+the spectacle of a man fighting against personal injustice is often
+likely to make them forget the principle for which he stands. So
+Seward, who surely had no love for Douglas and no respect for his
+political creed, was moved to exclaim in frank admiration, "I hope the
+Senator will yield for a moment, because I have never had so much
+respect for him as I have tonight." When Chase assured Douglas that he
+always purposed to treat the Senator from Illinois with entire
+courtesy, Douglas retorted: "The Senator says that he never intended
+to do me injustice.... Sir, did he not say in the same document to
+which I have already alluded, that I was engaged, with others, 'in a
+criminal betrayal of precious rights,' 'in an atrocious plot'?... Did
+he not say everything calculated to produce and bring upon my head all
+the insults to which I have been subjected publicly and privately--not
+even excepting the insulting letters which I have received from his
+constituents, rejoicing at my domestic bereavements, and praying that
+other and similar calamities may befall me!"[490]
+
+In much the same way, he turned upon Sumner, as the collaborator of
+the _Appeal_. Here was one who had begun his career as an Abolitionist
+in the Senate, with the words "Strike but hear me first," but who had
+helped to close the doors of Faneuil Hall against Webster, when he
+sought to speak in self-defense in 1850, and who now--such was the
+implication--was denying simple justice to another patriot.[491]
+
+Personalities aside, the burden of his speech was the reassertion of
+his principle of popular sovereignty. He showed how far he had
+traveled since the Fourth of January in no way more strikingly, than
+when he called in question the substantive character of the Missouri
+Compromise. In his discussion of the legislative history of the
+Missouri acts, he easily convicted both Chase and Seward of
+misapprehensions; but he refused to recognize the truth of Chase's
+words, that "the facts of the transaction taken together and as
+understood by the country for more than thirty years, constitute a
+compact binding in moral force," though expressed only in the terms of
+ordinary statutes. So far had Douglas gone in his advocacy of his
+measure that he had lost the measure of popular sentiment. He was so
+confident of himself and his cause, so well-assured that he had
+sacrificed nothing but an empty form, in repealing the slavery
+restriction, that he forgot the popular mind does not so readily cast
+aside its prejudices and grasp substance in preference to form. The
+combative instinct in him was strong. He had entered upon a quarrel;
+he would acquit himself well. Besides, he had supreme confidence that
+popular intelligence would slowly approve his course.
+
+Perhaps Douglas's greatest achievement on this occasion was in coining
+a phrase which was to become a veritable slogan in succeeding years.
+That which had hitherto been dubbed "squatter sovereignty," Douglas
+now dignified with the name "popular sovereignty," and provided with a
+pedigree. "This was the principle upon which the colonies separated
+from the crown of Great Britain, the principle upon which the battles
+of the Revolution were fought, and the principle upon which our
+republican system was founded.... The Revolution grew out of the
+assertion of the right on the part of the imperial government to
+interfere with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the
+colonies.... I will not weary the Senate in multiplying evidence upon
+this point. It is apparent that the Declaration of Independence had
+its origin in the violation of the great fundamental principle which
+secured to the people of the colonies the right to regulate their own
+domestic affairs in their own way; and that the Revolution resulted in
+the triumph of that principle, and the recognition of the right
+asserted by it."[492]
+
+In conclusion, Douglas said with perfect truthfulness: "I have not
+brought this question forward as a Northern man or as a Southern man.
+I am unwilling to recognize such divisions and distinctions. I have
+brought it forward as an American Senator, representing a State which
+is true to this principle, and which has approved of my action in
+respect to the Nebraska bill. I have brought it forward not as an act
+of justice to the South more than to the North. I have presented it
+especially as an act of justice to the people of those Territories,
+and of the States to be formed therefrom, now and in all time to
+come."[493]
+
+Nor did he seem to entertain a doubt as to the universal appeal which
+his principle would make: "I say frankly that, in my opinion, this
+measure will be as popular at the North as at the South, when its
+provisions and principles shall have been fully developed and become
+well understood. The people at the North are attached to the
+principles of self-government; and you cannot convince them that that
+is self-government which deprives a people of the right of legislating
+for themselves, and compels them to receive laws which are forced upon
+them by a legislature in which they are not represented."[494]
+
+The rising indignation at the North against the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+was felt much more directly in the House than in the Senate. So strong
+was the counter-current that the Senate bill was at first referred to
+the Committee of the Whole, and thus buried for weeks under a mass of
+other bills. Many believed that the bill had received a quietus for
+the session. Not so Douglas and his friend Richardson of Illinois, who
+was chairman of the Committee on Territories. With a patience born of
+long parliamentary experience, they bided their time. In the
+meantime, every possible influence was brought to bear upon
+recalcitrant Democrats. And just here the wisdom of Douglas, in first
+securing the support of the administration, was vindicated. All those
+devices were invoked which President and cabinet could employ through
+the use of the Federal patronage, so that when Richardson, on the 8th
+of May, called upon the House to lay aside one by one the eighteen
+bills which preceded the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he was assured of a
+working majority. The House bill having thus been reached, Richardson
+substituted for it the Senate bill, minus the Clayton amendment. When
+he then announced that only four days would be allowed for debate, the
+obstructionists could no longer contain themselves. Scenes of wild
+excitement followed. In the end, the friends of the bill yielded to
+the demand for longer discussion. Debate was prolonged until May 22d,
+when the bill passed by a vote of 113 to 110, in the face of bitter
+opposition.
+
+Through all these exciting days, Douglas was constantly at
+Richardson's side, cautioning and advising. He was well within the
+truth when he said, in confidential chat with Madison Cutts, "I passed
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act myself. I had the authority and power of a
+dictator throughout the whole controversy in both houses. The speeches
+were nothing. It was the marshalling and directing of men, and
+guarding from attacks, and with a ceaseless vigilance preventing
+surprises."[495]
+
+The refusal of the House to accept the Clayton amendment brought the
+Kansas-Nebraska measure again before the Senate. Knowing that a
+refusal to concur would probably defeat the measure for the session,
+Southern senators were disposed to waive their objections to allowing
+aliens to vote in the new Territories. Even Atchison was now disposed
+to think the matter of little consequence. Foreigners were not the
+pioneers in the Territories; they followed the pioneers. He did not
+complete his thought, but it is unmistakable: therefore, native
+citizens as first-comers, rather than foreigners, would probably
+decide the question of slavery in the Territories forever. And so,
+after two days of debate, Douglas again had his way: the Senate voted
+to recede from the Clayton amendment. On May 30th, the President
+signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill and it became law.[496]
+
+The outburst of wrath at the North which accompanied the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise did not augur well for the future repose of the
+country. Douglas had anticipated angry demonstrations; but even he was
+disturbed by the vehemence of the protestations which penetrated to
+the Senate chamber. Had he failed to gauge the depth of Northern
+public opinion? Senator Everett disturbed the momentary quiet of
+Congress by presenting a memorial signed by over three thousand New
+England clergymen, who, "in the name of Almighty God," protested
+against the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a great moral wrong and as a breach
+of faith. This brought Douglas to his feet. With fierce invective he
+declared this whole movement was instigated by the circulars sent out
+by the Abolition confederates in the Senate. These preachers had been
+led by an atrocious falsehood "to desecrate the pulpit, and prostitute
+the sacred desk to the miserable and corrupting influence of party
+politics." What right had these misguided men to speak in the name of
+Almighty God upon a political question? It was an attempt to establish
+in this country the doctrine that clergymen have a peculiar right to
+determine the will of God in legislative matters. This was
+theocracy.[497]
+
+Some weeks later, Douglas himself presented another protest, signed by
+over five hundred clergymen of the Northwest and accompanied by
+resolutions which denounced the Senator from Illinois for his "want of
+courtesy and reverence toward man and God."[498] His comments upon
+this protest were not calculated to restore him to favor among these
+"divinely appointed ministers for the declaration and enforcement of
+God's will." His public letter to them, however, was much more
+creditable, for in it he avoided abusive language and appealed frankly
+to the sober sense of the clergy.[499] Of the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he said again that it was necessary, "in order to
+recognize the great principle of self-government and State equality.
+It does not vary the question in any degree, that human slavery, in
+your opinion, is a great moral wrong. If so, it is not the only wrong
+upon which the people of each of the States and Territories of this
+Union are called upon to act.... You think you are abundantly
+competent to decide this question now and forever. If you should
+remove to Nebraska, with a view of making it your permanent home,
+would you be any less competent to decide it when you should have
+arrived in the country?"[500]
+
+The obloquy which Douglas encountered in Washington was mere child's
+play, as compared with the storm of abuse that met him on his return
+to Chicago. He afterwards said that he could travel from Boston to
+Chicago by the light of his own effigies.[501] "Traitor,"
+"Arnold,"--with a suggestion that he had the blood of Benedict Arnold
+in his veins,--"Judas," were epithets hurled at him from desk and
+pulpit. He was presented with thirty pieces of silver by some
+indignant females in an Ohio village.[502] So incensed were the people
+of Chicago, that his friends advised him not to return, fearing that
+he would be assaulted.[503] But fear was a sensation that he had never
+experienced. He went to Chicago confident that he could silence
+opposition as he had done four years before.[504]
+
+Three or four days after his return, he announced that on the night of
+September 1st, he would address his constituents in front of North
+Market Hall. The announcement occasioned great excitement. The
+opposition press cautioned their readers not to be deceived by his
+sophistries, and hinted broadly at the advisability of breaking up the
+meeting.[505] Many friends of Douglas believed that personal violence
+was threatened. During the afternoon flags were hung at half mast on
+the lake boats; bells were tolled, as the crowds began to gather in
+the dusk of the evening; some public calamity seemed to impend. At a
+quarter past eight, Douglas began to address the people. He was
+greeted with hisses. He paused until these had subsided. But no sooner
+did he begin again than bedlam broke loose. For over two hours he
+wrestled with the mob, appealing to their sense of fairness; but he
+could not gain a hearing. Finally, for the first time in his career,
+he was forced to admit defeat. Drawing his watch from his pocket and
+observing that the hour was late, he shouted, in an interval of
+comparative quiet, "It is now Sunday morning--I'll go to church, and
+you may go to Hell!" At the imminent risk of his life, he went to his
+carriage and was driven through the crowds to his hotel.[506]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 415: House Bill No. 444; 28 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 416: Executive Docs., 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 417: House Bill, No. 170; 30 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 418: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1161.]
+
+[Footnote 419: _Ibid._, pp. 1684-1685.]
+
+[Footnote 420: _Ibid._, p. 1760. Clingman afterward admitted that the
+Southern opposition was motived by reluctance to admit new free
+Territories. "This feeling was felt rather than expressed in words."
+Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 334.]
+
+[Footnote 421: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1762.]
+
+[Footnote 422: See Davis, Union Pacific Railway, Chap. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 423: See Benton's remarks in the House, _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 56.]
+
+[Footnote 424: Connelley, The Provisional Government of the Nebraska
+Territory, published by the Nebraska State Historical Society, pp.
+23-24.]
+
+[Footnote 425: Connelley, Provisional Government, p. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 426: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 56-58.]
+
+[Footnote 427: House Bill No. 353; 32 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 428: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 558.]
+
+[Footnote 429: _Ibid._, p. 560.]
+
+[Footnote 430: _Ibid._, p. 565.]
+
+[Footnote 431: _Ibid._, p. 1020.]
+
+[Footnote 432: _Globe_ 32 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1116-1117.]
+
+[Footnote 433: _Ibid._, p. 1113.]
+
+[Footnote 434: Connelley, Provisional Government, pp. 43 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 435: _Ibid._, pp. 37-41.]
+
+[Footnote 436: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 183; Connelley,
+pp. 70-77.]
+
+[Footnote 437: See Hadley D. Johnson's account in the Transactions of
+the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol. II.]
+
+[Footnote 438: Illinois _State Register_, December 22, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 439: MS. Letter to the editors of the Illinois _State
+Register_, dated November 11, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 440: Washington _Union_, December 3, 1853. See also item
+showing the interest in Nebraska, in the issue of November 26.]
+
+[Footnote 441: Senate Bill No. 22. The bounds were fixed at 43° on the
+north; 36° 30' on the south, except where the boundary of New Mexico
+marked the line; the western line of Iowa and Missouri on the east;
+and the Rocky Mountains on the west.]
+
+[Footnote 442: Illinois _State Register_, December 22, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 443: New York _Journal of Commerce_, December 30, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 444: Two years later, Douglas flatly denied that he had
+brought in the bill at the dictation of Atchison or any one else; and
+I see no good ground on which to doubt his word. His own statement was
+that he first consulted with Senator Bright and one other Senator from
+the Northwest, and then took counsel with Southern friends. See
+_Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 392-393; also Rhodes, History of
+the United States, I, pp. 431-432. Mr. Rhodes is no doubt correct,
+when he says "the committee on territories was Douglas."]
+
+[Footnote 445: Senate Report No. 15, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 446: The northern boundary was extended to the 49th
+parallel.]
+
+[Footnote 447: The first twenty sections are written on white paper,
+in the handwriting of a copyist. In pencil at the end are the words:
+"Douglas reports Bill & read I & to 2 reading special report Print
+agreed." The blue paper in Douglas's handwriting covers part of these
+last words. The sheet has been torn in halves, but pasted together
+again and attached by sealing wax to the main draft. The handwriting
+betrays haste.]
+
+[Footnote 448: _Globe,_34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1374.]
+
+[Footnote 449: See his speech of March, 1850, quoted above. In a
+letter to the editor of _State Capital Reporter_ (Concord, N.H.),
+February 16, 1854, Douglas intimated as strongly as he then dared--the
+bill was still pending,--that "the sons of New England" in the West
+would exclude slavery from that region which lay in the same latitude
+as New York and Pennsylvania, and for much the same reasons that
+slavery had been abolished! in those States; see also Transactions of
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1900, pp. 48-49.]
+
+[Footnote 450: Speech before the Illinois Legislature, October 23,
+1849; see Illinois _State Register_, November 8, 1849.]
+
+[Footnote 451: The Southern Whigs were ready to support the Dixon
+Amendment, according to Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 335.]
+
+[Footnote 452: See remarks of Douglas, January 24th, _Globe_, 33
+Cong., 1 Sess., p. 240.]
+
+[Footnote 453: Letter of Dixon to Foote, September 30, 1858, in Flint,
+Douglas, pp. 138-141.]
+
+[Footnote 454: Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise.]
+
+[Footnote 455: Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in
+the _National Quarterly Review_, July, 1880.]
+
+[Footnote 456: Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; also
+Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 93; also Cox, Three Decades of
+Federal Legislation, p. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 457: _Ibid._ Dixon's account of his interview with Douglas
+is too melodramatic to be taken literally, but no doubt it reveals
+Douglas's agitation.]
+
+[Footnote 458: This was Greeley's interpretation, _Tribune_, June 1,
+1861.]
+
+[Footnote 459: Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Dixon, September 27, 1879, in
+Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, pp. 457
+ff.]
+
+[Footnote 460: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 221.]
+
+[Footnote 461: Transactions of the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol.
+II, p. 90.]
+
+[Footnote 462: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 382.]
+
+[Footnote 463: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 239-240.]
+
+[Footnote 464: Washington _Union_, January 24, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 465: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 282.]
+
+[Footnote 466: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 281-282.]
+
+[Footnote 467: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 278-279.]
+
+[Footnote 468: See remarks of Senator Bell of Tennessee, May 24, 1854,
+in _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 939-940; also see statement
+of Benjamin in _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093.]
+
+[Footnote 469: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App. pp. 414-415; p. 943.]
+
+[Footnote 470: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093. This statement by
+Senator Benjamin was corroborated by Douglas and by Hunter of
+Virginia, during the debates, see _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+224. See also the letter of A.H. Stephens, May 9, 1860, in _Globe_, 36
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 315-316.]
+
+[Footnote 471: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 343-344.]
+
+[Footnote 472: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 473: _Ibid._, p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 474: _Ibid._, p. 353.]
+
+[Footnote 475: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, February 13, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 476: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 232.]
+
+[Footnote 477: _Ibid._, pp. 279-280.]
+
+[Footnote 478: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 391.]
+
+[Footnote 479: _Ibid._, pp. 287-288.]
+
+[Footnote 480: _Ibid._, p. 296.]
+
+[Footnote 481: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 296-297.]
+
+[Footnote 482: _Ibid._, p. 297.]
+
+[Footnote 483: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 484: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 485: See remarks of Bell; _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App.,
+pp. 414-415; and also later, _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+937.]
+
+[Footnote 486: See remarks of Atchison, _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 487: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 488: _Ibid._, p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 489: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 325.]
+
+[Footnote 490: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 491: _Ibid._, p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 492: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 337.]
+
+[Footnote 493: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 338.]
+
+[Footnote 494: _Ibid._, p. 338.]
+
+[Footnote 495: Cutts, Treatise on Constitutional and Party Questions,
+pp. 122-123.]
+
+[Footnote 496: That the President believed with Douglas that the
+benefits of the Act would inure to freedom, is vouched for by
+ex-Senator Clemens of Alabama. See Illinois _State Register_, April 6,
+1854.]
+
+[Footnote 497: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 618, 621.]
+
+[Footnote 498: _Ibid._, App., p. 654.]
+
+[Footnote 499: _Ibid._, App., pp. 657-661.]
+
+[Footnote 500: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 661.]
+
+[Footnote 501: Speech at Wooster, Ohio, 1859, Philadelphia _Press_,
+September 26, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 502: Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 496.]
+
+[Footnote 503: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 98.]
+
+[Footnote 504: "I speak to the people of Chicago on Friday next,
+September 1, on Nebraska. They threaten a mob but I have no fears. All
+will be right.... Come up if you can and bring our friends with you."
+MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, August 25, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 505: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, p. 640.]
+
+[Footnote 506: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 271-273. Cutts, Constitutional
+and Party Questions, pp. 98-101. New York _Times_, September 6,
+1854.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BLACK REPUBLICANISM
+
+
+The passing of the Whig party after its defeat in the election of
+1852, must be counted among the most momentous facts in our political
+history. Whatever were its errors, whatever its shortcomings, it was
+at least a national organization, with a membership that embraced
+anti-slavery Northerners and slave-holding Southerners, Easterners and
+Westerners. As events proved, there was no national organization to
+take its place. One of the two political ties had snapped that had
+held together North and South. The Democratic party alone could lay
+claim to a national organization and membership.
+
+Party has been an important factor in maintaining national unity. The
+dangers to the Union from rapid territorial expansion have not always
+been realized. The attachment of new Western communities to the Union
+has too often been taken as a matter of course. Even when the danger
+of separation was small, the isolation and provincialism of the new
+West was a real menace to national welfare. Social institutions did
+their part in integrating East and West; but the politically
+integrating force was supplied by party. Through their membership in
+national party organizations, the most remote Western pioneers were
+energized to think and act on national issues.[507] In much the same
+way, the great party organizations retarded the growth of
+sectionalism at the South. The very fact that party ties held long
+after social institutions had been broken asunder, proves their
+superior cohesion and nationalizing power. The inertia of parties
+during the prolonged slavery controversy was an element of strength.
+Because these formal organizations did not lend themselves readily to
+radical policies, they provided a frame-work, within which adjustments
+of differences were effected without danger to the Union. Had
+Abolitionists of the radical type taken possession of the organization
+of either party, can it be doubted that the Union would have been
+imperiled much earlier than it was, and very probably when it could
+not have withstood the shock?
+
+No one who views history calmly will maintain, that it would have been
+well for either the radical or the conservative to have been dominant
+permanently. If the radical were always able to give application to
+his passing, restless humors, society would lose its coherence. If the
+conservative always had his way, civilization would stagnate. It was a
+fortunate circumstance that neither the Whig nor the Democratic party
+was composed wholly either of radicals or conservatives. Party action
+was thus a resultant. If it was neither so radical as the most radical
+could desire, nor so conservative as the ultra-conservative wished, at
+least it safeguarded the Union and secured the political achievements
+of the past. Moreover, the two great party organizations had done much
+to assimilate the foreign elements injected into our population. No
+doubt the politician who cultivated "the Irish vote" or "the German
+vote," was obeying no higher law than his own interests; but his
+activities did much to promote that fusion of heterogeneous elements
+which has been one of the most extraordinary phenomena of American
+society. With the disappearance of the Whig party, one of the two
+great agencies in the disciplining and educating of the immigrant was
+lost.
+
+For a time the Native American party seemed likely to take the place
+of the moribund Whig party. Many Whigs whose loyalty had grown cold
+but who would not go over to the enemy, took refuge in the new party.
+But Native Americanism had no enduring strength. Its tenets and its
+methods were in flat contradiction to true American precedents.
+Greeley was right when he said of the new party, "It would seem as
+devoid of the elements of persistence as an anti-cholera or an
+anti-potato-rot party would be." By its avowed hostility to Catholics
+and foreigners, by its insistence upon America for Americans, and by
+its secrecy, it forfeited all real claims to succeed the Whig party as
+a national organization.
+
+After the downfall of the Whig party, then, the Democratic party stood
+alone as a truly national party, preserving the integrity of its
+national organization and the bulk of its legitimate members. But the
+events of President Pierce's administration threatened to be its
+undoing. If the Kansas-Nebraska bill served to unite outwardly the
+Northern and Southern wings of the party, it served also to
+crystallize those anti-slavery elements which had hitherto been held
+in solution. An anti-Nebraska coalition was the outcome. Out of this
+opposition sprang eventually the Republican party, which was,
+therefore, in its inception, national neither in its organization nor
+in its membership.
+
+For "Know-Nothingism," as Native Americanism was derisively called,
+Douglas had exhibited the liveliest antipathy. Shortly after the
+triumph of the Know-Nothings in the municipal elections of
+Philadelphia, he was called upon to give the Independence Day address
+in the historic Independence Square.[508] With an audacity rarely
+equalled, he seized the occasion to defend the great principle of
+self-government as incorporated in the Nebraska bill, just become law,
+and to beard Know-Nothingism in its den. Under guise of defending
+national institutions and American principles, he turned his oration
+into what was virtually the first campaign speech of the year in
+behalf of Democracy. Never before were the advantages of a party name
+so apparent. Under his skillful touch the cause of popular government,
+democracy, religious and civil liberty, became confounded with the
+cause of Democracy, the only party of the nation which stood opposed
+to "the allied forces of Abolitionism, Whigism, Nativeism, and
+religious intolerance, under whatever name or on whatever field they
+may present themselves."[509]
+
+There can be no doubt that Douglas voiced his inmost feeling, when he
+declared that "to proscribe a man in this country on account of his
+birthplace or religious faith is revolting to our sense of justice and
+right."[510] In his defense of religious toleration he rose to heights
+of real eloquence.
+
+Douglas paid dearly for this assault upon Know-Nothingism. The order
+had organized lodges also in the Northwest, and when Douglas returned
+to his own constituency after the adjournment of Congress, he found
+the enemy in possession of his own redoubts. With some show of reason,
+he afterward attributed the demonstration against him in Chicago to
+the machinations of the Know-Nothings. His experience with the mob
+left no manner of doubt in his mind that Know-Nothingism, and not
+hostility to his Kansas-Nebraska policy, was responsible for his
+failure to command a hearing.[511]
+
+But Douglas was mistaken, or he deceived himself, when he sought in
+the same fashion to explain away the opposition which he encountered
+as he traveled through the northern counties of the State. Malcontents
+from both parties, but chiefly anti-slavery Whigs, Free-Soilers, and
+Abolitionists, were drawing together in common hostility to the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise. Mass conventions were summoned,
+irrespective of party, in various counties; and they gave no uncertain
+expression to their hatred of slavery and the slave-power. These were
+the counties most largely peopled by the New England immigrants.
+Anti-Nebraska platforms were adopted; and fusion candidates put in
+nomination for State and congressional office. In the central and
+southern counties, the fusion was somewhat less complete; but finally
+an anti-Nebraska State convention was held at Springfield, which
+nominated a candidate for State Treasurer, the only State officer to
+be elected.[512] For the first time in many years, the overthrow of
+the Democratic party seemed imminent.
+
+However much Douglas may have misjudged the causes for this fusion
+movement at the outset, he was not long blind as to its implications.
+On every hand there were symptoms of disaffection. Personal friends
+turned their backs upon him; lifelong associates refused to follow his
+lead; even the rank and file of his followers seemed infected with the
+prevailing epidemic of distrust. With the instinct of a born leader of
+men, Douglas saw that the salvation of himself and his party lay in
+action. The _élan_ of his forces must be excited by the signal to ride
+down the enemy. Sounding the charge, he plunged into the thick of the
+fray. For two months, he raided the country of the enemy in northern
+Illinois, and dashed from point to point in the central counties where
+his loyal friends were hard pressed.[513] It was from first to last a
+tempestuous conflict that exactly suited the impetuous, dashing
+qualities of "the Little Giant."
+
+In the Sixth Congressional District, Douglas found his friend Harris
+fighting desperately with his back against the wall. His opponent,
+Yates, was a candidate for re-election, with the full support of
+anti-Nebraska men like Trumbull and Lincoln, whom the passage of the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill had again drawn into politics. While the State
+Fair was in progress at Springfield, both candidates strained every
+nerve to win votes. Douglas was summoned to address the goodly body of
+Democratic yeomen, who were keenly alive to the political, as well as
+to the bucolic, opportunities which the capital afforded at this
+interesting season. Douglas spoke to a large gathering in the State
+House on October 3d. Next day the Fusionists put forward Lincoln to
+answer him; and when Lincoln had spoken for nearly four hours, Douglas
+again took the stand and held his audience for an hour and a half
+longer.[514] Those were days when the staying powers of speakers were
+equalled only by the patience of their hearers.
+
+Like those earlier encounters, whose details have passed into the haze
+of tradition, this lacks a trustworthy chronicler. It would seem,
+however, as though the dash and daring of Douglas failed to bear down
+the cool, persistent opposition of his antagonist. Douglas should have
+known that the hazards in his course were reared by his own hand.
+Whatever other barriers blocked his way, Nebraska-ism was the most
+formidable; but this he would not concede.
+
+A curious story has connected itself with this chance encounter of the
+rivals. Alarmed at the effectiveness of Lincoln's attack, so runs the
+legend, Douglas begged him not to enter the campaign, promising that
+he likewise would be silent thereafter. Aside from the palpable
+improbability of this "Peoria truce," it should be noted that Lincoln
+accepted an invitation to speak at Lacon next day, without so much as
+referring to this agreement, while Douglas continued his campaign with
+unremitting energy.[515] If Douglas exhibited fear of an adversary at
+this time, it is the only instance in his career.
+
+The outcome of the elections gave the Democrats food for thought. Five
+out of nine congressional districts had chosen anti-Nebraska or Fusion
+candidates; the other four returned Democrats to Congress by reduced
+pluralities.[516] To be sure, the Democrats had elected their
+candidate for the State Treasury; but this was poor consolation, if
+the legislature, as seemed probable, should pass from their control. A
+successor to Senator Shields would be chosen by this body; and the
+choice of an anti-Nebraska man would be as gall and wormwood to the
+senior senator. In the country at large, such an outcome would surely
+be interpreted as a vote of no confidence. In the light of these
+events, Democrats were somewhat chastened in spirit, in spite of
+apparent demonstrations of joy. Even Douglas felt called upon to
+vindicate his course at the banquet given in his honor in Chicago,
+November 9th. He was forced to admit--and for him it was an unwonted
+admission--that "the heavens were partially overcast."
+
+For the moment there was a disposition to drop Shields in favor of
+some Democrat who was not so closely identified with the Nebraska
+bill. Douglas viewed the situation with undisguised alarm. He urged
+his friends, however, to stick to Shields. "The election of any other
+man," he wrote truthfully, "would be deemed not only a defeat, but an
+ungrateful desertion of him, when all the others who have voted with
+him have been sustained."[517] It was just this fine spirit of loyalty
+that made men his lifelong friends and steadfast followers through
+thick and thin. "Our friends should stand by Shields," he continued,
+"and throw the responsibility on the Whigs of beating him _because he
+was born in Ireland_. The Nebraska fight is over, and Know-Nothingism
+has taken its place as the chief issue in the future. If therefore
+Shields shall be beaten it will [be] apparent to the people & to the
+whole country that a gallant soldier, and a faithful public servant
+has been stricken down because of the place of his birth." This was
+certainly shrewd, and, measured by the tone of American public life,
+not altogether reprehensible, politics. Douglas anticipated that the
+Whigs would nominate Lincoln and "stick to him to the bitter end,"
+while the Free-Soilers and anti-Nebraska Democrats would hold with
+equal persistence to Bissell, in which case either Bissell would
+ultimately get the Whig vote or there would be no election. Sounding
+the trumpet call to battle, Douglas told his friends to nail Shields'
+flag to the mast and never to haul it down. "We are sure to triumph in
+the end on the great issue. Our policy and duty require us to stand
+firm by the issues in the late election, and to make no bargains, no
+alliances, no concessions to any of the _allied isms_."
+
+When the legislature organized in January, the Democrats, to their
+indescribable alarm, found the Fusion forces in control of both
+houses. The election was postponed until February. Meantime Douglas
+cautioned his trusty lieutenant in no event to leave Springfield for
+even a day during the session.[518] On the first ballot for senator,
+Shields received 41 votes; Lincoln 45; Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska
+Democrat, 5; while three Democrats and five Fusionists scattered
+their votes. On the seventh ballot, Shields fell out of the running,
+his place being taken by Matteson. On the tenth ballot, Lincoln having
+withdrawn, the Whig vote concentrated on Trumbull, who, with the aid
+of his unyielding anti-Nebraska following, received the necessary 51
+votes for an election. This result left many heart-burnings among both
+Whigs and Democrats, for the former felt that Lincoln had been
+unjustly sacrificed and the latter looked upon Trumbull as little
+better than a renegade.[519]
+
+The returns from the elections in other Northern States were equally
+discouraging, from the Democratic point of view. Only seven out of
+forty-two who had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill were re-elected.
+In the next House, the Democrats would be in a minority of
+seventy-five.[520] The anti-Nebraska leaders were not slow in claiming
+a substantial victory. Indeed, their demonstrations of satisfaction
+were so long and loud, when Congress reassembled for the short
+session, that many Democrats found it difficult to accept defeat
+good-naturedly. Douglas, for one, would not concede defeat, despite
+the face of the returns. Men like Wade of Ohio, who enjoyed chaffing
+their discomfited opponents, took every occasion to taunt the author
+of the bill which had been the undoing of his party. Douglas met their
+gibes by asking whether there was a single, anti-Nebraska candidate
+from the free States who did not receive the Know-Nothing vote. For
+every Nebraska man who had suffered defeat, two anti-Nebraska
+candidates were defeated by the same causes. "The fact is, and the
+gentleman knows it, that in the free States there has been an
+alliance, I will not say whether holy or unholy, at the recent
+elections. In that alliance they had a crucible into which they poured
+Abolitionism, Maine liquor-lawism, and what there was left of Northern
+Whigism, and then the Protestant feeling against the Catholic, and the
+native feeling against the foreigner. All these elements were melted
+down in that crucible, and the result was what was called the Fusion
+party. That crucible ... was in every instance, a Know-Nothing
+Lodge."[521]
+
+There was, indeed, enough of confusion in some States to give color to
+such assertions. Taken collectively, however, the elections indicated
+unmistakably a widespread revulsion against the administration of
+President Pierce; and it was folly to contend that the Kansas-Nebraska
+bill had not been the prime cause of popular resentment. Douglas was
+so constituted temperamentally that he both could not, and would not,
+confront the situation fairly and squarely. This want of sensitiveness
+to the force of ethical convictions stirring the masses, is the most
+conspicuous and regrettable aspect of his statecraft. Personally
+Douglas had a high sense of honor and duty; in private affairs he was
+scrupulously honest; and if at times he was shifty in politics, he
+played the game with quite as much fairness as those contemporary
+politicians who boasted of the integrity of their motives. He
+preferred to be frank; he meant to deal justly by all men. Even so, he
+failed to understand the impelling power of those moral ideals which
+border on the unattainable. For the transcendentalist in politics and
+philanthropy, he had only contempt. The propulsive force of an idea in
+his own mind depended wholly upon its appeal to his practical
+judgment. His was the philosophy of the attainable. Results that were
+approximately just and fair satisfied him. He was not disposed to
+sacrifice immediate advantage to future gain. His Celtic temperament
+made him think rapidly; and what imagination failed to supply, quick
+wit made good.
+
+When, then, under the pressure of conditions for which he was not
+responsible, he yielded to the demand for a repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he failed to foresee that revulsion of moral sentiment
+that swept over the North. It was perfectly clear to his mind, that
+historically the prohibition of slavery by Federal law had had far
+less practical effect than the North believed. He was convinced that
+nearly all, if not all, of the great West was dedicated to freedom by
+a law which transcended any human enactment. Why, then, hold to a mere
+form, when the substance could be otherwise secured? Why should
+Northerner affront Southerner by imperious demands, when the same end
+might be attained by a compromise which would not cost either dear?
+Possibly he was not unwilling to let New Mexico become slave
+Territory, if the greater Northwest should become free by the
+operation of the same principle. Besides, there was the very tangible
+advantage of holding his party together by a sensible agreement, for
+the sake of which each faction yielded something.
+
+Douglas was not blind to the palpable truth that the masses are swayed
+more by sentiment than logic: indeed, he knew well enough how to run
+through the gamut of popular emotions. What did escape him was the
+almost religious depth of the anti-slavery sentiment in that very
+stock from which he himself had sprung. It was not a sentiment that
+could be bargained away. There was much in it of the inexorable
+obstinacy of the Puritan faith. Verging close upon fanaticism at
+times, it swept away considerations of time and place, and overwhelmed
+appeals to expediency. Even where the anti-slavery spirit did not take
+on this extreme form, those whom it possessed were reluctant to yield
+one jot or tittle of the substantial gains which freedom had made.
+
+It is probable that with the growing sectionalism, North and South
+would soon have been at odds over the disposition of the greater
+Northwest. Sooner or later, the South must have demanded the repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise, or have sought large concessions elsewhere.
+But it is safe to say that no one except Douglas could have been found
+in 1854, who possessed the requisite parliamentary qualities, the
+personal following, the influence in all sections,--and withal, the
+audacity, to propose and carry through the policy associated with the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. The responsibility for this measure rested in a
+peculiar sense upon his shoulders.
+
+It was in the course of this post-election discussion of February 23d,
+that Wade insinuated that mercenary motives were the key to Douglas's
+conduct. "Have the people of Illinois forgotten that injunction of
+more than heavenly wisdom, that 'Where a man's treasure is, there will
+his heart be also'?" To this unwarranted charge, which was current in
+Abolitionist circles, Douglas made a circumstantial denial. "I am not
+the owner of a slave and never have been, nor have I ever received,
+and appropriated to my own use, one dollar earned by slave-labor." For
+the first time, he spoke of the will of Colonel Martin and of the
+property which he had bequeathed to his daughter and to her children.
+With very genuine emotion, which touched even his enemies, he added,
+"God forbid that I should be understood by anyone as being willing to
+cast from me any responsibility that now does, or has ever attached to
+any member of my family. So long as life shall last--and I shall
+cherish with religious veneration the memories and virtues of the
+sainted mother of my children--so long as my heart shall be filled
+with parental solicitude for the happiness of those motherless
+infants, I implore my enemies who so ruthlessly invade the domestic
+sanctuary, to do me the favor to believe, that I have no wish, no
+aspiration, to be considered purer or better than she, who was, or
+they, who are, slaveholders."[522]
+
+When the new Congress met in the fall of 1855, the anti-Nebraska men
+drew closer together and gradually assumed the name "Republican."
+Their first victory was the election of their candidate for the
+Speakership. They were disciplined by astute leaders under the
+pressure of disorders in Kansas. Before the session closed, they
+developed a remarkable degree of cohesion, while the body of their
+supporters in the Northern States assumed alarming proportions. The
+party was not wholly, perhaps not mainly, the product of humanitarian
+sentiment. The adherence of old-line Whig politicians like Seward
+suggests that there was some alloy in the pure gold of Republicanism.
+Such leaders were willing to make political capital out of the
+breakdown of popular sovereignty in Kansas.[523] They were too shrewd
+to stake the fortune of the nascent party on a bold, constructive
+policy. They preferred to play a waiting game. Events in Kansas came
+to their aid in ways that they could not have anticipated.
+
+While this re-alignment of parties was in progress, the presidential
+year drew on apace. It behooved the Democrats to gather their
+scattered forces. The advantage of organization was theirs; but they
+suffered from desertions. The morale of the party was weakened. To
+check further desertions and to restore confidence, was the aim of the
+party whips. No one had more at stake than Douglas. He was on trial
+with his party. Conscious of his responsibilities, he threw himself
+into the light skirmishing in Congress which always precedes a
+presidential campaign. In this partisan warfare he was clever, but not
+altogether admirable. One could wish that he had been less
+uncharitable and less denunciatory; but political victories are seldom
+won by unaided virtue.
+
+From the outset his anti-Nebraska colleague was the object of his
+bitterest gibes, for Trumbull typified the deserter, who was causing
+such alarm in the ranks of the Democrats. "I understand that my
+colleague has told the Senate," said Douglas contemptuously, "that he
+comes here as a Democrat. Sir, that fact will be news to the Democracy
+of Illinois. I undertake to assert there is not a Democrat in Illinois
+who will not say that such a statement is a libel upon the Democracy
+of that State. When he was elected he received every Abolition vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. He received every Know-Nothing vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. So far as I am advised and believe, he
+received no vote except from persons allied to Abolitionism or
+Know-Nothingism. He came here as the Know-Nothing-Abolition candidate,
+in opposition to the united Democracy of his State, and to the
+Democratic candidate."[524]
+
+When to desertion was added association with "Black Republicans,"
+Douglas found his vocabulary inadequate to express his scorn. Like
+most Democrats he was sensitive on the subject of party
+nomenclature.[525] "Republican" was a term which had associations with
+the very father of Democracy, though the party had long since dropped
+the hyphenated title. But this new, so-called Republican party had
+wisely dropped the prefix "national," suggested Douglas, because "it
+is a purely sectional party, with a platform which cannot cross the
+Ohio river, and a creed which inevitably brings the North and South
+into hostile collision." In view of the emphasis which their platform
+put upon the negro, Douglas thought that consistency required the
+substitution of the word "Black" for "National." The Democratic party,
+on the other hand, had no sympathy with those who believed in making
+the negro the social and political equal of the white man. "Our people
+are a white people; our State is a white State; and we mean to
+preserve the race pure, without any mixture with the negro. If you,"
+turning to his Republican opponents, "wish your blood and that of the
+African mingled in the same channel, we trust that you will keep at a
+respectful distance from us, and not try to force that on us as one of
+your domestic institutions."[526] In such wise, Douglas labored to
+befog and discredit the issues for which the new party stood. The
+demagogue in him overmastered the statesman.
+
+Douglas believed himself--and with good reason--to be the probable
+nominee of his party in the approaching presidential election. Several
+State conventions had already declared for him. There was no other
+Democrat, save President Pierce, whose name was so intimately
+associated with the policy of the party as expressed in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. Yet, while both were in favor at the South,
+neither Pierce nor Douglas was likely to secure the full party vote at
+the North. This consideration led to a diversion in favor of James
+Buchanan, of Pennsylvania. The peculiar availability of this
+well-known Democrat consisted in his having been on a foreign mission
+when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was under fire. Still, Buchanan was
+reported "sound" on the essential features of this measure. Before the
+national convention met, a well-organized movement was under way to
+secure the nomination of the Pennsylvanian.[527] Equally
+well-organized and even more noisy and demonstrative was the following
+of Douglas, as the delegates began to assemble at Cincinnati during
+the first week in June.
+
+The first ballot in the convention must have been a grievous
+disappointment to Douglas and his friends. While Buchanan received
+135 votes and Pierce 122, he could muster only 33. Only the Missouri
+and Illinois delegations cast their full vote for him. Of the slave
+States, only Missouri and Kentucky gave him any support. As the
+balloting continued, however, both Buchanan and Douglas gained at the
+expense of Pierce. After the fourteenth ballot, Pierce withdrew, and
+the bulk of his support was turned over to Douglas. Cass, the fourth
+candidate before the convention, had been from the first out of the
+running, his highest vote being only seven. On the sixteenth ballot,
+Buchanan received 168 and Douglas 122. Though Buchanan now had a
+majority of the votes of the convention, he still lacked thirty of the
+two-thirds required for a nomination.[528]
+
+It was at this juncture that Douglas telegraphed to his friend
+Richardson, who was chairman of the Illinois delegation and a
+prominent figure in the convention, instructing him to withdraw his
+name. The announcement was received with loud protestations. The
+dispatch was then read: "If the withdrawal of my name will contribute
+to the harmony of our party or the success of our cause, I hope you
+will not hesitate to take the step ... if Mr. Pierce or Mr. Buchanan,
+or any other statesman who is faithful to the great issues involved in
+the contest, shall receive a majority of the convention, I earnestly
+hope that all my friends will unite in insuring him two-thirds, and
+then making his nomination unanimous. Let no personal considerations
+disturb the harmony or endanger the triumph of our principles."[529]
+Very reluctantly the supporters of Douglas obeyed their chief, and on
+the seventeenth ballot, James Buchanan received the unanimous vote of
+the convention. For the second time Douglas lost the nomination of his
+party.
+
+Douglas bore himself admirably. At a mass-meeting in Washington,[530]
+he made haste to pledge his support to the nominee of the convention.
+His generous words of commendation of Buchanan, as a man possessing
+"wisdom and nerve to enforce a firm and undivided execution, of the
+laws" of the majority of the people of Kansas, were uttered without
+any apparent misgivings. Prophetic they certainly were not. Douglas
+could approve the platform unqualifiedly, for it was a virtual
+indorsement of the principle which he had proclaimed from the
+housetops for the greater part of two years. "The American Democracy,"
+read the main article in the newly adopted resolutions, "recognize and
+adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the
+Territories of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying the only sound and
+safe solution of the slavery question, upon which the great national
+idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined
+conservation of the Union, and non-interference of Congress with
+slavery in the Territories or in the District of Columbia."[531]
+Douglas deemed it a cause for profound rejoicing that the party was
+at last united upon principles which could be avowed everywhere,
+North, South, East, and West. As the only national party in the
+Republic, the Democracy had a great mission to perform, for in his
+opinion "no less than the integrity of the Constitution, the
+preservation and perpetuity of the Union," depended upon the result of
+this election.[532]
+
+No man could have been more magnanimous under defeat and so little
+resentful at a personal slight. His manly conduct received favorable
+comment on all sides.[533] He was still the foremost figure in the
+Democratic party. To be sure, James Buchanan was the titular leader,
+but he stood upon a platform erected by his rival. His letter of
+acceptance left no doubt in the minds of all readers that he indorsed
+the letter and the spirit of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.[534]
+
+A fortnight later the Republican national convention met at
+Philadelphia, and with great enthusiasm adopted a platform declaring
+it to be the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories "those
+twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." Even in this new
+party, availability dictated the choice of a presidential candidate.
+The real leaders of the party were passed over in favor of John C.
+Frémont, whose romantic career was believed to be worth many votes.
+Pitted against Buchanan and Frémont, was Millard Fillmore who had been
+nominated months before by the American party, and who subsequently
+received the indorsement of what was left of the moribund Whig
+party.[535]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 507: This aspect of party has been treated at greater length
+in an article by the writer entitled "The Nationalizing Influence of
+Party," _Tale Review_, November; 1906.]
+
+[Footnote 508: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 264-265.]
+
+[Footnote 509: _Ibid._, p. 271.]
+
+[Footnote 510: _Ibid._, p. 269.]
+
+[Footnote 511: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 98-99.]
+
+[Footnote 512: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 641-643.]
+
+[Footnote 513: See items scattered through the Illinois _State
+Register_ for these exciting weeks.]
+
+[Footnote 514: See Illinois State _Register_, October 6, 1854, and
+subsequent issues.]
+
+[Footnote 515: Nearly every biographer of Lincoln has noted this
+apparent breach of agreement on the part of Douglas, but none has
+questioned the accuracy of the story, though the unimaginative Lamon
+betrays some misgivings, as he records Lincoln's course after the
+"Peoria truce." See Lamon, Lincoln, p. 358. The statement of Irwin (in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 329) does not seem credible, in the
+light of all the attendant circumstances.]
+
+[Footnote 516: _Whig Almanac_ 1855.]
+
+[Footnote 517: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 518: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 519: Davidson and Stuvé, History of Illinois, pp. 689-690;
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 275-276.]
+
+[Footnote 520: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 521: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 216.]
+
+[Footnote 522: Globe, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 330.]
+
+[Footnote 523: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 97-98,
+130, 196.]
+
+[Footnote 524: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 655.]
+
+[Footnote 525: _Ibid._, App., p. 391.]
+
+[Footnote 526: _Globe,_34 Cong., 1 Sess., App. p. 392.]
+
+[Footnote 527: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 169-171.]
+
+[Footnote 528: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 265. Douglas
+received 73 votes from the slave States and Buchanan 47; Buchanan
+received 28 votes in New England, Douglas 13; Buchanan received 41
+votes from the Northwest, Douglas 19. The loss of Buchanan in the
+South was more than made good by his votes from the Middle Atlantic
+States.]
+
+[Footnote 529: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 448-449; Proceedings of the
+National Democratic Convention, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 530: Washington _Union_, June 7, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 531: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 267.]
+
+[Footnote 532: Washington _Union_, June 7, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 533: Correspondent to Cincinnati _Enquirer_, June 12, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 534: The letter read, "This legislation is founded upon
+principles as ancient as free government itself, and in accordance
+with them has simply declared that the people of a Territory like
+those of a State, shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall or
+shall not exist within their limits. The Kansas-Nebraska Act does no
+more than give the force of law to this elementary principle of
+self-government, declaring it to be 'the true intent and meaning of
+this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to
+exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
+to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
+subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' How vain and
+illusory would any other principle prove in practice in regard to the
+Territories," etc. Cincinnati _Enquirer_, June 22, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 535: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 269-274.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE TESTING OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+
+The author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill doubtless anticipated a gradual
+and natural occupation of the new Territories by settlers like those
+home-seekers who had taken up government lands in Iowa and other
+States of the Northwest. In the course of time, it was to be expected,
+such communities would form their own social and political
+institutions, and so determine whether they would permit or forbid
+slave-labor. By that rapid, and yet on the whole strangely
+conservative, American process the people of the Territories would
+become politically self-conscious and ready for statehood. Not all at
+once, but gradually, a politically self-sufficient entity would come
+into being. Such had been the history of American colonization; it
+seemed the part of wise statesmanship to follow the trend of that
+history.
+
+Theoretically popular sovereignty, as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act, was not an advance over the doctrine of Cass and Dickinson. It
+professed to be the same which had governed Congress in organizing
+Utah and New Mexico. Nevertheless, popular sovereignty had an
+artificial quality which squatter sovereignty lacked. The relation
+between Congress and the people of the Territories, in the matter of
+slavery, was now to be determined not so much by actual conditions as
+by an abstract principle. Federal policy was indoctrinated.
+
+There was, too, this vital difference between squatter sovereignty in
+Utah and New Mexico and popular sovereignty in Nebraska and Kansas:
+the former were at least partially inhabited and enjoyed some degree
+of social and political order; the latter were practically
+uninhabited. It was one thing to grant control over all domestic
+concerns to a population _in esse_, and another and quite different
+thing to grant control to a people _in posse_. In the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act hypothetical communities were endowed with the capacity of
+self-government, and told to decide for themselves a question which
+would become a burning issue the very moment that the first settlers
+set foot in the Territories. Congress attempted thus to solve an
+equation without a single known quantity.
+
+Moreover, slavery was no longer a matter of local concern. Doubtless
+it was once so regarded; but the time had passed when the conscience
+of the North would acquiesce in a _laissez faire_ policy. By force of
+circumstances slavery had become a national issue. Ardent haters of
+the institution were not willing that its extension or restriction
+should be left to a fraction of the nation, artificially organized as
+a Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act prejudiced the minds of many
+against the doctrine, however sound in theory it may have seemed, by
+unsettling what the North regarded as its vested right in the free
+territory north of the line of the Missouri Compromise. The Act made
+the political atmosphere electric. The conditions for obtaining a
+calm, dispassionate judgment on the domestic concern of chief
+interest, were altogether lacking.
+
+It was everywhere conceded that Nebraska would be a free Territory.
+The eyes of the nation were focused upon Kansas, which was from the
+first debatable ground. A rush of settlers from the Northwest joined
+by pioneers from Kentucky and Missouri followed the opening up of the
+new lands. As Douglas had foretold, the tide of immigration held back
+by Indian treaties now poured in. The characteristic features of
+American colonization seemed about to repeat themselves. So far the
+movement of population was for the most part spontaneous. Land-hunger,
+not the political destiny of the West, drove men to locate their
+claims on the Kansas and the Missouri. By midsummer colonists of a
+somewhat different stripe appeared. Sent out under the auspices of the
+Emigrant Aid Company, they were to win Kansas for freedom at the same
+time that they subdued the wilderness. It was a species of assisted
+emigration which was new in the history of American colonization,
+outside the annals of missionary effort. The chief promoter of this
+enterprise was a thrifty, Massachusetts Yankee, who saw no reason why
+crusading and business should not go hand in hand. Kansas might be
+wrested from the slave-power at the same time that returns on invested
+funds were secured.
+
+The effect of these developments upon the aggressive pro-slavery
+people of Missouri is not easy to describe. Hitherto they had assumed
+that Kansas would become a slave Territory in the natural order of
+events. This was the prevailing Southern opinion. At once the people
+of western Missouri were put upon the defensive. Blue lodges were
+formed for the purpose of carrying slavery into Kansas. Appeals were
+circulated in the slave-holding States for colonists and funds.
+Passions were inflamed by rumors which grew as they stalked abroad.
+The peaceful occupation of Kansas was at an end. Popular sovereignty
+was to be tested under abnormal conditions.
+
+When the election of territorial delegates to Congress occurred, in
+the late fall, a fatal defect in the organic law was disclosed, to
+which many of the untoward incidents of succeeding months may be
+ascribed. The territorial act conferred the right of voting at the
+first elections upon all free, white, male inhabitants, twenty-one
+years of age and actually resident in the Territory.[536] Here was an
+unfortunate ambiguity. What was actual residence? Every other act
+organizing a territorial government was definite on this point,
+permitting only those to vote who were living in the proposed
+Territory, at the time of the passage of the act. The omission in the
+case of Kansas and Nebraska is easily accounted for. Neither had legal
+residents when the act was passed. Indeed, this defect bears witness
+to the fact that Congress was legislating, not for actual, but for
+hypothetical communities. The consequences were far-reaching, for at
+the very first election, it was charged that frauds were practiced by
+bands of Missourians, who had crossed the border only to aid the
+pro-slavery cause. Not much was made of these charges, as no
+particular interest attached to the election.
+
+Far different was the election of members of the territorial
+legislature in the following spring. On all hands it was agreed that
+this legislature would determine whether Kansas should be slave or
+free soil. It was regrettable that Governor Reeder postponed the
+taking of the census until February, since by mid-winter many
+settlers, who had staked their claims, returned home for the cold
+season, intending to return with their families in the early spring.
+This again was a characteristic feature of frontier history.[537] In
+March, the governor issued his proclamation of election, giving only
+three weeks' notice. Of those who had returned home, only residents of
+Missouri and Iowa were able to participate in the election of March
+30th, by hastily recrossing into Kansas. Governor Reeder did his best
+to guard against fraud. In his instructions to the judges of election,
+he warned them that a voter must be "an actual resident"; that is,
+"must have commenced an active inhabitancy, which he actually intends
+to continue permanently, and must have made the Territory his dwelling
+place to the exclusion of any other home."[538] Still, it was not to
+be expected that _bona fide_ residents could be easily ascertained in
+communities which had sprung up like mushrooms. A hastily constructed
+shack served all the purposes of the would-be voter; and, in last
+analysis, judges of elections had to rest content with declarations of
+intentions. Those who crossed into Kansas after the governor's
+proclamation and endeavored to continue actual inhabitancy, were with
+difficulty distinguished from those who now crossed for the first
+time, under a similar pretext. As Douglas subsequently contended with
+much force, the number of votes cast in excess of the census returns
+did not in itself prove wholesale fraud.[539]
+
+Under such liability to deception and misjudgment, the territorial
+authorities held the election which was likely to determine the status
+of Kansas with respect to slavery. Both parties were playing for great
+stakes; passion and violence were the almost inevitable outcome. Both
+parties contained desperadoes, who invariably come to the surface in
+the general mixing which occurs on the frontier. Both parties committed
+frauds at the polls. But the most serious gravamina have been laid at
+the door of those Blue Lodges of Missouri which deliberately sought to
+secure the election of pro-slavery candidates by fair means or foul.
+The people of western Missouri had come to believe that the fate of
+slavery in their own Commonwealth hinged upon the future of Kansas. It
+was commonly believed that after Kansas, Missouri would be
+abolitionized. It was, therefore, with the fierce, unreasoning energy
+of defenders of their own institutions, that Blue Lodges organized
+their crusade for Kansas.[540] On election day armed bands of
+Missourians crossed into Kansas and polled a heavy vote for the
+pro-slavery candidates, in the teeth of indignant remonstrances.[541]
+
+The further history of popular sovereignty in Kansas must be lightly
+touched upon, for it is the reflex action in the halls of Congress
+that interests the student of Douglas's career. Twenty-eight of the
+thirty-nine members of the first territorial legislature were men of
+pronounced pro-slavery views; eleven were anti-slavery candidates. In
+seven districts, where protests had been filed, the governor ordered
+new elections. Three of those first elected were returned, six were
+new men of anti-slavery proclivities. But when the legislature met,
+these new elections were set aside and I the first elections were
+declared valid.[542]
+
+In complete control of the legislature, the pro-slavery party
+proceeded to write slavery into the law of the Territory. In their
+eagerness to establish slavery permanently, these legislative Hotspurs
+quite overshot the mark, creating offenses and affixing penalties of
+doubtful constitutionality.[543] Meanwhile the census of February
+reported but one hundred ninety-two slaves in a total population of
+eight thousand six hundred.[544] Those who had migrated from the
+South, were not as a rule of the slave-holding class. Those who
+possessed slaves shrank from risking their property in Kansas, until
+its future were settled.[545] Eventually, the climate was to prove an
+even greater obstacle to the transplantation of the slave-labor system
+into Kansas.
+
+Foiled in their hope of winning the territorial legislature, the
+free-State settlers in Kansas resolved upon a hazardous course.
+Believing the legislature an illegal body, they called a convention to
+draft a constitution with which they proposed to apply for admission
+to the Union as a free State. Robinson, the leader of the free-State
+party, was wise in such matters by reason of his experience in
+California. Reeder, who had been displaced as governor and had gone
+over to the opposition, lent his aid to the project; and
+ex-Congressman Lane, formerly of Indiana, gave liberally of his
+vehement energy to the cause. After successive conventions in which
+the various free-State elements were worked into a fairly consistent
+mixture, the Topeka convention launched a constitution and a
+free-State government. Unofficially the supporters of the new
+government took measures for its defense. In the following spring,
+Governor Robinson sent his first message to the State legislature in
+session at Topeka; and Reeder and Lane were chosen senators for the
+inchoate Commonwealth.[546]
+
+Meantime Governor Shannon had succeeded Reeder as executive of the
+territorial government at Shawnee Mission. The aspect of affairs was
+ominous. Popular sovereignty had ended in a dangerous dualism. Two
+governments confronted each other in bitter hostility. There were
+untamed individuals in either camp, who were not averse to a decision
+by wager of battle.[547]
+
+Such was the situation in Kansas, when Douglas reached Washington in
+February, after a protracted illness.[548] The President had already
+discussed the Kansas imbroglio in a special message; but the
+Democratic majority in the Senate showed some reluctance to follow the
+lead of the administration. From the Democrats in the House not much
+could be expected, because of the strength of the Republicans. The
+party awaited its leader. Upon his appearance, all matters relating to
+Kansas were referred to the Committee on Territories. The situation
+called for unusual qualities of leadership. How would the author of
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act face the palpable breakdown of his policy?
+
+With his customary dispatch, Douglas reported on the 12th of
+March.[549] The majority report consumed two hours in the reading;
+Senator Collamer stated the position of the minority in half the
+time.[550] Evidently the chairman was aware where the burden of proof
+lay. Douglas took substantially the same ground as that taken by the
+President in his special message, but he discussed the issues boldly
+in his own vigorous way. No one doubted that he had reached his
+conclusions independently.
+
+The report began with a constitutional argument in defense of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act. As a contribution to the development of the
+doctrine of popular sovereignty, the opening paragraphs deserve more
+than passing notice. The distinct advance in Douglas's thought
+consisted in this: that he explicitly refused to derive the power to
+organize Territories from that provision of the Constitution which
+gave Congress "power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to
+the United States." The word "territory" here was used in its
+geographical sense to designate the public domain, not to indicate a
+political community. Rather was the power to be derived from the
+authority of Congress to adopt necessary and proper means to admit new
+States into the Union. But beyond the necessary and proper
+organization of a territorial government with reference to ultimate
+statehood, Congress might not go. Clearly, then, Congress might not
+impose conditions and restrictions upon a Territory which would
+prevent its entering the Union on an equality with the other States.
+From the formation of the Union, each State had been left free to
+decide the question of slavery for itself. Congress, therefore, might
+not decide the question for prospective States. Recognizing this, the
+framers of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had relegated the discussion of the
+slavery question to the people, who were to form a territorial
+government under cover of the organic act.[551]
+
+This was an ingenious argument. It was in accord with the utterances
+of some of the weightiest intellects in our constitutional history.
+But it was not in accord with precedent. There was hardly a
+territorial act that had emerged from Douglas's committee room, which
+had not imposed restrictions not binding on the older Commonwealths.
+
+Having given thus a constitutional sanction to the principle of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, the report unhesitatingly denounced that "vast
+moneyed corporation," created for the purpose of controlling the
+domestic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen
+hundred miles away.[552] This was as flagrant an act of intervention
+as though France or England had interfered for a similar purpose in
+Cuba, for "in respect to everything which affects its domestic policy
+and internal concerns, each State stands in the relation of a foreign
+power to every other State." The obvious retort to this extraordinary
+assertion was, that Kansas was only a Territory, and not a State.
+Douglas then made this "mammoth moneyed corporation" the scapegoat for
+all that had happened in Kansas. The Missouri Blue Lodges were
+defensive organizations, called into existence by the fear that the
+"abolitionizing" of Kansas was the prelude to a warfare upon slavery
+in Missouri. The violence and bloodshed in Kansas were "the natural
+and inevitable consequences of such extraordinary systems of
+emigration."[553]
+
+Such _ex post facto_ assertions did not mend matters in Kansas,
+however much they may have relieved the author of the report. It
+remained to deal with the existing situation. The report took the
+ground that the legislature of Kansas was a legal body and had been so
+recognized by Governor Reeder. Neither the alleged irregularity of the
+elections, nor other objections, could diminish its legislative
+authority. Pro-tests against the election returns had been filed in
+only seven out of eighteen districts. Ten out of thirteen councilmen,
+and seventeen out of twenty-six representatives, held their seats by
+virtue of the governor's certificate. Even if it were assumed that the
+second elections in the seven districts were wrongly invalidated by
+the legislature, its action was still the action of a lawful
+legislature, possessing in either house a quorum of duly certificated
+members. This was a lawyer's plea. Technically it was unanswerable.
+
+Having taken this position, Douglas very properly refused to pass
+judgment on the laws of the legislature. By the very terms of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, Congress had confided the power to enact local
+laws to the people of the Territories. If the validity of these laws
+should be doubted, it was for the courts of justice and not for
+Congress to decide the question.[554]
+
+Throughout the report, the question was not once raised, whether the
+legislature really reflected the sentiment of a majority of the
+settlers of Kansas. Douglas assumed that it was truly representative.
+This attitude is not surprising, when one recalls his predilections
+and the conflict of evidence on essential points in the controversy.
+Nevertheless, this attitude was unfortunate, for it made him unfair
+toward the free-State settlers, with whom by temper and training he
+had far more in common than with the Missouri emigrants. Could he have
+cut himself loose from his bias, he would have recognized the
+free-State men as the really trustworthy builders of a Commonwealth.
+But having taken his stand on the legality of the territorial
+legislature, he persisted in regarding the free-State movement as a
+seditious combination to subvert the territorial government
+established by Congress. To the free-State men he would not accord any
+inherent, sovereign right to annul the laws and resist the authority
+of the territorial government.[555] The right of self-government was
+derived only from the Constitution through the organic act passed by
+Congress. And then he used that expression which was used with telling
+effect against the theory of popular sovereignty: "The sovereignty of
+a Territory remains in abeyance, suspended in the United States, in
+trust for the people, until they shall be admitted into the Union as a
+State."[556] If this was true, then popular sovereignty after all
+meant nothing more than local self-government, the measure of which
+was to be determined by Congress. If Congress left slavery to local
+determination, it was only for expediency's sake, and not by reason of
+any constitutional obligation.
+
+Douglas found a vindication of his Kansas-Nebraska Act in the peaceful
+history of Nebraska, "to which the emigrant aid societies did not
+extend their operations, and into which the stream of emigration was
+permitted to flow in its usual and natural channels."[557] He fixed
+the ultimate responsibility for the disorders in Kansas upon those who
+opposed the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and who, "failing to
+accomplish their purpose in the halls of Congress, and under the
+authority of the Constitution, immediately resorted in their
+respective States to unusual and extraordinary means to control the
+political destinies and shape the domestic institutions of Kansas, in
+defiance of the wishes and regardless of the rights of the people of
+that Territory as guaranteed by their organic law."[558]
+
+A practical recommendation accompanied the report. It was proposed to
+authorize the territorial legislature to provide for a constitutional
+convention to frame a State constitution, as soon as a census should
+indicate that there were ninety-three thousand four hundred and twenty
+inhabitants.[559] This bill was in substantial accord with the
+President's recommendations.
+
+The minority report was equally positive as to the cause of the
+trouble in Kansas and the proper remedy. "Repeal the act of 1854,
+organize Kansas anew as a free Territory and all will be put right."
+But if Congress was bent on continuing the experiment, then the
+Territory must be reorganized with proper safeguards against illegal
+voting. The only alternative was to admit the Territory as a State
+with its free constitution.
+
+The issue could not have been more sharply drawn. Popular sovereignty
+as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was put upon the defensive.
+Republican senators made haste to press their advantage. Sumner
+declared that the true issue was smothered in the majority report, but
+stood forth as a pillar of fire in the report of the minority.
+Trumbull forced the attack, while Douglas was absent, without waiting
+for the printing of the reports. It needed only this apparent
+discourtesy to bring Douglas into the arena. An unseemly wrangle
+between the Illinois senators followed, in the course of which Douglas
+challenged his colleague to resign and stand with him for re-election
+before the next session of the legislature.[560] Trumbull wisely
+declined to accept the risk.
+
+On the 20th of March, Douglas addressed the Senate in reply to
+Trumbull.[561] Nothing that he said shed any new light on the
+controversy. He had not changed his angle of vision. He had only the
+old arguments with which to combat the assertion that "Kansas had been
+conquered and a legislature imposed by violence." But the speech
+differed from the report, just as living speech must differ from the
+printed page. Every assertion was pointed by his vigorous intonations;
+every argument was accentuated by his forceful personality. The report
+was a lawyer's brief; the speech was the flexible utterance of an
+accomplished debater, bent upon a personal as well as an argumentative
+victory.
+
+Even hostile critics were forced to yield to a certain admiration for
+"the Little Giant." The author of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ watched him from
+her seat in the Senate gallery, with intense interest; and though
+writing for readers, who like herself hated the man for his supposed
+servility to the South, she said with unwonted objectivity, "This
+Douglas is the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, and thick-set,
+every inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has a good head
+and face, thick black hair, heavy black brows and a keen eye. His
+figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the animation which
+constantly pervades it; as it is, it rather gives poignancy to his
+peculiar appearance; he has a small, handsome hand, moreover, and a
+graceful as well as forcible mode of using it.... He has two
+requisites of a debater--a melodious voice and a clear, sharply
+defined enunciation.... His forte in debating is his power of
+mystifying the point. With the most off-hand assured airs in the
+world, and a certain appearance of honest superiority, like one who
+has a regard for you and wishes to set you right on one or two little
+matters, he proceeds to set up some point which is _not_ that in
+question, but only a family connection of it, and this point he
+attacks with the very best of logic and language; he charges upon it
+horse and foot, runs it down, tramples it in the dust, and then turns
+upon you with--'Sir, there is your argument! Did not I tell you so?
+You see it is all stuff;' and if you have allowed yourself to be so
+dazzled by his quickness as to forget that the routed point is not,
+after all, the one in question, you suppose all is over with it.
+Moreover, he contrives to mingle up so many stinging allusions to so
+many piquant personalities that by the time he has done his
+mystification a dozen others are ready and burning to spring on their
+feet to repel some direct or indirect attack, all equally wide of the
+point."[562]
+
+Douglas paid dearly for some of these personal shots. He had never
+forgiven Sumner for his share in "the Appeal of the Independent
+Democrats." He lost no opportunity to attribute unworthy motives to
+this man, whose radical views on slavery he never could comprehend.
+More than once he insinuated that the Senator from Massachusetts and
+other Black Republicans were fabricating testimony relating to Kansas
+for political purposes. When Sumner, many weeks later, rose to address
+the Senate on "the Crime against Kansas," he labored under the double
+weight of personal wrongs and the wrongs of a people. The veteran Cass
+pronounced his speech "the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever
+grated on the ears of the members of this high body."[563] Even
+Sumner's friends listened to him with surprise and regret. Of Douglas
+he had this to say:
+
+"As the Senator from South Carolina is the Don Quixote, the Senator
+from Illinois is the squire of slavery, its very Sancho Panza, ready
+to do all its humiliating offices. This Senator in his labored
+address, vindicating his labored report--piling one mass of elaborate
+error upon another mass--constrained himself, as you will remember, to
+unfamiliar decencies of speech.... I will not stop to repel the
+imputations which he cast upon myself.... Standing on this floor, the
+Senator issued his rescript, requiring submission to the Usurped Power
+of Kansas; and this was accompanied by a manner--all his own--such as
+befits the tyrannical threat.... He is bold. He shrinks from nothing.
+Like Danton, he may cry, _'l'audace! l'audace! tonjours l'audace!'_
+but even his audacity cannot compass this work. The Senator copies the
+British officer, who, with boastful swagger, said that with the hilt
+of his sword he would cram the 'stamps' down the throats of the
+American people, and he will meet a similar failure."[564]
+
+The retort of Douglas was not calculated to turn away wrath. He called
+attention to the fact that these gross insults were not uttered in the
+heat of indignation, but "conned over, written with cool, deliberate
+malignity, repeated from night to night in order to catch the
+appropriate grace." He ridiculed the excessive self-esteem of Sumner
+in words that moved the Senate to laughter; and then completed his
+vindictive assault by charging Sumner with perfidy. Had he not sworn
+to obey the Constitution, and then, forsooth, refused to support the
+enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law?[565]
+
+Sumner replied in a passion, "Let the Senator remember hereafter that
+the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not the proper emblems of senatorial
+debate. Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and the
+ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body.... No person
+with the upright form of a man can be allowed, without violation of
+all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of
+offensive personality. Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at
+least, on this floor. The noisome, squat, and nameless animal, to
+which I refer, is not a proper model for an American Senator. Will the
+Senator from Illinois take notice?" And upon Douglas's unworthy
+retort that he certainly would not imitate the Senator in that
+capacity, Stunner said insultingly, "Mr. President, again the Senator
+has switched his tongue, and again he fills the Senate with its
+offensive odor."[566]
+
+Two days later Brooks made his assault on Sumner in the Senate
+chamber. Sumner's recollection was, that on recovering consciousness,
+he recognized among those about him, but offering no assistance,
+Senators Douglas and Toombs, and between them, his assailant.[567] It
+was easy for ill-disposed persons to draw unfortunate inferences from
+this sick-bed testimony. Douglas felt that an explanation was expected
+from him. In a frank, explicit statement he told his colleagues that
+he was in the reception room of the Senate when the assault occurred.
+Hearing what was happening, he rose immediately to his feet to enter
+the chamber and put an end to the affray. But, on second thought, he
+realized that his motives would be misconstrued if he entered the
+hall. When the affair was over, he went in with the crowd. He was not
+near Brooks at any time, and he was not with Senator Toombs, except
+perhaps as he passed him on leaving the chamber. He did not know that
+any attack upon Mr. Sumner was purposed "then or at any other time,
+here or at any other place."[568] Still, it is to be regretted that
+Douglas did not act on his first, manly instincts and do all that lay
+in his power to end this brutal assault, regardless of possible
+misconstructions.
+
+Disgraceful as these scenes in Congress were, they were less ominous
+than events which were passing in Kansas. Clashes between pro-slavery
+and free-State settlers had all but resulted in civil war in the
+preceding fall. An unusually severe winter had followed, which not
+only cooled the passions of all for a while, but convinced many a
+slave-holder of the futility of introducing African slaves into a
+climate, where on occasion the mercury would freeze in the
+thermometer. In the spring hostilities were resumed. Under cover of
+executing certain writs in Lawrence, Sheriff Jones and a posse of
+ruffians took revenge upon that stronghold of the Emigrant Aid
+Society, by destroying the newspaper offices, burning some public
+buildings, and pillaging the town. Three days after the sack of
+Lawrence, and just two days after the assault upon Sumner in the
+Senate, John Brown and his sons executed the decree of Almighty God,
+by slaying in cold blood five pro-slavery settlers on the
+Pottawatomie. Civil war had begun in Kansas.[569]
+
+If remedial measures for Kansas were needed at the beginning of
+Congress, much more were they needed now. The bill reported by Douglas
+for the eventual admission of Kansas had commended itself neither to
+the leaders, nor to the rank and file, of the party. There was a
+general disposition to await the outcome of the national party
+conventions, before legislating for Kansas. Douglas made repeated
+efforts to expedite his bill, but his failure to secure the Democratic
+nomination seemed to weaken his leadership. Pressure from without
+finally spurred the Democratic members of Congress to action. The
+enthusiasm of the Republicans in convention and their confident
+expectation of carrying many States at the North, warned the
+Democrats that they must make some effort to allay the disturbances in
+Kansas. The initiative was taken by Senator Toombs, who drafted a bill
+conceding far more to Northern sentiment than any yet proposed. It
+provided that, after a census had been taken, delegates to a
+constitutional convention should be chosen on the date of the
+presidential election in November. Five competent persons, appointed
+by the President with the consent of the Senate, were to supervise the
+census and the subsequent registration of voters. The convention thus
+chosen was to assemble in December to frame a State constitution and
+government.[570]
+
+The Toombs bill, with several others, and with numerous amendments,
+was referred to the Committee on Territories. Frequent conferences
+followed at Douglas's residence, in which the recognized leaders of
+the party participated.[571] It was decided to support the Toombs bill
+in a slightly amended form and to make a party measure of it.[572]
+Prudence warned against attempting to elect Buchanan on a policy of
+merely negative resistance to the Topeka movement.[573] The Republican
+members of Congress were to be forced to make a show of hands on a
+measure which promised substantial relief to the people of Kansas.
+
+In his report of June 30th, Douglas discussed the various measures
+that had been proposed by Whigs and Republicans, but found the Toombs
+bill best adapted to "insure a fair and impartial decision of the
+questions at issue in Kansas, in accordance with the wishes of the
+_bona fide_ inhabitants." A single paragraph from this report ought to
+have convinced those who subsequently doubted the sincerity of
+Douglas's course, that he was partner to no plots against the free
+expression of public opinion in the Territory. "In the opinion of your
+committee, whenever a constitution shall be formed in any Territory,
+preparatory to its admission into the Union as a State, justice, the
+genius of our institutions, the whole theory of our republican system
+imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall be fairly
+expressed, and their will embodied in that fundamental law, without
+fraud or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or unlawful
+influence, and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by
+the Constitution of the United States."[574]
+
+The Toombs bill caused Republicans grave misgivings, even while they
+conceded its ostensible liberality. Could an administration that had
+condoned the frauds already practiced in Kansas be trusted to appoint
+disinterested commissioners? Would a census of the present population
+give a majority in the proposed convention to the free-State party in
+Kansas? Everyone knew that many free-State people had been driven away
+by the disorders. Douglas endeavored to reassure his opponents on
+these points; but his words carried no weight on the other side of the
+chamber. No better evidence of his good faith in the matter, however,
+could have been asked than he offered, by an amendment which extended
+the right of voting at the elections to all who had been _bona fide_
+residents and voters, but who had absented themselves from the
+Territory, provided they should return before October 1st.[575] If,
+as Republicans asserted, many more free-State settlers than
+pro-slavery squatters had been driven out, then here was a fair
+concession. But what they wanted was not merely an equal chance for
+freedom in Kansas, but precedence. To this end they were ready even to
+admit Kansas under the Topeka constitution, which, by the most
+favorable construction, was the work of a faction.[576]
+
+It was afterwards alleged that Douglas had wittingly suppressed a
+clause in the original Toombs bill, which provided for a submission of
+the constitution to a popular vote. The circumstances were such as to
+make the charge plausible, and Douglas, in his endeavor to clear
+himself, made hasty and unqualified statements which were manifestly
+incorrect. In his own bill for the admission of Kansas, Douglas
+referred explicitly to "the election for the adoption of the
+Constitution."[577] The wording of the clause indicates that he
+regarded the popular ratification of the constitution to be a matter
+of course. The original Toombs bill had also referred explicitly to a
+ratification of the constitution by the people;[578] but when it was
+reported from Douglas's committee in an amended form, it had been
+stripped of this provision. Trumbull noted at the time that this
+amended bill made no provision for the submission of the constitution
+to the vote of the people and deplored the omission, though he
+supposed, as did most men, that such a ratification would be
+necessary.[579] Subsequently he accused Douglas not only of having
+intentionally omitted the referendum clause, but of having prevented a
+popular vote, by adding the clause, "and until the complete execution
+of this Act, no other election shall be held in said Territory."[580]
+
+Douglas cleared himself from the latter charge, by pointing out that
+this clause had been struck out upon his own motion, and replaced by
+the clause which read, "all other elections in said Territory are
+hereby postponed until such time as said convention shall
+appoint."[581] As to the other charge, Douglas said in 1857, that he
+knew the Toombs bill was silent on the matter of submission, but he
+took the fair construction to be that powers not delegated were
+reserved, and that of course the constitution would be submitted to
+the people. "That I was a party, either by private conferences at my
+house or otherwise, to a plan to force a constitution on the people of
+Kansas without submission, is not true."[582]
+
+Still, there was the ugly fact that the Toombs bill had gone to his
+committee with the clause, and had emerged shorn of it. Toombs himself
+threw some light on the matter by stating that the clause had been
+stricken out because there was no provision for a second election, and
+therefore no proper safeguards for such a popular vote.[583] The
+probability is that Douglas, and in fact most men, deemed it
+sufficient at that time to provide a fair opportunity for the
+election of a convention.[584] When Trumbull preferred his charges in
+detail in the campaign of 1858, Douglas at first flatly denied that
+there was a submission clause in the original Toombs bill. Both
+Trumbull and Lincoln then convicted Douglas of error, and thus put him
+in the light of one who had committed an offense and had sought to
+save himself by prevaricating.
+
+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 Frémont 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 Stuvé, 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
+    Frémont        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 aërial navigation now just dawning. On one occasion, he urged
+upon the Senate a memorial from an aëronaut, 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. Adčle 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, Adčle
+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. Adčle 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.
+
+To nine-tenths of his devoted followers, he was still "Judge" Douglas.
+It was odd that the title, so quickly earned and so briefly worn,
+should have stuck so persistently to him. In legal attainments he fell
+far short of many of his colleagues in the Senate. Had he but chosen
+to apply himself, he might have been a conspicuous leader of the
+American bar; but law was ever to him the servant of politics, and he
+never cared to make the servant greater than his lord. That he would
+have developed judicial qualities, may well be doubted; advocate he
+was and advocate he remained, to the end of his days. So it was that
+when a legal question arose, with far-reaching implications for
+American politics, the lawyer and politician, rather than the judge,
+laid hold upon the points of political significance.
+
+The inauguration of James Buchanan and the Dred Scott decision of the
+Supreme Court, two days later, marked a turning point in the career of
+Judge Douglas. Of this he was of course unaware. He accepted the
+advent of his successful rival with composure, and the opinion of the
+Court, with comparative indifference. In a speech before the Grand
+Jury of the United States District Court at Springfield, three months
+later, he referred publicly for the first time to the Dred Scott case.
+Senator, and not Judge, Douglas was much in evidence. He swallowed the
+opinion of the majority of the court without wincing--the _obiter
+dictum_ and all. Nay, more, he praised the Court for passing, like
+honest and conscientious judges, from the technicalities of the case
+to the real merits of the questions involved. The material,
+controlling points of the case were: first, that a negro descended
+from slave parents could not be a citizen of the United States;
+second, that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and void
+from the beginning, and thus could not extinguish a master's right to
+his slave in any Territory. "While the right continues in full force
+under ... the Constitution," he added, "and cannot be divested or
+alienated by an act of Congress, it necessarily remains a barren and
+worthless right, unless sustained, protected, and enforced by
+appropriate police regulations and local legislation, prescribing
+adequate remedies for its violation. These regulations and remedies
+must necessarily depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the
+people of the Territory, as they can only be prescribed by the local
+legislatures." Hence the triumphant conclusion that "the great
+principle of popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and
+firmly established by the authority of this decision."[620]
+
+There were acute legal minds who thought that they detected a false
+note in this paean. Was this a necessary implication from the Dred
+Scott decision? Was it the intention of the Court to leave the
+principle of popular sovereignty standing upright? Was not the
+decision rather fatal to the great doctrine--the shibboleth of the
+Democratic party?
+
+On this occasion Douglas had nothing to add to his exposition of the
+Dred Scott case, further than to point out the happy escape of white
+supremacy from African equality. And here he struck the note which put
+him out of accord with those Northern constituents with whom he was
+otherwise in complete harmony. "When you confer upon the African race
+the privileges of citizenship, and put them on an equality with white
+men at the polls, in the jury box, on the bench, in the Executive
+chair, and in the councils of the nation, upon what principle will you
+deny their equality at the festive board and in the domestic circle?"
+In the following year, he received his answer in the homely words of
+Abraham Lincoln: "I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 592: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 442-443; Iglehart, History of the
+Douglas Estate in Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 593: Letter in Chicago _Times_, August 30, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 594: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 749-750.]
+
+[Footnote 595: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 870.]
+
+[Footnote 596: _Ibid._, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 597: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 266.]
+
+[Footnote 598: _Ibid._, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 350-351.]
+
+[Footnote 599: _Ibid._, p. 769.]
+
+[Footnote 600: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 951.]
+
+[Footnote 601: _Ibid._, p. 952.]
+
+[Footnote 602: Letter to Governor Matteson, January 2, 1854, in
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 358 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 603: MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, November 11,
+1853.]
+
+[Footnote 604: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.]
+
+[Footnote 605: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.]
+
+[Footnote 606: _Ibid._, p. 1050.]
+
+[Footnote 607: Chicago _Times_, January 27, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 608: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 132.]
+
+[Footnote 609: Mrs. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, p. 68;
+Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 610: Letter of Mrs. Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood") to the
+writer.]
+
+[Footnote 611: Conversation with Stephen A. Douglas, Esq., of
+Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 612: The marriage took place November 20, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 613: See Philadelphia _Press_, June 8, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 614: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago to the writer;
+also letter of Mrs. Lippincott to the writer.]
+
+[Footnote 615: See Philadelphia _Press_, November 17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 616: For a copy of this letter, I am indebted to J.H.
+Roberts, Esq., of Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 617: Conversation with Henry Greenbaum, Esq., of Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 618: Major G.M. McConnell in the Transactions of the
+Illinois Historical Society, 1900; see also Forney, Anecdotes of
+Public Men, I, p. 147.]
+
+[Footnote 619: Schuyler Colfax in the South Bend _Register,_ June,
+1861; Forney in his Eulogy, 1861; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 359.]
+
+[Footnote 620: The New York _Times_, June 23, 1857, published this
+speech of June 12th, in full.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS
+
+
+Had anyone prophesied at the close of the year 1856, that within a
+twelvemonth Douglas would be denounced as a traitor to Democracy, he
+would have been thought mad. That Douglas of all men should break with
+his party under any circumstances was almost unthinkable. His whole
+public career had been inseparably connected with his party. To be
+sure, he had never gone so far as to say "my party right or wrong";
+but that was because he had never felt obliged to make a moral choice.
+He was always convinced that his party was right. Within the
+circumference of party, he had always found ample freedom of movement.
+He had never lacked the courage of his convictions, but hitherto his
+convictions had never collided with the dominant opinion of Democracy.
+He undoubtedly believed profoundly in the mission of his party, as an
+organization standing above all for popular government and the
+preservation of the Union. No ordinary circumstances would justify him
+in weakening the influence or impairing the organization of the
+Democratic party. Paradoxical as it may seem, his partisanship was
+dictated by a profound patriotism. He believed the maintenance of the
+Union to be dependent upon the integrity of his party. So thinking and
+feeling he entered upon the most memorable controversy of his career.
+
+When President Buchanan asked Robert J. Walker of Mississippi to
+become governor of Kansas, the choice met with the hearty approval of
+Douglas. Not all the President's appointments had been acceptable to
+the Senator from Illinois. But here was one that he could indorse
+unreservedly. He used all his influence to persuade Walker to accept
+the uncoveted mission. With great reluctance Walker consented, but
+only upon the most explicit understanding with the administration as
+to the policy to be followed in Kansas. It was well understood on both
+sides that a true construction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act required the
+submission to popular vote of any constitution which the prospective
+convention might adopt. This was emphatically the view of Douglas,
+whom Governor Walker took pains to consult on his way through
+Chicago.[621]
+
+The call for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention
+had already been issued, when Walker reached Kansas. The free-State
+people were incensed because the appointment of delegates had been
+made on the basis of a defective census and registration; and even the
+assurance of the governor, in his inaugural, that the constitution
+would be submitted to a popular vote, failed to overcome their
+distrust. They therefore took no part in the election of delegates.
+This course was unfortunate, for it gave the control of the convention
+wholly into the hands of the pro-slavery party, with consequences that
+were far-reaching for Kansas and the nation.[622] But by October the
+free-State party had abandoned its policy of abstention from
+territorial politics, so far as to participate in the election of a
+new territorial legislature. The result was a decisive free-State
+victory. The next legislature would have an ample majority of
+free-State men in both chambers. It was with the discomfiting
+knowledge, then, that they represented only a minority of the
+community that the delegates of the constitutional convention began
+their labors.[623] It was clear to the dullest intelligence that any
+pro-slavery constitution would be voted down, if it were submitted
+fairly to the people of Kansas. Gloom settled down upon the hopes of
+the pro-slavery party.
+
+When the document which embodied the labors of the convention was made
+public, the free-State party awoke from its late complacence to find
+itself tricked by a desperate game. The constitution was not to be
+submitted to a full and fair vote; but only the article relating to
+slavery. The people of Kansas were to vote for the "Constitution with
+slavery" or for the "Constitution with no slavery." By either
+alternative the constitution would be adopted. But should the
+constitution with no slavery be ratified, a clause of the schedule
+still guaranteed "the right of property in slaves now in this
+Territory."[624] The choice offered to an opponent of slavery in
+Kansas was between a constitution sanctioning and safeguarding all
+forms of slave property,[625] and a constitution which guaranteed the
+full possession of slaves then in the Territory, with no assurances
+as to the status of the natural increase of these slaves. Viewed in
+the most charitable light, this was a gambler's device for securing
+the stakes by hook or crook. Still further to guard existing property
+rights in slaves, it was provided that if the constitution should be
+amended after 1864, no alteration should be made to affect "the rights
+of property in the ownership of slaves."[626]
+
+The news from Lecompton stirred Douglas profoundly. In a peculiar
+sense he stood sponsor for justice to bleeding Kansas, not only
+because he had advocated in abstract terms the perfect freedom of the
+people to form their domestic institutions in their own way, but
+because he had become personally responsible for the conduct of the
+leader of the Lecompton party. John Calhoun, president of the
+convention, had been appointed surveyor general of the Territory upon
+his recommendation. Governor Walker had retained Calhoun in that
+office because of Douglas's assurance that Calhoun would support the
+policy of submission.[627] Moreover, Governor Walker had gone to his
+post with the assurance that the leaders of the administration would
+support this course.
+
+Was it likely that the pro-slavery party in Kansas would take this
+desperate course, without assurance of some sort from Washington?
+There were persistent rumors that President Buchanan approved the
+Lecompton constitution,[628] but Douglas was loth to give credence to
+them. The press of Illinois and of the Northwest voiced public
+sentiment in condemning the work of the Lecomptonites.[629] Douglas
+was soon on his way to Washington, determined to know the President's
+mind; his own was made up.
+
+The interview between President Buchanan and Douglas, as recounted by
+the latter, takes on a dramatic aspect.[630] Douglas found his worst
+fears realized. The President was clearly under the influence of an
+aggressive group of Southern statesmen, who were bent upon making
+Kansas a slave State under the Lecompton constitution. Laboring under
+intense feeling, Douglas then threw down the gauntlet: he would oppose
+the policy of the administration publicly to the bitter end. "Mr.
+Douglas," said the President rising to his feet excitedly, "I desire
+you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed from an
+administration of his own choice without being crushed. Beware of the
+fate of Tallmadge and Rives." "Mr. President" rejoined Douglas also
+rising, "I wish you to remember that General Jackson is dead."
+
+The Chicago _Times_, reporting the interview, intimated that there had
+been a want of agreement, but no lack of courtesy or regard on either
+side. Douglas was not yet ready to issue an ultimatum. The situation
+might be remedied. On the night following this memorable encounter,
+Douglas was serenaded by friends and responded with a brief speech,
+but he did not allude to the Kansas question.[631] It was generally
+expected that he would show his hand on Monday, the opening day of
+Congress. The President's message did not reach Congress, however,
+until Tuesday. Immediately upon its reading, Douglas offered the usual
+motion to print the message, adding, as he took his seat, that he
+totally dissented from "that portion of the message which may fairly
+be construed as approving of the proceedings of the Lecompton
+convention." At an early date he would state the reasons for his
+dissent.[632]
+
+On the following day, December 9th, Douglas took the irrevocable step.
+For three hours he held the Senate and the audience in the galleries
+in rapt attention, while with more than his wonted gravity and
+earnestness he denounced the Lecompton constitution.[633] He began
+with a conciliatory reference to the President's message. He was happy
+to find, after a more careful examination, that the President had
+refrained from making any recommendation as to the course which
+Congress should pursue with regard to the constitution. And so, he
+added adroitly, the Kansas question is not to be treated as an
+administration measure. He shared the disappointment of the President
+that the constitution had not been submitted fully and freely to the
+people of Kansas; but the President, he conceived, had made a
+fundamental error in supposing that the Nebraska Act provided for the
+disposition of the slavery question apart from other local matters.
+The direct opposite was true. The main object of the Act was to remove
+an odious restriction by which the people had been prevented from
+deciding the slavery question for themselves, like all other local and
+domestic concerns. If the President was right in thinking that by the
+terms of the Nebraska bill the slavery question must be submitted to
+the people, then every other clause of the constitution should be
+submitted to them. To do less would be to reduce popular sovereignty
+to a farce.
+
+But Douglas could not maintain this conciliatory attitude. His sense
+of justice was too deeply outraged. He recalled facts which every
+well-informed person knew. "I know that men, high in authority and in
+the confidence of the territorial and National Government, canvassed
+every part of Kansas during the election of delegates, and each one of
+them pledged himself to the people that no snap judgment was to be
+taken. Up to the time of the meeting of the convention, in October
+last, the pretense was kept up, the profession was openly made, and
+believed by me, and I thought believed by them, that the convention
+intended to submit a constitution to the people, and not to attempt to
+put a government in operation without such submission."[634] How was
+this pledge redeemed? All men, forsooth, must vote for the
+constitution, whether they like it or not, in order to be permitted to
+vote for or against slavery! This would be like an election under the
+First Consul, when, so his enemies averred, Napoleon addressed his
+troops with the words: "Now, my soldiers, you are to go to the
+election and vote freely just as you please. If you vote for Napoleon,
+all is well; vote against him, and you are to be instantly shot." That
+was a fair election! "This election," said Douglas with bitter irony,
+"is to be _equally fair!_ All men in favor of the constitution may
+vote for it--all men against it shall not vote at all! Why not let
+them vote against it? I have asked a very large number of the
+gentlemen who framed the constitution ... and I have received the same
+answer from every one of them.... They say if they allowed a negative
+vote the constitution would have been voted down by an overwhelming
+majority, and hence the fellows shall not be allowed to vote at all."
+
+"Will you force it on them against their will," he demanded, "simply
+because they would have voted it down if you had consulted them? If
+you will, are you going to force it upon them under the plea of
+leaving them perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+institutions in their own way? Is that the mode in which I am called
+upon to carry out the principle of self-government and popular
+sovereignty in the Territories?" It is no answer, he argued, that the
+constitution is unobjectionable. "You have no right to force an
+unexceptionable constitution on a people." The pro-slavery clause was
+not the offense in the constitution, to his mind. "If Kansas wants a
+slave-State constitution she has a right to it, if she wants a
+free-State constitution she has a right to it. It is none of my
+business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether
+it is voted up or down." The whole affair looked to him "like a system
+of trickery and jugglery to defeat the fair expression of the will of
+the people."[635]
+
+The vehemence of his utterance had now carried Douglas perhaps farther
+than he had meant to go.[636] He paused to plead for a fair policy
+which would redeem party pledges:
+
+     "Ignore Lecompton, ignore Topeka; treat both those party
+     movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill--the one
+     that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have
+     a fair election--and you will have peace in the Democratic
+     party, and peace throughout the country, in ninety days. The
+     people want a fair vote. They never will be satisfied
+     without it. They never should be satisfied without a fair
+     vote on their Constitution....
+
+     "Frame any other bill that secures a fair, honest vote, to
+     men of all parties, and carries out the pledge that the
+     people shall be left free to decide on their domestic
+     institutions for themselves, and I will go with you with
+     pleasure, and with all the energy I may possess. But if this
+     Constitution is to be forced down our throats, in violation
+     of the fundamental principle of free government, under a
+     mode of submission that is a mockery and insult, I will
+     resist it to the last. I have no fear of any party
+     associations being severed. I should regret any social or
+     political estrangement, even temporarily; but if it must be,
+     if I can not act with you and preserve my faith and my
+     honor, I will stand on the great principle of popular
+     sovereignty, which declares the right of all people to be
+     left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+     institutions in their own way. I will follow that principle
+     wherever its logical consequences may take me, and I will
+     endeavor to defend it against assault from any and all
+     quarters. No mortal man shall be responsible for my action
+     but myself. By my action I will compromit no man."[637]
+
+The speech made a profound impression. No one could mistake its
+import. The correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ was right in
+thinking that it "marked an important era in our political
+history."[638] Douglas had broken with the dominant pro-slavery
+faction of his party. How far he would carry his party with him,
+remained to be seen. But that a battle royal was imminent, was
+believed on all sides. "The struggle of Douglas with the slave-power
+will be a magnificent spectacle to witness," wrote one who had
+hitherto evinced little admiration for the author of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.[639]
+
+Douglas kept himself well in hand throughout his speech. His manner
+was at times defiant, but his language was restrained. At no time did
+he disclose the pain which his rupture with the administration cost
+him, except in his closing words. What he had to expect from the
+friends of the administration was immediately manifest. Senator Bigler
+of Pennsylvania sprang to the defense of the President. In an
+irritating tone he intimated that Douglas himself had changed his
+position on the question of submission, alluding to certain private
+conferences at Douglas's house; but as though bound by a pledge of
+secrecy, Bigler refrained from making the charge in so many words.
+Douglas, thoroughly aroused, at once absolved, him from any pledges,
+and demanded to know when they had agreed not to submit the
+constitution to the people. The reply of Bigler was still allusive and
+evasive. "Does he mean to say," insisted Douglas excitedly, "that I
+ever was, privately or publicly, in my own house or any other, in
+favor of a constitution without its being submitted to the people?" "I
+have made no such allegation," was the reply. "You have allowed it to
+be inferred," exclaimed Douglas in exasperated tones.[640] And then
+Green reminded him, that in his famous report of January 4, 1854, he
+had proposed to leave the slavery question to the decision of the
+people "by their appropriate representatives chosen by them for that
+purpose," with no suggestion of a second, popular vote. Truly, his
+most insidious foes were now those of his own political household.
+
+Anti-slavery men welcomed this revolt of Douglas without crediting him
+with any but self-seeking motives. They could not bring themselves to
+believe other than ill of the man who had advocated the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise. Republicans accepted his aid in their struggle
+against the Lecompton fraud, but for the most part continued to regard
+him with distrust. Indeed, Douglas made no effort to placate them. He
+professed to care nothing for the cause of the slave which was nearest
+their hearts. Hostile critics, then, were quick to point out the
+probable motives from which he acted. His senatorial term was drawing
+to a close. He was of course desirous of a re-election. But his
+nominee for governor had been defeated at the last election, and the
+State had been only with difficulty carried for the national
+candidates of the party. The lesson was plain: the people of Illinois
+did not approve the Kansas policy of Senator Douglas. Hence the
+weathercock obeyed the wind.
+
+In all this there was a modicum of truth. Douglas would not have been
+the power that he was, had he not kept in touch with his constituency.
+But a sense of honor, a desire for consistency, and an abiding faith
+in the justice of his great principle, impelled him in the same
+direction. These were thoroughly honorable motives, even if he
+professed an indifference as to the fate of the negro. He had pledged
+his word of honor to his constituents that the people of Kansas should
+have a fair chance to pronounce upon their constitution. Nothing short
+of this would have been consistent with popular sovereignty as he had
+expounded it again and again. And Douglas was personally a man of
+honor. Yet when all has been said, one cannot but regret that the
+sense of fair play, which was strong in him, did not assert itself in
+the early stages of the Kansas conflict and smother that lawyer's
+instinct to defend, a client by the technicalities of the law. Could
+he only have sought absolute justice for the people of Kansas in the
+winter of 1856, the purity of his motives would not have been
+questioned in the winter of 1858.
+
+Even those colleagues of Douglas who doubted his motives, could not
+but admire his courage. It did, indeed, require something more than
+audacity to head a revolt against the administration. No man knew
+better the thorny road that he must now travel. No man loved his party
+more. No man knew better the hazard to the Union that must follow a
+rupture in the Democratic party. But if Douglas nursed the hope that
+Democratic senators would follow his lead, he was sadly disappointed.
+Three only came to his support--Broderick of California, Pugh of Ohio,
+and Stuart of Michigan,--while the lists of the administration were
+full. Green, Bigler, Fitch, in turn were set upon him.
+
+Douglas bitterly resented any attempt to read him out of the party by
+making the Lecompton constitution the touchstone of genuine Democracy;
+yet each day made it clearer that the administration had just that end
+in view. Douglas complained of a tyranny not consistent with free
+Democratic action. One might differ with the President on every
+subject but Kansas, without incurring suspicion. Every pensioned
+letter writer, he complained, had been intimating for the last two
+weeks that he had deserted the Democratic party and gone over to the
+Black Republicans. He demanded to know who authorized these
+tales.[641] Senator Fitch warned him solemnly that the Democratic
+party was the only political link in the chain which now bound the
+States together. "None ... will hold that man guiltless, who abandons
+it upon a question having in it so little of practical importance ...
+and by seeking its destruction, thereby admits his not unwillingness
+that a similar fate should be visited on the Union, perhaps, to
+subserve his selfish purpose."[642] These attacks roused Douglas to
+vehement defiance. More emphatically than ever, he declared the
+Lecompton constitution "a trick, a fraud upon the rights of the
+people."
+
+If Douglas misjudged the temper of his colleagues, he at least gauged
+correctly the drift of public sentiment in Illinois and the Northwest.
+Of fifty-six Democratic newspapers in Illinois, but one ventured to
+condone the Lecompton fraud.[643] Mass meetings in various cities of
+the Northwest expressed confidence in the course of Senator Douglas.
+
+He now occupied a unique position at the capital. Visitors were quite
+as eager to see the man who had headed the revolt as to greet the
+chief executive.[644] His residence, where Mrs. Douglas dispensed a
+gracious hospitality, was fairly besieged with callers.[645]
+Washington society was never gayer than during this memorable
+winter.[646] None entertained more lavishly than Senator and Mrs.
+Douglas. Whatever unpopularity he incurred at the Capitol, she more
+than offset by her charming and gracious personality. Acknowledged as
+the reigning queen of the circle in which she moved, Mrs. Douglas
+displayed a social initiative that seconded admirably the independent,
+self-reliant attitude of her husband. When Adčle Cutts Douglas chose
+to close the shutters of her house at noon, and hold a reception by
+artificial light every Saturday afternoon, society followed her lead.
+There were no more brilliant affairs in Washington than these
+afternoon receptions and hops at the Douglas residence in Minnesota
+Block.[647] In contrast to these functions dominated by a thoroughly
+charming personality, the formal precision of the receptions at the
+White House was somewhat chilling and forbidding. President Buchanan,
+bachelor, with his handsome but somewhat self-contained niece, was not
+equal to this social rivalry.[648] Moreover, the cares of office
+permitted the perplexed, wearied, and timid executive no respite day
+or night.
+
+Events in Kansas gave heart to those who were fighting Lecomptonism.
+At the election appointed by the convention, the "constitution with
+slavery" was adopted by a large majority, the free-State people
+refusing to vote; but the legislature, now in the control of the
+free-State party, had already provided for a fair vote on the whole
+constitution. On this second vote the majority was overwhelmingly
+against the constitution. Information from various sources
+corroborated the deductions which unprejudiced observers drew from the
+voting. It was as clear as day that the people of Kansas did not
+regard the Lecompton constitution as a fair expression of their
+will.[649]
+
+Ignoring the light which made the path of duty plain, President
+Buchanan sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress with a message
+recommending the admission of Kansas.[650] To his mind, the Lecompton
+convention was legally constituted and had exercised its powers
+faithfully. The organic act did not bind the convention to submit to
+the people more than the question of slavery. Meantime the Supreme
+Court had handed down its famous decision in the Dred Scott case.
+Fortified by this dictum, the President told Congress that slavery
+existed in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the United States.
+"Kansas is, at this moment, as much a slave State as Georgia or South
+Carolina"! Slavery, then, could be prohibited only by constitutional
+provision; and those who desired to do away with slavery would most
+speedily compass their ends, if they admitted Kansas at once under
+this constitution.
+
+The President's message with the Lecompton constitution was referred
+to the Committee on Territories and gave rise to three reports:
+Senator Green of Missouri presented the majority report, recommending
+the admission of Kansas under this constitution; Senators Collamer and
+Wade united on a minority report, leaving Douglas to draft another
+expressing his dissent on other grounds.[651] Taken all in all, this
+must be regarded as the most satisfactory and convincing of all
+Douglas's committee reports. It is strong because it is permeated by
+a desire for justice, and reinforced at every point by a consummate
+marshalling of evidence. Barely in his career had his conspicuous
+qualities as a special pleader been put so unreservedly at the service
+of simple justice. He planted himself firmly, at the outset, upon the
+incontrovertible fact that there was no satisfactory evidence that the
+Lecompton constitution was the act and deed of the people of
+Kansas.[652]
+
+It had been argued that, because the Lecompton convention had been
+duly constituted, with full power to ordain a constitution and
+establish a government, consequently the proceedings of the convention
+must be presumed to embody the popular will. Douglas immediately
+challenged this assumption. The convention had no more power than the
+territorial legislature could confer. By no fair construction of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act could it be assumed that the people of the
+Territory were authorized, "at their own will and pleasure, to resolve
+themselves into a sovereign power, and to abrogate and annul the
+organic act and territorial government established by Congress, and to
+ordain a constitution and State government upon their ruins, without
+the consent of Congress." Surely, then, a convention which the
+territorial legislature called into being could not abrogate or impair
+the authority of that territorial government established by Congress.
+Hence, he concluded, the Lecompton constitution, formed without the
+consent of Congress, must be considered as a memorial or petition,
+which Congress may accept or reject. The convention was the creature
+of the territorial legislature. "Such being the case, whenever the
+legislature ascertained that the convention whose existence depended
+upon its will, had devised a scheme to force a constitution upon the
+people without their consent, and without any authority from Congress,
+... it became their imperative duty to interpose and exert the
+authority conferred upon them by Congress in the organic act, and
+arrest and prevent the consummation of the scheme before it had gone
+into operation."[653] This was an unanswerable argument.
+
+In the prolonged debate upon the admission of Kansas, Douglas took
+part only as some taunt or challenge brought him to his feet. While
+the bill for the admission of Minnesota, also reported by the
+Committee on Territories, was under fire, Senator Brown of Mississippi
+elicited from Douglas the significant concession, that he did not deem
+an enabling act absolutely essential, so long as the constitution
+clearly embodied the will of the people. Neither did he think a
+submission of the constitution always essential; it was, however, a
+fair way of ascertaining the popular will, when that will was
+disputed." Satisfy me that the constitution adopted by the people of
+Minnesota is their will, and I am prepared to adopt it. Satisfy me
+that the constitution adopted, or said to be adopted, by the people of
+Kansas, is their will, and I am prepared to take it.... I will never
+apply one rule to a free State and another to a slave-holding
+State."[654] Nevertheless, even his Democratic colleagues continued to
+believe that slavery had something to do with his opposition. In the
+classic phraseology of Toombs, "there was a 'nigger' in it."
+
+The opposition of Douglas began to cause no little uneasiness. Brown
+paid tribute to his influence, when he declared that if the Senator
+from Illinois had stood with the administration, "there would not have
+been a ripple on the surface." "Sir, the Senator from Illinois gives
+life, he gives vitality, he gives energy, he lends the aid of his
+mighty genius and his powerful will to the Opposition on this
+question."[655] But Douglas paid a fearful price for this power. Every
+possible ounce of pressure was brought to bear upon him. The party
+press was set upon him. His friends were turned out of office. The
+whole executive patronage was wielded mercilessly against his
+political following. The Washington _Union_ held him up to execration
+as a traitor, renegade, and deserter.[656] "We cannot affect
+indifference at the treachery of Senator Douglas," said a Richmond
+paper. "He was a politician of considerable promise. Association with
+Southern gentlemen had smoothed down the rugged vulgarities of his
+early education, and he had come to be quite a decent and well-behaved
+person."[657] To political denunciation was now to be added the sting
+of mean and contemptible personalities.
+
+Small wonder that even the vigorous health of "the Little Giant"
+succumbed to these assaults. For a fortnight he was confined to his
+bed, rising only by sheer force of will to make a final plea for
+sanity, before his party took its suicidal plunge. He spoke on the 22d
+of March under exceptional conditions. In the expectation that he
+would speak in the forenoon, people thronged the galleries at an
+early hour, and refused to give up their seats, even when it was
+announced that the Senator from Illinois would not address the Senate
+until seven o 'clock in the evening. When the hour came, crowds still
+held possession of the galleries, so that not even standing room was
+available. The door-keepers wrestled in vain with an impatient throng
+without, until by motion of Senator Gwin, ladies were admitted to the
+floor of the chamber. Even then, Douglas was obliged to pause several
+times, for the confusion around the doors to subside.[658] He spoke
+with manifest difficulty, but he was more defiant than ever. His
+speech was at once a protest and a personal vindication. Denial of the
+right of the administration to force the Lecompton constitution upon
+the people of Kansas, went hand in hand with a defense of his own
+Democracy. Sentences culled here and there suggest not unfairly the
+stinging rebukes and defiant challenges that accentuated the none too
+coherent course of his speech:
+
+     "I am told that this Lecompton constitution is a party test,
+     a party measure; that no man is a Democrat who does not
+     sanction it ... Sir, who made it a party test? Who made it a
+     party measure?... Who has interpolated this Lecompton
+     constitution into the party platform?... Oh! but we are told
+     it is an Administration measure. Because it is an
+     Administration measure, does it therefore follow that it is
+     a party measure?" ... "I do not recognize the right of the
+     President or his Cabinet ... to tell me my duty in the
+     Senate Chamber." "Am I to be told that I must obey the
+     Executive and betray my State, or else be branded as a
+     traitor to the party, and hunted down by all the newspapers
+     that share the patronage of the government, and every man
+     who holds a petty office in any part of my State to have the
+     question put to him, 'Are you Douglas's enemy? if not, your
+     head comes off.'" "I intend to perform my duty in
+     accordance with my own convictions. Neither the frowns of
+     power nor the influence of patronage will change my action,
+     or drive me from my principles. I stand firmly, immovably
+     upon those great principles of self-government and state
+     sovereignty upon which the campaign was fought and the
+     election won.... If, standing firmly by my principles, I
+     shall be driven into private life, it is a fate that has no
+     terrors for me. I prefer private life, preserving my own
+     self-respect and manhood, to abject and servile submission
+     to executive will. If the alternative be private life or
+     servile obedience to executive will, I am prepared to
+     retire. Official position has no charms for me when deprived
+     of that freedom of thought and action which becomes a
+     gentleman and a senator.'"[659]
+
+On the following day, the Senate passed the bill for the admission of
+Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, having rejected the amendment
+of Crittenden to submit that constitution to a vote of the people of
+Kansas. A similar amendment, however, was carried in the House. As
+neither chamber would recede from its position, a conference committee
+was appointed to break the deadlock.[660] It was from this committee,
+controlled by Lecomptonites, that the famous English bill emanated.
+Stated briefly, the substance of this compromise measure--for such it
+was intended to be--was as follows: Congress was to offer to Kansas a
+conditional grant of public lands; if this land ordinance should be
+accepted by a popular vote, Kansas was to be admitted to the Union
+with the Lecompton constitution by proclamation of the President; if
+it should be rejected, Kansas was not to be admitted until the
+Territory had a population equal to the unit of representation
+required for the House of Representatives.
+
+Taken all in all, the bill was as great a concession as could be
+expected from the administration. Not all were willing to say that the
+bill provided for a vote on the constitution, but Northern adherents
+could point to the vote on the land ordinance as an indirect vote upon
+the constitution. It is not quite true to say that the land grant was
+a bribe to the voters of Kansas. As a matter of fact, the amount of
+land granted was only equal to that usually offered to the
+Territories, and it was considerably less than the area specified in
+the Lecompton constitution. Moreover, even if the land ordinance were
+defeated in order to reject the constitution, the Territory was pretty
+sure to secure as large a grant at some future time. It was rather in
+the alternative held out, that the English bill was unsatisfactory to
+those who loved fair play. Still, under the bill, the people of
+Kansas, by an act of self-denial, could defeat the Lecompton
+constitution. To that extent, the supporters of the administration
+yielded to the importunities of the champion of popular sovereignty.
+
+Under these circumstances it would not be strange if Douglas
+"wavered."[661] Here was an opportunity to close the rift between
+himself and the administration, to heal party dissensions, perhaps to
+save the integrity of the Democratic party and the Union. And the
+price which he would have to pay was small. He could assume, plausibly
+enough,--as he had done many times before in his career,--that the
+bill granted all that he had ever asked. He was morally sure that the
+people of Kansas would reject the land grant to rid themselves of the
+Lecompton fraud. Why hesitate then as to means, when the desired end
+was in clear view?
+
+Douglas found himself subjected to a new pressure, harder even to
+resist than any he had yet felt. Some of his staunch supporters in the
+anti-Lecompton struggle went over to the administration, covering
+their retreat by just such excuses as have been suggested. Was he
+wiser and more conscientious than they? A refusal to accept the
+proffered olive branch now meant,--he knew it well,--the
+irreconcilable enmity of the Buchanan faction. And he was not asked to
+recant, but only to accept what he had always deemed the very essence
+of statesmanship, a compromise. His Republican allies promptly evinced
+their distrust. They fully expected him to join his former associates.
+From them he could expect no sympathy in such a dilemma.[662] His
+political ambitions, no doubt, added to his perplexity. They were
+bound up in the fate of the party, the integrity of which was now
+menaced by his revolt. On the other hand, he was fully conscious that
+his Illinois constituency approved of his opposition to Lecomptonism
+and would regard a retreat across this improvised political bridge as
+both inglorious and treacherous. Agitated by conflicting emotions,
+Douglas made a decision which probably cost him more anguish than any
+he ever made; and when all has been said to the contrary, love of fair
+play would seem to have been his governing motive.[663]
+
+When Douglas rose to address the Senate on the English bill, April
+29th, he betrayed some of the emotion under which he had made his
+decision. He confessed an "anxious desire" to find such provisions as
+would permit him to support the bill; but he was painfully forced to
+declare that he could not find the principle for which he had
+contended, fairly carried out. He was unable to reconcile popular
+sovereignty with the proposed intervention of Congress in the English
+bill. "It is intervention with inducements to control the result. It
+is intervention with a bounty on the one side and a penalty on the
+other."[664] He frankly admitted that he did not believe there was
+enough in the bounty nor enough in the penalty to influence materially
+the vote of the people of Kansas; but it involved "the principle of
+freedom of election and--the great principle of self-government upon
+which our institutions rest." And upon this principle he took his
+stand. "With all the anxiety that I have had," said he with deep
+feeling, "to be able to arrive at a conclusion in harmony with the
+overwhelming majority of my political friends in Congress, I could not
+bring my judgment or conscience to the conclusion that this was a
+fair, impartial, and equal application of the principle."[665]
+
+As though to make reconciliation with the administration impossible,
+Douglas went on to express his distrust of the provision of the bill
+for a board of supervisors of elections. Instead of a board of four,
+two of whom should represent the Territory and two the Federal
+government, as the Crittenden bill had provided, five were to
+constitute the board, of whom three were to be United States
+officials. "Does not this change," asked Douglas significantly, "give
+ground for apprehension that you may have the Oxford, the Shawnee, and
+the Delaware Crossing and Kickapoo frauds re-enacted at this
+election?"[666] The most suspicions Republican could hardly have dealt
+an unkinder thrust.
+
+There could be no manner of doubt as to the outcome of the English
+bill in the Senate. Douglas, Stuart, and Broderick were the only
+Democrats to oppose its passage, Pugh having joined the majority. The
+bill passed the House also, nine of Douglas's associates in the
+anti-Lecompton fight going over to the administration.[667] Douglas
+accepted this defection with philosophic equanimity, indulging in no
+vindictive feelings.[668] Had he not himself felt misgivings as to his
+own course?
+
+By midsummer the people of Kansas had recorded nearly ten thousand
+votes against the land ordinance and the Lecompton constitution. The
+administration had failed to make Kansas a slave State. Yet the
+Supreme Court had countenanced the view that Kansas was legally a
+slave Territory. What, then, became of the great fundamental principle
+of popular sovereignty? This was the question which Douglas was now
+called upon to answer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 621: Report of the Covode Committee, pp. 105-106; Cutts,
+Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 111; Speech of Douglas at
+Milwaukee, Wis., October 14, 1860, Chicago _Times and Herald_, October
+17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 622: Spring, Kansas, p. 213; Rhodes, History of the United
+States, II, p. 274.]
+
+[Footnote 623: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 277-278.]
+
+[Footnote 624: _Ibid._, pp. 278-279; Spring, Kansas, p. 223.]
+
+[Footnote 625: See Article VII, of the Kansas constitution, Senate
+Reports, No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 626: Schedule Section 14.]
+
+[Footnote 627: Covode Report, p. 111.]
+
+[Footnote 628: Chicago _Times_, November 19, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 629: Chicago _Times_, November 20 and 21, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 630: Speech at Milwaukee, October 14, 1860, Chicago _Times
+and Herald_, October 17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 631: New York _Tribune_, December 3, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 632: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 633: Chicago _Times_, December 19, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 634: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 635: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 17-18.]
+
+[Footnote 636: "I spoke rapidly, without preparation," he afterward
+said. _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 47.]
+
+[Footnote 637: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 638: New York _Tribune_, December 9, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 639: New York _Tribune_, December 10, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 640: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 21-22.]
+
+[Footnote 641: _Globe_, 5 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 642: _Ibid._, p. 137.]
+
+[Footnote 643: Chicago _Times_, December 24, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 644: _Ibid._, December 23, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 645: Correspondent to Cleveland _Plaindealer_, quoted in
+Chicago _Times_, January 29, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 646: Mrs. Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Pierce, MS. Letter, April
+4, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 647: Mrs. Roger Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, pp.
+69-70.]
+
+[Footnote 648: _Ibid._, Chapter 4.]
+
+[Footnote 649: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 289.]
+
+[Footnote 650: Message of February 2, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 651: Senate Report No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., February 18,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 652: Minority Report, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 653: Minority Report, p. 64.]
+
+[Footnote 654: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 502.]
+
+[Footnote 655: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 572-573.]
+
+[Footnote 656: Washington _Union_, February 26, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 657: Richmond _South_, quoted in Chicago _Times_, December
+18, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 658: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 328; _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., pp. 193-194.]
+
+[Footnote 659: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 194-201,
+_passim._]
+
+[Footnote 660: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 297-299.]
+
+[Footnote 661: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 563.]
+
+[Footnote 662: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, pp.
+566-567.]
+
+[Footnote 663: This cannot, of course, be demonstrated, but it accords
+with his subsequent conduct.]
+
+[Footnote 664: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1869.]
+
+[Footnote 665: _Ibid._, p. 1870.]
+
+[Footnote 666: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1870.]
+
+[Footnote 667: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 300.]
+
+[Footnote 668: Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, p. 58.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE JOINT DEBATES WITH LINCOLN
+
+
+National politics made strange bed-fellows in the winter of 1857-8.
+Douglas consorting with Republicans and flouting the administration,
+was a rare spectacle. There was a moment in this odd alliance when it
+seemed likely to become more than a temporary fusion of interests. The
+need of concerted action brought about frequent conferences, in which
+the distrust of men like Wilson and Colfax was, in a measure,
+dispelled by the engaging frankness of their quondam opponent.[669]
+Douglas intimated that in all probability he could not act with his
+party in future.[670] He assured Wilson that he was in the fight to
+stay--in his own words, "he had checked his baggage and taken a
+through ticket."[671] There was an odd disposition, too, on the part
+of some Republicans to indorse popular sovereignty, now that it seemed
+likely to exclude slavery from the Territories.[672] There was even a
+rumor afloat that the editor of the New York _Tribune_ favored Douglas
+for the presidency.[673] On at least two occasions, Greeley was in
+conference with Senator Douglas at the latter's residence. To the
+gossiping public this was evidence enough that the rumor was correct.
+And it may well be that Douglas dallied with the hope that a great
+Constitutional Union party might be formed.[674] But he could hardly
+have received much encouragement from the Republicans, with whom he
+was consorting, for so far from losing their political identity, they
+calculated upon bringing him eventually within the Republican
+fold.[675]
+
+A Constitutional Union party, embracing Northern and Southern
+Unionists of Whig or Democratic antecedents, might have supplied the
+gap left by the old Whig party. That such a party would have exercised
+a profound nationalizing influence can scarcely be doubted. Events
+might have put Douglas at the head of such a party. But, in truth,
+such an outcome of the political chaos which then reigned, was a
+remote possibility.
+
+The matter of immediate concern to Douglas was the probable attitude
+of his allies toward his re-election to the Senate. There was a wide
+divergence among Republican leaders; but active politicians like
+Greeley and Wilson, who were not above fighting the devil with his own
+weapons, counselled their Illinois brethren not to oppose his
+return.[676] There was no surer way to disrupt the Democratic party.
+In spite of these admonitions, the Republicans of Illinois were bent
+upon defeating Douglas. He had been too uncompromising and bitter an
+opponent of Trumbull and other "Black Republicans" to win their
+confidence by a few months of conflict against Lecomptonism. "I see
+his tracks all over our State," wrote the editor of the Chicago
+_Tribune_, "they point only in one direction; not a single toe is
+turned toward the Republican camp. Watch him, use him, but do not
+trust him--not an inch."[677] Moreover, a little coterie of
+Springfield politicians had a candidate of their own for United States
+senator in the person of Abraham Lincoln.[678]
+
+The action of the Democratic State convention in April closed the door
+to any reconciliation with the Buchanan administration. Douglas
+received an unqualified indorsement. The Cincinnati platform was
+declared to be "the only authoritative exposition of Democratic
+doctrine." No power on earth except a similar national convention had
+a right "to change or interpolate that platform, or to prescribe new
+or different tests." By sound party doctrine the Lecompton
+constitution ought to be "submitted to the direct vote of the actual
+inhabitants of Kansas at a fair election."[679] Could any words have
+been more explicit? The administration responded by a merciless
+proscription of Douglas office-holders and by unremitting efforts to
+create an opposition ticket. Under pressure from Washington,
+conventions were held to nominate candidates for the various State
+offices, with the undisguised purpose of dividing the Democratic vote
+for senator.[680]
+
+On the 16th of June, the Republicans of Illinois threw advice to the
+winds and adopted the unusual course of naming Lincoln as "the first
+and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States
+Senate." It was an act of immense political significance. Not only did
+it put in jeopardy the political life of Douglas, but it ended for all
+time to come any coalition between his following and the Republican
+party.
+
+The subsequent fame of Lincoln has irradiated every phase of his early
+career. To his contemporaries in the year 1858, he was a lawyer of
+recognized ability, an astute politician, and a frank aspirant for
+national honors. Those who imagine him to have been an unambitious
+soul, upon whom honors were thrust, fail to understand the Lincoln
+whom Herndon, his partner, knew. Lincoln was a seasoned politician. He
+had been identified with the old Whig organization; he had repeatedly
+represented the Springfield district in the State legislature; and he
+had served one term without distinction in Congress. Upon the passage
+of the Kansas-Nebraska Act he had taken an active part in fusing the
+opposing elements into the Republican party. His services to the new
+party made him a candidate for the senatorship in 1855, and received
+recognition in the national Republican convention of 1856, when he was
+second on the list of those for whom the convention balloted for
+Vice-president. He was not unknown to Republicans of the Northwest,
+though he was not in any sense a national figure. Few men had a keener
+insight into political conditions in Illinois. None knew better the
+ins and outs of political campaigning in Illinois.
+
+Withal, Lincoln was rated as a man of integrity. He had strong
+convictions and the courage of his convictions. His generous instincts
+made him hate slavery, while his antecedents prevented him from loving
+the negro. His anti-slavery sentiments were held strongly in check by
+his sound sense of justice. He had the temperament of a humanitarian
+with the intellect of a lawyer. While not combative by nature, he
+possessed the characteristic American trait of measuring himself by
+the attainments of others. He was solicitous to match himself with
+other men so as to prove himself at least their peer. Possessed of a
+cause that enlisted the service of his heart as well as his head,
+Lincoln was a strong advocate at the bar and a formidable opponent on
+the stump. Douglas bore true witness to Lincoln's powers when he said,
+on hearing of his nomination, "I shall have my hands full. He is the
+strong man of his party--full of wit, facts, dates--and the best stump
+speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West. He is as
+honest as he is shrewd; and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly
+won."[681]
+
+The nomination of Lincoln was so little a matter of surprise to him
+and his friends, that at the close of the convention he was able to
+address the delegates in a carefully prepared speech. Wishing to sound
+a dominant note for the campaign, he began with these memorable words:
+
+"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we
+could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into
+the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object,
+and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under
+the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased,
+but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until
+a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against
+itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
+permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
+dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will
+cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
+Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it,
+and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is
+in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it
+forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as
+well as new--North as well as South."[682]
+
+All evidence, continued Lincoln, pointed to a design to make slavery
+national. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, the popular indorsement of
+Buchanan, and the Dred Scott decision, were so many parts of a plot.
+Only one part was lacking; _viz._ another decision declaring it
+unconstitutional for a State to exclude slavery. Then the fabric would
+be complete for which Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James had each
+wrought his separate piece with artful cunning. It was impossible not
+to believe that these Democratic leaders had labored in concert. To
+those who had urged that Douglas should be supported, Lincoln had only
+this to say: Douglas could not oppose the advance of slavery, for he
+did not care whether slavery was voted up or down. His avowed purpose
+was to make the people care nothing about slavery. The Republican
+cause must not be intrusted to its adventitious allies, but to its
+undoubted friends.
+
+A welcome that was truly royal awaited Douglas in Chicago. On his way
+thither, he was met by a delegation which took him a willing captive
+and conducted him on a special train to his destination. Along the
+route there was every sign of popular enthusiasm. He entered the city
+amid the booming of cannon; he was conveyed to his hotel in a
+carriage drawn by six horses, under military escort; banners with
+flattering inscriptions fluttered above his head; from balconies and
+windows he heard the shouts of thousands.[683]
+
+Even more flattering if possible was the immense crowd that thronged
+around the Tremont House in the early evening to hear his promised
+speech. Not only the area in front of the hotel, but the adjoining
+streets were crowded. Illuminations and fireworks cast a lurid light
+on the faces which were upturned to greet the "Defender of Popular
+Sovereignty," as he appeared upon the balcony. A man of far less
+vanity would have been moved by the scene. Just behind the speaker but
+within the house, Lincoln was an attentive listener.[684] The presence
+of his rival put Douglas on his mettle. He took in good part a rather
+discourteous interruption by Lincoln, and referred to him in generous
+terms, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen,
+and an honorable opponent."[685]
+
+The address was in a somewhat egotistical vein--pardonably egotistical,
+considering the extraordinary circumstances. Douglas could not refrain
+from referring to his career since he had confronted that excited crowd
+in Chicago eight years before, in defense of the compromise measures.
+To his mind the events of those eight years had amply vindicated the
+great principle of popular sovereignty. Knowing that he was in a
+Republican stronghold, he dwelt with particular complacency upon the
+manful way in which the Republican party had come to the support of
+that principle, in the recent anti-Lecompton fight. It was this
+fundamental right of self-government that he had championed through
+good and ill report, all these years. It was this, and this alone,
+which had governed his action in regard to the Lecompton fraud. It was
+not because the Lecompton constitution was a slave constitution, but
+because it was not the act and deed of the people of Kansas that he had
+condemned it. "Whenever," said he, "you put a limitation upon the right
+of a people to decide what laws they want, you have destroyed the
+fundamental principle of self-government."
+
+With Lincoln's house-divided-against-itself proposition, he took issue
+unqualifiedly. "Mr. Lincoln asserts, as a fundamental principle of
+this government, that there must be uniformity in the local laws and
+domestic institutions of each and all the States of the Union, and he
+therefore invites all the non-slaveholding States to band together,
+organize as one body, and make war upon slavery in Kentucky, upon
+slavery in Virginia, upon slavery in the Carolinas, upon slavery in
+all of the slave-holding States in this Union, and to persevere in
+that war until it shall be exterminated. He then notifies the
+slave-holding States to stand together as a unit and make an
+aggressive war upon the free States of this Union with a view of
+establishing slavery in them all; of forcing it upon Illinois, of
+forcing it upon New York, upon New England, and upon every other free
+State, and that they shall keep up the warfare until it has been
+formally established in them all. In other words, Mr. Lincoln
+advocates boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the North
+against the South, of the free States against the slave States--a war
+of extermination--to be continued relentlessly until the one or the
+other shall be subdued, and all the States shall either become free or
+become slave."[686]
+
+But such uniformity in local institutions would be possible only by
+blotting out State Sovereignty, by merging all the States in one
+consolidated empire, and by vesting Congress with plenary power to
+make all the police regulations, domestic and local laws, uniform
+throughout the Republic. The framers of our government knew well
+enough that differences in soil, in products, and in interests,
+required different local and domestic regulations in each locality;
+and they organized the Federal government on this fundamental
+assumption.[687]
+
+With Lincoln's other proposition Douglas also took issue. He refused
+to enter upon any crusade against the Supreme Court. "I do not choose,
+therefore, to go into any argument with Mr. Lincoln in reviewing the
+various decisions which the Supreme Court has made, either upon the
+Dred Scott case, or any other. I have no idea of appealing from the
+decision of the Supreme Court upon a constitutional question to the
+decision of a tumultuous town meeting."[688]
+
+Neither could Douglas agree with his opponent in objecting to the
+decision of the Supreme Court because it deprived the negro of the
+rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship, which pertained
+only to the white race. Our government was founded on a white basis.
+"It was made by the white man, for the benefit of the white man, to be
+administered by white men." To be sure, a negro, an Indian, or any
+other man of inferior race should be permitted to enjoy all the
+rights, privileges, and immunities consistent with the safety of
+society; but each State should decide for itself the nature and extent
+of these rights.
+
+On the next evening, Republican Chicago greeted its protagonist with
+much the same demonstrations, as he took his place on the balcony from
+which Douglas had spoken. Lincoln found the flaw in Douglas's armor at
+the outset. "Popular sovereignty! Everlasting popular sovereignty!
+What is popular sovereignty"? How could there be such a thing in the
+original sense, now that the Supreme Court had decided that the people
+in their territorial status might not prohibit slavery? And as for the
+right of the people to frame a constitution, who had ever disputed
+that right? But Lincoln, evidently troubled by Douglas's vehement
+deductions from the house-divided-against-itself proposition, soon
+fell back upon the defensive, where he was at a great disadvantage. He
+was forced to explain that he did not favor a war by the North upon
+the South for the extinction of slavery; nor a war by the South upon
+the North for the nationalization of slavery. "I only said what I
+expected would take place. I made a prediction only,--it may have been
+a foolish one, perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery
+should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now,
+however."[689] He _believed_ that slavery had endured, because until
+the Nebraska Act the public mind had rested in the conviction that
+slavery would ultimately disappear. In affirming that the opponents of
+slavery would arrest its further extension, he only meant to say that
+they would put it where the fathers originally placed it. He was not
+in favor of interfering with slavery where it existed in the States.
+As to the charge that he was inviting people to resist the Dred Scott
+decision, Lincoln responded rather weakly--again laying himself open
+to attack--"We mean to do what we can to have the court decide the
+other way."[690]
+
+Lincoln also betrayed his fear lest Douglas should draw Republican
+votes. Knowing the strong anti-slavery sentiment of the region, he
+asked when Douglas had shown anything but indifference on the subject
+of slavery. Away with this quibbling about inferior races! "Let us
+discard all these things and unite as one people throughout this land,
+until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created
+equal."[691]
+
+From Chicago Douglas journeyed like a conquering hero to Bloomington.
+At every station crowds gathered to see his gaily decorated train and
+to catch a glimpse of the famous senator. A platform car bearing a
+twelve-pound gun was attached to the train and everywhere "popular
+sovereignty," as the cannon was dubbed, heralded his arrival.[692] On
+the evening of July 16th he addressed a large gathering in the open
+air; and again he had among his auditors, Abraham Lincoln, who was hot
+upon his trail.[693] The county and district in which Bloomington was
+situated had once been strongly Whig; but was now as strongly
+Republican. With the local conditions in mind, Douglas made an artful
+plea for support. He gratefully acknowledged the aid of the
+Republicans in the recent anti-Lecompton fight, and of that worthy
+successor of the immortal Clay, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. After
+all, was it not a common principle for which they had been contending?
+"My friends," said Douglas with engaging ingenuousness, "when I am
+battling for a great principle, I want aid and support from whatever
+quarter I can get it." Pity, then, that Republican politicians, in
+order to defeat him, should form an alliance with Lecompton men and
+thus betray the cause![694]
+
+Douglas called attention to Lincoln's explanation of his
+house-divided-against-itself argument. It still seemed to him to
+invite a war of sections. Mr. Lincoln had said that he had no wish to
+see the people _enter into_ the Southern States and interfere with
+slavery: for his part, he was equally opposed to a sectional agitation
+to control the institutions of other States.[695] Again, Mr. Lincoln
+had said that he proposed, so far as in him lay, to secure a reversal
+of the Dred Scott decision. How, asked Douglas, will he accomplish
+this? There can be but one way: elect a Republican President who will
+pack the bench with Republican justices. Would a court so constituted
+command respect?[696]
+
+As to the effect of the Dred Scott decision upon slavery in the
+Territories, Douglas had only this to say: "With or without that
+decision, slavery will go just where the people want it, and not one
+inch further." "Hence, if the people of a Territory want slavery, they
+will encourage it by passing affirmatory laws, and the necessary
+police regulations, patrol laws, and slave code; if they do not want
+it they will withhold that legislation, and by withholding it slavery
+is as dead as if it was prohibited by a constitutional prohibition,
+especially if, in addition, their legislation is unfriendly, as it
+would be if they were opposed to it. They could pass such local laws
+and police regulations as would drive slavery out in one day, or one
+hour, if they were opposed to it, and therefore, so far as the
+question of slavery in the Territories is concerned, so far as the
+principle of popular sovereignty is concerned, in its practical
+operation, it matters not how the Dred Scott case may be decided with
+reference to the Territories."[697]
+
+The closing words of the speech approached dangerously near to bathos.
+Douglas pictured himself standing beside the deathbed of Clay and
+pledging his life to the advocacy of the great principle expressed in
+the compromise measures of 1850, and later in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
+Strangely enough he had given the same pledge to "the god-like
+Webster."[698] This filial reverence for Clay and Webster, whom
+Douglas had fought with all the weapons of partisan warfare, must have
+puzzled those Whigs in his audience who were guileless enough to
+accept such statements at their face value.
+
+Devoted partisans accompanied Douglas to Springfield, on the following
+day. In spite of the frequent downpours of rain and the sultry
+atmosphere, their enthusiasm never once flagged. On board the same
+train, surrounded by good-natured enemies, was Lincoln, who was also
+to speak at the capital.[699] Douglas again found a crowd awaiting
+him. He had much the same things to say. Perhaps his arraignment of
+Lincoln's policy was somewhat more severe, but he turned the edges of
+his thrusts by a courteous reference to his opponent, "with whom he
+anticipated no personal collision." For the first time he alluded to
+Lincoln's charge of conspiracy, but only to remark casually, "If Mr.
+Lincoln deems me a conspirator of that kind, all I have to say is that
+I do not think so badly of the President of the United States, and the
+Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial tribunal on
+earth, as to believe that they were capable in their actions and
+decision of entering into political intrigues for partisan
+purposes."[700]
+
+Meantime Lincoln, addressing a Republican audience, was relating his
+recent experiences in the enemy's camp. Believing that he had
+discovered the line of attack, he sought to fortify his position. He
+did not contemplate the abolition of State legislatures, nor any such
+radical policy, any more than the fathers of the Republic did, when
+they sought to check the spread of slavery by prohibiting it in the
+Territories.[701] He did not propose to resist the Dred Scott decision
+except as a rule of political action.[702] Here in Sangamon County, he
+was somewhat less insistent upon negro equality. The negro was not the
+equal of the white man in all respects, to be sure; "still, in the
+right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned,
+he is the equal of every other man, white or black."[703]
+
+As matters stood, Douglas had the advantage of Lincoln, since with his
+national prominence and his great popularity, he was always sure of
+an audience, and could reply as he chose to the attacks of his
+antagonist. Lincoln felt that he must come to close terms with Douglas
+and extort from him admissions which would discredit him with
+Republicans. With this end in view, Lincoln suggested that they
+"divide time, and address the same audiences the present
+canvass."[704] It was obviously to Douglas's interest to continue the
+campaign as he had begun. He had already mapped out an extensive
+itinerary. He therefore replied that he could not agree to such an
+arrangement, owing to appointments already made and to the possibility
+of a third candidate with whom Lincoln might make common cause. He
+intimated, rather unfairly, that Lincoln had purposely waited until he
+was already bound by his appointments. However, he would accede to the
+proposal so far as to meet Lincoln in a joint discussion in each
+congressional district except the second and sixth, in which both had
+already spoken.[705]
+
+It was not such a letter as one would expect from a generous opponent.
+But politics was no pastime to the writer. He was sparring now in
+deadly earnest, for every advantage. Not unnaturally Lincoln resented
+the imputation of unfairness; but he agreed to the proposal of seven
+joint debates. Douglas then named the times and places; and Lincoln
+agreed to the terms, rather grudgingly, for he would have but three
+openings and closings to Douglas's four.[706] Still, as he had
+followed Douglas in Chicago, he had no reason to complain.
+
+The next three months may be regarded as a prolonged debate,
+accentuated by the seven joint discussions. The rival candidates
+traversed much the same territory, and addressed much the same
+audiences on successive days. At times, chance made them
+fellow-passengers on the same train or steamboat. Douglas had already
+begun his itinerary, when Lincoln's last note reached him in Piatt
+County.[707] He had just spoken at Clinton, in De Witt County, and
+again he had found Lincoln in the audience.
+
+No general ever planned a military campaign with greater regard to the
+topography of the enemy's country, than Douglas plotted his campaign
+in central Illinois. For it was in the central counties that the
+election was to be won or lost. The Republican strength lay in the
+upper, northern third of the State; the Democratic strength, in the
+southern third. The doubtful area lay between Ottawa on the north and
+Belleville on the south; Oquawka on the northwest and Paris on the
+east. Only twice did Douglas make any extended tour outside this area:
+once to meet his appointment with Lincoln at Freeport; and once to
+engage in the third joint debate at Jonesboro.
+
+The first week in August found Douglas speaking at various points
+along the Illinois River to enthusiastic crowds. Lincoln followed
+closely after, bent upon weakening the force of his opponent's
+arguments by lodging an immediate demurrer against them. On the whole,
+Douglas drew the larger crowds; but it was observed that Lincoln's
+audiences increased as he proceeded northward. Ottawa was the
+objective point for both travelers, for there was to be held the first
+joint debate on August 21st.
+
+An enormous crowd awaited them. From sunrise to mid-day men, women,
+and children had poured into town, in every sort of conveyance. It was
+a typical midsummer day in Illinois. The prairie roads were thoroughly
+baked by the sun, and the dust rose, like a fine powder, from beneath
+the feet of horses and pedestrians, enveloping all in blinding clouds.
+A train of seventeen cars had brought ardent supporters of Douglas
+from Chicago. The town was gaily decked; the booming of cannon
+resounded across the prairie; bands of music added to the excitement
+of the occasion. The speakers were escorted to the public square by
+two huge processions. So eager was the crowd that it was with much
+difficulty, and no little delay, that Lincoln and Douglas, the
+committee men, and the reporters, were landed on the platform.[708]
+
+For the first time in the campaign, the rival candidates were placed
+side by side. The crowd instinctively took its measure of the two men.
+They presented a striking contrast:[709] Lincoln, tall, angular, and
+long of limb; Douglas, short, almost dwarfed by comparison,
+broad-shouldered and thick-chested. Lincoln was clad in a frock coat
+of rusty black, which was evidently not made for his lank, ungainly
+body. His sleeves did not reach his wrists by several inches, and his
+trousers failed to conceal his huge feet. His long, sinewy neck
+emerged from a white collar, drawn over a black tie. Altogether, his
+appearance bordered upon the grotesque, and would have provoked mirth
+in any other than an Illinois audience, which knew and respected the
+man too well to mark his costume. Douglas, on the contrary, presented
+a well-groomed figure. He wore a well-fitting suit of broadcloth; his
+linen was immaculate; and altogether he had the appearance of a man of
+the world whom fortune had favored.
+
+The eyes of the crowd, however, sought rather the faces of the rival
+candidates. Lincoln looked down upon them with eyes in which there was
+an expression of sadness, not to say melancholy, until he lost himself
+in the passion of his utterance. There was not a regular feature in
+his face. The deep furrows that seamed his countenance bore
+unmistakable witness to a boyhood of grim poverty and grinding toil.
+Douglas surveyed the crowd from beneath his shaggy brows, with bold,
+penetrating gaze. Every feature of his face bespoke power. The
+deep-set eyes; the dark, almost sinister, line between them; the mouth
+with its tightly-drawn lips; the deep lines on his somewhat puffy
+cheeks--all gave the impression of a masterful nature, accustomed to
+bear down opposition. As men observed his massive brow with its mane
+of abundant, dark hair; his strong neck; his short, compact body; they
+instinctively felt that here was a personality not lightly to be
+encountered. He was "the very embodiment of force, combativeness, and
+staying power."[710]
+
+When Douglas, by agreement, opened the debate, he was fully conscious
+that he was addressing an audience which was in the main hostile to
+him. With the instinct of a born stump speaker, he sought first to
+find common ground with his hearers. Appealing to the history of
+parties, he pointed out the practical agreement of both Whig and
+Democratic parties on the slavery question down to 1854. It was when,
+in accordance with the Compromise of 1850, he brought in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, that Lincoln and Trumbull entered into an
+agreement to dissolve the old parties in Illinois and to form an
+Abolition party under the pseudonym "Republican." The terms of the
+alliance were that Lincoln should have Senator Shields' place in the
+Senate, and that Trumbull should have Douglas's, when his term should
+expire.[711] History, thus interpreted, made not Douglas, but his
+opponent, the real agitator in State politics.
+
+Douglas then read from the first platform of the Black Republicans.
+"My object in reading these resolutions," he said, "was to put the
+question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will
+stand by each article in that creed and carry it out. I desire to know
+whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the
+unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. I desire him to answer
+whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the
+admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people
+want them. I want to know whether he stands pledged against the
+admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as
+the people of that State may see fit to make. I want to know whether
+he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District
+of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the
+prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. I desire
+to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the
+Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the
+Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to answer whether he is opposed
+to the acquisition of any more territory, unless slavery is prohibited
+therein."[712]
+
+In all this there was a rude vehemence and coarse insinuation that was
+regrettable; yet Douglas sought to soften the asperity of his manner,
+by adding that he did not mean to be disrespectful or unkind to Mr.
+Lincoln. He had known Mr. Lincoln for twenty-five years. While he was
+a school-teacher, Lincoln was a flourishing grocery-keeper. Lincoln
+was always more successful in business; Lincoln always did well
+whatever he undertook; Lincoln could beat any of the boys wrestling or
+running a foot-race; Lincoln could ruin more liquor than all the boys
+of the town together. When in Congress, Lincoln had distinguished
+himself by his opposition to the Mexican War, taking the side of the
+enemy against his own country.[713] If this disparagement of an
+opponent seems mean and ungenerous, let it be remembered that in the
+rough give-and-take of Illinois politics, hard hitting was to be
+expected. Lincoln had invited counter-blows by first charging Douglas
+with conspiracy. No mere reading of cold print can convey the virile
+energy with which Douglas spoke. The facial expression, the animated
+gesture, the toss of the head, and the stamp of the foot, the full,
+resonant voice--all are wanting.
+
+To a man of Lincoln's temperament, this vigorous invective was
+indescribably irritating. Rather unwisely he betrayed his vexation in
+his first words. His manner was constrained. He seemed awkward and ill
+at ease, but as he warmed to his task, his face became more animated,
+he recovered the use of his arms, and he pointed his remarks with
+forceful gestures. His voice, never pleasant, rose to a shrill treble
+in moments of excitement. After the familiar manner of Western
+speakers of that day, he was wont to bend his knees and then rise to
+his full height with a jerk, to enforce some point.[714] Yet with all
+his ungraceful mannerisms, Lincoln held his hearers, impressing most
+men with a sense of the honesty of his convictions.
+
+Instead of replying categorically to Douglas's questions, Lincoln read
+a long extract from a speech which he had made in 1854, to show his
+attitude then toward the Fugitive Slave Act. He denied that he had had
+anything to do with the resolutions which had been read. He believed
+that he was not even in Springfield at the time when they were
+adopted.[715] As for the charge that he favored the social and
+political equality of the black and white races, he said, "Anything
+that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality
+with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words,
+by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse.... I
+have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the
+white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the
+two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living
+together upon the footing of perfect equality ... notwithstanding all
+this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to
+all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
+Independence,--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness."[716] Slavery had always been, and would always be, "an
+apple of discord and an element of division in the house." He
+disclaimed all intention of making war upon Southern institutions, yet
+he was still firm in the belief that the public mind would not be easy
+until slavery was put where the fathers left it. He reminded his
+hearers that Douglas had said nothing to clear himself from the
+suspicion of having been party to a conspiracy to nationalize slavery.
+Judge Douglas was not always so ready as now to yield obedience to
+judicial decisions, as anyone might see who chose to inquire how he
+earned his title.[717]
+
+In his reply, Douglas endeavored to refresh Lincoln's memory in
+respect to the resolutions. They were adopted while he was in
+Springfield, for it was the season of the State Fair, when both had
+spoken at the Capitol. He had not charged Mr. Lincoln with having
+helped to frame these resolutions, but with having been a responsible
+leader of the party which had adopted them as its platform. Was Mr.
+Lincoln trying to dodge the questions? Douglas refused to allow
+himself to be put upon the defensive in the matter of the alleged
+conspiracy, since Lincoln had acknowledged that he did not know it to
+be true. He would brand it as a lie and let Lincoln prove it if he
+could.[718]
+
+At the conclusion of the debate, two young farmers, in their exuberant
+enthusiasm, rushed forward, seized Lincoln in spite of his
+remonstrances, and carried him off upon their stalwart shoulders. "It
+was really a ludicrous sight," writes an eye-witness,[719] "to see
+the grotesque figure holding frantically to the heads of his
+supporters, with his legs dangling from their shoulders, and his
+pantaloons pulled up so as to expose his underwear almost to his
+knees." Douglas was not slow in using this incident to the
+discomfiture of his opponent. "Why," he said at Joliet, "the very
+notice that I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in
+his knees so that he had to be carried from the platform. He laid up
+seven days, and in the meantime held a consultation with his political
+physicians,"[720] etc. Strangely enough, Lincoln with all his sense of
+humor took this badinage seriously, and accused Douglas of telling a
+falsehood.[721]
+
+The impression prevailed that Douglas had cornered Lincoln by his
+adroit use of the Springfield resolutions of 1854. Within a week,
+however, an editorial in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ reversed the
+popular verdict, by pronouncing the resolutions a forgery. The
+Republicans were jubilant. "The Little Dodger" had cornered himself.
+The Democrats were chagrined. Douglas was thoroughly nonplussed. He
+had written to Lanphier for precise information regarding these
+resolutions, and he had placed implicit confidence in the reply of his
+friend. It now transpired that they were the work of a local
+convention in Kane County.[722] Could any blunder have been more
+unfortunate?
+
+When the contestants met at Freeport, far in the solid Republican
+counties of the North, Lincoln was ready with his answers to the
+questions propounded by Douglas at Ottawa. In most respects Lincoln
+was clear and explicit. While not giving an unqualified approval of
+the Fugitive Slave Law, he was not in favor of its repeal; while
+believing that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the
+District of Columbia, he favored abolition only on condition that it
+should be gradual, acceptable to a majority of the voters of the
+District, and compensatory to unwilling owners; he would favor the
+abolition of the slave-trade between the States only upon similar
+conservative principles; he believed it, however, to be the right and
+duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; he was
+not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory, provided that it
+would not aggravate the slavery question. The really crucial
+questions, Lincoln did not face so unequivocally. Was he opposed to
+the admission of more slave States? Would he oppose the admission of a
+new State with such a constitution as the people of that State should
+see fit to make?
+
+Lincoln answered hesitatingly: "In regard to the other question, of
+whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
+the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly
+sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that
+question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never
+be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add, that
+if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the territorial
+existence of any one given Territory, and then the people shall,
+having a fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt the
+Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave
+Constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution
+among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit
+them into the Union."[723]
+
+It was now Lincoln's turn to catechise his opponent. He had prepared
+four questions, the second of which caused his friends some
+misgivings.[724] It read: "Can the people of a United States
+Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the
+United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation
+of a State Constitution?"
+
+Lincoln knew well enough that Douglas held to the power of the people
+practically to exclude slavery, regardless of the decision of the
+Supreme Court; Douglas had said as much in his hearing at Bloomington.
+What he desired to extort from Douglas was his opinion of the legality
+of such action in view of the Dred Scott decision. Should Douglas
+answer in the negative, popular sovereignty would become an empty
+phrase; should he answer in the affirmative, he would put himself, so
+Lincoln calculated, at variance with Southern Democrats, who claimed
+that the people of a Territory were now inhibited from any such power
+over slave property. In the latter event, Lincoln proposed to give
+such publicity to Douglas's reply as to make any future evasion or
+retraction impossible.[725]
+
+Douglas faced the critical question without the slightest hesitation.
+"It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to
+the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a
+Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to
+introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery
+cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by
+local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
+established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to
+slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by
+unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
+their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
+will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
+Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
+people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
+complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer
+satisfactory on that point"[726]
+
+The other three questions involved less risk for the advocate of
+popular sovereignty. He would vote to admit Kansas without the
+requisite population for representation in Congress, if the people
+should frame an unobjectionable constitution. He would prefer a
+general rule on this point, but since Congress had decided that Kansas
+had enough people to form a slave State, she surely had enough to
+constitute a free State. He scouted the imputation in the third
+question, that the Supreme Court could so far violate the Constitution
+as to decide that a State could not exclude slavery from its own
+limits. He would always vote for the acquisition of new territory,
+when it was needed, irrespective of the question of slavery.[727]
+
+Smarting under Lincoln's animadversions respecting the Springfield
+resolutions, Douglas explained his error by quoting from a copy of the
+Illinois _State Register_, which had printed the resolutions as the
+work of the convention at the capital. He gave notice that he would
+investigate the matter, "when he got down to Springfield." At all
+events there was ample proof that the resolutions were a faithful
+exposition of Republican doctrine in the year 1854. Douglas then read
+similar resolutions adopted by a convention in Rockford County. One
+Turner, who was acting as one of the moderators, interrupted him at
+this point, to say that he had drawn those very resolutions and that
+they were the Republican creed exactly. "And yet," exclaimed Douglas
+triumphantly, "and yet Lincoln denies that he stands on them. Mr.
+Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican party is the
+admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln declares that
+he would not like to be placed in a position where he would have to
+vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln is, that I do not
+think there is much danger of his being placed in such a position....
+I propose, out of mere kindness, to relieve him from any such
+necessity."[728]
+
+As he continued, Douglas grew offensively denunciatory. His opponents
+were invariably Black Republicans; Lincoln was the ally of rank
+Abolitionists like Giddings and Fred Douglass; of course those who
+believed in political and social equality for blacks and whites would
+vote for Lincoln. Lincoln had found fault with the resolutions because
+they were not adopted on the right spot. Lincoln and his friends were
+great on "spots." Lincoln had opposed the Mexican War because
+American blood was not shed on American soil in the right spot.
+Trumbull and Lincoln were like two decoy ducks which lead the flock
+astray. Ambition, personal ambition, had led to the formation of the
+Black Republican party. Lincoln and his friends were now only trying
+to secure what Trumbull had cheated them out of in 1855, when the
+senatorship fell to Trumbull. Under this savage attack the crowd grew
+restive. As Douglas repeated the epithet "Black" Republican, he was
+interrupted by indignant cries of "White," "White." But Douglas
+shouted back defiantly, "I wish to remind you that while Mr. Lincoln
+was speaking there was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to
+interrupt him," and browbeat his hearers into quiet again.[729]
+
+Realizing, perhaps, the immense difficulty of exposing the fallacy of
+Douglas's reply to his questions, in the few moments at his disposal,
+Lincoln did not refer to the crucial point. He contented himself with
+a defense of his own consistency. His best friends were dispirited,
+when the half-hour ended. They could not shake off the impression that
+Douglas had saved himself from defeat by his adroit answers to
+Lincoln's interrogatories.[730]
+
+The next joint debate occurred nearly three weeks later down in Egypt.
+By slow stages, speaking incessantly at all sorts of meetings, Douglas
+and Lincoln made their several ways through the doubtful central
+counties to Jonesboro in Union County. This was the enemy's country
+for Lincoln; and by reason of the activities of United States Marshal
+Dougherty, a Buchanan appointee, the county was scarcely less hostile
+to Douglas. The meeting was poorly attended. Those who listened to the
+speakers were chary of applause and appeared politically
+apathetic.[731]
+
+Douglas opened the debate by a wild, unguarded appeal to partisan
+prejudices. Knowing his hearers, he was personally vindictive in his
+references to Black Republicans in general and to Lincoln in
+particular. He reiterated his stock arguments, giving new vehemence to
+his charge of corrupt bargain between Trumbull and Lincoln by quoting
+Matheny, a Republican and "Mr. Lincoln's especial and confidential
+friend for the last twenty years."[732]
+
+Lincoln begged leave to doubt the authenticity of this new evidence,
+in view of the little episode at Ottawa, concerning the Springfield
+resolutions. At all events the whole story was untrue, and he had
+already declared it to be such.[733] Why should Douglas persist in
+misrepresenting him? Brushing aside these lesser matters, however,
+Lincoln addressed himself to what had now come to be known as
+Douglas's Freeport doctrine. "I hold," said he, "that the proposition
+that slavery cannot enter a new country without police regulations is
+historically false.... There is enough vigor in slavery to plant
+itself in a new country even against unfriendly legislation. It takes
+not only law but the enforcement of law to keep it out." Moreover, the
+decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case had created
+constitutional obligations. Now that the right of property in slaves
+was affirmed by the Constitution, according to the Court, how could a
+member of a territorial legislature, who had taken the oath to
+support the Constitution, refuse to give his vote for laws necessary
+to establish slave property? And how could a member of Congress keep
+his oath and withhold the necessary protection to slave property in
+the Territories?[734]
+
+Of course Lincoln was well aware that Douglas held that the Court had
+decided only the question of jurisdiction in the Dred Scott case; and
+that all else was a mere _obiter dictum_. Nevertheless, "the Court did
+pass its opinion.... If they did not decide, they showed what they
+were ready to decide whenever the matter was before them. They used
+language to this effect: That inasmuch as Congress itself could not
+exercise such a power [_i.e._, pass a law prohibiting slavery in the
+Territories], it followed as a matter of course that it could not
+authorize a Territorial Government to exercise it; for the Territorial
+Legislature can do no more than Congress could do."[735]
+
+The only answer of Douglas to this trenchant analysis was a reiterated
+assertion: "I assert that under the Dred Scott decision [taking
+Lincoln's view of that decision] you cannot maintain slavery a day in
+a Territory where there is an unwilling people and unfriendly
+legislation. If the people are opposed to it, our right is a barren,
+worthless, useless right; and if they are for it, they will support
+and encourage it."[736]
+
+Douglas made much of Lincoln's evident unwillingness to commit himself
+on the question of admitting more slave States. In various ways he
+sought to trip his adversary, believing that Lincoln had pledged
+himself to his Abolitionist allies in 1855 to vote against the
+admission of more slave States, if he should be elected senator. "Let
+me tell Mr. Lincoln that his party in the northern part of the State
+hold to that Abolition platform [no more slave States], and if they do
+not in the South and in the center, they present the extraordinary
+spectacle of a house-divided-against-itself."[737]
+
+Douglas turned the edge of Lincoln's thrust at the duties of
+legislators under the Dred Scott decision by saying, "Well, if you are
+not going to resist the decision, if you obey it, and do not intend to
+array mob law against the constituted authorities, then, according to
+your own statement, you will be a perjured man if you do not vote to
+establish slavery in these Territories."[738] And it did not save
+Lincoln from the horns of this uncomfortable dilemma to repeat that he
+did not accept the Dred Scott decision as a rule for political action,
+for he had just emphasized the moral obligation of obeying the law of
+the Constitution.
+
+From the darkness of Egypt, Douglas and Lincoln journeyed northward
+toward Charleston in Coles County, where the fourth debate was to be
+held. Both paused _en route_ to visit the State Fair, then in full
+blast at Centralia. Curious crowds followed them around the fair
+grounds, deeming the rival candidates quite as worthy of close
+scrutiny as the other exhibits.[739] Ten miles from Charleston, they
+left the train to be escorted by rival processions along the dusty
+highway to their destination. From all the country-side people had
+come to town to cheer on their respective champions.[740] This
+twenty-fifth district, comprising Coles and Moultrie counties, had
+been carried by the Democrats in 1856, but was now regarded as
+doubtful. The uncertainty added piquancy to the debate.
+
+It was Lincoln's turn to open the joust. At the outset he tried to
+allay misapprehensions regarding his attitude toward negro equality.
+"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the
+white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold
+office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in
+addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the
+white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two
+races living together on terms of social and political equality. And
+inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
+must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any
+other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
+white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because
+the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be
+denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My
+understanding is that I can just let her alone."[741] This was by far
+the most explicit statement that he had yet made on the hazardous
+subject.
+
+Lincoln then turned upon his opponent, with more aggressiveness than,
+he had hitherto exhibited, to drive home the charge which Trumbull had
+made earlier in the campaign. Prompted by Trumbull, probably, Lincoln
+reviewed the shadowy history of the Toombs bill and Douglas's still
+more enigmatical connection with it. The substance of the indictment
+was, that Douglas had suppressed that part of the original bill which
+provided for a popular vote on the constitution to be drafted by the
+Kansas convention. In replying to Trumbull, Douglas had damaged his
+own case by denying that the Toombs bill had ever contained such a
+provision. Lincoln proved the contrary by the most transparent
+testimony, convicting Douglas not only of the original offense but of
+an untruth in connection with it.[742]
+
+This was not a vague charge of conspiracy which could be treated with
+contempt, but an indictment, accompanied by circumstantial evidence.
+While a dispassionate examination of the whole incident will acquit
+Douglas of any part in a plot to prevent the fair adoption of a
+constitution by the people of Kansas, yet he certainly took a most
+unfortunate and prejudicial mode of defending himself.[743] His
+personal retorts were so vindictive and his attack upon Trumbull so
+full of venom, that his words did not carry conviction to the minds of
+his hearers. It was a matter of common observation that Democrats
+seemed ill at ease after the debate.[744] "Judge Douglas is playing
+cuttle-fish," remarked Lincoln, noting with satisfaction the very
+evident discomfiture of his opponent, "a small species of fish that
+has no mode of defending itself when pursued except by throwing out a
+black fluid, which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it,
+and thus it escapes."[745]
+
+Douglas, however, did his best to recover his ground by accusing
+Lincoln of shifting his principles as he passed from the northern
+counties to Egypt; the principles of his party in the north were
+"jet-black," in the center, "a decent mulatto," and in lower Egypt
+"almost white." Lincoln then dared him to point out any difference
+between his speeches. Blows now fell thick and fast, both speakers
+approaching dangerously near the limit of parliamentary language.
+Reverting to his argument that slavery must be put in the course of
+ultimate extinction, Lincoln made this interesting qualification: "I
+do not mean that when it takes a turn toward ultimate extinction it
+will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose
+that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less
+than a hundred years at least; but that it will occur in the best way
+for both races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt."[746]
+
+Douglas was now feeling the full force of the opposition within his
+own party. The Republican newspapers of the State had seized upon his
+Freeport speech to convince the South and the administration that he
+was false to their creed. The Washington _Union_ had from the first
+denounced him as a renegade, with whom no self-respecting Democrat
+would associate.[747] Slidell was active in Illinois, spending money
+freely to defeat him.[748] The Danites in the central counties plotted
+incessantly to weaken his following. Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
+sent "a Thousand Greetings" to a mass-meeting of Danites in
+Springfield,--a liberal allowance, commented some Douglasite, as each
+delegate would receive about ten greetings.[749] Yet the dimensions of
+this movement were not easily ascertained. The declination of
+Vice-President Breckinridge to come to the aid of Douglas was a rebuff
+not easily laughed down, though to be sure, he expressed a guarded
+preference for Douglas over Lincoln. The coolness of Breckinridge was
+in a measure offset by the friendliness of Senator Crittenden, who
+refused to aid Lincoln, because he believed Douglas's re-election
+"necessary as a rebuke to the administration and a vindication of the
+great cause of popular rights and public justice."[750] The most
+influential Republican papers in the East gave Lincoln tardy support,
+with the exception of the New York _Times_.[751]
+
+Unquestionably Douglas drew upon resources which Lincoln could not
+command. The management of the Illinois Central Railroad was naturally
+friendly toward him, though there is no evidence that it countenanced
+any illegitimate use of influence on his behalf. If Douglas enjoyed
+special train service, which Lincoln did not, it was because he drew
+upon funds that exceeded Lincoln's modest income. How many thousands
+of dollars Douglas devoted from his own exchequer to his campaign,
+can now only be conjectured. In all probability, he spent all that
+remained from the sale of his real estate in Chicago, and more which
+he borrowed in New York by mortgaging his other holdings in Cook
+County.[752] And not least among his assets was the constant
+companionship of Mrs. Douglas, whose tact, grace, and beauty placated
+feelings which had been ruffled by the rude vigor of "the Little
+Giant."[753]
+
+When the rivals met three weeks later at Galesburg, they were disposed
+to drop personalities. Indeed, both were aware that they were about to
+address men and women who demanded an intelligent discussion of the
+issues of the hour. Lincoln had the more sympathetic hearing, for Knox
+County was consistently Republican; and the town with its academic
+atmosphere and New England traditions shared his hostility to slavery.
+Vast crowds braved the cold, raw winds of the October day to listen
+for three hours to this debate.[754] From a platform on the college
+campus, Douglas looked down somewhat defiantly upon his hearers,
+though his words were well-chosen and courteous. The circumstances
+were much the same as at Ottawa; and he spoke in much the same vein.
+He rang the changes upon his great fundamental principle; he defended
+his course in respect to Lecomptonism; he denounced the Republican
+party as a sectional organization whose leaders were bent upon
+"outvoting, conquering, governing, and controlling the South."
+Douglas laid great stress upon this sectional aspect of Republicanism,
+which made its southward extension impossible. "Not only is this
+Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in the North
+and in the South, in the free States and in the slave States, but it
+cannot even proclaim them in the same forms and give them the same
+strength and meaning in all parts of the same State. My friend Lincoln
+finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in the center part of
+the State, where there is a mixture of men from the North and the
+South."[755]
+
+Here Douglas paused to read from Lincoln's speeches at Chicago and at
+Charleston, and to ask his hearers to reconcile the conflicting
+statements respecting negro equality. He pronounced Lincoln's
+doctrine, that the negro and the white man are made equal by the
+Declaration of Independence and Divine Providence, "a monstrous
+heresy."
+
+Lincoln protested that nothing was farther from his purpose than to
+"advance hypocritical and deceptive and contrary views in different
+portions of the country." As for the charge of sectionalism, Judge
+Douglas was himself fast becoming sectional, for his speeches no
+longer passed current south of the Ohio as they had once done.
+"Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between Judge
+Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of
+sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of
+Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat."[756]
+
+And Lincoln again scored on his opponent, when he pointed out that
+his political doctrine rested upon the major premise, that there was
+no wrong in slavery. "If you will take the Judge's speeches, and
+select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him,--as his
+declaration that he 'don't care whether slavery is voted up or
+down'--you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do
+not admit that slavery is wrong.... Judge Douglas declares that if any
+community wants slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that
+logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you
+admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that
+anybody has a right to do wrong."[757]
+
+Those who now read these memorable debates dis-passionately, will
+surely acquit Lincoln of inconsistency in his attitude toward the
+negro. His speech at Charleston supplements the speech at Chicago; at
+Galesburg, he made an admirable re-statement of his position.
+Nevertheless, there was a marked difference in point of emphasis
+between his utterances in Northern and in Southern Illinois. Even the
+casual reader will detect subtle omissions which the varying character
+of his audience forced upon Lincoln. In Chicago he said nothing about
+the physical inferiority of the negro; he said nothing about the
+equality of the races in the Declaration of Independence, when he
+spoke at Charleston. Among men of anti-slavery leanings, he had much
+to say about the moral wrong of slavery; in the doubtful counties,
+Lincoln was solicitous that he should not be understood as favoring
+social and political equality between whites and blacks.
+
+Feeling keenly this diplomatic shifting of emphasis, Douglas persisted
+in accusing Lincoln of inconsistency: "He has one set of principles
+for the Abolition counties and another set for the counties opposed to
+Abolitionism." If Lincoln had said in Coles County what he has to-day
+said in old Knox, Douglas complained, "it would have settled the
+question between us in that doubtful county."[758] And in this Douglas
+was probably correct.
+
+At Quincy, Douglas was in his old bailiwick. Three times the Democrats
+of this district had sent him to Congress; and though the bounds of
+the congressional district had since been changed, Adams County was
+still Democratic by a safe majority. Among the people who greeted the
+speakers, however, were many old-time Whigs, for whose special benefit
+the Republicans of the city carried on a pole, at the head of their
+procession, a live raccoon. With a much keener historic sense, the
+Democrats bore aloft a dead raccoon, suspended by its tail.[759]
+
+Lincoln again harked back to his position that slavery was "a moral, a
+social, and a political wrong" which the Republican party proposed to
+prevent from growing any larger; and that "the leading man--I think I
+may do my friend Judge Douglas the honor of calling him
+such--advocating the present Democratic policy, never himself says it
+is wrong."[760]
+
+The consciousness that he was made to seem morally obtuse, cut Douglas
+to the quick. Even upon his tough constitution this prolonged campaign
+was beginning to tell. His voice was harsh and broken; and he gave
+unmistakable signs of nervous irritability, brought on by physical
+fatigue. When he rose to reply to Lincoln, his manner was offensively
+combative. At the outset, he referred angrily to Lincoln's "gross
+personalities and base insinuations."[761] In his references to the
+Springfield resolutions and to his mistake, or rather the mistake of
+his friends at the capital, he was particularly denunciatory. "When I
+make a mistake," he boasted, "as an honest man, I correct it without
+being asked to, but when he, Lincoln, makes a false charge, he sticks
+to it and never corrects it."[762]
+
+But Douglas was too old a campaigner to lose control of himself, and
+no doubt the rude charge and counter-charge were prompted less by
+personal ill-will than by controversial exigencies. Those who have
+conceived Douglas as the victim of deep-seated and abiding resentment
+toward Lincoln, forget the impulsive nature of the man. There is not
+the slightest evidence that Lincoln took these blows to heart. He had
+himself dealt many a vigorous blow in times past. It was part of the
+game.
+
+Douglas found fault with Lincoln's answers to the Ottawa questions: "I
+ask you again, Lincoln, will you vote to admit New Mexico, when she
+has the requisite population with such a constitution as her people
+adopt, either recognizing slavery or not, as they shall determine!" He
+was well within the truth when he asserted that Lincoln's answer had
+been purposely evasive and equivocal, "having no reference to any
+territory now in existence."[763] Of Lincoln's Republican policy of
+confining slavery within its present limits, by prohibiting it in the
+Territories, he said, "When he gets it thus confined, and surrounded,
+so that it cannot spread, the natural laws of increase will go on
+until the negroes will be so plenty that they cannot live on the soil.
+He will hem them in until starvation seizes them, and by starving them
+to death, he will put slavery in the course of ultimate
+extinction."[764] A silly argument which Douglas's wide acquaintance
+with Southern conditions flatly contradicted and should have kept him
+from repeating.
+
+To the charge of moral obliquity on the slavery question, Douglas made
+a dignified and worthy reply. "I hold that the people of the
+slave-holding States are civilized men as well as ourselves; that they
+bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God
+and their posterity, and not to us. It is for them to decide,
+therefore, the moral and religious right of the slavery question for
+themselves within their own limits."[765]
+
+On the following day both Lincoln and Douglas took passage on a river
+steamer for Alton. The county of Madison had once been Whig in its
+political proclivities. In the State legislature it was now
+represented by two representatives and a senator who were Native
+Americans; and in the present campaign, the county was classed as
+doubtful. In Alton and elsewhere there was a large German vote which
+was likely to sway the election.
+
+Douglas labored under a physical disadvantage. His voice was painful
+to hear, while Lincoln's betrayed no sign of fatigue.[766] Both fell
+into the argument _ad hominem_. Lincoln advocated holding the
+Territories open to "free white people" the world over--to "Hans,
+Baptiste, and Patrick." Douglas contended that the equality referred
+to in the Declaration of Independence, was the equality of white
+men--"men of European birth and European descent." Both conjured with
+the revered name of Clay. Douglas persistently referred to Lincoln as
+an Abolitionist, knowing that his auditors had "strong sympathies
+southward," as Lincoln shrewdly guessed; while Lincoln sought to
+unmask that "false statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system
+of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the very thing that
+everybody does care the most about."[767]
+
+Douglas made a successful appeal to the sympathy of the crowd, when he
+said of his conduct in the Lecompton fight, "Most of the men who
+denounced my course on the Lecompton question objected to it, not
+because I was not right, but because they thought it expedient at that
+time, for the sake of keeping the party together, to do wrong. I never
+knew the Democratic party to violate any one of its principles, out of
+policy or expediency, that it did not pay the debt with sorrow. There
+is no safety or success for our party unless we always do right, and
+trust the consequences to God and the people. I chose not to depart
+from principle for the sake of expediency on the Lecompton question,
+and I never intend to do it on that or any other question."[768]
+
+Both at Quincy and at Alton, Douglas paid his respects to the
+"contemptible crew" who were trying to break up the party and defeat
+him. At first he had avoided direct attacks upon the administration;
+but the relentless persecution of the Washington _Union_ made him
+restive. Lincoln derived great satisfaction from this intestine
+warfare in the Democratic camp. "Go it, husband! Go it, bear!" he
+cried.
+
+In this last debate, both sought to summarize the issues. Said
+Lincoln, "You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from
+beginning to end, ... it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that
+there is anything wrong in it [slavery].
+
+"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
+country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be
+silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles--right
+and wrong--throughout the world.... I was glad to express my gratitude
+at Quincy, and I re-express it here, to Judge Douglas,--_that he looks
+to no end of the institution of slavery_. That will help the people to
+see where the struggle really is."[769]
+
+To the mind of Douglas, the issue presented itself in quite another
+form. "He [Lincoln] says that he looks forward to a time when slavery
+shall be abolished everywhere. I look forward to a time when each
+State shall be allowed to do as it pleases. If it chooses to keep
+slavery forever, it is not my business, but its own; if it chooses to
+abolish slavery, it is its own business,--not mine. I care more for
+the great principle of self-government, the right of the people to
+rule, than I do for all the negroes in Christendom. I would not
+endanger the perpetuity of this Union, I would not blot out the great
+inalienable rights of the white men, for all the negroes that ever
+existed."[770]
+
+With this encounter at Alton, the joint debates, but not the campaign
+closed. Douglas continued to speak at various strategic points, in
+spite of inclement weather and physical exhaustion, up to the eve of
+the election.[771] The canvass had continued just a hundred days,
+during which Douglas had made one hundred and thirty speeches.[772]
+During the last weeks of the campaign, election canards designed to
+injure Douglas were sedulously circulated, adding no little
+uncertainty to the outcome in doubtful districts. The most damaging of
+these stories seems to have emanated from Senator John Slidell of
+Louisiana, whose midsummer sojourn in Illinois has already been noted.
+A Chicago journal published the tale that Douglas's slaves in the
+South were "the subjects of inhuman and disgraceful treatment--that
+they were hired out to a factor at fifteen dollars per annum
+each--that he, in turn, hired them out to others in lots, and that
+they were ill-fed, over-worked, and in every way so badly treated that
+they were spoken of in the neighborhood where they are held as a
+disgrace to all slave-holders and the system they support." The
+explicit denial of the story came from Slidell some weeks after the
+election, when the slander had accomplished the desired purpose.[773]
+
+All signs pointed to a heavy vote for both tickets. As the campaign
+drew to a close, the excitement reached a pitch rarely equalled even
+in presidential elections. Indeed, the total vote cast exceeded that
+of 1856 by many thousands,--an increase that cannot be wholly
+accounted for by the growth of population in these years.[774] The
+Republican State ticket was elected by less than four thousand votes
+over the Democratic ticket. The relative strength of the rival
+candidates for the senatorship, however, is exhibited more fully in
+the vote for the members of the lower house of the State legislature..
+The avowed Douglas candidates polled over 174,000, while the Lincoln
+men received something over 190,000. Administration candidates
+received a scant vote of less than 2,000. Notwithstanding this popular
+majority, the Republicans secured only thirty-five seats, while the
+Democratic minority secured forty. Out of fifteen contested senatorial
+seats, the Democrats won eight with a total of 44,826 votes, while the
+Republicans cast 53,784 votes and secured but seven. No better proof
+could be offered of Lincoln's contention that the State was
+gerrymandered in favor of the Democrats. Still, this was part of the
+game; and had the Republicans been in office, they would have
+undoubtedly used an advantage which has proved too tempting for the
+virtue of every American party.
+
+When the two houses of the Illinois Legislature met in joint session,
+January 6, 1859, not a man ventured, or desired, to record his vote
+otherwise than as his party affiliations dictated. Douglas received
+fifty-four votes and Lincoln forty-six. "Glory to God and the Sucker
+Democracy," telegraphed the editor of the _State Register_ to his
+chief. And back over the wires from Washington was flashed the laconic
+message, "Let the voice of the people rule." But had the _will_ of the
+people ruled?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 669: Hollister, Life of Colfax pp. 119 ff; Wilson, Rise and
+Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 567.]
+
+[Footnote 670: Hollister, Colfax, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 671: Wilson, p. 567.]
+
+[Footnote 672: Bancroft, Life of Seward, I, pp. 449-450.]
+
+[Footnote 673: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 403.]
+
+[Footnote 674: Hollister, Colfax, p. 119.]
+
+[Footnote 675: _Ibid._, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 676: Wilson, II, p 567; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 397.]
+
+[Footnote 677: Hollister, Colfax, p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 678: Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, pp. 59 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 679: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 394.]
+
+[Footnote 680: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 681: Forney, Anecdotes, II, p. 179.]
+
+[Footnote 682: Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Edition of 1860), p. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 683: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 398-400.]
+
+[Footnote 684: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 400; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, p. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 685: Debates, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 686: Debates, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 687: _Ibid._, p. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 688: _Ibid._, p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 689: Debates, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 690: Debates, p. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 691: _Ibid._, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 692: Flint, Douglas, pp. 114-117; Chicago _Times_, July 18,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 693: Debates, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 694: Debates, p. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 695: _Ibid._, p. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 696: _Ibid._, pp. 33-34.]
+
+[Footnote 697: Debates, p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 698: _Ibid._, p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 699: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 417; Chicago _Times_, July 21,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 700: Debates, p. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 701: _Ibid._, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 702: _Ibid._, p. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 703: _Ibid._, p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 704: Debates, p. 64.]
+
+[Footnote 705: _Ibid._, pp. 64-65.]
+
+[Footnote 706: _Ibid._, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 707: Debates, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 708: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+104-105.]
+
+[Footnote 709: For the following description I have drawn freely from
+the narratives of eye-witnesses. I am particularly indebted to the
+graphic account by Mr. Carl Schurz in _McClure's Magazine_, January,
+1907.]
+
+[Footnote 710: Mr. Schurz in _McClure's_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 711: Debates, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 712: Debates, p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 713: _Ibid._, p. 69.]
+
+[Footnote 714: Herndon in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp. 76-77; Mr.
+Carl Schurz in _McClure's_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 715: Debates, p. 73.]
+
+[Footnote 716: Debates, p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 717: _Ibid._, p. 82.]
+
+[Footnote 718: _Ibid._, p. 86.]
+
+[Footnote 719: Henry Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 93; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 108.]
+
+[Footnote 720: Debates, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 721: _Ibid._, p. 130.]
+
+[Footnote 722: Holland, Lincoln, p. 185; Tarbell, Lincoln, _McClure's
+Magazine_, VII, pp. 408-409.]
+
+[Footnote 723: Debates, p. 89.]
+
+[Footnote 724: Holland, Lincoln, pp. 188-189; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.]
+
+[Footnote 725: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.]
+
+[Footnote 726: Debates, p. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 727: Debates, pp. 94-97.]
+
+[Footnote 728: Debates, pp. 100-101.]
+
+[Footnote 729: Debates, p. 101.]
+
+[Footnote 730: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 110.]
+
+[Footnote 731: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 118.]
+
+[Footnote 732: Debates, pp. 113-114.]
+
+[Footnote 733: _Ibid._, p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 734: Debates, p. 127.]
+
+[Footnote 735: _Ibid._, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 736: _Ibid._, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 737: Debates, p. 133. Lamon is authority for the statement
+that Lincoln pledged himself to Lovejoy and his faction to favor the
+exclusion of slavery from all the territory of the United States.
+Douglas did not know of this pledge, but suspected an understanding to
+this effect. If Lamon may be believed, this statement explains the
+persistence of Douglas on this point and the evasiveness of Lincoln.
+See Lamon, Lincoln, pp. 361-365.]
+
+[Footnote 738: _Ibid._, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 739: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 119.]
+
+[Footnote 740: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 741: Debates, p. 136.]
+
+[Footnote 742: Debates, pp. 137-143.]
+
+[Footnote 743: See above pp. 303-304.]
+
+[Footnote 744: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 122.]
+
+[Footnote 745: Debates, p. 159.]
+
+[Footnote 746: _Ibid._, p. 157.]
+
+[Footnote 747: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 342.]
+
+[Footnote 748: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135; Herndon-Weik,
+Lincoln, II, p. 127.]
+
+[Footnote 749: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 750: Coleman, Life of Crittenden, II, p. 163.]
+
+[Footnote 751: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 341.]
+
+[Footnote 752: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 338, note
+3. The record of the Circuit Court of Cook County, December term,
+1867, states that the entire lien upon the estate in 1864 exceeded
+$94,000. The mortgages were held by Fernando Wood and others of New
+York.]
+
+[Footnote 753: Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 754: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 123.]
+
+[Footnote 755: Debates p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 756: _Ibid._, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 757: Debates, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 758: Debates, p. 188.]
+
+[Footnote 759: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+123-124.]
+
+[Footnote 760: Debates, p. 198.]
+
+[Footnote 761: Debates, p. 199; _McClure's Magazine_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 762: Debates, p. 201.]
+
+[Footnote 763: _Ibid._, p. 201.]
+
+[Footnote 764: Debates, p. 204.]
+
+[Footnote 765: _Ibid._, p. 209.]
+
+[Footnote 766: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 767: Debates, p. 231.]
+
+[Footnote 768: _Ibid._, p. 218.]
+
+[Footnote 769: Debates, p. 234.]
+
+[Footnote 770: _Ibid._, p. 238.]
+
+[Footnote 771: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 432.]
+
+[Footnote 772: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, II, p. 146 note.]
+
+[Footnote 773: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 439-442; Herndon-Weik, Lincoln,
+II, p. 128.]
+
+[Footnote 774: It has not been generally observed that the Democrats
+gained more than their opponents over the State contest of 1856. The
+election returns were as follows:
+
+    Democratic ticket in 1856, 106,643; in 1858, 121,609; gain, 14,966.
+    Republican ticket in 1856, 111,375; in 1858, 125,430; gain, 14,055.
+]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE AFTERMATH
+
+
+Douglas had achieved a great personal triumph. Not even his Republican
+opponents could gainsay it. In the East, the Republican newspapers
+applauded him undisguisedly, not so much because they admired him or
+lacked sympathy with Lincoln, as because they regarded his re-election
+as a signal condemnation of the Buchanan administration. Moreover,
+there was a general expectation in anti-slavery circles to which
+Theodore Parker gave expression when he wrote, "Had Lincoln succeeded,
+Douglas would be a ruined man.... But now in place for six years more,
+with his own personal power unimpaired and his positional influence
+much enhanced, he can do the Democratic party a world of damage."[775]
+There was cheer in this expectation even for those who deplored the
+defeat of Lincoln.
+
+As Douglas journeyed southward soon after the November elections, he
+must have felt the poignant truth of Lincoln's shrewd observation that
+he was himself becoming sectional. Though he was received with seeming
+cordiality at Memphis and New Orleans, he could not but notice that
+his speeches, as Lincoln predicted, "would not go current south of the
+Ohio River as they had formerly." Democratic audiences applauded his
+bold insistence upon the universality of the principles of the party
+creed, but the tone of the Southern press was distinctly unfriendly
+to him and his Freeport doctrine.[776] He told his auditors at Memphis
+that he indorsed the decision of the Supreme Court; he believed that
+the owners of slaves had the same right to take them into the
+Territories as they had to take other property; but slaves once in the
+Territory were then subject to local laws for protection, on an equal
+footing with all other property. If no local laws protecting slave
+property were passed, slavery would be practically excluded.
+"Non-action is exclusion." It was a matter of soil, climate,
+interests, whether a Territory would permit slavery or not. "You come
+right back to the principle of dollars and cents ... If old Joshua E.
+Giddings should raise a colony in Ohio and settle down in Louisiana,
+he would be the strongest advocate of slavery in the whole South; he
+would find when he got there, his opinion would be very much modified;
+he would find on those sugar plantations that it was not a question
+between the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the
+crocodile." "The Almighty has drawn the line on this continent, on one
+side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor; on the other
+by white labor."[777]
+
+At New Orleans, he repeated more emphatically much the same thought.
+"There is a line, or belt of country, meandering through the valleys
+and over the mountain tops, which is a natural barrier between free
+territory and slave territory, on the south of which are to be found
+the productions suitable to slave labor, while on the north exists a
+country adapted to free labor alone.... But in the great central
+regions, where there may be some doubt as to the effect of natural
+causes, who ought to decide the question except the people residing
+there, who have all their interests there, who have gone there to live
+with their wives and children!"[778]
+
+It was characteristic of the man that he thought politics even when he
+was in pursuit of health. Advised to take an ocean voyage, he decided
+to visit Cuba so that even his recreative leisure might be politically
+profitable, for the island was more than ever coveted by the South and
+he wished to have the advantage of first-hand information about this
+unhappy Spanish province. Landing in New York upon his return, he was
+given a remarkable ovation by the Democracy of the city; and he was
+greeted with equal warmth in Philadelphia and Baltimore.[779] Even a
+less ambitious man might have been tempted to believe in his own
+capacity for leadership, in the midst of these apparently spontaneous
+demonstrations of regard. At the capital, however, he was less
+cordially welcomed. He was not in the least surprised, for while he
+was still in the South, the newspapers had announced his deposition
+from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. He knew well
+enough what he had to expect from the group of Southern Democrats who
+had the ear of the administration.[780] Nevertheless, his removal from
+a position which he had held ever since he entered the Senate was a
+bitter pill.
+
+For the sake of peace Douglas smothered his resentment, and, for a
+brief time at least, sought to demonstrate his political orthodoxy in
+matters where there was no conflict of opinion. As a member of the
+Committee on Foreign Affairs, he cordially supported the bill for the
+purchase of Cuba, even though the chairman, Slidell, had done more to
+injure him in the recent campaign than any other man. There were those
+who thought he demeaned himself by attending the Democratic caucus and
+indorsing the Slidell project.[781]
+
+It was charged that the proposed appropriation of $30,000,000 was to
+be used to bribe Spanish ministers to sell Cuba; that the whole
+project was motived by the desire of the South to acquire more slave
+territory; and that Douglas was once more cultivating the South to
+secure the presidency in 1860. The first of these charges has never
+been proved; the second is probably correct; but the third is surely
+open to question. As long ago as Folk's administration, Douglas had
+expressed his belief that the Pearl of the Antilles must some day fall
+to us; and on various occasions he had advocated the annexation of
+Cuba, with the consent of Spain and the inhabitants. At New Orleans,
+he had been called upon to express his views regarding the acquisition
+of the island; and he had said, without hesitation, "It is folly to
+debate the acquisition of Cuba. It naturally belongs to the American
+continent. It guards the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is the
+heart of the American continent and the body of the American nation."
+At the same time he was careful to add that he was no filibuster: he
+desired Cuba only upon terms honorable to all concerned.[782]
+
+Subsequent events acquit Douglas of truckling to the South at this
+time. No doubt he would have been glad to let bygones be bygones, to
+close up the gap of unpleasant memories between himself and the
+administration, and to restore Democratic harmony. For Douglas loved
+his party and honored its history. To him the party of Jefferson and
+Jackson was inseparably linked with all that made the American
+Commonwealth the greatest of democracies. Yet where men are acutely
+conscious of vital differences of opinion, only the hourly practice of
+self-control can prevent clashing. Neither Douglas nor his opponents
+were prepared to undergo any such rigid self-discipline.
+
+On February 23d, the pent-up feeling broke through all barriers and
+laid bare the thoughts and intents of the Democratic factions. The
+Kansas question once more recurring, Brown of Mississippi now demanded
+adequate protection for property; that is, "protection sufficient to
+protect animate property." Any other protection would be a delusion
+and a cheat. If the territorial legislature refused such protection,
+he for one would demand it of Congress. He dissented altogether from
+the doctrine of the Senator from Illinois, that by non-action, or
+unfriendly legislation a Territory could annul a decision of the
+Supreme Court and exclude slavery. That was mistaking power for right.
+"What I want to know is, whether you will interpose against power and
+in favor of right.... If the Territorial Legislature refuses to act,
+will you act?... If it pass laws hostile to slavery, will you annul
+them, and substitute laws favoring slavery in their stead?" "What I
+and my people ask is action; positive, unqualified action. Our
+understanding of the doctrine of non-intervention was, that you were
+not to intervene against us, but I never understood that we could have
+any compromise or understanding here which could release Congress from
+an obligation imposed on it by the Constitution of the United
+States."[783]
+
+Reluctant as Douglas must have been to accentuate the differences
+between himself and the Southern Democrats, he could not remain
+silent, for silence would be misconstrued. With all the tact which he
+could muster out of a not too abundant store, he sought to conciliate,
+without yielding his own opinions. It was a futile effort. At the very
+outset he was forced to deny the right of slave property to other
+protection than common property. Thence he passed with wider and wider
+divergence from the Southern position over the familiar ground of
+popular sovereignty. To the specific demands which Brown had voiced,
+he replied that Congress had never passed an act creating a criminal
+code for any organized Territory, nor any law protecting any species
+of property. Congress had left these matters to the territorial
+legislatures. Why, then, make an exception of slave property? The
+Supreme Court had made no such distinction. "I know," said Douglas, in
+a tone little calculated to soothe the feelings of his opponents, "I
+know that some gentlemen do not like the doctrine of non-intervention
+as well as they once did. It is now becoming fashionable to talk
+sneeringly of 'your doctrine of non-intervention,' Sir, that doctrine
+has been a fundamental article in the Democratic creed for years."
+"If you repudiate the doctrine of non-intervention and form a slave
+code by act of Congress, when the people of a Territory refuse it, you
+must step off the Democratic platform.... I tell you, gentlemen of the
+South, in all candor, I do not believe a Democratic candidate can ever
+carry any one Democratic State of the North on the platform that it is
+the duty of the Federal government to force the people of a Territory
+to have slavery when they do not want it."[784]
+
+What Brown had asserted with his wonted impulsiveness, was then
+reaffirmed more soberly by his colleague, Jefferson Davis, upon whom
+more than any other Southerner the mantle of Calhoun had fallen. State
+sovereignty was also his major premise. The Constitution was a
+compact. The Territories were common property of the States. The
+territorial legislatures were mere instruments through which the
+Congress of the United States "executed its trust in relation to the
+Territories." If, as the Senator from Illinois insisted, Congress had
+granted full power to the inhabitants of the Territories to legislate
+on all subjects not inconsistent with the Constitution, then Congress
+had exceeded its authority. Turning to Douglas, Davis said, "Now, the
+senator asks, will you make a discrimination in the Territories? I
+say, yes, I would discriminate in the Territories wherever it is
+needful to assert the right of citizens.... I have heard many a
+siren's song on this doctrine of non-intervention; a thing shadowy and
+fleeting, changing its color as often as the chameleon."[785]
+
+When Douglas could again get the floor, he retorted sharply, "The
+senator from Mississippi says, if I am not willing to stand in the
+party on his platform, I can go out. Allow me to inform him that I
+stand on the platform, and those that jump off must go out of the
+party."
+
+Hot words now passed between them. Davis spoke disdainfully of men who
+seek to build up a political reputation by catering to the prejudice
+of a majority, to exclude the property of the minority. And Douglas
+retorted, "I despise to see men from other sections of the Union
+pandering to a public sentiment against what I conceive to be common
+rights under the Constitution." "Holding the views that you do," said
+Davis, "you would have no chance of getting the vote of Mississippi
+to-day." The senator has "confirmed me in the belief that he is now as
+full of heresy as he once was of adherence to the doctrine of popular
+sovereignty, correctly construed; that he has gone back to his first
+love of squatter sovereignty, a thing offensive to every idea of
+conservatism and sound government."
+
+Davis made repeated efforts to secure an answer to the question
+whether, in the event that slavery should be excluded by the people of
+a Territory and the Supreme Court should decide against such action,
+Douglas would maintain the rights of the slave-holders. Douglas
+replied, somewhat evasively, that when the Supreme Court should decide
+upon the constitutionality of the local laws, he would abide by the
+decision. "That is not the point," rejoined Davis impatiently;
+"Congress must compel the Territorial Legislature to perform its
+proper functions"; _i.e._ actively protect slave property. "Well,"
+said Douglas with exasperating coolness, "on that point, the Senator
+and I differ. If the Territorial Legislature will not pass such laws
+as will encourage mules, I will not force them to have them." Again
+Davis insisted that his question had not been answered. Douglas
+repeated, "I will vote against any law by Congress attempting to
+interfere with a regulation made by the Territories, with respect to
+any kind of property whatever, whether horses, mules, negroes, or
+anything else."[786]
+
+But there was a flaw in Douglas's armor which Green of Missouri
+detected. Had the Senator from Illinois not urged the intervention of
+Congress to prevent polygamy in Utah? "Not at all," replied Douglas;
+"the people of that Territory were in a state of rebellion against the
+Federal authorities." What he had urged was the repeal of the organic
+act of the Territory, so that the United States might exercise
+absolute jurisdiction and protect property in that region. "But if the
+people of a Territory took away property in slaves, were they not also
+defying the Federal authorities?" persisted Green. Unquestionably
+Congress might revoke the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas admitted; but
+it should be remembered that the act was bottomed upon an agreement.
+There was a distinct understanding that the question whether
+territorial laws affecting the right of property in slaves were
+constitutional, should be referred to the Supreme Court. "If
+constitutional, they were to remain in force until repealed by the
+Territorial Legislature; if not, they were to become void not by
+action of Congress but by the decision of the court."[787] And Douglas
+quoted at length from a speech by Senator Benjamin in 1856, to prove
+his point. But it was precisely this agreement of 1854, which was now
+being either repudiated or construed in the interest of the South.
+Jefferson Davis frankly deprecated the "great hazard" which
+representatives from his section ran in 1854; but, he added, "I take
+it for granted my friends who are about me must have understood at
+that time clearly that this was the mere reference of a right; and
+that if decided in our favor, congressional legislation would follow
+in its train, and secure to us the enjoyment of the right thus
+defined."[788]
+
+The wide divergence of purpose and opinion which this debate revealed,
+dashed any hope of a united Democratic party in 1860. Men who looked
+into the future were sobered by the prospect. If the Democratic party
+were rent in twain,--the only surviving national party,--if
+Northerners and Southerners could no longer act together within a
+party of such elastic principles, what hope remained for the Union?
+The South was already boldly facing the inevitable. Said Brown,
+passionately, "If I cannot obtain the rights guaranteed to me and my
+people under the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court,
+then, Sir, I am prepared to retire from the concern.... When our
+constitutional rights are denied us, we _ought_ to retire from the
+Union.... If you are going to convert the Union into a masked battery
+from behind which to make war on me and my property, in the name of
+all the gods at once, why should I not retire from it?"[789]
+
+After the 23d of February, Douglas neither gave nor expected quarter
+from the Southern faction led by Jefferson Davis. So far from avoiding
+conflict, he seems rather to have forced the fighting. He flaunted his
+views in the faces of the fire-eaters. Prudence would have suggested
+silence, when a convention of Southern States met at Vicksburg and
+resolved that "all laws, State and Federal, prohibiting the African
+slave-trade, ought to be repealed,"[790] but Douglas, who knew
+something of the dimensions which this illicit traffic had already
+assumed, at once declared himself opposed to it. He said privately in
+a conversation, which afterwards was reported by an anonymous
+correspondent to the New York _Tribune_, that he believed fifteen
+thousand Africans were brought into the country last year. He had seen
+"with his own eyes three hundred of those recently imported miserable
+beings in a slave-pen at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and also large
+numbers at Memphis, Tennessee."[791]
+
+In a letter which speedily became public property, Douglas said that
+he would not accept the nomination of the Democratic party, if the
+convention should interpolate into the party creed "such new issues as
+the revival of the African slave-trade, or a congressional slave code
+for the Territories."[792] And to leave no doubt as to his attitude he
+wrote a second letter, devoted exclusively to this subject; it also
+found its way, as the author probably intended it should, into the
+newspapers. He opposed the revival of the African slave-trade because
+it was abolished by one of the compromises which had made the Federal
+Union and the Constitution. "In accordance with this compromise, I am
+irreconcilably opposed to the revival of the African slave-trade, in
+any form and under any circumstances."[793] How deeply this
+unequivocal condemnation lacerated the feelings of the South, will
+never be known until the economic necessities and purposes of the
+large plantation owners are more clearly revealed.
+
+The captious criticism of the Freeport doctrine by Southerners of the
+Calhoun-Jefferson Davis school was less damaging, from a legal point
+of view, than the sober analysis of Lincoln. The emphasis in Lincoln's
+famous question at Freeport fell upon the word _lawful_: "Can the
+people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way," etc. Douglas
+had replied to the question of legal right by an assertion of the
+power of the people of the Territories. This answer, as Lincoln
+pointed out subsequently, was equivalent to saying that "a thing may
+be lawfully driven away from where it has the lawful right to
+be."[794] As a prediction, Douglas's simple statement, that if the
+people of a Territory wanted slavery they would have it, and if they
+did not, they would not let it be forced on them, was fully justified
+by the facts of American history. It has been characteristic of the
+American people that, without irreverence for law, they have not
+allowed it to stand in the way of their natural development: they have
+not, as a rule, driven rough-shod over law, but have quietly allowed
+undesirable laws to fall into innocuous desuetude.
+
+But such an answer was unworthy of a man who prided himself upon his
+fidelity to the obligation of the Constitution and the laws. Feeling
+the full force of Lincoln's inexorable logic,[795] but believing that
+it was bottomed on a false premise, Douglas endeavored to give his
+Freeport doctrine its proper constitutional setting. During the
+summer, he elaborated an historical and constitutional defense of
+popular sovereignty. The editors of _Harper's Magazine_ so far
+departed from the traditions of that popular periodical as to publish
+this long and tedious essay in the September number. Douglas probably
+calculated that through this medium better than almost any other, he
+would reach those readers to whom Lincoln made his most effective
+appeal.[796]
+
+The essay bore the title "The Dividing Line between Federal and Local
+Authority," with the sub-caption, "Popular Sovereignty in the
+Territories." In his interpretation of history, the author proved
+himself rather a better advocate than historian. He had traversed much
+the same ground in his speeches--and with far more vivacity and force.
+Douglas searched the colonial records, and found--one is tempted to
+say, to find--our fathers contending unremittingly for "the
+inalienable right, when formed into political communities, to
+exercise exclusive power of legislation in their local legislatures in
+respect to all things affecting their internal polity--slavery not
+excepted."[797]
+
+Douglas took issue with the fundamental postulate of Lincoln's
+syllogism--that a Territory is the mere creature of Congress and
+cannot be clothed with powers not possessed by the creator. He denied
+that such an inference could be drawn from that clause in the
+Constitution which permits Congress to dispose of, and make all
+needful rules for, the territory or other property belonging to the
+United States. Names were deceptive. The word "territory" in this
+connection was not used in a political, but in a geographical sense.
+The power of Congress to organize governments for the Territories must
+be inferred rather from the power to admit new States into the Union.
+The Federal government possessed only expressly delegated powers; and
+the absence of any explicit authority to interfere in local
+territorial affairs must be held to inhibit any exercise of such
+power. It was on these grounds that the Supreme Court had ruled that
+Congress was not authorized by the Constitution to prohibit slavery in
+the Territories.
+
+It had been erroneously held by some, continued the essayist, that the
+Court decided in the Dred Scott case that a territorial legislature
+could not legislate in respect to slave property like other property.
+He understood the Court to speak only of forbidden powers--powers
+denied to Congress, to State legislatures and to territorial
+legislatures alike. But if ever slavery should be decided to be one of
+these forbidden subjects of legislation, then the conclusion would be
+inevitable that the Constitution established slavery in the
+Territories beyond the power of the people to control it by law, and
+guaranteed to every citizen the right to go there and be protected in
+the enjoyment of his slave property; then every member of Congress
+would be in duty bound to supply adequate protection, if the rights of
+property should be invaded. Not only so, but another conclusion would
+follow,--if the Constitution should be held to establish slavery in
+the Territories beyond the power of the people to control
+it,--Congress would be bound to provide adequate protection for slave
+property everywhere, _in the States_ as well as in the Territories.
+
+Douglas immediately went on to show that such was not the decision of
+the Court in the Dred Scott case. The Court had held that "the right
+of property in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
+Constitution." Yes, but where? Why in that provision which speaks of
+persons "held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
+thereof"; not under the Constitution, not under the laws of Congress,
+Douglas emphasized, but _under the laws of the particular State where
+such service is due._ And so, when the Court declared that "the
+government, in express terms, is pledged to protect it [slave
+property] in all future time," it added "if the slave escapes from his
+owner." "This is the only contingency," Douglas maintained, "in which
+the Federal Government is authorized, required, or permitted to
+interfere with slavery in the States or Territories; and in that case
+only for the purpose of 'guarding and protecting the owner in his
+rights' to reclaim his slave property." Slave-owners, therefore, who
+moved with their property to a Territory, must hold it like all other
+property, subject to local law, and look to local authorities for its
+protection.
+
+One other question remained: was the word "State," as used in the
+clause just cited, intended to include Territories? Douglas so
+contended. Otherwise, "the Territories must become a sanctuary for all
+fugitives from service and justice." In numerous clauses in the
+Constitution, the Territories were recognized as _States_.
+
+Clever as this reasoning was, it clearly was not a fair exposition of
+the opinion of the Court in the case of Dred Scott. If the Court did
+not deny the right of a territorial legislature to interfere with
+slave property, it certainly left that proposition open to fair
+inference by the phrasing and emphasis of the critical passages. It
+should be noted that Douglas, in quoting the decision, misplaced the
+decisive clause so as to bring it in juxtaposition to the reference to
+the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, thus redistributing the
+emphasis and confusing the real significance of the foregoing
+paragraph.[798] Douglas stated subsequently that he did not believe
+the decision of the Court reached the power of a territorial
+legislature, because there was no territorial legislature in the
+record nor any allusion to one; because there was no territorial
+enactment before the Court; and because there was no fact in the case
+alluding to or connected with territorial legislation.[799] All this
+was perfectly true. The opinion of the Court was _obiter dicens_; but
+the Court expressed its opinion nevertheless. As Lincoln said, men
+knew what to expect of the Court when a territorial act prohibiting
+slavery came before it. Yet this was what Douglas would not concede.
+He would not admit the inference. Congress could confer powers upon a
+territorial legislature which it could not itself exercise. The
+dividing line between Federal and local authority was so drawn as to
+permit Congress to institute governments with legislative, judicial,
+and executive functions but without permitting Congress to exercise
+those functions itself. From Douglas's point of view, a Territory was
+not a dependency of the Federal government, but an inchoate
+Commonwealth, endowed with many of the attributes of sovereignty
+possessed by the full-fledged States.
+
+So unusual an event as a political contribution by a prominent
+statesman to a popular magazine, created no little excitement.[800]
+Attorney-General Black came to the defense of the South with an
+unsigned contribution to the Washington _Constitution_, the organ of
+the administration.[801] And Douglas, who had meantime gone to Ohio to
+take part in the State campaign, replied caustically to this critique
+in his speech at Wooster, September 16th. Black rejoined in a pamphlet
+under his own name. Whereupon Douglas returned to the attack with a
+slashing pamphlet, which he sent to the printer in an unfinished form
+and which did him little credit.[802]
+
+This war of pamphlets was productive of no results. Douglas and Black
+were wide apart upon their major premises, and diverged inevitably in
+their conclusions. Holding fast to the premise that a Territory was
+not sovereign but a "subordinate dependency," Black ridiculed the
+attempts of Douglas to clothe it, not with complete sovereignty but
+with "the attributes of sovereignty."[803] Then Douglas denounced in
+scathing terms the absurdity of Black's assumption that property in
+the Territories would be held by the laws of the State from which it
+came, while it must look for redress of wrongs to the law of its new
+domicile.[804]
+
+The Ohio campaign attracted much attention throughout the country, not
+only because the gubernatorial candidates were thoroughgoing
+representatives of the Republican party and of Douglas Democracy, but
+because both Lincoln and Douglas were again brought into the
+arena.[805] While the latter did not meet in joint debate, their
+successive appearance at Columbus and Cincinnati gave the campaign the
+aspect of a prolongation of the Illinois contest. Lincoln devoted no
+little attention to the _Harper's Magazine_ article, while Douglas
+defended himself and his doctrine against all comers. There was a
+disposition in many quarters to concede that popular sovereignty,
+whether theoretically right or wrong, would settle the question of
+slavery in the Territories.[806] Apropos of Douglas's speech at
+Columbus, the New York _Times_ admitted that at least his principles
+were "definite" and uttered in a "frank, gallant and masculine"
+spirit;[807] and his speeches were deemed of enough importance to be
+printed entire in the columns of this Republican journal. "He means to
+go to Charleston," guessed the editor shrewdly, "as the unmistakable
+representative of the Democratic party of the North and to bring this
+influence to bear upon Southern delegates as the only way to secure
+their interests against anti-slavery sentiment represented by the
+Republicans. He will claim that not a single Northern State can be
+carried on a platform more pro-slavery than his. The Democrats of the
+North have yielded all they will."[808]
+
+While Douglas was in Ohio, he was saddened by the intelligence that
+Senator Broderick of California, his loyal friend and staunch
+supporter in the Lecompton fight, had fallen a victim to the animosity
+of the Southern faction in his State. The Washington _Constitution_
+might explain his death as an affair of honor--he was shot in a
+duel--but intelligent men knew that Broderick's assailant had desired
+to rid Southern "chivalry" of a hated political opponent.[809] A month
+later, on the night of October 16th, John Brown of Kansas fame
+marshalled his little band of eighteen men and descended upon the
+United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry. What did these events
+portend?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 775: Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, II,
+p. 243.]
+
+[Footnote 776: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 355.]
+
+[Footnote 777: Memphis _Avalanche_, November 30, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago _Times_, December 8, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 778: New Orleans _Delta_, December 8, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago _Times_, December 19, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 779: Rhodes, History of United States, II, p. 355.]
+
+[Footnote 780: See reported conversation of Douglas with the editor of
+the Chicago _Press and Tribune_, Hollister, Life of Colfax, p. 123.]
+
+[Footnote 781: Letcher to Crittenden; Coleman. Life of John J.
+Crittenden, II, p. 171; Hollister, Colfax, p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 782: New Orleans _Delta_, December 8, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 783: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1243.]
+
+[Footnote 784: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2: Sess., p. 1245.]
+
+[Footnote 785: _Ibid._, pp. 1247-1248.]
+
+[Footnote 786: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1259.]
+
+[Footnote 787: _Ibid._, p. 1258.]
+
+[Footnote 788: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1256.]
+
+[Footnote 789: _Ibid._, p. 1243.]
+
+[Footnote 790: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 371.]
+
+[Footnote 791: _Ibid._, pp. 369-370.]
+
+[Footnote 792: Letter to J.B. Dorr, June 22, 1859; Flint, Douglas, pp.
+168-169.]
+
+[Footnote 793: Letter to J.L. Peyton, August 2, 1859; Sheahan,
+Douglas, pp. 465-466.]
+
+[Footnote 794: Speech at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859; see Debates,
+p. 250.]
+
+[Footnote 795: On his return to Washington after the debates, Douglas
+said to Wilson, "He [Lincoln] is an able and honest man, one of the
+ablest of the nation. I have been in Congress sixteen years, and there
+is not a man in the Senate I would not rather encounter in debate."
+Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 577.]
+
+[Footnote 796: It does not seem likely that Douglas hoped to reach the
+people of the South through _Harper's Magazine_, as it never had a
+large circulation south of Mason and Dixon's line. See Smith, Parties
+and Slavery, p. 292.]
+
+[Footnote 797: _Harper's Magazine_, XIX, p. 527.]
+
+[Footnote 798: Compare the quotation in _Harper's_, p. 531, with the
+opinion of the Court, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, 19 How., p. 720. The
+clause beginning "And if the Constitution recognizes" is taken from
+its own paragraph and put in the middle of the following paragraph.]
+
+[Footnote 799: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2152. This statement was
+confirmed by Reverdy Johnson, who was one of the lawyers that argued
+the case. See the speech of Reverdy Johnson, June 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 800: Rhodes, History of the United States, II., p. 374.]
+
+[Footnote 801: Washington _Constitution_, September 10, 1859. The
+article was afterward published in a collection of his essays and
+speeches.]
+
+[Footnote 802: Flint, Douglas, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 803: One of the most interesting commentaries on Black's
+argument is his defense of the people of Utah, many years later,
+against the Anti-Polygamy Laws, when he used Douglas's argument
+without the slightest qualms. See Essays and Speeches, pp. 603, 604,
+609.]
+
+[Footnote 804: Flint, Douglas, pp. 172-181 gives extracts from these
+pamphlets.]
+
+[Footnote 805: Rhodes History of United States, II, p. 381.]
+
+[Footnote 806: _Ibid._, p. 382.]
+
+[Footnote 807: New York _Times_, September 9, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 808: _Ibid._, September 9, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 809: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp.
+374-379.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860
+
+
+Deeds of violence are the inevitable precursors of an approaching war.
+They are so many expressions of that estrangement which is at the root
+of all sectional conflicts. The raid of John Brown upon Harper's
+Ferry, like his earlier lawless acts in Kansas, was less the crime of
+an individual than the manifestation of a deep social unrest.
+Occurring on the eve of a momentous presidential election, it threw
+doubts upon the finality of any appeal to the ballot. The antagonism
+between North and South was such as to make an appeal to arms seem a
+probable last resort. The political question of the year 1860 was
+whether the law-abiding habit of the American people and the
+traditional mode of effecting changes in governmental policy, would be
+strong enough to withstand the primitive instinct to decide the
+question of right by an appeal to might. To actors in the drama the
+question assumed this simple, concrete form: could the national
+Democratic party maintain its integrity and achieve another victory
+over parties which were distinctly sectional?
+
+The passions aroused by the Harper's Ferry episode had no time to cool
+before Congress met. They were again inflamed by the indorsement of
+Helper's "Impending Crisis" by influential Republicans. As the author
+was a poor white of North Carolina who hated slavery and desired to
+prove that the institution was inimical to the interests of his
+class, the book was regarded by slave-holders as an incendiary
+publication, conceived in the same spirit as John Brown's raid. The
+contest for the Speakership of the House turned upon the attitude of
+candidates toward this book. At the North "The Impending Crisis" had
+great vogue, passing through many editions. All events seemed to
+conspire to prevent sobriety of judgment and moderation in speech.
+
+From a legislative point of view, this exciting session of Congress
+was barren of results. The paramount consideration was the approaching
+party conventions. What principles and policies would control the
+action of the Democratic convention at Charleston, depended very
+largely upon who should control the great body of delegates. Early in
+January various State conventions in the Northwest expressed their
+choice. Illinois took the lead with a series of resolutions which rang
+clear and true on all the cardinal points of the Douglas creed.[810]
+Within the next sixty days every State in the greater Northwest had
+chosen delegates to the national Democratic convention, pledged to
+support the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas.[811] It was with the
+knowledge, then, that he spoke for the Democracy of the Northwest that
+Douglas took issue with those Southern senators who plumed themselves
+on their party orthodoxy.
+
+In a debate which was precipitated by a resolution of Senator Pugh,
+the old sores were rent open. Senator Davis of Mississippi was
+particularly irritating in his allusions to the Freeport, and other
+recent, heresies of the Senator from Illinois. In the give and take
+which followed, Douglas was beset behind and before. But his fighting
+blood was up and he promised to return blow for blow, with interest.
+Let every man make his assault, and when all were through, he would
+"fire into the lump."[812] "I am not seeking a nomination," he
+declared, "I am willing to take one provided I can assume it on
+principles that I believe to be sound; but in the event of your making
+a platform that I could not conscientiously execute in good faith if I
+were elected, I will not stand upon it and be a candidate." For his
+part he would like to know "who it is that has the right to say who is
+in the party and who not?" He believed that he was backed by
+two-thirds of the Democracy of the United States. Did one-third of the
+Democratic party propose to read out the remaining two-thirds? "I have
+no grievances, but I have no concessions. I have no abandonment of
+position or principle; no recantation to make to any man or body of
+men on earth."[813]
+
+Some days later Douglas made it equally clear that he had no
+recantation to make for the sake of Republican support. Speaking of
+the need of some measure by which the States might be protected
+against acts of violence like the Harper's Ferry affair, he roundly
+denounced that outrage as "the natural, logical, inevitable result of
+the doctrines and teachings of the Republican party, as explained and
+enforced in their platform, their partisan presses, their pamphlets
+and books, and especially in the speeches of their leaders in and out
+of Congress."[814] True, they disavowed the _act_ of John Brown, but
+they should also repudiate and denounce the doctrines and teachings
+which produced the act. Fraternal peace was possible only upon "that
+good old golden principle which teaches all men to mind their own
+business and let their neighbors' alone." When men so act, the Union
+can endure forever as the fathers made it, composed of free and slave
+States.[815] "Then the senator is really indifferent to slavery, as he
+is reported to have said?" queried Fessenden. "Sir," replied Douglas,
+"I hold the doctrine that a statesman will adapt his laws to the
+wants, conditions, and interests of the people to be governed by them.
+Slavery may be very essential in one climate and totally useless in
+another. If I were a citizen of Louisiana I would vote for retaining
+and maintaining slavery, because I believe the good of the people
+would require it. As a citizen of Illinois I am utterly opposed to it,
+because our interests would not be promoted by it."[816]
+
+The lines upon which the Charleston convention would divide, were
+sharply drawn by a series of resolutions presented to the Senate by
+Jefferson Davis. They were intended to serve as an ultimatum, and they
+were so understood by Northern Democrats. They were deliberately
+wrought out in conference as the final expression of Southern
+conviction. In explicit language the right of either Congress or a
+territorial legislature to impair the constitutional right of property
+in slaves, was denied. In case of unfriendly legislation, it was
+declared to be the duty of Congress to provide adequate protection to
+slave property. Popular sovereignty was completely discarded by the
+assertion that the people of a Territory might pass upon the question
+of slavery only when they formed a State constitution.[817]
+
+As the delegates to the Democratic convention began to gather in the
+latter part of April, the center of political interest shifted from
+Washington to Charleston. Here the battle between the factions was to
+be fought out, but without the presence of the real leaders. The
+advantages of organization were with the Douglas men. The delegations
+from the Northwest were devoted, heart and soul, to their chief. As
+they passed through the capital on their journey to the South, they
+gathered around him with noisy demonstrations of affection; and when
+they continued on their way, they were more determined than ever to
+secure his nomination.[818] From the South, too, every Douglas man who
+was likely to carry weight in his community, was brought to Charleston
+to labor among the Ultras of his section.[819] The Douglas
+headquarters in Hibernian Hall bore witness to the business-like way
+in which his candidacy was being promoted. Not the least striking
+feature within the committee rooms was the ample supply of Sheahan's
+_Life of Stephen A. Douglas_, fresh from the press.[820]
+
+Recognized leader of the Douglas forces was Colonel Richardson of
+Illinois, a veteran in convention warfare, seasoned by years of
+congressional service and by long practice in managing men.[821] It
+was he who had led the Douglas cohorts in the Cincinnati convention.
+The memory of that defeat still rankled, and he was not disposed to
+yield to like contingencies. Indeed, the spirit of the delegates from
+the Northwest,--and they seemed likely to carry the other Northern
+delegates with them,--was offensively aggressive; and their
+demonstrations of enthusiasm assumed a minatory aspect, as they
+learned of the presence of Slidell, Bigler, and Bright, and witnessed
+the efforts of the administration to defeat the hero of the Lecompton
+fight.[822]
+
+Those who observed the proceedings of the convention could not rid
+themselves of the impression that opposing parties were wrestling for
+control, so bitter and menacing was the interchange of opinion. It was
+matter of common report that the Southern delegations would withdraw
+if Douglas were nominated.[823] Equally ominous was the rumor that
+Richardson was authorized to withdraw the name of Douglas, if the
+platform adopted should advocate the protection of slavery in the
+Territories.[824] The temper of the convention was such as to preclude
+an amicable agreement, even if Douglas withdrew.
+
+The advantages of compact organization and conscious purpose were
+apparent in the first days of the convention. At every point the
+Douglas men forced the fighting. On the second day, it was voted that
+where a delegation had not been instructed by a State convention how
+to give its vote, the individual delegates might vote as they pleased.
+This rule would work to the obvious advantage of Douglas.[825] On the
+third day, the convention refused to admit the contesting delegations
+from New York and Illinois, represented by Fernando Wood and Isaac
+Cook respectively.[826]
+
+Meantime the committee on resolutions, composed of one delegate from
+each State, was in the throes of platform-making. Both factions had
+agreed to frame a platform before naming a candidate. But here, as in
+the convention, the possibility of amiable discussion and mutual
+concession was precluded. The Southern delegates voted in caucus to
+hold to the Davis resolutions; the Northern, with equal stubbornness,
+clung to the well-known principles of Douglas. On the fifth day of the
+convention, April 27th, the committee presented a majority report and
+two minority reports. The first was essentially an epitome of the
+Davis resolutions; the second reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform, at
+the same time pledging the party to abide by the decisions of the
+Supreme Court on those questions of constitutional law which should
+affect the rights of property in the States or Territories; and the
+third report simply reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform without
+additional resolutions.[827] The defense of the main minority report
+fell to Payne of Ohio. In a much more conciliatory spirit than Douglas
+men had hitherto shown, he assured the Southern members of the
+convention that every man who had signed the report felt that "upon
+the result of our deliberations and the action of this convention, in
+all human probability, depended the fate of the Democratic party and
+the destiny of the Union." The North was devoted to the principle of
+popular sovereignty, but "we ask nothing for the people of the
+territories but what the Constitution allows them."[828] The argument
+of Payne was cogent and commended itself warmly to Northern delegates;
+but it struck Southern ears as a tiresome reiteration of arguments
+drawn from premises which they could not admit.
+
+It was Yancey of Alabama, chief among fire-eaters, who, in the
+afternoon of the same day, warmed the cockles of the Southern heart.
+Gifted with all the graces of Southern orators, he made an eloquent
+plea for Southern rights. Protection was what the South demanded:
+protection in their constitutional rights and in their sacred rights
+of property. The proposition contained in the minority report would
+ruin the South. "You acknowledged that slavery did not exist by the
+law of nature or by the law of God--that it only existed by State law;
+that it was wrong, but that you were not to blame. That was your
+position, and it was wrong. If you had taken the position directly
+that slavery was right, and therefore ought to be ... you would have
+triumphed, and anti-slavery would now have been dead in your midst....
+I say it in no disrespect, but it is a logical argument that your
+admission that slavery is wrong has been the cause of all this
+discord."[829]
+
+These words brought Senator Pugh to his feet. Wrought to a dangerous
+pitch of excitement, he thanked God that a bold and honest man from
+the South had at last spoken, and had told the whole of the Southern
+demands. The South demanded now nothing less than that Northern
+Democrats should declare slavery to be right. "Gentlemen of the
+South," he exclaimed, "you mistake us--you mistake us--we will not do
+it."[830] The convention adjourned before Pugh had finished; but in
+the evening he told the Southern delegates plainly that Northern
+Democrats were not children at the bidding of the South. If the
+gentlemen from the South could stay only on the terms they proposed,
+they must go. For once the hall was awed into quiet, for Senator Pugh
+stood close to Douglas and the fate of the party hung in the
+balance.[831]
+
+Sunday intervened, but the situation remained unchanged. Gloom settled
+down upon the further deliberations of the convention. On Monday, the
+minority report (the Douglas platform) was adopted by a vote of 165 to
+138. Thereupon the chairman of the Alabama delegation protested and
+announced the formal withdrawal of his State from the convention. The
+crisis had arrived. Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida,
+Texas, and Arkansas followed in succession, with valedictories which
+seemed directed less to the convention than to the Union. Indeed, more
+than one face blanched at the probable significance of this secession.
+Southerners of the Yancey following, however, were jubilant and had
+much to say about an independent Southern Republic.[832]
+
+On the following day, what Yancey scornfully dubbed the "Rump
+Convention," proceeded to ballot, having first voted that two-thirds
+of the full vote of the convention should be necessary to nominate. On
+the first ballot, Douglas received 145-1/2, Hunter of Virginia 42,
+Guthrie of Kentucky 35-1/2; and the remaining thirty were divided
+among several candidates. As 202 votes were necessary for a choice,
+the hopelessness of the outlook was apparent to all. Nevertheless, the
+balloting continued, the vote of Douglas increasing on four ballots to
+152-1/2. After the thirty-sixth ballot, he failed to command more than
+151-1/2. In all, fifty-seven ballots were taken.[833] On the tenth day
+of the convention, it was voted to adjourn to meet at Baltimore, on
+the 18th of June.
+
+The followers of Douglas left Charleston with wrath in their hearts.
+Chagrin and disappointment alternated with bitterness and resentment
+toward their Southern brethren. Moreover, contact with the South, so
+far from having lessened their latent distrust of its culture and
+institutions, had widened the gulf between the sections. Such speeches
+as that of Goulden of Georgia, who had boldly advocated the re-opening
+of the African slave-trade, saying coarsely that "the African
+slave-trade man is the Union man--the Christian man," caused a certain
+ethical revolt in the feelings of men, hitherto not particularly
+susceptible to moral appeals on the slavery question.[834] Added to
+all these cumulative grievances was the uncomfortable probability,
+that the next President was about to be nominated in the Republican
+convention at Chicago.
+
+What were the feelings of the individual who had been such a divisive
+force in the Charleston convention? The country was not long left in
+doubt. Douglas was quite ready to comment upon the outcome; and it
+needed only the bitter arraignment of his theories by Davis, to bring
+him armed _cap-a-pie_ into the arena.
+
+Aided by his friend Pugh, who read long extracts from letters and
+speeches, Douglas made a systematic review of Democratic principles
+and policy since 1848. His object, of course, was to demonstrate his
+own consistency, and at the same time to convict his critics of
+apostasy from the party creed. There was, inevitably, much tiresome
+repetition in all this. It was when he directed his remarks to the
+issues at Charleston that Douglas warmed to his subject. He refused to
+recognize the right of a caucus of the Senate or of the House, to
+prescribe new tests, to draft party platforms. That was a task
+reserved, under our political system, for national conventions, made
+up of delegates chosen by the people. Tried by the standard of the
+only Democratic organization competent to pronounce upon questions of
+party faith, he was no longer a heretic, no longer an outlaw from the
+Democratic party, no longer a rebel against the Democratic
+organization. "The party decided at Charleston also, by a majority of
+the whole electoral college, that I was the choice of the Democratic
+party of America for the Presidency of the United States, giving me a
+majority of fifty votes over all other candidates combined; and yet my
+Democracy is questioned!" "But," he added, and there is no reason to
+doubt his sincerity, "my friends who know me best know that I have no
+personal desire or wish for the nomination;... know that my name never
+would have been presented at Charleston, except for the attempt to
+proscribe me as a heretic, too unsound to be the chairman of a
+committee in this body, where I have held a seat for so many years
+without a suspicion resting on my political fidelity. I was forced to
+allow my name to go there in self-defense; and I will now say that
+had any gentleman, friend or foe, received a majority of that
+convention over me, the lightning would have carried a message
+withdrawing my name from the convention."[835]
+
+Douglas was ready to acquit his colleagues in the Senate of a purpose
+to dissolve the Union, but he did not hesitate to assert that such
+principles as Yancey had advocated at Charleston would lead "directly
+and inevitably" to a dissolution of the Union. Why was the South so
+eager to repudiate the principle of non-intervention? By it they had
+converted New Mexico into slave Territory; by it, in all probability,
+they would extend slavery into the northern States of Mexico, when
+that region should be acquired. "Why," he asked, "are you not
+satisfied with these practical results? The only difference of opinion
+is on the judicial question, about which we agreed to differ--which we
+never did decide; because, under the Constitution, no tribunal on
+earth but the Supreme Court could decide it." To commit the Democratic
+party to intervention was to make the party sectional and to invite
+never-ceasing conflict. "Intervention, North or South, means disunion;
+non-intervention promises peace, fraternity, and perpetuity to the
+Union, and to all our cherished institutions."[836]
+
+The challenge contained in these words was not permitted to pass
+unanswered. Davis replied with offensive references to the "swelling
+manner" and "egregious vanity" of the Senator from Illinois. He
+resented such dictation.[837] On the following day, May 17th, an
+exciting passage-at-arms occurred between these representatives of
+the Northwest and the Southwest. Douglas repeated his belief that
+disunion was the prompting motive which broke up the Charleston
+convention. Davis resented the insinuation, with fervent protestations
+of affection for the Union of the States. It was the Senator from
+Illinois, who, in his pursuit of power, had prevented unanimity, by
+trying to plant his theory upon the party. The South would have no
+more to do with the "rickety, double-construed platform" of 1856. "The
+fact is," said Davis, "I have a declining respect for platforms. I
+would sooner have an honest man on any sort of a rickety platform you
+could construct, than to have a man I did not trust on the best
+platform which could be made. A good platform and an honest man on it
+is what we want."[838] Douglas reminded his opponent sharply that the
+bolters at Charleston seceded, not on the candidate, but on the
+platform. "If the platform is not a matter of much consequence, why
+press that question to the disruption of the party? Why did you not
+tell us in the beginning of this debate that the whole fight was
+against the man, and not upon the platform?"[839]
+
+In the interval between the Charleston and the Baltimore conventions,
+the Davis resolutions were pressed to a vote in the Senate, with the
+purpose of shaping party opinion. They passed by votes which gave a
+deceptive appearance of Democratic unanimity. Only Senator Pugh parted
+company with his Democratic colleagues on the crucial resolution; yet
+he represented the popular opinion at the North.[840] The futility of
+these resolutions, so far as practical results were concerned, was
+demonstrated by the adoption of Clingman's resolution, that the
+existing condition of the Territories did not require the intervention
+of Congress for the protection of property in slaves.[841] In other
+words, the South was insisting upon rights which were barren of
+practical significance. Slave-holders were insisting upon the right to
+carry their slaves where local conditions were unfavorable, and where
+therefore they had no intention of going.[842]
+
+The nomination of Lincoln rather than Seward, at the Republican
+convention in Chicago, was a bitter disappointment to those who felt
+that the latter was the real leader of the party of moral ideas, and
+that the rail-splitter was simply an "available" candidate.[843] But
+Douglas, with keener insight into the character of Lincoln, said to a
+group of Republicans at the Capitol, "Gentlemen, you have nominated a
+very able and a very honest man."[844] For the candidate of the new
+Constitutional Union party, which had rallied the politically
+unattached of various opinions in a convention at Baltimore, Douglas
+had no such words of praise, though he recognized John Bell as a
+Unionist above suspicion and as an estimable gentleman.
+
+These nominations rendered it still less prudent for Northern
+Democrats to accept a candidate with stronger Southern leanings than
+Douglas. No Northern Democrat could carry the Northern States on a
+Southern platform; and no Southern Democrat would accept a nomination
+on the Douglas platform. Unless some middle ground could be
+found,--and the debates in the Senate had disclosed none,--the
+Democrats of the North were bound to adhere to Douglas as their first
+and only choice in the Baltimore convention.
+
+When the delegates reassembled in Baltimore, the factional quarrel had
+lost none of its bitterness. Almost immediately the convention fell
+foul of a complicated problem of organization. Some of the original
+delegates, who had withdrawn at Charleston, desired to be re-admitted.
+From some States there were contesting delegations, notably from
+Louisiana and Alabama, where the Douglas men had rallied in force.
+Those anti-Douglas delegates who were still members of the convention,
+made every effort to re-admit the delegations hostile to him. The
+action of the convention turned upon the vote of the New York
+delegation, which would be cast solidly either for or against the
+admission of the contesting delegations. For three days the fate of
+Douglas was in the hands of these thirty-five New Yorkers, in whom the
+disposition to bargain was not wanting.[845] It was at this juncture
+that Douglas wrote to Dean Richmond, the _Deus ex machina_ in the
+delegation,[846] "If my enemies are determined to divide and destroy
+the Democratic party, and perhaps the country, rather than see me
+elected, and if the unity of the party can be preserved, and its
+ascendancy perpetuated by dropping my name and uniting upon some
+reliable non-intervention and Union-loving Democrat, I beseech you, in
+consultation with my friends, to pursue that course which will save
+the country, without regard to my individual interests. I mean all
+this letter implies. Consult freely and act boldly for the
+right."[847]
+
+It was precisely the "if's" in this letter that gave the New Yorkers
+most concern. Where was the candidate who possessed these
+qualifications and who would be acceptable to the South? On the fifth
+day of the convention, the contesting Douglas delegations were
+admitted. The die was cast. A portion of the Virginia delegation then
+withdrew, and their example was followed by nearly all the delegates
+from North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland. If the first
+withdrawal at Charleston presaged the secession of the cotton States
+from the Union, this pointed to the eventual secession of the border
+States.
+
+On June 23d, the convention proceeded to ballot. Douglas received
+173-1/2 votes; Guthrie 10; and Breckinridge 5; scattering 3. On the
+second ballot, Douglas received all but thirteen votes; whereupon it
+was moved and carried unanimously with a tremendous shout that
+Douglas, having received "two-thirds of all votes given in this
+convention," should be the nominee of the party.[848] Colonel
+Richardson then begged leave to have the Secretary read a letter from
+Senator Douglas. He had carried it in his pocket for three days, but
+the course of the bolters, he said, had prevented him from using
+it.[849] The letter was of the same tenor as that written to Dean
+Richmond. There is little likelihood that an earlier acquaintance with
+its contents would have changed the course of events, since so long
+as the platform stood unaltered, the choice of Douglas was a logical
+and practical necessity. Douglas and the platform were one and
+inseparable.
+
+Meantime the bolters completed their destructive work by organizing a
+separate convention in Baltimore, by adopting the report of the
+majority in the Charleston convention as their platform, and by
+nominating John C. Breckinridge as their candidate for the presidency.
+Lane of Oregon was named for the second place on the ticket for much
+the same reason that Fitzpatrick of Alabama, and subsequently Herschel
+V. Johnson of Georgia, was put upon the Douglas ticket. Both factions
+desired to demonstrate that they were national Democrats, with
+adherents in all sections. In his letter of acceptance Douglas rang
+the changes on the sectional character of the doctrine of intervention
+either for or against slavery. "If the power and duty of Federal
+interference is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be
+the inevitable result--the one inflaming the passions and ambitions of
+the North, the other of the South."[850] Indeed, his best,--his
+only,--chance of success lay in his power to appeal to conservative,
+Union-loving men, North and South. This was the secret purpose of his
+frequent references to Clay and Webster, who were invoked as
+supporters of "the essential, living principle of 1850"; _i.e._ his
+own doctrine of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the
+Territories. But the Constitutional Union party was quite as likely to
+attract the remnant of the old Whig party of Clay and Webster.
+
+Douglas began his campaign in excellent spirits. His only regret was
+that he had been placed in a position where he had to look on and see
+a fight without taking a hand in it.[851] The New York _Times_, whose
+editor followed the campaign of Douglas with the keenest interest,
+without indorsing him, frankly conceded that popular sovereignty had a
+very strong hold upon the instinct of nine-tenths of the American
+people.[852] Douglas wrote to his Illinois confidant in high spirits
+after the ratification meeting in New York.[853] Conceding South
+Carolina and possibly Mississippi to Breckinridge, and the border
+slave States to Bell, he expressed the firm conviction that he would
+carry the rest of the Southern States and enough free States to be
+elected by the people. Richardson had just returned from New England,
+equally confident that Douglas would carry Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, and Connecticut. If the election should go to the House of
+Representatives, Douglas calculated that Lincoln, Bell, and he would
+be the three candidates. In any event, he was sure that Breckinridge
+and Lane had "no show." He enjoined his friends everywhere to treat
+the Bell and Everett men in a friendly way and to cultivate good
+relations with them, "for they are Union men." But, he added, "we can
+have no partnership with the Bolters." "Now organize and rally in
+Illinois and the Northwest. The chances in our favor are immense in
+the East. Organize the State!"
+
+Buoyed up by these sanguine expectations, Douglas undertook a tour
+through New England, not to make stump speeches, he declared, but to
+visit and enhearten his followers. Yet at every point on the way to
+Boston, he was greeted with enthusiasm; and whenever time permitted he
+responded with brief allusions to the political situation. As the
+guest of Harvard University, at the alumni dinner, he was called upon
+to speak--not, to be sure, as a candidate for the presidency, but as
+one high in the councils of the nation, and as a generous contributor
+to the founding of an educational institution in Chicago.[854] A visit
+to Bunker Hill suggested the great principle for which our
+Revolutionary fathers fought and for which all good Democrats were now
+contending.[855] At Springfield, too, he harked back to the Revolution
+and to the beginnings of the great struggle for control of domestic
+concerns.[856]
+
+Along the route from Boston to Saratoga, he was given ovations, and
+his diffidence about making stump speeches lessened perceptibly.[857]
+At Troy, he made a political speech in his own vigorous style,
+remarking apologetically that if he did not return home soon, he would
+"get to making stump speeches before he knew it."[858] Passing through
+Vermont, he visited the grave of his father and the scenes of his
+childhood; and here and there, as he told the people of Concord with a
+twinkle in his eye, he spoke "a little just for exercise." Providence
+recalled the memory of Roger Williams and the principles for which he
+suffered--principles so nearly akin to those for which Democrats
+to-day were laboring. By this time the true nature of this pilgrimage
+was apparent to everybody. It was the first time in our history that a
+presidential candidate had taken the stump in his own behalf. There
+was bitter criticism on the part of those who regretted the departure
+from decorous precedent.[859] When Douglas reached Newport for a brief
+sojourn, the expectation was generally entertained that he would
+continue in retirement for the remainder of the campaign.
+
+Except for this anomaly of a candidate canvassing in his own behalf,
+the campaign was devoid of exciting incidents. The personal canvass of
+Douglas was indeed almost the only thing that kept the campaign from
+being dull and spiritless.[860] Republican politicians were somewhat
+at a loss to understand why he should manoeuvre in a section devoted
+beyond question to Lincoln. Indeed, a man far less keen than Douglas
+would have taken note of the popular current in New England. Why,
+then, this expenditure of time and effort! In all probability Douglas
+gauged the situation correctly. He is said to have conceded frankly
+that Lincoln would be elected.[861] His contest was less with
+Republicans and Constitutional Unionists now, than with the followers
+of Breckinridge. He hoped to effect a reorganization of the Democratic
+party by crushing the disunion elements within it. With this end in
+view he could not permit the organization to go to pieces in the
+North. A listless campaign on his part would not only give the
+election to Lincoln, but leave his own followers to wander leaderless
+into other organizations. For the sake of discipline and future
+success, he rallied Northern Democrats for a battle that was already
+lost.[862]
+
+Well assured that Lincoln would be elected, Douglas determined to go
+South and prepare the minds of the people for the inevitable.[863] The
+language of Southern leaders had grown steadily more menacing as the
+probability of Republican success increased. It was now proclaimed
+from the house-tops that the cotton States would secede, if Lincoln
+were elected. Republicans might set these threats down as Southern
+gasconade, but Douglas knew the animus of the secessionists better
+than they.[864] This determination of Douglas was warmly applauded
+where it was understood.[865] Indeed, that purpose was dictated now
+alike by politics and patriotism.
+
+On August 25th, Douglas spoke at Norfolk, Virginia. In the course of
+his address, an elector on the Breckinridge ticket interrupted him
+with two questions. Though taken somewhat by surprise, Douglas with
+unerring sagacity detected the purpose of his interrogator and
+answered circumstantially.[866] "First, If Abraham Lincoln be elected
+President of the United States, will the Southern States be justified
+in seceding from the Union?" "To this I emphatically answer no. The
+election of a man to the presidency by the American people in
+conformity with the Constitution of the United States _would not
+justify any attempt at dissolving this glorious confederacy_."
+"Second, If they secede from the Union upon the inauguration of
+Abraham Lincoln, before an overt act against their constitutional
+rights, will you advise or vindicate resistance to the decision!" "I
+answer emphatically, that it is the duty of the President of the
+United States and of all others in authority under him, to enforce the
+laws of the United States, passed by Congress and as the Courts
+expound them; and I, as in duty bound by my oath of fidelity to the
+Constitution, _would do all in my power to aid the government of the
+United States in maintaining the supremacy of the laws against all
+resistance to them, come from whatever quarter it might_.... I hold
+that the Constitution has a remedy for every grievance that may arise
+within the limits of the Union.... The mere inauguration of a
+President of the United States, whose political opinions were, in my
+judgment, hostile to the Constitution and safety of the Union, without
+an overt act on his part, without striking a blow at our institutions
+or our rights, is not such a grievance as would justify revolution or
+secession." But for the disunionists at the South, Douglas went on to
+say, "I would have beaten Lincoln in every State but Vermont and
+Massachusetts. As it is I think I will beat him in almost all of them
+yet."[867] And now these disunionists come forward and ask aid in
+dissolving the Union. "I tell them 'no--never on earth!'"
+
+Widely quoted, this bold defiance of disunion made a profound
+impression through the South. At Raleigh, North Carolina, Douglas
+entered into collusion with a friend, in order to have the questions
+repeated.[868] And again he stated his attitude in unequivocal
+language. "I am in favor of executing, in good faith, every clause and
+provision of the Constitution, and of protecting every right under it,
+and then hanging every man who takes up arms against it. Yes, my
+friends, I would hang every man higher than Haman who would attempt to
+resist by force the execution of any provision of the Constitution
+which our fathers made and bequeathed to us."[869]
+
+He touched many hearts when he reminded his hearers that in the great
+Northwest, Northerners and Southerners met and married, bequeathing
+the choice gifts of both sections to their children. "When their
+children grow up, the child of the same parents has a grandfather in
+North Carolina and another in Vermont, and that child does not like to
+hear either of those States abused.... He will never consent that this
+Union shall be dissolved so that he will be compelled to obtain a
+passport and get it _viséd_ to enter a foreign land to visit the
+graves of his ancestors. You cannot sever this Union unless you cut
+the heart strings that bind father to son, daughter to mother, and
+brother to sister, in all our new States and territories." And the
+heart of the speaker went out to his kindred and his boys, who were
+almost within hearing of his voice. "I love my children," he
+exclaimed, "but I do not desire to see them survive this Union."
+
+At Richmond, Douglas received an ovation which recalled the days when
+Clay was the idol of the Whigs;[870] but as he journeyed northward he
+felt more and more the hostility of Breckinridge men, and marked the
+disposition of many of his own supporters to strike an alliance with
+them. Unhesitatingly he threw the weight of his personal influence
+against fusion. At Baltimore, he averred that while Breckinridge was
+not a disunionist, every disunionist was a Breckinridge man.[871] And
+at Reading, he said, "For one, I can never fuse, and never will fuse
+with a man who tells me that the Democratic creed is a dogma, contrary
+to reason and to the Constitution.... I have fought twenty-seven
+pitched battles, since I entered public life, and never yet traded
+with nominations or surrendered to treachery."[872] With equal
+pertinacity he refused to countenance any attempts at fusion in North
+Carolina.[873] Even more explicitly he declared against fusion in a
+speech at Erie: "No Democrat can, without dishonor, and a forfeiture
+of self-respect and principle, fuse with anybody who is in favor of
+intervention, either for or against slavery.... As Democrats we can
+never fuse either with Northern Abolitionists or Southern Bolters and
+Secessionists."[874]
+
+In spite of these protests and admonitions, Douglas men in several of
+the doubtful States entered into more or less definite agreement with
+the supporters of Breckinridge. The pressure put upon him in New York
+by those to whom he was indebted for his nomination, was almost too
+strong to be resisted. Yet he withstood all entreaties, even to
+maintain a discreet silence and let events take their course. Hostile
+newspapers expressed his sentiments when they represented him as
+opposed to fusion, "all the way from Maine to California."[875]
+"Douglas either must have lost his craft as a politician," commented
+Raymond, in the editorial columns of the _Times_, "or be credited with
+steadfast convictions."[876]
+
+Adverse comment on Douglas's personal canvass had now ceased. Wise men
+recognized that he was preparing the public mind for a crisis, as no
+one else could. He set his face westward, speaking at numerous
+points.[877] Continuous speaking had now begun to tell upon him. At
+Cincinnati, he was so hoarse that he could not address the crowds
+which had gathered to greet him, but he persisted in speaking on the
+following day at Indianapolis. He paused in Chicago only long enough
+to give a public address, and then passed on into Iowa.[878] Among his
+own people he unbosomed himself as he had not done before in all these
+weeks of incessant public speaking. "I am no alarmist. I believe that
+this country is in more danger now than at any other moment since I
+have known anything of public life. It is not personal ambition that
+has induced me to take the stump this year. I say to you who know me,
+that the presidency has no charms for me. I do not believe that it is
+my interest as an ambitious man, to be President this year if I could.
+But I do love this Union. There is no sacrifice on earth that I would
+not make to preserve it."[879]
+
+While Douglas was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he received a dispatch from
+his friend, Forney, announcing that the Republicans had carried
+Pennsylvania in the October State election. Similar intelligence came
+from Indiana. The outcome in November was thus clearly foreshadowed.
+Recognizing the inevitable, Douglas turned to his Secretary with the
+laconic words, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save
+the Union. I will go South."[880] He at once made appointments to
+speak in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, as soon as he should have
+met his Western engagements. His friends marvelled at his powers of
+endurance. For weeks he had been speaking from hotel balconies, from
+the platform of railroad coaches, and in halls to monster
+mass-meetings.[881] Not infrequently he spoke twice and thrice a day,
+for days together. It was often said that he possessed the
+constitution of the United States; and he caught up the jest with
+delight, remarking that he believed he had. Small wonder if much that
+he said was trivial and unworthy of his attention;[882] in and through
+all his utterance, nevertheless, coursed the passionate current of his
+love for the Union, transfiguring all that was paltry and commonplace.
+From Iowa he passed into Wisconsin and Michigan, finally entering
+upon his Southern mission at St. Louis, October 19th. "I am not here
+to-night," he told his auditors, with a shade of weariness in his
+voice, "to ask your votes for the presidency. I am not one of those
+who believe that I have any more personal interest in the presidency
+than any other good citizen in America. I am here to make an appeal to
+you in behalf of the Union and the peace of the country."[883]
+
+It was a courageous little party that left St. Louis for Memphis and
+the South. Mrs. Douglas was still with her husband, determined to
+share all the hardships that fell to his lot; and besides her, there
+was only James B. Sheridan, Douglas's devoted secretary and
+stenographer. The Southern press had threatened Douglas with personal
+violence, if he should dare to invade the South with his political
+heresies.[884] But Luther bound for Worms was not more indifferent to
+personal danger than this modern intransigeant. His conduct earned the
+hearty admiration of even Republican journals, for no one could now
+believe that he courted the South in his own behalf. Nor was there any
+foolish bravado in this adventure. He was thoroughly sobered by the
+imminence of disunion. When he read, in a newspaper devoted to his
+interests, that it was "the deep-seated fixed determination on the
+part of the leading Southern States to go out of the Union, peaceably
+and quietly," he knew that these words were no cheap rhetoric, for
+they were penned by a man of Northern birth and antecedents.[885]
+
+The history of this Southern tour has never been written. It was the
+firm belief of Douglas that at least one attempt was made to wreck his
+train. At Montgomery, while addressing a public gathering, he was made
+the target for nameless missiles.[886] Yet none of these adventures
+were permitted to find their way into the Northern press. And only his
+intimates learned of them from his own lips after his return.
+
+The news of Mr. Lincoln's election overtook Douglas in Mobile. He was
+in the office of the Mobile _Register_, one of the few newspapers
+which had held to him and his cause through thick and thin. It now
+became a question what policy the paper should pursue. The editor
+asked his associate to read aloud an article which he had just
+written, advocating a State convention to deliberate upon the course
+of Alabama in the approaching crisis. Douglas opposed its publication;
+but he was assured that the only way to manage the secession movement
+was to appear to go with it, and by electing men opposed to disunion,
+to control the convention. With his wonted sagacity, Douglas remarked
+that if they could not prevent the calling of a convention, they could
+hardly hope to control its action. But the editors determined to
+publish the article, "and Douglas returned to his hotel more hopeless
+than I had ever seen him before," wrote Sheridan.[887]
+
+On his return to the North, Douglas spoke twice, at New Orleans and at
+Vicksburg, urging acquiescence in the result of the election.[888] He
+put the case most cogently in a letter to the business men of New
+Orleans, which was widely published. No one deplored the election of an
+Abolitionist as President more than he. Still, he could not find any
+just cause for dissolving the Federal Union in the mere election of any
+man to the presidency, in accordance with the Constitution. Those who
+apprehended that the new President would carry out the aggressive
+policy of his party, failed to observe that his party was in a
+minority. Even his appointments to office would have to be confirmed by
+a hostile Senate. Any invasion of constitutional rights would be
+resented in the North, as well as in the South. In short, the election
+of Mr. Lincoln could only serve as a pretext for those who purposed to
+break up the Union and to form a Southern Confederacy.[889]
+
+On the face of the election returns, Douglas made a sorry showing; he
+had won the electoral vote of but a single State, Missouri, though
+three of the seven electoral votes of New Jersey fell to him as the
+result of fusion. Yet as the popular vote in the several States was
+ascertained, defeat wore the guise of a great personal triumph. Leader
+of a forlorn hope, he had yet received the suffrages of 1,376,957
+citizens, only 489,495 less votes than Lincoln had polled. Of these
+163,525 came from the South, while Lincoln received only 26,430, all
+from the border slave States. As compared with the vote of
+Breckinridge and Bell at the South, Douglas's vote was insignificant;
+but at the North, he ran far ahead of the combined vote of both.[890]
+It goes without saying that had Douglas secured the full Democratic
+vote in the free States, he would have pressed Lincoln hard in many
+quarters. From the national standpoint, the most significant aspect of
+the popular vote was the failure of Breckinridge to secure a majority
+in the slave States.[891] Union sentiment was still stronger than the
+secessionists had boasted. The next most significant fact in the
+history of the election was this: Abraham Lincoln had been elected to
+the presidency by the vote of a section which had given over a million
+votes to his rival, the leader of a faction of a disorganized party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 810: Flint, Douglas, pp. 205-207.]
+
+[Footnote 811: _Ibid._, pp. 207-209.]
+
+[Footnote 812: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 421.]
+
+[Footnote 813: _Ibid._, pp. 424-425.]
+
+[Footnote 814: _Ibid._, p. 553.]
+
+[Footnote 815: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 554-555.]
+
+[Footnote 816: _Ibid._, p. 559.]
+
+[Footnote 817: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 658. For the final
+version, see p. 935.]
+
+[Footnote 818: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 59.]
+
+[Footnote 819: _Ibid._, p. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 820: _Ibid._, p. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 821: _Ibid._, pp. 9 and 20.]
+
+[Footnote 822: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 12-13.]
+
+[Footnote 823: _Ibid._, p. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 824: _Ibid._, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 825: Especially in securing votes from the delegations of
+Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the influence of the
+administration was strong. Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860,
+pp. 25-28.]
+
+[Footnote 826: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 827: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 283-288.]
+
+[Footnote 828: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 446.]
+
+[Footnote 829: _Ibid._, p. 448.]
+
+[Footnote 830: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 831: _Ibid._, p. 50.]
+
+[Footnote 832: _Ibid._, pp. 74-75.]
+
+[Footnote 833: Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, pp.
+46-53.]
+
+[Footnote 834: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 78.]
+
+[Footnote 835: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 313.]
+
+[Footnote 836: _Ibid._, p. 316.]
+
+[Footnote 837: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2120.]
+
+[Footnote 838: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2155.]
+
+[Footnote 839: _Ibid._, p. 2156.]
+
+[Footnote 840: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 456.]
+
+[Footnote 841: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2344.]
+
+[Footnote 842: See Wise, Life of Henry A. Wise, pp. 264-265.]
+
+[Footnote 843: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 472.]
+
+[Footnote 844: _Ibid._, p. 472.]
+
+[Footnote 845: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 227-228.]
+
+[Footnote 846: _Ibid._, pp. 194-195.]
+
+[Footnote 847: The letter was written at Washington, June 22d, at 9:30
+a.m.]
+
+[Footnote 848: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 286; Halstead,
+Political Conventions of 1860, p. 211.]
+
+[Footnote 849: Halstead, p. 216.]
+
+[Footnote 850: Flint, Douglas, pp. 213-215.]
+
+[Footnote 851: New York _Times_, July 3, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 852: _Ibid._, June 26.]
+
+[Footnote 853: MS. letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, July 5, 1860. He
+wrote in a similar vein to a friend in Missouri, July 4, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 854: New York _Times_, July 20, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 855: _Ibid._, July 21.]
+
+[Footnote 856: _Ibid._, July 21.]
+
+[Footnote 857: _Ibid._, July 24.]
+
+[Footnote 858: _Ibid._, July 28.]
+
+[Footnote 859: New York _Times_, July. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 860: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 482-483.]
+
+[Footnote 861: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 699.]
+
+[Footnote 862: This was the view of a well-informed correspondent of
+the New York _Times_, August 10, 14, 16, 1860. From this point of
+view, Douglas's tour through Maine in August takes on special
+significance.]
+
+[Footnote 863: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, 699.]
+
+[Footnote 864: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 487,
+489.]
+
+[Footnote 865: New York _Times_, August 16, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 866: _Ibid._, August 29, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 867: This can hardly be regarded as a sober opinion.
+Clingman had become convinced by conversation with Douglas that he was
+not making the canvass in his own behalf, but in order to weaken and
+divide the South, so as to aid Lincoln. Clingman, Speeches and
+Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 868: Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 869: North Carolina _Standard_, September 5, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 870: Correspondent to New York _Times_, September 5, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 871: _Ibid._, September 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 872: New York _Tribune_, September 10, 1860. Greeley did
+Douglas an injustice when he accused him of courting votes by favoring
+a protective tariff in Pennsylvania. The misapprehension was doubtless
+due to a garbled associated press dispatch.]
+
+[Footnote 873: Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 874: New York _Times_, September 27, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 875: New York _Times_, September 13, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 876: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 877: His movements were still followed by the New York
+_Times_, which printed his list of appointments.]
+
+[Footnote 878: Chicago _Times_ and _Herald_, October 9, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 879: Chicago _Times and Herald_, October 6, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 880: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
+II, p. 700; see also Forney's Eulogy of Douglas, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 881: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 882: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 883: Chicago _Times and Herald_, October 24, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 884: Philadelphia _Press_, October 29, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 885: Savannah (Ga.) _Express_, quoted by Chicago _Times and
+Herald_, October 25, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 886: There was a bare reference to the Montgomery incident
+in the Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 12, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 887: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 700.]
+
+[Footnote 888: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 13, 1860;
+Philadelphia _Press_, November 28, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 889: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 19, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 890: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 297.]
+
+[Footnote 891: Douglas and Bell polled 135,057 votes more than
+Breckinridge; see Greeley, American Conflict, I, p. 328.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT
+
+
+On the day after the election, the palmetto and lone star flag was
+thrown out to the breeze from the office of the Charleston _Mercury_
+and hailed with cheers by the populace. "The tea has been thrown
+overboard--the revolution of 1860 has been initiated," said that
+ebullient journal next morning.[892] On the 10th of November, the
+legislature of South Carolina called a convention of the people to
+consider the relations of the Commonwealth "with the Northern States
+and the government of the United States." The instantaneous approval
+of the people of Charleston, the focus of public opinion in the State,
+left no doubt that South Carolina would secede from the Union soon
+after the 17th of December, when the convention was to assemble. On
+November 23d, Major Robert Anderson, in command of Fort Moultrie in
+Charleston harbor, urged the War Department to reinforce his garrison
+and to occupy also Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney, saying, "I need
+not say how anxious I am--indeed, determined, so far as honor will
+permit--to avoid collision with the citizens of South Carolina.
+Nothing, however, will be better calculated to prevent bloodshed than
+our being found in such an attitude that it would be madness and folly
+to attack us." "That there is a settled determination," he continued,
+"to leave the Union, and to obtain possession of this work, is
+apparent to all."[893] No sane man could doubt that a crisis was
+imminent. Unhappily, James Buchanan was still President of the United
+States.
+
+To those who greeted Judge Douglas upon his return to Washington, he
+seemed to be in excellent health, despite rumors to the contrary.[894]
+Demonstrative followers insisted upon hearing his voice immediately
+upon his arrival, and he was not unwilling to repeat what he had said
+at New Orleans, here within hearing of men of all sections. The burden
+of his thought was contained in a single sentence: "Mr. Lincoln,
+having been elected, must be inaugurated in obedience to the
+Constitution." "Fellow citizens," he said, in his rich, sonorous
+voice, sounding the key-note of his subsequent career, "I beseech you,
+with reference to former party divisions, to lay aside all political
+asperities, all personal prejudices, to indulge in no criminations or
+recriminations, but to unite with me, and all Union-loving men, in a
+common effort to save the country from the disasters which threaten
+it."[895]
+
+In the midst of forebodings which even the most optimistic shared,
+Congress reassembled. Feeling was tense in both houses, but it was
+more noticeable in the Senate, where, hitherto, political differences
+had not been a barrier to social intercourse. Senator Iverson put into
+words what all felt: "Look at the spectacle exhibited on this floor.
+How is it? There are Republican Northern senators upon that side. Here
+are Southern senators on this side. How much social intercourse is
+there between us? You sit upon your side, silent and gloomy; we sit
+upon ours with knit brows and portentous scowls.... Here are two
+hostile bodies on this floor; and it is but a type of the feeling that
+exists between the two sections."[896]
+
+Southern senators hastened to lay bare their grievances. However much
+they might differ in naming specific, tangible ills, they all agreed
+upon the great cause of their apprehension and uneasiness. Davis
+voiced the common feeling when he said, "I believe the true cause of
+our danger to be that a sectional hostility has been substituted for a
+general fraternity."[897] And his colleague confirmed this opinion.
+Clingman put the same thought more concretely when he declared that
+the South was apprehensive, not because a dangerous man had been
+elected to the presidency; but because a President had been elected
+who was known to be a dangerous man and who had declared his purpose
+to war upon the social system of the South.[898]
+
+With the utmost boldness, Southern senators announced the impending
+secession of their States. "We intend," said Iverson of Georgia
+speaking for his section, "to go out peaceably if we can, forcibly if
+we must.... In this state of feeling, divided as we are by interests,
+by a geographical feeling, by everything that makes two people
+separate and distinct, I ask why we should remain in the same Union
+together?"[899]
+
+No Northern senator had better reason than Douglas to believe that
+these were not merely idle threats. The knowledge sobered him. In this
+hour of peril, his deep love for the Union welled up within him,
+submerging the partisan and the politician. "I trust," he said,
+rebuking a Northern senator, "we may lay aside all party grievances,
+party feuds, partisan jealousies, and look to our country, and not to
+our party, in the consequences of our action. Sir, I am as good a
+party man as anyone living, when there are only party issues at stake,
+and the fate of political parties to be provided for. But, Sir, if I
+know myself, I do not desire to hear the word party, or to listen to
+any party appeal, while we are considering and discussing the
+questions upon which the fate of the country now hangs."[900]
+
+In this spirit Douglas welcomed from the South the recital of special
+grievances. "Give us each charge and each specification.... I hold
+that there is no grievance growing out of a nonfulfillment of
+constitutional obligations, which cannot be remedied under the
+Constitution and within the Union."[901] And when the Personal Liberty
+Acts of Northern States were cited as a long-standing grievance, he
+heartily denounced them as in direct violation of the letter and the
+spirit of the Constitution. At the same time he contended that these
+acts existed generally in the States to which few fugitives ever fled,
+and that the Fugitive Slave Act was enforced nineteen out of twenty
+times. It was the twentieth case that was published abroad through the
+press, misleading the South. In fact, the present excitement was, to
+his mind, due to the inability of the extremes of North and South to
+understand each other. "Those of us that live upon the border, and
+have commercial intercourse and social relations across the line, can
+live in peace with each other." If the border slave States and the
+border free States could arbitrate the question of slavery, the Union
+would last forever.[902]
+
+Arbitration and compromise--these were the words with which the
+venerable Crittenden of Kentucky, successor to Clay, now endeavored to
+rally Union-loving men. He was seconded by his colleague, Senator
+Powell, who had already moved the appointment of a special committee
+of thirteen, to consider the grievances between the slave-holding and
+non-slave-holding States. Douglas put himself unreservedly at the
+service of the party of compromise. It seemed, for the moment, as
+though the history of the year 1850 were to be repeated. Now, as then,
+the initiative was taken by a senator from the border-State of
+Kentucky. Again a committee of thirteen was to prepare measures of
+adjustment. The composition of the committee was such as to give
+promise of a settlement, if any were possible. Seward, Collamer, Wade,
+Doolittle, and Grimes, were the Republican members; Douglas, Rice, and
+Bigler represented the Democracy of the North. Davis and Toombs
+represented the Gulf States; Powell, Crittenden, and Hunter, the
+border slave States.[903]
+
+On the 22d of December, the committee took under consideration the
+Crittenden resolutions, which proposed six amendments to the
+Constitution and four joint resolutions. The crucial point was the
+first amendment, which would restore the Missouri Compromise line "in
+all the territory of the United States now held, or hereafter
+acquired." Could this disposition of the vexing territorial question
+have been agreed upon, the other features of the compromise would
+probably have commanded assent. But this and all the other proposed
+amendments were defeated by the adverse vote of the Republican members
+of the committee.[904]
+
+The outcome was disheartening. Douglas had firmly believed that
+conciliation, or concession, alone could save the country from civil
+war.[905] When the committee first met informally[906] the news was
+already in print that the South Carolina convention had passed an
+ordinance of secession. Under the stress of this event, and of others
+which he apprehended, Douglas had voted for all the Crittenden
+amendments and resolutions, regardless of his personal predilections.
+"The prospects are gloomy," he wrote privately, "but I do not yet
+despair of the Union. _We can never acknowledge the right of a State
+to secede and cut us off from the ocean and the world, without our
+consent._ But in view of impending civil war with our brethren in
+nearly one-half of the States of the Union, I will not consider the
+question of force and war until all efforts at peaceful adjustment
+have been made and have failed. The fact can no longer be disguised
+that many of the Republican leaders desire war and disunion under
+pretext of saving the Union. They wish to get rid of the Southern
+senators in order to have a majority in the Senate to confirm
+Lincoln's appointments; and many of them think they can hold a
+permanent Republican ascendancy in the Northern States, but not in
+the whole Union. For partisan reasons, therefore, they are anxious to
+dissolve the Union, if it can be done without making them responsible
+before the people. I am for the Union, and am ready to make any
+reasonable sacrifice to save it. No adjustment will restore and
+preserve peace _which does not banish the slavery question from
+Congress forever_ and place it beyond the reach of Federal
+legislation. Mr. Crittenden's proposition to extend the Missouri line
+accomplishes this object, and hence I can accept it now for the same
+reasons that I proposed it in 1848. I prefer our own plan of
+non-intervention and popular sovereignty, however."[907]
+
+The propositions which Douglas laid before the committee proved to be
+even less acceptable than the Crittenden amendments. Only a single,
+insignificant provision relating to the colonizing of free negroes in
+distant lands, commended itself to a majority of the committee.[908]
+All hope of an agreement had now vanished. Sad at heart, Douglas voted
+to report the inability of the committee to agree upon any general
+plan of adjustment.[909] Yet he did not abandon all hope; he was not
+yet ready to admit that the dread alternative must be accepted. He
+joined with Crittenden in replying to a dispatch from the South: "We
+have hopes that the rights of the South, and of every State and
+section, may be protected within the Union. Don't give up the ship.
+Don't despair of the Republic."[910] And when Crittenden proposed to
+the Senate that the people at large should be allowed to express their
+approval, or disapproval, of his amendments by a vote, Douglas
+cordially indorsed the suggested referendum in a speech of great
+power.
+
+There was dross mingled with the gold in this speech of January 3d.
+Not all his auditors by any means were ready to admit that the attempt
+of the Federal government to control the slavery question in the
+Territories, regardless of the wishes of the inhabitants, was the real
+cause of Southern discontent. Nor were all willing to concede that
+"whenever Congress had refrained from such interference, harmony and
+fraternal feeling had been restored."[911] The history of Kansas was
+still too recent. Yet from these premises, Douglas drew the conclusion
+"that the slavery question should be banished forever from the Halls
+of Congress and the arena of Federal politics by an irrepealable
+constitutional provision."[912]
+
+The immediate occasion for revolution in the South was no doubt the
+outcome of the presidential election; but that it furnished a just
+cause for the dissolution of the Union, he would not for an instant
+admit. No doubt Mr. Lincoln's public utterances had given some ground
+for apprehension. No one had more vigorously denounced these
+dangerous, revolutionary doctrines than he; but neither Mr. Lincoln
+nor his party would have the power to injure the South, if the
+Southern States remained in the Union and maintained full delegations
+in Congress. "Besides," he added, "I still indulge the hope that when
+Mr. Lincoln shall assume the high responsibilities which will soon
+devolve upon him, he will be fully impressed with the necessity of
+sinking the politician in the statesman, the partisan in the patriot,
+and regard the obligations which he owes to his country as paramount
+to those of his party."[913]
+
+No one brought the fearful alternatives into view, with such
+inexorable logic, as Douglas in this same speech. While he denounced
+secession as "wrong, unlawful, unconstitutional, and criminal," he was
+bound to recognize the fact of secession. "South Carolina had no right
+to secede; _but she has done it_. The rights of the Federal government
+remain, but possession is lost. How can possession be regained, by
+arms or by a peaceable adjustment of the matters in controversy? _Are
+we prepared for war?_ I do not mean that kind of preparation which
+consists of armies and navies, and supplies, and munitions of war; but
+are we prepared IN OUR HEARTS for war with our own brethren and
+kindred? I confess I am not."[914]
+
+These were not mere words for oratorical effect. They were expressions
+wrung from a tortured heart, bound by some of the tenderest of human
+affections to the people of the South. Buried in the land of her birth
+rested the mother of his two boys, whom he had loved tenderly and
+truly. There in the Southland were her kindred, the kindred of his two
+boys, and many of his warmest personal friends. The prospect of war
+brought no such poignant grief to men whose associations for
+generations had been confined to the North.
+
+Returning to the necessity of concession and compromise, he frankly
+admitted that he had thrown consistency to the winds. The preservation
+of the Union was of more importance than party platforms or individual
+records. "I have no hesitation in saying to senators on all sides of
+this Chamber, that I am prepared to act on this question with
+reference to the present exigencies of the case, as if I had never
+given a vote, or uttered a word, or had an opinion upon the
+subject."[915]
+
+Nor did he hesitate to throw the responsibility for disagreement in
+the Committee of Thirteen upon the Republican members. In the name of
+peace he pled for less of party pride and the pride of individual
+opinion. "The political party which shall refuse to allow the people
+to determine for themselves at the ballot-box the issue between
+revolution and war on the one side, and obstinate adherence to a party
+platform on the other, will assume a fearful responsibility. A war
+upon a political issue, waged by the people of eighteen States against
+the people and domestic institutions of fifteen sister-States, is a
+fearful and revolting thought."[916] But Republican senators were deaf
+to all warnings from so recent a convert to non-partisan politics.
+
+While the Committee of Thirteen was in session, Major Anderson moved
+his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor,
+urging repeatedly the need of reinforcements. At the beginning of the
+new year, President Buchanan was inspired to form a good resolution.
+He resolved that Anderson should not be ordered to return to Moultrie
+but should be reinforced. On the 5th of January, the "Star of the
+West," with men, arms and ammunition, was dispatched to Charleston
+harbor. On the 9th the steamer was fired upon and forced to return
+without accomplishing its mission. Then came the news of the secession
+of Mississippi. In rapid succession Florida, Alabama, and Georgia
+passed ordinances of secession.[917] Louisiana and Texas were sure to
+follow the lead of the other cotton States.
+
+In spite of these untoward events, the Republican senators remained
+obdurate. Their answer to the Crittenden referendum proposition was
+the Clark resolution, which read, "The provisions of the Constitution
+are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all
+the material interests of the country; it needs to be obeyed rather
+than amended."[918] On the 21st of the month, the senators of the
+seceding States withdrew; yet Douglas could still say to anxious Union
+men at the South, "There is hope of adjustment, and the prospect has
+never been better than since we first assembled."[919] And Senator
+Crittenden concurred in this view. On what could they have grounded
+their hopes?
+
+Douglas still believed in the efficacy of compromise to preserve the
+Union. Through many channels he received intelligence from the South,
+and he knew well that the leaders of public opinion were not of one
+mind. Some, at least, regarded the proposed Southern confederacy as a
+means of securing a revision of the Constitution. Men like Benjamin of
+Louisiana were still ready to talk confidentially of a final
+adjustment.[920] Moreover, there was a persistent rumor that Seward
+was inclining to the Crittenden Compromise; and Seward, as the
+prospective leader of the incoming administration, would doubtless
+carry many Republicans with him. Something, too, might be expected
+from the Peace Convention, which was to meet on February 4th, in
+Washington.
+
+Meantime Douglas lent his aid to such legislative labors as the
+exigencies of the hour permitted. Once again, he found himself acting
+with the Republicans to do justice to Kansas, for Kansas was now a
+suppliant for admission into the Union with a free constitution. Again
+specious excuses were made for denying simple justice. Toward the
+obstructionists, his old enemies, Douglas showed no rancor: there was
+no time to lose in personalities. "The sooner we close up this
+controversy the better, if we intend to wipe out the excited and
+irritated feelings that have grown out of it. It will have a tendency
+to restore good feelings."[921] But not until the Southern senators
+had withdrawn, was Kansas admitted to the Union of the States, which
+was then hanging in the balance.
+
+Whenever senators from the slave States could be induced to name
+their tangible grievances, and not to dwell merely upon anticipated
+injuries, they were wont to cite the Personal Liberty Acts. In spite
+of his good intentions, Douglas was drawn into an altercation with
+Mason of Virginia, in which he cited an historic case where Virginia
+had been the offender. Recovering himself, he said ingenuously, "I
+hope we are not to bandy these little cases backwards and forwards for
+the purpose of sectional irritation. Let us rather meet the question,
+and give the Constitution the true construction, and allow all
+criminals to be surrendered according to the law of the State where
+the offense was committed."[922]
+
+As evidence of his desire to remove this most tangible of Southern
+gravamina, Douglas introduced a supplementary fugitive slave bill on
+January 28th.[923] Its notable features were the provision for jury
+trial in a Federal court, if after extradition a fugitive should
+persist in claiming his freedom; and the provisions for the payment of
+damages to the claimant, if he should lose through violence a fugitive
+slave to whom he had a valid title. The Federal government in turn
+might bring suit against the county where the rescue had occurred, and
+the county might reimburse itself by suing the offenders to the full
+amount of the damages paid.[924] Had this bill passed, it would have
+made good the most obvious defects in the much-defamed legislation of
+1850; but the time had long since passed, when such concessions would
+satisfy the South.
+
+Douglas had to bear many a gibe for his publicly expressed hopes of
+peace. Mason denounced his letter to Virginia gentlemen as a "puny,
+pusillanimous attempt to hoodwink" the people of Virginia. But Douglas
+replied with an earnest reiteration of his expectations. Yet all
+depended, he admitted, on the action of Virginia and the border
+States. For this reason he deprecated the uncompromising attitude of
+the senator from Virginia, when he said, "We want no concessions."
+Equally deplorable, he thought, was the spirit evinced by the senator
+from New Hampshire who applauded that regrettable remark. "I never
+intend to give up the hope of saving this Union so long as there is a
+ray left," he cried.[925] Why try to force slavery to go where
+experience has demonstrated that climate is adverse and where the
+people do not want it? Why prohibit slavery where the government
+cannot make it exist? "Why break up the Union upon an abstraction?"
+Let the one side give up its demand for protection and the other for
+prohibition; and let them unite upon an amendment to the Constitution
+which shall deny to Congress the power to legislate upon slavery
+everywhere, except in the matter of fugitive slaves and the African
+slave-trade. "Do that, and you will have peace; do that, and the Union
+will last forever; do that, and you do not extend slavery one inch,
+nor circumscribe it one inch; you do not emancipate a slave, and do
+not enslave a free-man."[926]
+
+In the course of his eloquent plea for mutual concession, Douglas was
+repeatedly interrupted by Wigfall of Texas, whose State was at the
+moment preparing to leave the Union. In ironical tones, Wigfall
+begged to be informed upon what ground the senator based his hope and
+belief that the Union would be preserved. Douglas replied, "I see
+indications every day of a disposition to meet this question now and
+consider what is necessary to save the Union." And then, anticipating
+the sneers of his interrogator, he said sharply, "If the senator will
+just follow me, instead of going off to Texas; sit here, and act in
+concert with us Union men, we will make him a very efficient agent in
+accomplishing that object."[927] But to the obdurate mind of Wigfall
+this Union talk was "the merest balderdash." Compromise on the basis
+of non-intervention, he pronounced "worse than 'Sewardism,' for it had
+hypocrisy and the other was bold and open." There was, unhappily, only
+too much truth in his pithy remark that "the apple of discord is
+offered to us as the fruit of peace."
+
+It was a sad commentary on the state of the Union that while the six
+cotton States were establishing the constitution and government of a
+Southern Confederacy, the Federal Senate was providing for the
+territorial organization of that great domain whose acquisition had
+been the joint labor of all the States. Three Territories were
+projected. In one of these, Colorado, a provisional government had
+already been set up by the mining population of the Pike's Peak
+country. To the Colorado bill Douglas interposed serious objections.
+By its provisions, the southern boundary cut off a portion of New
+Mexico, which was slave Territory, and added it to Colorado. At the
+same time a provision in the bill prevented the territorial
+legislature from passing any law to destroy the rights of private
+property. Was the new Territory of Colorado to be free or slave?
+Another provision debarred the territorial legislature from condemning
+private property for public uses. How, then, could Colorado construct
+even a public road? Still another provision declared that there should
+be no discrimination in the rate of taxation between different kinds
+of property. How, then, could Colorado make those necessary exemptions
+which were to be found on all statute books?[928]
+
+In his encounter with Senator Green, who had succeeded him as chairman
+of the Committee on Territories, Douglas did not appear to good
+advantage. It was easy to prove his first objection idle, as there was
+no slave property in northern New Mexico. As for the other
+objectionable provisions, all--by your leave!--were to be found in the
+Washington Territory Act, which had passed through Douglas's committee
+without comment.[929]
+
+Douglas proposed a substitute for the Colorado bill, nevertheless,
+which, besides rectifying these errors,--for such he still deemed them
+to be,--proposed that the people of the Territory should elect their
+own officers. He reminded the Senate that the Kansas-Nebraska bill had
+been sharply criticised, because while professing to recognize popular
+sovereignty, it had withheld this power. At that time, however, the
+governor was also an Indian agent and a Federal officer; now, the two
+functions were separated. He proposed that, henceforth, the President
+and Senate should appoint only such officers as performed Federal
+duties.[930] When Senator Wade suggested that Douglas had experienced
+a conversion on this point, because he happened to be in opposition to
+the incoming administration, which would appoint the new territorial
+officers, Douglas referred to his utterances in the last session, as
+proof of his disinterestedness in the matter.[931]
+
+Even in his rôle of peace-maker, Douglas could not help remarking that
+the bill contained not a word about slavery. "I am rejoiced," he said,
+somewhat ironically, "to find that the two sides of the House,
+representing the two sides of the 'irrepressible conflict,' find it
+impossible when they get into power, to practically carry on the
+government without coming to non-intervention, and saying nothing upon
+the subject of slavery. Although they may not vote for my proposition,
+the fact that they have to avow the principle upon which they have
+fought me for years is the only one upon which they can possibly
+agree, is conclusive evidence that I have been right in that
+principle, and that they have been wrong in fighting me upon it."[932]
+
+In the House the Colorado bill was amended by the excision of the
+clause providing for appeals to the United States Supreme Court in all
+cases involving title to slaves. Douglas promptly pointed out the
+significance of this omission. The decisions of the territorial court
+regarding slavery would now be final. The question of whether the
+territorial legislature might, or might not, exclude slavery, would
+now be decided by territorial judges who would be appointed by a
+Republican President.[933] The Republicans now in control of the
+Senate were eager to press their advantage. And Douglas had to
+acquiesce. After all, the practical importance of the matter was not
+great. No one anticipated that slavery ever would exist in these new
+Territories.
+
+The substitute which Douglas offered for the Colorado bill, and
+subsequently for the other territorial bills, deserves more than a
+passing allusion. Not only was it his last contribution to territorial
+legislation, but it suggested a far-reaching change in our colonial
+policy. It was the logical conclusion of popular sovereignty
+practically applied.[934] Congress was invited to abdicate all but the
+most meagre power in organizing new Territories. The task of framing
+an organic act for the government of a Territory was to be left to a
+convention chosen by adult male citizens who were in actual residence;
+but this organic law must be republican in form, and in every way
+subordinate to the Constitution and to all laws and treaties affecting
+the Indians and the public lands. A Territory so organized was to be
+admitted into the Union whenever its population should be equal to the
+unit required for representation in the lower house of Congress. The
+initiative in taking a preliminary census and calling a territorial
+convention, was to be taken by the judge of the Federal court in the
+Territory. The tutelage of the Federal government was thus to be
+reduced to lowest terms.
+
+Congress was to confine itself to general provisions applicable to all
+Territories, leaving the formation of new Territories to the caprice
+of the people in actual residence. This was a generous concession to
+popular sovereignty; but even so, the paramount authority was still
+vested in Congress. Congress, and not the people, was to designate the
+bounds of the Territory; Congress was to pass judgment upon the
+republicanism of the organic law, and a Federal judge was to set the
+machinery of popular sovereignty in motion. Obviously the time had
+passed when Congress would make so radical a departure from precedent.
+Least of all were the Republican members disposed to weaken the hold
+of the Federal government upon Territories where the question of
+slavery might again become acute.
+
+While the House was unwilling to vote for a submission of the
+Crittenden propositions to a popular vote, it did propose an amendment
+denying to Congress the power to interfere with the domestic
+institutions of any State. Not being in any sense a concession, but
+only an affirmation of a widely accepted principle, this amendment
+passed the House easily enough. Yet in his rôle of compromiser,
+Douglas made much of this vote. He called Senator Mason's attention to
+two great facts--"startling, tremendous facts--that they [the
+Republicans] have abandoned their aggressive policy in the Territories
+and are willing to give guarantees in the States." These "ought to be
+accepted as an evidence of a salutary change in public opinion at the
+North."[935] Now if the Republican party would only offer a similar
+guarantee, by a constitutional amendment, that they would never revive
+their aggressive policy toward slavery in the Territories!
+
+As the February days wore away, Douglas became less hopeful of
+peaceable adjustment through compromise. If he had counted upon large
+concessions from Seward, he was disappointed. If he had entertained
+hopes of the Peace Conference, he had also erred grievously. He became
+more and more assured that the forces making against peace were from
+the North as well as the South. He told the Senate on February 21st,
+that there was "a deliberate plot to break up this Union under
+pretense of preserving it."[936] Privately he feared the influence of
+some of Mr. Lincoln's advisers, who were hostile to Seward. "What the
+Blairs really want," he said hotly to a friend, "is a civil war."[937]
+With many another well-wisher he deplored the secret entrance of Mr.
+Lincoln into the capital. It seemed to him both weak and undignified,
+when the situation called for a conciliatory, but firm, front.[938]
+
+With an absence of personal pique which did him credit, he determined
+to take the first opportunity to warn Mr. Lincoln of the dangers of
+his position. Douglas knew Lincoln far better than the average
+Washington politician. To an acquaintance who lamented the apparent
+weakness of the President-elect, Douglas said emphatically, "No, he is
+not that, Sir; but he is eminently a man of the atmosphere which
+surrounds him. He has not yet got out of Springfield, Sir.... He he
+does not know that he is President-elect of the United States, Sir, he
+does not see that the shadow he casts is any bigger now than it was
+last year. It will not take him long to find it out when he has got
+established in the White House."[939]
+
+The ready tact of Mrs. Douglas admirably seconded the initiative of
+her husband. She was among the first to call upon Mrs. Lincoln,
+thereby setting the example for the ladies of the opposition.[940] A
+little incident, to be sure; but in critical hours, the warp and woof
+of history is made up of just such little acts of thoughtful courtesy.
+Washington society understood and appreciated the gracious spirit of
+Adčle Cutts Douglas; and even the New York press commented upon the
+incident with satisfaction.
+
+That Seward and his friends were no less alarmed than Douglas, at the
+prospect of Lincoln's falling under the influence of the coercionists,
+is a matter of record.[941] There were, indeed, two factions
+contending for mastery over the incoming administration. So far as an
+outsider could do so, Douglas was willing to lend himself to the
+schemes of the Seward faction, for in so doing he was obviously
+promoting the cause of peace.[942] Three days after Lincoln's arrival
+Douglas called upon him; and on the following evening (February 27th)
+he sought another private interview.[943] They had long known each
+other; and politics aside, Lincoln entertained a high opinion of
+Douglas's fairmindedness and common sense.[944] They talked earnestly
+about the Peace Conference and the efforts of extremists in Congress
+to make it abortive.[945] Each knew the other to be a genuine lover of
+the Union. Upon this common basis of sentiment they could converse
+without reservations.
+
+Douglas was agitated and distressed.[946] Compromise was now
+impossible in Congress. He saw but one hope. With great earnestness he
+urged Lincoln to recommend the instant calling of a national
+convention to amend the Constitution. Upon the necessity of this step
+Douglas and Seward agreed. But Lincoln would not commit himself to
+this suggestion, without further consideration.[947] "It is impossible
+not to feel," wrote an old acquaintance, after hearing Douglas's
+account of this interview, "that he [Douglas] really and truly loves
+his country in a way not too common, I fear now, in Washington."[948]
+
+The Senate remained in continuous session from Saturday, March 2d,
+until the oath of office was taken by Vice-President Hamlin on Monday
+morning. During these eventful hours, the Crittenden amendments were
+voted down;[949] and when the venerable senator from Kentucky made a
+final effort to secure the adoption of the resolution of the Peace
+Congress, which was similar to his own, it too was decisively
+defeated.[950] In the closing hours of the session, however, in spite
+of the opposition of irreconcilables like Sumner, Wade, and Wilson,
+the Senate adopted the amendment which had passed the House, limiting
+the powers of Congress in the States.[951]
+
+While Union-loving men were thus wrestling with a forlorn hope,
+Douglas was again closeted with Lincoln. It is very probable that
+Douglas was invited to call, in order to pass judgment upon certain
+passages in the inaugural address, which would be delivered on the
+morrow. At all events, Douglas exhibited a familiarity with portions
+of the address, which can hardly be accounted for in other ways. He
+expressed great satisfaction with Lincoln's statement of the
+invalidity of secession. It would do, he said, for all constitutional
+Democrats to "brace themselves against."[952] He frankly announced
+that he would stand by Mr. Lincoln in a temperate, resolute Union
+policy.[953]
+
+On the forenoon of Inauguration Day, Douglas told a friend that he
+meant to put himself as prominently forward in the ceremonies as he
+properly could, and to leave no doubt in any one's mind of his
+determination to stand by the administration in the performance of its
+first great duty to maintain the Union. "I watched him carefully,"
+records this same acquaintance. "He made his way not without
+difficulty--for there was literally no sort of order in the
+arrangements--to the front of the throng directly beside Mr. Lincoln,
+when he prepared to read his address. A miserable little rickety table
+had been provided for the President, on which he could hardly find
+room for his hat, and Senator Douglas, reaching forward, took it with
+a smile and held it during the delivery of the address. It was a
+trifling act, but a symbolical one, and not to be forgotten, and it
+attracted much attention all around me."[954]
+
+At least one passage in the inaugural address was framed upon
+suggestions made by Douglas. Contrary to his original intention,
+Lincoln went out of his way to say, "I cannot be ignorant of the fact
+that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
+National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
+amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people
+over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes
+prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing
+circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being
+afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me
+the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to
+originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them
+to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially
+chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they
+would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed
+amendment to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not
+seen--has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government
+shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States,
+including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of
+what I have said, I depart from my purpose, not to speak of particular
+amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be
+implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made
+express and irrevocable."[955]
+
+In the original draft of his address, written before he came to
+Washington, Lincoln had dismissed with scant consideration the notion
+of a constitutional amendment: "I am not much impressed with the
+belief that the present Constitution can be improved. I am rather for
+the old ship, and the chart of the old pilots."[956] Sometime after
+his interview with Douglas, Lincoln struck out these words and
+inserted the paragraph already quoted, rejecting at the same time a
+suggestion from Seward.[957]
+
+The curious and ubiquitous correspondents of the New York press,
+always on the alert for straws to learn which way the wind was
+blowing, made much of Douglas's conspicuous gallantry toward Mrs.
+Lincoln. He accompanied her to the inaugural ball and unhesitatingly
+defended his friendliness with the President's household, on the
+ground that Mr. Lincoln "meant to do what was right." To one press
+agent, eager to have his opinion of the inaugural, Douglas said, "I
+defend the inaugural if it is as I understand it, namely, an emanation
+from the brain and heart of a patriot, and as I mean, if I know
+myself, to act the part of a patriot, I endorse it."[958]
+
+On March 6th, while Republican senators maintained an uncertain and
+discreet silence respecting the inaugural address, Douglas rose to
+speak in its defense. Senator Clingman had interpreted the President's
+policy in terms of his own emotions: there was no doubt about it, the
+inaugural portended war. "In no wise," responded Douglas with energy:
+"It is a peace-offering rather than a war message." In all his long
+congressional career there is nothing that redounds more to Douglas's
+everlasting credit than his willingness to defend the policy of his
+successful rival, while men of Lincoln's own party were doubting what
+manner of man the new President was and what his policy might mean.
+Nothing could have been more adroit than Douglas's plea for the
+inaugural address. He did not throw himself into the arms of the
+administration and betray his intimate acquaintance with the plans of
+the new President. He spoke as the leader of the opposition,
+critically and judiciously. He had read the inaugural with care; he
+had subjected it to a critical analysis; and he was of the opinion
+that it was characterized by ability and directness on certain points,
+but by lack of explicitness on others. He cited passages that he
+deemed equivocal and objectionable. Nevertheless he rejoiced to read
+one clause which was evidently the key to the entire document:
+
+"The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and
+experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in
+every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according
+to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a
+peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of
+fraternal sympathies and affections."[959]
+
+By the terms of his message, too, the President was pledged to favor
+such amendments as might originate with the people for the settlement
+of the slavery question,--even if the settlement should be repugnant
+to the principles of his party. Mr. Lincoln should receive the thanks
+of all Union-loving men for having "sunk the partisan in the patriot."
+The voice of Douglas never rang truer than when he paid this tribute
+to his rival's honesty and candor.
+
+"I do not wish it to be inferred," he said in conclusion,... "that I
+have any political sympathy with his administration, or that I expect
+any contingency can happen in which I may be identified with it. I
+expect to oppose his administration with all my energy on those great
+principles which have separated parties in former times; but on this
+one question--that of preserving the Union by a peaceful solution of
+our present difficulties; that of preventing any future difficulties
+by such an amendment of the Constitution as will settle the question
+by an express provision--if I understand his true intent and meaning,
+I am with him."[960]
+
+But neither President Lincoln nor Douglas had committed himself on the
+concrete question upon which hung peace or war--what should be done
+about Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. The point was driven home with
+relentless vigor by Wigfall, who still lingered in the Senate after
+the secession of his State. "Would the Senator who is speaking for the
+administration say explicitly, whether he would advise the withdrawal
+of the troops from the forts?" The reply of Douglas was admirable: "As
+I am not in their counsels nor their confidence, I shall not tender
+them my advice until they ask it.... I do not choose either, to
+proclaim what my policy would be, in view of the fact that the Senator
+does not regard himself as the guardian of the honor and interests of
+my country, but is looking to the interests of another, which he
+thinks is in hostility to this country. It would hardly be good policy
+or wisdom for me to reveal what I think ought to be our policy, to one
+who may so soon be in the counsels of the enemy, and the command of
+its armies."[961]
+
+Douglas did admit, however, that since the garrison of Fort Sumter had
+provisions for only thirty days, he presumed no attempt would be made
+to reinforce it. Under existing circumstances the President had no
+power to collect the revenues of the government and no military force
+sufficient to reinforce Sumter. Congress was not in session to supply
+either the necessary coercive powers or troops. He therefore drew the
+conclusion that not only the President himself was pacific in his
+policy, but the Republican party as well, despite the views of
+individual members. "But," urged Mason of Virginia, "I ask the
+Senator, then, what is to be done with the garrison if they are in a
+starving condition?" "If the Senator had voted right in the last
+presidential election," replied Douglas good-naturedly, "I should have
+been in a condition, perhaps, to tell him authoritatively what ought
+to be done."
+
+From this moment on, Douglas enjoyed the confidence of President
+Lincoln to an extraordinary degree. No one knew better than Lincoln
+the importance of securing the coöperation of so influential a
+personage. True, by the withdrawal of Southern senators, the
+Democratic opposition had been greatly reduced; but Douglas was still
+a power in this Democratic remnant. Besides, the man who could command
+the suffrages of a million voters was not a force lightly to be
+reckoned with. After this speech of the 6th, Lincoln again sent for
+Douglas, to express his entire agreement with its views and with its
+spirit.[962] He gave Douglas the impression that he desired to gain
+time for passions to cool by removing the causes of irritation. He
+felt confident that there would soon be a general demand for a
+national convention where all existing differences could be radically
+treated. "I am just as ready," Douglas reported him to have said, "to
+reinforce the garrisons at Sumter and Pickens or to withdraw them, as
+I am to see an amendment adopted protecting slavery in the Territories
+or prohibiting slavery in the Territories. What I want is to get done
+what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to
+find that out exactly."[963] On this point they were in entire accord.
+
+The patriotic conduct of Douglas earned for him the warm commendation
+of Northern newspapers, many of which had hitherto been incapable of
+ascribing honorable motives to him.[964] No one who met him at the
+President's levees would have suspected that he had been one of his
+host's most relentless opponents. A correspondent of the New York
+_Times_ described him as he appeared at one of these functions. "Here
+one minute, there the next--now congratulating the President, then
+complimenting Mrs. Lincoln, bowing and scraping, and shaking hands,
+and smiling, laughing, yarning and saluting the crowd of people whom
+he knew." More soberly, this same observer added, "He has already done
+a great deal of good to the administration."[965] It is impossible to
+find the soured and discomfited rival in this picture.
+
+The country was anxiously awaiting the development of the policy of
+the new Executive, for to eight out of every ten men, Lincoln was
+still an unknown man. Rumors were abroad that both Sumter and Pickens
+would be surrendered.[966] Seward was known to be conciliatory on this
+point; and the man on the street never once doubted that Seward would
+be the master-mind in the cabinet. Those better informed knew--and
+Douglas was among them--that Seward's influence was menaced by an
+aggressive faction in the cabinet.[967] Behind these official
+advisers, giving them active support, were those Republican senators
+who from the first had doubted the efficacy of compromise.
+
+Believing the country should have assurances that President Lincoln
+did not meditate war,--did not, in short, propose to yield to the
+aggressive wing of his party,--Douglas sought to force a show of
+hands.[968] On March 13th, he offered a resolution which was designed
+to draw the fire of Republican senators. The Secretary of War was
+requested to furnish information about the Southern forts now in
+possession of the Federal government; to state whether reinforcements
+were needed to retain them; whether under existing laws the government
+had the power and means to reinforce them, and whether it was wise to
+retain military possession of such forts and to recapture those that
+had been lost, except for the purpose of subjugating and occupying the
+States which had seceded; and finally, if such were the motives, to
+supply estimates of the military force required to reduce the seceding
+States and to protect the national capital.[969] The wording of the
+resolution was purposely involved. Douglas hoped that it would
+precipitate a discussion which would disclose the covert wish of the
+aggressives, and force an authoritative announcement of President
+Lincoln's policy. Doubtless there was a political motive behind all
+this. Douglas was not averse to putting his bitter and implacable
+enemies in their true light, as foes of compromise even to the extent
+of disrupting the Union.[970]
+
+Not receiving any response, Douglas took the floor in defense of his
+resolution. He believed that the country should have the information
+which his resolution was designed to elicit. The people were
+apprehensive of civil war. He had put his construction upon the
+President's inaugural; but "the Republican side of the Chamber remains
+mute and silent, neither assenting nor dissenting." The answer which
+he believed the resolution would call forth, would demonstrate two
+points of prime importance: "First, that the President does not
+meditate war; and, secondly, that he has no means for prosecuting a
+warfare upon the seceding States, even if he desired."
+
+With his wonted dialectic skill Douglas sought to establish his case.
+The existing laws made no provision for collecting the revenue on
+shipboard. It was admitted on all sides that collection at the port of
+entry in South Carolina was impossible. The President had no legal
+right to blockade the port of Charleston. He could not employ the army
+to enforce the laws in the seceded States, for the military could be
+used only to aid a civil process; and where was the marshal in South
+Carolina to execute a writ? The President must have known that he
+lacked these powers. He must have referred to the future action of
+Congress, then, when he said that he should execute the laws in all
+the States, unless the "requisite means were withheld." But Congress
+had not passed laws empowering the Executive to collect revenue or to
+gain possession of the forts. What, then, was the inference? Clearly
+this, that the Republican senators did not desire to confer these
+powers.
+
+If this inference is not correct, if this interpretation of the
+inaugural address is faulty, urged Douglas, why preserve this
+impenetrable silence? Why not let the people know what the policy of
+the administration is? They have a right to know. "The President of
+the United States holds the destiny of this country in his hands. I
+believe he means peace, and war will be averted, unless he is
+overruled by the disunion portion of his party. We all know the
+irrepressible conflict is going on in their camp.... Then, throw aside
+this petty squabble about how you are to get along with your pledges
+before election; meet the issues as they are presented; do what duty,
+honor, and patriotism require, and appeal to the people to sustain
+you. Peace is the only policy that can save the country or save your
+party."[971]
+
+On the Republican side of the chamber, this appeal was bitterly
+resented. It met with no adequate response, because there was none to
+give; but Wilson roundly denounced it as a wicked, mischief-making
+utterance.[972] Unhappily, Douglas allowed himself to be drawn into a
+personal altercation with Fessenden, in which he lost his temper and
+marred the effect of his patriotic appeal. There was probably some
+truth in Douglas's charge that both senators intended to be personally
+irritating.[973] Under the circumstances, it was easier to indulge in
+personal disparagement of Douglas, than to meet his embarrassing
+questions.
+
+How far Douglas still believed in the possibility of saving the Union
+through compromise, it is impossible to say. Publicly he continued to
+talk in an optimistic strain.[974] On March 25th, he expressed his
+satisfaction in the Senate that only one danger-point remained; Fort
+Sumter, he understood, was to be evacuated.[975] But among his friends
+no one looked into the future with more anxiety than he. Intimations
+from the South that citizens of the United States would probably be
+excluded from the courts of the Confederacy, wrung from him the
+admission that such action would be equivalent to war.[976] He noted
+anxiously the evident purpose of the Confederated States to coerce
+Kentucky and Virginia into secession.[977] Indeed, it is probable that
+before the Senate adjourned, his ultimate hope was to rally the Union
+men in the border States.[978]
+
+When President Lincoln at last determined to send supplies to Fort
+Sumter, the issue of peace or war rested with Jefferson Davis and his
+cabinet at Montgomery. Early on the morning of April 12th, a shell,
+fired from a battery in Charleston harbor, burst directly over Fort
+Sumter, proclaiming to anxious ears the close of an era.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 892: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp. 116 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 893: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+131-132.]
+
+[Footnote 894: Chicago _Times and Herald_, December 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 895: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 896: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 897: _Ibid._, p. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 898: _Ibid._, p. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 899: _Ibid._, pp. 11-12.]
+
+[Footnote 900: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 901: _Ibid._, p. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 902: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 903: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+151-153.]
+
+[Footnote 904: Report of the Committee of Thirteen, pp. 11-12.]
+
+[Footnote 905: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 158.]
+
+[Footnote 906: December 21st.]
+
+[Footnote 907: MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, December 25,
+1860.]
+
+[Footnote 908: Report of the Committee of Thirteen, p. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 909: _Ibid._, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 910: McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 911: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 912: _Ibid._, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 913: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39. It is not
+unlikely that Douglas may have been reassured on this point by some
+communication from Lincoln himself. The Diary of a Public Man (_North
+American Review_, Vol. 129,) p. 130, gives the impression that they
+had been in correspondence. Personal relations between them had been
+cordial even in 1859, just after the debates; See Publication No. 11,
+of the Illinois Historical Library, p. 191.]
+
+[Footnote 914: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 915: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 41.]
+
+[Footnote 916: _Ibid._, p. 42.]
+
+[Footnote 917: January 10th, 11th, and 19th.]
+
+[Footnote 918: The resolution was carried, 25 to 23, six Southern
+Senators refusing to vote. _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 409.]
+
+[Footnote 919: McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 920: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 133-134. Douglas was on
+terms of intimacy with the writer, and must have shared these
+communications. Besides, Douglas had independent sources of
+information.]
+
+[Footnote 921: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 445-446.]
+
+[Footnote 922: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 508.]
+
+[Footnote 923: _Ibid._, p. 586.]
+
+[Footnote 924: Senate Bill, No. 549, 36 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 925: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 661.]
+
+[Footnote 926: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 927: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 669.]
+
+[Footnote 928: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.]
+
+[Footnote 929: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 930: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.]
+
+[Footnote 931: _Ibid._, p. 765.]
+
+[Footnote 932: _Ibid._, p. 766.]
+
+[Footnote 933: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1205.]
+
+[Footnote 934: It is printed in full in _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p.
+1207.]
+
+[Footnote 935: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1391.]
+
+[Footnote 936: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1081.]
+
+[Footnote 937: Diary of a Public Man, p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 938: _Ibid._, p. 260.]
+
+[Footnote 939: _Ibid._, p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 940: Correspondent of the New York _Times_, February 25,
+1861.]
+
+[Footnote 941: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 260-261.]
+
+[Footnote 942: _Ibid._, p. 264.]
+
+[Footnote 943: _Ibid._, pp. 264, 268; the interview of February 26th
+was commented upon by the Philadelphia _Press_, February 28.]
+
+[Footnote 944: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 73, note.]
+
+[Footnote 945: Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 946: Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 947: _Ibid._, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 948: _Ibid._, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 949: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1405.]
+
+[Footnote 950: _Ibid._, p. 1405.]
+
+[Footnote 951: _Ibid._, p. 1403.]
+
+[Footnote 952: Diary of a Public Man, p. 380.]
+
+[Footnote 953: _Ibid._, p. 379.]
+
+[Footnote 954: _Ibid._, p. 383.]
+
+[Footnote 955: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, pp. 340-341. These
+authors note that Lincoln rewrote this paragraph, but take it for
+granted that he did so upon his own motion, after rejecting Seward's
+suggestion.]
+
+[Footnote 956: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 340, note.]
+
+[Footnote 957: Seward's letter was written on the evening of February
+24th. Douglas called upon the President February 26th. See Nicolay and
+Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 319; Diary of a Public Man, pp. 264, 268.]
+
+[Footnote 958: New York _Times_, March 6, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 959: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1437.]
+
+[Footnote 960: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1438]
+
+[Footnote 961: _Ibid._, p. 1442.]
+
+[Footnote 962: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 963: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 964: New York _Times_, March 8, 1861; also the Philadelphia
+_Press_, March 11, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 965: New York _Times_, March 10, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 966: Rhodes History of the United States, III, p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 967: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 968: _Ibid._, pp. 495-496.]
+
+[Footnote 969: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1452.]
+
+[Footnote 970: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 495-496.]
+
+[Footnote 971: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p 1461.]
+
+[Footnote 972: _Ibid._, p. 1461.]
+
+[Footnote 973: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1465.]
+
+[Footnote 974: _Ibid._, pp. 1460, 1501, 1504.]
+
+[Footnote 975: _Ibid._, p. 1501.]
+
+[Footnote 976: Diary of a Public Man, p. 494.]
+
+[Footnote 977: _Ibid._, p. 494.]
+
+[Footnote 978: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., pp. 1505, 1511.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SUMMONS
+
+
+The news of the capitulation of Fort Sumter reached Washington on
+Sunday morning, April 14th. At a momentous cabinet meeting, President
+Lincoln read the draft of a proclamation calling into service
+seventy-five thousand men, to suppress combinations obstructing the
+execution of the laws in the Southern States. The cabinet was now a
+unit. Now that the crisis had come, the administration had a policy.
+Would it approve itself to the anxious people of the North? Could it
+count upon the support of those who had counselled peace, peace at any
+cost?
+
+Those who knew Senator Douglas well could not doubt his loyalty to the
+Union in this crisis; yet his friends knew that Union-loving men in
+the Democratic ranks would respond to the President's proclamation
+with a thousandfold greater enthusiasm, could they know that their
+leader stood by the administration. Moved by these considerations,
+Hon. George Ashmun of Massachusetts ventured to call upon Douglas on
+this Sunday evening, and to suggest the propriety of some public
+statement to strengthen the President's hands. Would he not call upon
+the President at once and give him the assurance of his support?
+Douglas demurred: he was not sure that Mr. Lincoln wanted his advice
+and aid. Mr. Ashmun assured him that the President would welcome any
+advances, and he spoke advisedly as a friend to both men. The peril of
+the country was grave; surely this was not a time when men should let
+personal and partisan considerations stand between them and service to
+their country. Mrs. Douglas added her entreaties, and Douglas finally
+yielded. Though the hour was late, the two men set off for the White
+House, and found there the hearty welcome which Ashmun had
+promised.[979]
+
+Of all the occurrences of this memorable day, this interview between
+Lincoln and Douglas strikes the imagination with most poignant
+suggestiveness. Had Douglas been a less generous opponent, he might
+have reminded the President that matters had come to just that pass
+which he had foreseen in 1858. Nothing of the sort passed Douglas's
+lips. The meeting of the rivals was most cordial and hearty. They held
+converse as men must when hearts are oppressed with a common burden.
+The President took up and read aloud the proclamation summoning the
+nation to arms. When he had done, Douglas said with deep earnestness,
+"Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document,
+except that instead of the call for seventy-five thousand men, I would
+make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes
+of those men as well as I do."[980] Why has not some artist seized
+upon the dramatic moment when they rose and passed to the end of the
+room to examine a map which hung there? Douglas, with animated face
+and impetuous gesture, pointing out the strategic places in the coming
+contest; Lincoln, with the suggestion of brooding melancholy upon his
+careworn face, listening in rapt attention to the quick, penetrating
+observations of his life-long rival. But what no artist could put upon
+canvas was the dramatic absence of resentment and defeated ambition in
+the one, and the patient teachableness and self-mastery of the other.
+As they parted, a quick hearty grasp of hands symbolized this
+remarkable consecration to a common task.
+
+As they left the executive mansion, Ashmun urged his companion to send
+an account of this interview to the press, that it might accompany the
+President's message on the morrow. Douglas then penned the following
+dispatch: "Senator Douglas called upon the President, and had an
+interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The
+substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was
+unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues,
+he was prepared to fully sustain the President in the exercise of all
+his constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the
+government, and defend the Federal capital. A firm policy and prompt
+action was necessary. The capital was in danger, and must be defended
+at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the
+present and future without any reference to the past."[981] When the
+people of the North read the proclamation in the newspapers, on the
+following morning, a million men were cheered and sustained in their
+loyalty to the Union by the intelligence that their great leader had
+subordinated all lesser ends of party to the paramount duty of
+maintaining the Constitution of the fathers. To his friends in
+Washington, Douglas said unhesitatingly, "We must fight for our
+country and forget all differences. There can be but two parties--the
+party of patriots and the party of traitors. We belong to the
+first."[982] And to friends in Missouri where disunion sentiment was
+rife, he telegraphed, "I deprecate war, but if it must come I am with
+my country, and for my country, under all circumstances and in every
+contingency. Individual policy must be subordinated to the public
+safety."[983]
+
+From this day on, Douglas was in frequent consultation with the
+President. The sorely tried and distressed Lincoln was unutterably
+grateful for the firm grip which this first of "War Democrats" kept
+upon the progress of public opinion in the irresolute border States.
+It was during one of these interviews, after the attack upon the Sixth
+Massachusetts Regiment in the streets of Baltimore, that Douglas urged
+upon the President the possibility of bringing troops by water to
+Annapolis, thence to Washington, thus avoiding further conflict in the
+disaffected districts of Maryland.[984] Eventually the Eighth
+Massachusetts and the Seventh New York reached Washington by this
+route, to the immense relief of the President and his cabinet.
+
+Before this succor came to the alarmed capital, Douglas had left the
+city for the West. He had received intimations that Egypt in his own
+State showed marked symptoms of disaffection. The old ties of blood
+and kinship of the people of southern Illinois with their neighbors in
+the border States were proving stronger than Northern affiliations.
+Douglas wielded an influence in these southern, Democratic counties,
+such as no other man possessed. Could he not best serve the
+administration by bearding disunionism in its den? Believing that
+Cairo, at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio, was destined
+to be a strategic point of immense importance in the coming struggle,
+and that the fate of the whole valley depended upon the unwavering
+loyalty of Illinois, Douglas laid the matter before Lincoln. He would
+go or stay in Washington, wherever Lincoln thought he could do the
+most good. Probably neither then realized the tremendous nature of the
+struggle upon which the country had entered; yet both knew that the
+Northwest would be the makeweight in the balance for the Union; and
+that every nerve must be strained to hold the border States of
+Kentucky and Missouri. Who could rouse the latent Unionism of the
+Northwest and of the border States like Douglas? Lincoln advised him
+to go. There was a quick hand-grasp, a hurried farewell, and they
+parted never to meet again.[985]
+
+Rumor gave strange shapes to this "mission" which carried Douglas in
+such haste to the Northwest. Most persistent of all is the tradition
+that he was authorized to raise a huge army in the States of the upper
+Mississippi Valley, and to undertake that vast flanking movement which
+subsequently fell to Grant and Sherman to execute. Such a project
+would have been thoroughly consonant with Douglas's conviction of the
+inevitable unity and importance of the great valley; but evidence is
+wanting to corroborate this legend.[986] Its frequent repetition,
+then and now, must rather be taken as a popular recognition of the
+complete accord between the President and the greatest of War
+Democrats. Colonel Forney, who stood very near to Douglas, afterward
+stated "by authority," that President Lincoln would eventually have
+called Douglas into the administration or have placed him in one of
+the highest military commands.[987] Such importance may be given to
+this testimony as belongs to statements which have passed unconfirmed
+and unchallenged for half a century.
+
+On his way to Illinois, Douglas missed a train and was detained half a
+day in the little town of Bellaire, Ohio, a few miles below Wheeling
+in Virginia.[988] It was a happy accident, for just across the river
+the people of northwestern Virginia were meditating resistance to the
+secession movement, which under the guidance of Governor Letcher
+threatened to sever them from the Union-loving population of Ohio and
+Pennsylvania. It was precisely in this region, nearly a hundred years
+before, that popular sovereignty had almost succeeded in forming a
+fourteenth State of the Confederacy. There had always been a disparity
+between the people of these transmontane counties and the tide-water
+region. The intelligence that Douglas was in Bellaire speedily brought
+a throng about the hotel in which he was resting. There were clamors
+for a speech. In the afternoon he yielded to their importunities. By
+this time the countryside was aroused. People came across the river
+from Virginia and many came down by train from Wheeling,[989] Men who
+were torn by a conflict of sentiments, not knowing where their
+paramount allegiance lay, hung upon his words.
+
+Douglas spoke soberly and thoughtfully, not as a Democrat, not as a
+Northern man, but simply and directly as a lover of the Union. "If we
+recognize the right of secession in one case, we give our assent to it
+in all cases; and if the few States upon the Gulf are now to separate
+themselves from us, and erect a barrier across the mouth of that great
+river of which the Ohio is a tributary, how long will it be before New
+York may come to the conclusion that she may set up for herself, and
+levy taxes upon every dollar's worth of goods imported and consumed in
+the Northwest, and taxes upon every bushel of wheat, and every pound
+of pork, or beef, or other productions that may be sent from the
+Northwest to the Atlantic in search of a market?" Secession meant
+endless division and sub-division, the formation of petty
+confederacies, appeals to the sword and the bayonet instead of to the
+ballot.
+
+"Unite as a band of brothers," he pleaded, "and rescue your government
+and its capital and your country from the enemy who have been the
+authors of your calamity." His eye rested upon the great river. "Ah!"
+he exclaimed, a great wave of emotion checking his utterance, "This
+great valley must never be divided. The Almighty has so arranged the
+mountain and the plain, and the water-courses as to show that this
+valley in all time shall remain one and indissoluble. Let no man
+attempt to sunder what Divine Providence has rendered indivisible."[990]
+
+As he concluded, anxious questions were put to him, regarding the
+rumored retirement of General Scott from the army. "I saw him only
+Saturday," replied Douglas. "He was at his desk, pen in hand, writing
+his orders for the defense and safety of the American Capital." And as
+he repeated the words of General Scott declining the command of the
+forces of Virginia--"'I have served my country under the flag of the
+Union for more than fifty years, and as long as God permits me to
+live, I will defend that flag with my sword; even if my own State
+assails it,'"--the crowds around him broke into tumultuous cheers.
+Within thirty days the Unionists of western Virginia had rallied,
+organized, and begun that hardy campaign which brought West Virginia
+into the Union. On the very day that Douglas was making his fervent
+plea for the Union, Robert E. Lee cast in his lot with the South.
+
+At Columbus, Douglas was again forced to break his journey; and again
+he was summoned to address the crowd that gathered below his window.
+It was already dark; the people had collected without concert; there
+were no such trappings, as had characterized public demonstrations in
+the late campaign. Douglas appeared half-dressed at his bedroom
+window, a dim object to all save to those who stood directly below
+him. Out of the darkness came his solemn, sonorous tones, bringing
+relief and assurance to all who listened, for in the throng were men
+of all parties, men who had followed him through all changes of
+political weather, and men who had been his persistent foes. There was
+little cheering. As Douglas pledged anew his hearty support to
+President Lincoln, "it was rather a deep 'Amen' that went up from the
+crowd," wrote one who had distrusted hitherto the mighty power of
+this great popular leader.[991]
+
+On the 25th of April, Douglas reached Springfield, where he purposed
+to make his great plea for the Union. He spoke at the Capitol to
+members of the legislature and to packed galleries. Friend and foe
+alike bear witness to the extraordinary effect wrought by his words.
+"I do not think that it is possible for a human being to produce a
+more prodigious effect with spoken words," wrote one who had formerly
+detested him.[992] "Never in all my experience in public life, before
+or since," testified the then Speaker of the House, now high in the
+councils of the nation, "have I been so impressed by a speaker."[993]
+Douglas himself was thrilled with his message. As he approached the
+climax, the veins of his neck and forehead were swollen with passion,
+and the perspiration ran down his face in streams. At times his clear
+and resonant voice reverberated through the chamber, until it seemed
+to shake the building.[994] While he was in the midst of a passionate
+invective, a man rushed into the hall bearing an American flag. The
+trumpet tones of the speaker and the sight of the Stars and Stripes
+roused the audience to the wildest pitch of excitement.[995] Men and
+women became hysterical with the divine madness of patriotism. "When
+hostile armies," he exclaimed with amazing force, "When hostile armies
+are marching under new and odious banners against the government of
+our country, the shortest way to peace is the most stupendous and
+unanimous preparation for war. We in the great valley of the
+Mississippi have peculiar interests and inducements in the struggle
+... I ask every citizen in the great basin between the Rocky Mountains
+and the Alleghanies ... to tell me whether he is ever willing to
+sanction a line of policy that may isolate us from the markets of the
+world, and make us dependent provinces upon the powers that thus
+choose to isolate us?... Hence, if a war does come, it is a war of
+self-defense on our part. It is a war in defense of the Government
+which we have inherited as a priceless legacy from our patriotic
+fathers, in defense of those great rights of freedom of trade,
+commerce, transit and intercourse from the center to the circumference
+of our great continent."[996]
+
+The voice of the strong man, so little given to weak sentiment, broke,
+as he said, "I have struggled almost against hope to avert the
+calamities of war and to effect a reunion and reconciliation with our
+brethren in the South. I yet hope it may be done, but I am not able to
+point out how it may be. Nothing short of Providence can reveal to us
+the issues of this great struggle. Bloody--calamitous--I fear it will
+be. May we so conduct it, if a collision must come, that we will stand
+justified in the eyes of Him who knows our hearts, and who will
+justify our every act. We must not yield to resentments, nor to the
+spirit of vengeance, much less to the desire for conquest or ambition.
+I see no path of ambition open in a bloody struggle for triumphs over
+my countrymen. There is no path of ambition open for me in a divided
+country.... My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is
+the most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart--with a grief
+I have never before experienced--that I have to contemplate this
+fearful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is a duty we
+owe to ourselves and to our children, and to our God, to protect this
+Government and that flag from every assailant, be he who he may."
+
+Thereafter treason had no abiding place within the limits of the State
+of Illinois. And no one, it may be safely affirmed, could have so
+steeled the hearts of men in Southern Illinois for the death grapple.
+In a manly passage in his speech, Douglas said, "I believe I may with
+confidence appeal to the people of every section of the country to
+bear witness that I have been as thoroughly national as any man that
+has lived in my day. And I believe if I should make an appeal to the
+people of Illinois, or of the Northern States, to their impartial
+verdict; they would say that whatever errors I have committed have
+been in leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union against
+my own.... I have never pandered to the prejudice and passion of my
+section against the minority section of the Union." It was precisely
+this truth which gave him a hearing through the length and breadth of
+Illinois and the Northwest during this crisis.
+
+The return of Douglas to Chicago was the signal for a remarkable
+demonstration of regard. He had experienced many strange home-comings.
+His Democratic following, not always discriminating, had ever accorded
+him noisy homage. His political opponents had alternately execrated
+him and given him grudging praise. But never before had men of all
+parties, burying their differences, united to do him honor. On the
+evening of his arrival, he was escorted to the Wigwam, where hardly a
+year ago Lincoln had been nominated for the presidency. Before him
+were men who had participated jubilantly in the Republican campaign,
+with many a bitter gibe at the champion of "squatter sovereignty."
+Douglas could not conceal his gratification at this proof that,
+however men had differed from him on political questions, they had
+believed in his loyalty. And it was of loyalty, not of himself, that
+he spoke. He did not spare Southern feelings before this Chicago
+audience. He told his hearers unequivocally that the slavery question,
+the election of Lincoln, and the territorial question, were so many
+pretexts for dissolving the Union. "The present secession movement is
+the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since,
+formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months
+ago." But this was no time to discuss pretexts and causes. "The
+conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to
+accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man
+must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals
+in this war; _only patriots_--_or traitors_."[997] It was the first
+time he had used the ugly epithet.
+
+Hardly had he summoned the people of Illinois to do battle, when again
+he touched that pathetic note that recurred again and again in his
+appeal at Springfield. Was it the memory of the mother of his boys
+that moved him to say, "But we must remember certain restraints on
+our action even in time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war
+must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations. We
+must not invade Constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer,
+nor women and children be the victims." Before him were some who felt
+toward the people of the South as Greek toward barbarian. But Douglas
+foresaw that the horrors of war must invade and desolate the homes of
+those whom he still held dear. There is no more lovable and admirable
+side of his personality than this tenderness for the helpless and
+innocent. Had he but lived to temper justice with mercy, what a power
+for good might he not have been in the days of reconstruction!
+
+The summons had gone forth. Already doubts and misgivings had given
+way, and the North was now practically unanimous in its determination
+to stifle rebellion. There was a common belief that secession was the
+work of a minority, skillfully led by designing politicians, and that
+the loyal majority would rally with the North to defend the flag.
+Young men who responded jubilantly to the call to arms did not doubt,
+that the struggle would be brief. Douglas shared the common belief in
+the conspiracy theory of secession, but he indulged no illusion as to
+the nature of the war, if war should come. Months before the firing
+upon Fort Sumter, in a moment of depression, he had prophesied that if
+the cotton States should succeed in drawing the border States into
+their schemes of secession, the most fearful civil war the world had
+ever seen would follow, lasting for years. "Virginia," said he,
+pointing toward Arlington, "over yonder across the Potomac, will
+become a charnel-house.... Washington will become a city of
+hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This
+house 'Minnesota Block,' will be devoted to that purpose before the
+end of the war."[998] He, at least, did not mistake the chivalry of
+the South. Not for an instant did he doubt the capacity of the
+Southern people to suffer and endure, as well as to do battle. And he
+knew--Ah! how well--the self-sacrifice and devotion of Southern women.
+
+The days following the return of Douglas to Chicago were filled also
+with worries and anxieties of a private nature. The financial panic of
+1857 had been accompanied by a depression of land values, which caused
+Douglas grave concern for his holdings in Chicago, and no little
+immediate distress. Unable and unwilling to sacrifice his investments,
+he had mortgaged nearly all of his property in Cook County, including
+the valuable "Grove Property" in South Chicago. Though he was always
+lax in pecuniary matters, and, with his buoyant generous nature,
+little disposed to take anxious thought for the morrow, these heavy
+financial obligations began now to press upon him with grievous
+weight. The prolonged strain of the previous twelve months had racked
+even his constitution. He had made heavy drafts on his bodily health,
+with all too little regard for the inevitable compensation which
+Nature demands. As in all other things, he had been prodigal with
+Nature's choicest gift.
+
+Not long after his public address Douglas fell ill and developed
+symptoms that gave his physicians the gravest concern. Weeks of
+illness followed. The disease, baffling medical skill, ran its
+course. Yet never in his lucid moments did Douglas forget the ills of
+his country; and even when delirium clouded his mind, he was still
+battling for the Union. "Telegraph to the President and let the column
+move on," he cried, wrestling with his wasting fever. In his last
+hours his mind cleared. Early on the morning of June 3d, he seemed to
+rally, but only momentarily. It was evident to those about him that
+the great summons had come. Tenderly his devoted wife leaned over him
+to ask if he had any message for his boys, "Robbie" and "Stevie." With
+great effort, but clearly and emphatically, he replied, "Tell them to
+obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States." Not
+long after, he grappled with the great Foe, and the soul of a great
+patriot passed on.
+
+    "I was ever a fighter, so--one fight more,
+      The best and the last!
+    I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
+      And bade me creep past.
+    No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
+      The heroes of old,
+    Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
+      Of pain, darkness and cold."
+
+With almost royal pomp, the earthly remains of Stephen Arnold Douglas
+were buried beside the inland sea that washes the shores of the home
+of his adoption. It is a fitting resting place. The tempestuous waters
+of the great lake reflect his own stormy career. Yet they have their
+milder moods. There are hours when sunlight falls aslant the subdued
+surface and irradiates the depths.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 979: Holland, Life of Lincoln, p. 301.]
+
+[Footnote 980: _Ibid._, p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 981: Arnold, Lincoln, pp. 200-201. The date of this dispatch
+should be April 14, and not April 18.]
+
+[Footnote 982: Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 224.]
+
+[Footnote 983: New York _Tribune_, April 18.]
+
+[Footnote 984: Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 225.]
+
+[Footnote 985: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 249 note; Forney,
+Anecdotes, I, p. 225.]
+
+[Footnote 986: Many friends of Douglas have assured me of their
+unshaken belief in this story.]
+
+[Footnote 987: Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 121, 226.]
+
+[Footnote 988: Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 989: Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 990: The Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861, reprinted the
+speech from the Wheeling _Intelligencer_ of April 21, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 991: J.D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, I,
+pp. 5-6.]
+
+[Footnote 992: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.]
+
+[Footnote 993: Senator Cullom of Illinois, quoted in Arnold, Lincoln,
+p. 201, note.]
+
+[Footnote 994: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.]
+
+[Footnote 995: Arnold, Lincoln, p. 201, note.]
+
+[Footnote 996: The speech was printed in full in the New York
+_Tribune_, May 1, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 997: The New York _Tribune_, June 13th, and the Philadelphia
+_Press_, June 14th, published this speech in full.]
+
+[Footnote 998: Arnold, Lincoln, p. 193. See also his remarks in the
+Senate, January 3, 1861.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abolitionism, debate in the Senate on, 124-126.
+
+Abolitionists, in Illinois, 156, 158-160;
+  agitation of, 194-195.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, on Douglas, 72, 76, 89, 98;
+  catechises Douglas, 111, 113.
+
+Albany Regency, 10.
+
+Anderson, Robert, dispatch to War Department, 442;
+  moves garrison to Port Sumter, 451.
+
+Andrews, Sherlock J., 11.
+
+Anti-Masonry, in New York, 10.
+
+Anti-Nebraska party. _See_ Republican party.
+
+"Appeal of the Independent Democrats," origin, 240;
+  assails motives of Douglas, 241.
+
+Arnold, Martha, grandmother of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Arnold, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Ashmun, George, 475, 476, 477.
+
+Atchison, David R., pro-slavery leader in Missouri, 223;
+  favors Nebraska bill (1853), 225;
+  and repeal of Missouri Compromise, 225, 235;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 256.
+
+
+Badger, George E., 215.
+
+"Barnburners," 132.
+
+Bay Islands, Colony of, 209, 213.
+
+Bell, John, presidential candidate, 425, 429, 440.
+
+Benjamin, Judah P., quoted, 402, 453.
+
+Benton, Thomas H., 44, 117, 223.
+
+Berrien, John M., 185.
+
+Bigler, William, 333, 335, 417, 446.
+
+Bissell, William H., 305.
+
+Black, Jeremiah S., controversy with Douglas, 409-410.
+
+"Black Republicans," origin of epithet, 275;
+  arraigned by Douglas, 296, 297, 304, 374-375.
+
+"Blue Lodges" of Missouri, 283, 286.
+
+Boyd, Linn, 182.
+
+Brandon, birthplace of Douglas, 5, 9, 69.
+
+Brandon Academy, 7, 9.
+
+Breckinridge, John C., 382;
+  presidential candidate (1860), 427, 428, 435, 440-441.
+
+Breese, Sidney, judge of Circuit Court, 52;
+  elected Senator, 62;
+  and Federal patronage, 118-119;
+  director of Great Western Railroad Company, 168-170;
+  retirement, 158, 171.
+
+Bright, Jesse D., 119, 417.
+
+Broderick, David C., and Lecompton constitution, 335;
+  and English bill, 347;
+  killed, 411.
+
+Brooks, S.S., editor of Jacksonville _News_, 19, 20, 25, 40.
+
+Brooks, Preston, assaults Sumner, 298.
+
+Brown, Albert G., 247, 340, 341, 397-398, 402.
+
+Brown, John, Pottawatomie massacre, 299;
+  Harper's Ferry raid, 411, 412.
+
+Brown, Milton, of Tennessee, 89.
+
+Browning, O.H., 66, 67, 115.
+
+Buchanan, James, candidacy (1852), 206;
+  nominated for presidency (1856), 276-278;
+  indorses Kansas-Nebraska bill, 279 _n._;
+  elected, 306;
+  appoints Walker governor of Kansas, 324-325;
+  interview with Douglas, 328;
+  message, 328-329;
+  advises admission of Kansas, 338;
+  orders reinforcement of Sumter, 452.
+
+Bulwer, Sir Henry, Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209.
+
+Butler, Andrew P., 119, 137, 216.
+
+
+Calhoun, John, president of Lecompton Convention, 327.
+
+Calhoun, John C., 120;
+  on Abolitionism, 124;
+  and Douglas, 125;
+  radical Southern leader, 127, 138;
+  on the Constitution, 140.
+
+California, coveted by Polk, 109;
+  Clayton Compromise, 130;
+  Polk's programme, 133;
+  statehood bill, 134;
+  controversy in Senate, 135-142;
+  Clay's resolutions, 176;
+  new statehood bill, 181-184;
+  the Omnibus, 184-186;
+  admitted, 187.
+
+Canandaigua Academy, 9, 10.
+
+Carlin, Thomas, 42, 45, 51.
+
+Cass, Lewis, defends Oregon policy, 99;
+  introduces Ten Regiments bill, 120;
+  Nicholson letter, 128;
+  presidential candidate, 132;
+  candidacy (1852), 206;
+  and Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209;
+  and Monroe Doctrine, 211;
+  on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 245-246;
+  candidacy (1856), 277;
+  on Sumner, 296.
+
+Charleston Convention, delegates to, 413, 416;
+  organization of, 417;
+  Committee on Resolutions, 418;
+  speech of Payne, 418-419;
+  speech of Yancey, 419;
+  speech of Pugh, 419-420;
+  minority report adopted, 420;
+  secession, 420;
+  balloting, 420-421;
+  adjournment, 421.
+
+Chase, Salmon P., joint author of the "Appeal," 240-241;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 247; 249;
+  assailed by Douglas, 251-252.
+
+Chicago, residence of Douglas, 309;
+  investments of Douglas in, 310.
+
+Chicago Convention, 425.
+
+Chicago _Press and Tribune_, on Douglas, 349;
+  declares Springfield resolutions a forgery, 370.
+
+Chicago _Times_, Douglas organ in Northwest, 305, 328.
+
+Chicago University, gift of Douglas to, 310.
+
+Clark Resolution (1861), 452.
+
+Clay, Henry, compromise programme, 176;
+  and Douglas, 183-184;
+  and Utah bill, 186-187;
+  on passage of compromise measures, 189.
+
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209-214.
+
+Clayton, John M., 119;
+  on Oregon, 130;
+  _entente_ with Bulwer, 209-210;
+  assailed by Cass and Douglas, 211-212;
+  replies to critics, 213-214;
+  on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 247-248.
+
+Clingman, Thomas L., 425, 444, 466.
+
+Colfax, Schuyler, 348.
+
+Collamer, Jacob, 289, 338, 446-447.
+
+Colorado bill, 456;
+  substitute of Douglas for, 457, 459-460;
+  slavery in, 456, 458-459.
+
+Committee on Territories, Douglas as chairman, in House, 99-100;
+  in Senate, 119-120;
+  Douglas deposed, 395.
+
+Compromise of 1850, Clay's resolutions, 176-177;
+  speech of Douglas, 177-181;
+  compromise bills, 181-182;
+  committee of thirteen, 183-184;
+  debate in Senate, 184-187;
+  passage, 187;
+  finality resolution, 194-195; 197;
+  principle involved, 189-190.
+
+Constitutional Union party, possibility of, 349;
+  nominates Bell, 425;
+  prospects, 428.
+
+Cook, Isaac, 418.
+
+Crittenden Compromise, 446-447;
+  indorsed by Douglas, 447-448;
+  proposed referendum on, 449;
+  opposed by Republicans, 452;
+  defeated, 463.
+
+Crittenden, John J., favors Douglas's re-election, 382;
+  compromise resolutions, 446-447;
+  efforts for peace, 448, 452, 463.
+
+Cuba, acquisition of, favored by Douglas, 199, 208, 396-397.
+
+Cutts, J. Madison, father of Adčle Cutts Douglas, 255, 316.
+
+
+Danites, Mormon order, 90;
+  Buchanan Democrats, 382.
+
+Davis, Jefferson, and Douglas, 189;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237-238;
+  and Freeport doctrine, 399 ff., 413;
+  resolutions of, 415-416;
+  assails Douglas, 423;
+  on candidates and platforms, 424;
+  on Southern grievances, 444;
+  on committee of thirteen, 446;
+  permits attack on Sumter, 474.
+
+Davis, John, 119.
+
+Democratic party, Baltimore convention (1844), 79;
+  campaign, 80-81;
+  platform, 84, 98-99, 104-105;
+  convention of 1848, 131-132;
+  Cass and Barnburners, 132-133;
+  convention of 1852, 204-206;
+  campaign, 207;
+  Cincinnati convention, 276-278;
+  platform and candidate, 278-279;
+  "Bleeding Kansas," 299 ff.;
+  election of 1856, 305-306;
+  Charleston convention, 413 ff.;
+  Davis resolutions, 415-416;
+  minority report, 418-420;
+  secession, 420;
+  adjournment, 421;
+  Baltimore convention, 426-428;
+  Bolters' convention, 428;
+  campaign of 1860, 429-441.
+
+_Democratic Review_, and candidacy of Douglas (1852), 200-202.
+
+Dickinson, Daniel S., 128, 382.
+
+Divorce, Douglas on, 33-34.
+
+Dixon, Archibald, and repeal of Missouri Compromise, 235-236;
+  and Nebraska bill, 239.
+
+Dodge, Augustus C., Nebraska bill of, 228;
+  favors two Territories, 239.
+
+Doolittle, James R., 446.
+
+Douglas, Adčle Cutts, wife of Stephen A., 316-317;
+  leader in Washington society, 336-337;
+  in campaign of 1858, 383;
+  in campaign of 1860, 438;
+  calls upon Mrs. Lincoln, 462; 476, 489.
+
+Douglas, Martha (_née_ Martha Denny Martin), daughter of
+  Robert Martin, 145;
+  marries Stephen A. Douglas, 147;
+  inherits father's estate, 148;
+  death, 208.
+
+Douglas, Stephen Arnold.
+  _Early years_:
+    ancestry and birth, 4-5;
+    boyhood, 5-7;
+    apprentice, 8-9;
+    in Brandon Academy, 9;
+    removal to New York, 9;
+    in Canandaigua Academy, 9-10;
+    studies law, 11;
+    goes west, 11-13;
+    reaches Jacksonville, Illinois, 14;
+    teaches school, 16-17;
+    admitted to bar, 17.
+  _Beginnings in Politics_:
+    first public speech, 20-21;
+    elected State's attorney, 22;
+    first indictments, 23-24;
+    defends Caucus system, 26-27;
+    candidate for Legislature, 27-29;
+    in Legislature, 29-34;
+    Register of Land Office, 35-36;
+    nominated for Congress (1837), 40-41;
+    campaign against Stuart, 42-44;
+    resumes law practice, 45;
+    chairman of State committee, 47-50;
+    Secretary of State, 53;
+    appointed judge, 56-57;
+    visits Mormons, 58;
+    on the Bench, 63-64;
+    candidate for Senate, 62;
+    nominated for Congress, 65;
+    elected, 67.
+  _Congressman_:
+    defends Jackson, 69-72;
+    reports on Election Law, 73-76;
+    plea for Internal Improvements, 77-78;
+    on Polk, 80;
+    meets Jackson, 81-82;
+    re-elected (1844), 83;
+    advocates annexation of Texas, 85-90;
+    and the Mormons, 91-92;
+    proposes Oregon bills, 95;
+    urges "re-occupation of Oregon," 96-98;
+    supports Polk's policy, 99;
+    appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, 99;
+    offers bill on Oregon, 101;
+    opposes compromise and arbitration, 101-103;
+    renominated for Congress, 103;
+    and the President, 104-106;
+    proposes organization of Oregon, 106;
+    advocates admission of Florida, 107;
+    defends Mexican War, 109-110;
+    claims Rio Grande as boundary, 111-114;
+    seeks military appointment, 114-115;
+    re-elected (1846), 115;
+    defends Polk's war policy, 116-117;
+    elected Senator (1847), 117-118.
+  _United States Senator_:
+    appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, 119;
+    on Ten Regiments bill, 120-122;
+    on Abolitionism, 124-126;
+    second attempt to organize Oregon, 129;
+    favors Clayton Compromise, 130;
+    proposes extension of Missouri Compromise line, 131;
+    offers California statehood bills, 134-137;
+    advocates "squatter sovereignty," 138-139;
+    presents resolutions of Illinois Legislature, 140;
+    marriage, 147;
+    denies ownership of slaves, 149-150;
+    removes to Chicago, 169;
+    advocates central railroad, 169-172;
+    speech on California (1850), 177 ff.;
+    concerts territorial bills with Toombs and Stephens, 181-182;
+    vote on compromise measures, 187-188;
+    defends Fugitive Slave Law, 191-194;
+    presidential aspirations, 195-196;
+    on intervention in Hungary, 199-200;
+    candidacy (1852), 200-206;
+    in campaign of 1852, 207;
+    re-elected Senator, 208 _n._;
+    death of his wife, 208;
+    on Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 211-214;
+    hostility to Great Britain, 215-216;
+    travels abroad, 217-219;
+    proposes military colonization of Nebraska, 221;
+    urges organization of Nebraska, 224-225;
+    report of January 4, 1854, 229 ff.;
+    offers substitute for Dodge bill, 231-232;
+    interprets new bill, 233-234;
+    and Dixon, 235-236;
+    drafts Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237;
+    secures support of administration, 237-238;
+    reports bill, 239;
+    arraigned by Independent Democrats, 241;
+    replies to "Appeal," 241-243;
+    proposes amendments to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 246, 249;
+    closes debate, 251-254;
+    answers protests, 256-257;
+    faces mob in Chicago, 258-259;
+    denounces Know-Nothings, 263;
+    in campaign of 1854, 264 ff.;
+    debate with Lincoln, 265-266;
+    and Shields, 267, 268;
+    on the elections, 269-272;
+    and Wade, 272-273;
+    on "Black Republicanism," 275-276;
+    candidacy at Cincinnati, 276-278;
+    supports Buchanan, 278;
+    reports on Kansas, 289-293;
+    proposes admission of Kansas, 293;
+    replies to Trumbull, 294;
+    and Sumner, 296-298;
+    reports Toombs bill, 300-301;
+    omits referendum provision, 302;
+    subsequent defense, 303-304;
+    in campaign of 1856, 304-306;
+    second marriage, 316;
+    on Dred Scott decision, 321-323;
+    interview with Walker, 325;
+      and Buchanan, 327-328;
+    denounces Lecompton constitution, 329-332;
+    report on Kansas, 338-340;
+    speech on Lecomptonism, 341-343;
+    rejects English bill, 345-347;
+    Republican ally, 348;
+    re-election opposed, 349-350;
+    in Chicago, 352-354;
+    opening speech of campaign, 354-357;
+    speech at Bloomington, 358-360;
+    speech at Springfield, 360-361;
+    agrees to joint debate, 362;
+    first debate at Ottawa, 363-370;
+    Springfield resolutions, 370;
+    Freeport debate, 370-375;
+    debate at Jonesboro, 375-378;
+    debate at Charleston, 378-381;
+    friends and foes, 381-382;
+    resources, 382-383;
+    debate at Galesburg, 383-386;
+    debate at Quincy, 386-388;
+    debate at Alton, 388-390;
+    the election, 391-392;
+    journey to South and Cuba, 393-395;
+    deposed from chairmanship of Committee on Territories, 395;
+    supports Slidell project, 396;
+    debate of February 23, 1859, 397 ff.;
+    opposes slave-trade, 403-404;
+    _Harper's Magazine_ article, 405-409;
+    controversy with Black, 409-410;
+    in Ohio, 410-411;
+    presidential candidate of Northwest, 413, 416;
+    and the South, 414;
+    and Republicans, 414-415;
+    candidate at Charleston, 416 ff.;
+    defends his orthodoxy, 422-424;
+    nominated at Baltimore, 427;
+    letter of acceptance, 428;
+    personal canvass, 429-439;
+    on election of Lincoln, 439 ff.;
+    and Crittenden compromise, 446-448;
+    speech of January 3, 1861, 449 ff.;
+      efforts for peace, 448, 452, 453;
+    offers fugitive slave bill, 454;
+    and Mason, 454-455;
+    and Wigfall, 455-456;
+    fears the Blairs, 461;
+    opinion of President-elect, 461;
+    and Lincoln, 462-463;
+    at inauguration, 464;
+    and the inaugural, 466-468;
+    on reinforcement of Sumter, 468-469;
+    in the confidence of Lincoln, 469-470;
+    on policy of administration, 471-473;
+    faces war, 474;
+    closeted with Lincoln, April 14, 475-477;
+    press dispatch, 477;
+    first War Democrat, 478;
+    mission in Northwest, 478-480;
+    speech at Bellaire, 480-482;
+    speech at Columbus, 482-483;
+    speech at Springfield, 483-485;
+    speech at Chicago, 485-487;
+    premonitions of war, 487-488;
+    last illness and death, 488-489.
+  _Personal traits_:
+    Physical appearance, 22-23, 69, 294-295, 364-365;
+    limitations upon his culture, 36-37, 119-120, 215-217, 270-272;
+    his indebtedness to Southern associations, 147-148, 317-318;
+    advocate rather than judge, 70-71, 121-122, 177-181, 270-272, 321;
+    liberal in religion, 263, 317;
+    retentive memory, 319-320;
+    his impulsiveness, 320;
+    his generosity of temper, 320;
+    his loyalty to friends, 267-268, 318-319;
+    his prodigality in pecuniary matters, 309-310;
+    his domestic relations, 317;
+    the man and the politician, 270-272.
+  _As a party leader_:
+    early interest in politics, 8, 10;
+    schooling in politics, 18-19;
+    his talent as organizer, 25 ff.; 39 ff., 47-50;
+    secret of his popularity, 318-319;
+    his partisanship, 324.
+  _As a statesman_:
+    readiness in debate, 320;
+    early manner of speaking, 70 ff.;
+    later manner, 251-252, 294-297;
+    insight into value of the public domain, 36, 311-312;
+    belief in territorial expansion, 100, 107-108;
+    his Chauvinism, 87-88, 97-98, 101-103, 199, 211-214;
+    his statecraft, 100, 107-108, 174-181, 270-272, 314-315;
+    abhorrence of civil war, 449-451, 484-487;
+    love of the Union, 324, 436-437, 481, 484, 489.
+
+Douglass, Benajah, grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, 4-5.
+
+Douglass, Sally Fisk, mother of Stephen A. Douglas, 5.
+
+Douglass, Stephen A., father of Stephen A. Douglas, 5.
+
+Douglass, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Dred Scott decision, Douglas on, 321-323, 356, 359-360, 372-373, 377;
+  Lincoln on, 353, 357, 361, 376-377.
+
+Duncan, Joseph, 50, 60.
+
+
+Election Law of 1842, 73;
+  Douglas on, 74-75.
+
+Elections, State and local, 22, 29, 50, 61, 158-159, 267;
+  congressional, 44, 67, 73-76, 83, 115-116, 207, 267;
+  senatorial, 62, 117, 207, 208 _n._, 268-269, 391-392;
+  presidential, 50, 306, 440-441.
+
+English bill, reported, 343;
+    opposed by Douglas, 345-346;
+  passed, 347.
+
+Everett, Edward, 256, 429.
+
+
+Fessenden, William P., 473-474.
+
+Field, Alexander P., 52.
+
+Fillmore, Millard, 280.
+
+Fitch, Graham N., 335, 336.
+
+Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 428.
+
+Foote, Henry S., on Abolitionism, 124-125;
+  and Douglas, 126;
+  offers finality resolution, 197.
+
+Ford, Thomas, 61, 90, 154.
+
+Forney, John W., 305, 437;
+  on Douglas and Lincoln, 480.
+
+Fort Pickens, question of evacuating, 468 ff.
+
+Fort Sumter, occupation advised, 442;
+  occupied, 451;
+  abortive attempt to reinforce, 452;
+  question of evacuating, 468 ff.;
+  attack upon, 474;
+  capitulation of, 475.
+
+Francis, Simeon, 46.
+
+Frémont, John C., 280.
+
+Freeport doctrine, foreshadowed, 322, 359-360;
+  stated, 372-373;
+  analyzed by Lincoln, 376-377;
+  effect upon South, 381-382;
+  denounced in Senate, 397 ff.;
+  defended in _Harper's Magazine_, 405-409.
+
+Free-Soil party, convention of, 132;
+  holds balance of power in House, 133;
+  in Illinois, 158-160.
+
+Fugitive Slave Law, passed, 187;
+  not voted upon by Douglas, 188;
+  defended by Douglas, 191-194;
+  violations of, 194-195;
+  repeal proposed, 195;
+  attitude of South, 195;
+  Lincoln on, 371;
+  evasions of, 445-446;
+  supplementary law proposed by Douglas, 454.
+
+Fusion party, in Illinois, 264 ff.
+  _See_ Republican party.
+
+
+Galena alien case, 47, 48, 54.
+
+Granger, Gehazi, 9.
+
+Great Britain, animus of Douglas toward, concerning Oregon, 88,
+  93-94, 97, 101, 102;
+  concerning Central America, 211-213, 215-216; 217.
+
+Great Western Railroad Company, 168.
+
+Greeley, Horace, and Douglas, 320, 348;
+  favors re-election of Douglas, 349.
+
+Green, James S., 333, 335, 338, 401, 457.
+
+Greenhow's _History of the Northwest Coast of North America_, 94, 95.
+
+Grimes, James W., 446.
+
+Guthrie, James, 420, 427.
+
+
+Hale, John P., 124, 138, 186.
+
+Hall, Willard P., 223-224.
+
+Hannegan, Edward A., 103-104.
+
+Hardin, John J., 21-22, 27, 91, 92.
+
+_Harper's Magazine_, essay by Douglas in, 405 ff.
+
+Harris, Thomas L., 265.
+
+Helper's _Impending Crisis_, 412-413.
+
+Herndon, William H., Lincoln's law partner, 351.
+
+Hise, Elijah, drafts treaty, 210.
+
+Hoge, Joseph B., 118.
+
+Homestead bill of Douglas, 311.
+
+Honduras and its dependencies, claimed by Great Britain, 209-211.
+
+Howe, Henry, 9.
+
+Hunter, R.M.T., 420, 446.
+
+
+Illinois and Michigan Canal, lands granted to, 31;
+  Douglas and construction of, 32-33;
+  probable influence upon settlement, 154.
+
+Illinois Central Railroad, inception of, 168;
+  project taken up by Douglas, 169-170;
+  bill for land grant to, 170;
+  legislative history of, 171-173;
+  larger aspects of, 174 ff.;
+  in the campaign of 1858, 382.
+
+Illinois _Republican_, attack upon office of, 37-38.
+
+Illinois _State Register_, on Douglas, 46, 81-82;
+  and Springfield clique, 61-62;
+  editorial by Douglas in, 149-150;
+  forecast of Nebraska legislation, 228.
+
+Indian claims, in Nebraska, 220, 222-225, 238-239.
+
+Internal Improvements, agitation in Illinois, 29-30;
+  Douglas on, 30-31.
+
+Iverson, Alfred, 443, 444.
+
+
+Jackson, Andrew, 16, 20;
+  defended by Douglas, 69-72, 78;
+  and Douglas, 81-82.
+
+Jacksonville, Illinois, early home of Douglas, 14 ff.
+
+Johnson, Hadley D., 226, 238-239.
+
+Johnson, Herschel V., 428.
+
+Johnson, Thomas, 225, 226.
+
+Judiciary bill, in Illinois legislature, 54-56, 59.
+
+
+Kansas, first settlers in, 283;
+  colonists of Emigrant Aid Company in, 283;
+  defect in organic act of, 284;
+  first elections in, 284 ff.;
+  invasion by Missourians, 286;
+  first territorial legislature, 286-287;
+  Topeka convention and free State legislature, 288;
+  sack of Lawrence, 299;
+  raid of John Brown, 299;
+  convention elected, 325;
+  free State party in control of legislature, 326;
+  Lecompton convention, 326-327;
+  vote on constitution, 337-338;
+  land ordinance rejected, 347.
+
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, origin of, 236-239;
+  in Democratic caucus, 243-245;
+  wording criticised, 245;
+  amended, 246, 248, 249, 250;
+  passes to third reading in Senate, 250;
+  course in House, 254-255;
+  defeat of Clayton amendment, 255-256;
+  passes Senate, 256;
+  becomes law, 256;
+  arouses North, 256 ff.;
+  popular sovereignty in, 281-282.
+
+King, William F., 172.
+
+Knowlton, Caleb, 9.
+
+Know-Nothing party, origin, 262;
+  denounced by Douglas, 263;
+  in Northwest, 263-264;
+  nominates Fillmore, 280.
+
+Kossuth, Louis, reception of, 199 ff.
+
+
+Lamborn, Josiah, 16.
+
+Lane, James H., in Kansas, 287-288.
+
+Lane, Joseph, 205, 428.
+
+Lecompton constitution, origin, 326-327;
+  denounced by Douglas, 329 ff.;
+  vote upon, 337;
+  submitted to Congress, 338;
+  bill to admit Kansas with, 343.
+
+Lee, Robert E., 482.
+
+Letcher, John, 480.
+
+Liberty party, 116, 158.
+
+Lincoln, Abraham, in Illinois legislature, 32 _n._;
+  leader of "the Long Nine," 34;
+  debate with Douglas (1839), 46;
+  on Douglas, 46;
+  elected to Congress, 116;
+  debate with Douglas (1854), 265-266;
+  "the Peoria Truce," 266 _n._;
+  candidate for Senate, 268-269;
+  Republican nominee for Senate (1858), 350;
+  early career, 351;
+  personal traits, 351-352;
+  addresses Republican convention, 352-353;
+  hears Douglas in Chicago, 354;
+  replies to Douglas, 357-358;
+  speech at Springfield, 361;
+  proposes joint debates, 362;
+  personal appearance, 364-365;
+  debate at Ottawa, 365-370;
+  Freeport debate, 370-375;
+  debate at Jonesboro, 375-378;
+  debate at Charleston, 378-381;
+  resources, 382;
+  debate at Galesburg, 383-386;
+  debate at Quincy, 386-388;
+  debate at Alton, 388-390;
+  defeated, 392;
+  in Ohio, 410-411;
+  presidential candidate, 425;
+  elected, 440-441;
+  enters Washington, 461;
+  and advisers, 461, 462;
+  confers with Douglas, 463-464;
+  inauguration, 464;
+  address, 464-466;
+  defended by Douglas, 466 ff.;
+  consults Douglas, 469-470;
+  not generally known, 471;
+  decides to provision Sumter, 474;
+  calls for troops, 475;
+  confers with Douglas, 476-477, 478;
+  last interview with Douglas, 479.
+
+Logan, Stephen T., 23.
+
+"Lord Coke's Assembly," 53, 55.
+
+
+McClernand, John A., 51, 55, 119, 182.
+
+McConnell, Murray, 14, 48.
+
+McRoberts, Samuel, 42.
+
+Marble, Mary Ann, wife of William Douglass, 4.
+
+Marble, Thomas, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Marshall, Edward C., 203.
+
+Martin, Colonel Robert, 145;
+  plantations of, 146;
+  will of, 148-149.
+
+Mason, James M., 454, 455, 469.
+
+Matteson, Joel A., 268-269;
+  letter of Douglas to, 313-314.
+
+May, William L., 40.
+
+Mexico, Slidell's mission to, 109;
+  dictatorship in, 111;
+  treaty with Texas, 111-112;
+  territory lost by, 116, 117;
+  treaty of 1848, 123.
+
+Mexican War, announced by Polk, 105, 109;
+  defended by Douglas, 109-112, 116-117;
+  appointments in, 114, 117;
+  terminated, 123.
+
+Minnesota bill, to organize territorial government, 142;
+  to admit State, 340.
+
+Minnesota Block, Douglas residence in Washington, 337, 488.
+
+Missouri Compromise, and annexation of Texas, 89-90;
+  and organization of Oregon, 130;
+  and organization of Mexican cession, 131, 133;
+  and organization of Nebraska, 221, 230-231, 232-233, 235;
+  repeal agitated by Atchison, 235-236;
+  repealed, 237 ff.;
+  declared unconstitutional, 321-322.
+
+Monroe doctrine, debated in Senate, 211-214.
+
+Moore, John, 60.
+
+Mormons, settle in Illinois, 57-58;
+  politics of, 58-61;
+  disorders in Hancock County, 90-91;
+  advised to emigrate, 91;
+  removal, 92;
+  in Utah, 220.
+
+Morris, Edward J., 96.
+
+Mosquito protectorate, 209, 210-211.
+
+
+Nashville convention (1844), 81.
+
+_National Era_, occasions controversy in Senate, 124.
+
+Native American party, 262.
+  _See_ Know-Nothing party.
+
+Nauvoo, settled by Mormons, 57;
+  charter repealed, 90;
+  evacuated, 92.
+
+Nauvoo Legion, 58.
+
+Nebraska, first bill to organize, 95;
+  second bill, 142;
+  bill for military colonization of, 221;
+  third bill, 223-224;
+  Dodge bill, 228;
+  report of Douglas on, 239 ff.;
+  new bill reported, 231;
+  bill printed, 232;
+  manuscript of, 233.
+  _See_ Kansas-Nebraska bill.
+
+Negro equality, Douglas on, 275-276, 356-357, 384;
+  Lincoln on, 358, 361, 368, 379, 385.
+
+New England Emigrant Aid Company, 283.
+
+New Mexico, slavery in, 127 ff.;
+  Clayton compromise, 130;
+  controversy in Congress, 130-131;
+  Polk's policy, 133;
+  Douglas's statehood bills, 134-137;
+  Taylor's policy, 166;
+  Clay's resolutions, 176;
+  territorial bill for, 181-183;
+  in the Omnibus, 184-186;
+  organized, 187.
+
+New York _Times_, supports Lincoln (1858), 382;
+  on Douglas, 411, 429, 436, 470.
+
+New York _Tribune_, on Douglas, 332, 348, 403.
+
+_Niles' Register_, cited as a source, 112.
+
+Non-intervention, principle of, Cass on, 128;
+  in Clayton compromise, 130;
+  Douglas on, 138-139;
+  in compromise of 1850, 181-187, 189-190;
+  in Kansas-Nebraska legislation, 230-231, 236, 243-249, 289-292, 397-402.
+
+
+"Old Fogyism," 200.
+
+Oregon, emigration from Illinois to, 93;
+  "re-occupation" of, 94;
+  international status of, 94-95;
+  Douglas on, 96-98;
+  Polk's policy toward, 98-99;
+  bill to protect settlers in, 101;
+  and treaty with Great Britain, 103, 106;
+  bills to organize, 106, 108, 129;
+  Clayton compromise, 130;
+  organized, 131.
+
+Pacific Railroad, and organization of Nebraska, 222-224, 238-239.
+
+Parker, Nahum, 8.
+
+Parker, Theodore, on Douglas, 393.
+
+Party organizations, beginnings of, in Illinois, 25-27, 38-42, 49-50;
+  efficiency of, 65-66, 79, 103;
+  sectional influence upon, 158-160;
+  institutional character of, 157-158, 260-262.
+
+Payne, Henry B., 418-419.
+
+Peace Convention, 453;
+  resolution of, 463.
+
+Peck, Ebenezer, 26, 56.
+
+Personal Liberty Acts, 445, 454.
+
+Pierce, Franklin, presidential candidacy, 204-205;
+  approves Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237-238;
+  signs Kansas-Nebraska bill, 256;
+  opinion on slavery extension, 256 _n._;
+  candidacy at Cincinnati, 276-277.
+
+Political parties, and annexation of Texas, 84;
+  and Mexican War, 109;
+  and slavery in Territories, 127-129;
+  and election of 1848, 132-133;
+  in Illinois, 157-158;
+  and Free-Soilers, 158 ff.;
+  and compromise of 1850, 195;
+  nationalizing influence of, 260-262;
+  decline of Whigs, 262;
+  rise of Know-Nothings, 262;
+  and Nebraska Act, 264 ff.;
+  rise of Republican party, 273-274;
+  and "Bleeding Kansas," 294, 299-302, 304-306;
+  and Lecomptonism, 332 ff.;
+  possible re-alignment of, 348-349;
+  and Lincoln-Douglas contest, 349-350, 381-382, 393;
+  and Freeport doctrine, 397-402, 413-414;
+  and issues of 1860, 415 ff.;
+  and election of 1860, 440-441.
+
+Polk, James K., presidential candidacy, 70;
+  indorsed by Douglas, 80;
+  inaugural of, 98;
+  on Oregon, 99;
+  negotiates with Great Britain, 103-104;
+  war message of, 105;
+  and Douglas, 105-106;
+  announces Oregon treaty, 106;
+  covets California, 109;
+  and appointments, 114, 118-119;
+  urges indemnity, 127;
+  and slavery in Territories, 131;
+  proposes territorial governments, 133;
+  proposes statehood bills, 135.
+
+Popular sovereignty, doctrine anticipated, 89;
+  phrase coined, 253;
+  in Kansas-Nebraska Act, 281-282;
+  tested in Kansas, 283 ff.;
+  and Dred Scott decision, 322;
+  and Lecompton constitution, 326-327;
+  defended by Douglas, 329-332, 338-340, 342-343;
+  indorsed by Seward, 348;
+  debated by Lincoln and Douglas, 355, 357, 359-360, 372-373, 376-377;
+  denounced by South, 397 ff.;
+  defended in _Harper's Magazine_ 405-409;
+  ridiculed by Black, 409-410;
+  operates against slavery, 410-411, 429;
+  Douglas urges further concessions to, 457, 459-460.
+
+Powell, Lazarus W., 446.
+
+Public lands, granted to Illinois for canal, 31;
+  Douglas and administration of, 35-36;
+  squatters and land leagues, 163-164;
+  granted to Illinois Central, 170 ff.;
+  granted to Indians, 220;
+  and proposed military colonies, 221;
+  and proposed Pacific railroad, 222-224;
+  in Kansas, 283-285;
+  Douglas and proper distribution of, 311-313.
+
+Pugh, George E., and Lecompton constitution, 335;
+  and English bill, 347; 413;
+  speech in Charleston convention, 419-420;
+  and Douglas, 422, 424.
+
+
+Ralston, J.H., 58.
+
+Raymond, Henry J., editor of New York _Times_, 436.
+
+Reapportionment Act of 1843, 64, 65.
+
+Reeder, A.H., governor of Kansas, 284;
+  and elections, 285, 286;
+  joins free State party, 287;
+  chosen senator at Topeka, 288.
+
+Reid, David S., 145, 146.
+
+Republican party, rise of, in Illinois, 264 ff.;
+  elections of 1854, 269;
+  origin of name, 273;
+  composition of, 273-274;
+  Philadelphia convention, 279-280;
+  and "Bleeding Kansas," 304-305;
+  opposes Lecomptonism, 334;
+  Chicago convention, 421;
+  nominates Lincoln, 425;
+  elections of 1860, 437, 440-441.
+
+Resolution of Illinois Legislature, presented in Senate, 139-140;
+  origin, 159-160;
+  controls Douglas (1850), 184.
+
+Rice, Henry M., 446.
+
+Richardson, William A., on House Committee on Territories, 182;
+  steers Kansas-Nebraska bill through House, 254-255;
+  in Cincinnati convention, 277;
+  candidate for governor, 305;
+  in Charleston convention, 416 ff.;
+  in Baltimore convention, 427;
+  forecasts election, 429.
+
+Richmond, Dean, 426.
+
+River and harbor improvements, Douglas on, 77-78, 313-314.
+  _See also_ Internal Improvements.
+
+Robinson, Charles, leader of free State party in Kansas, 287, 288.
+
+Roman Church, Adčle Cutts an adherent of, 317;
+  attitude of Douglas toward, 317.
+
+
+Sangamo _Journal_, on Caucus system, 28;
+  on Douglas, 41.
+
+Santa Anna, treaty with Texas, 111, 112.
+
+Scott, Winfield, 482.
+
+Secession, apprehended, 442;
+  of South Carolina, 447;
+  of Cotton States, 452;
+  and border States, 474.
+
+Seward, William H., and Douglas, 251;
+  loses Republican nomination, 425;
+  on committee of thirteen, 453;
+  and the Blairs, 461, 462.
+
+Shadrach rescue, 194.
+
+Shannon, Wilson, governor of Kansas, 288.
+
+Sheahan, James W., biographer of Douglas, 218, 416;
+ editor of Chicago _Times_, 305.
+
+Sheridan, James B., 438.
+
+Shields, James, senator from Illinois, 171;
+  and Illinois Central Railroad, 175;
+  fails of re-election, 267 ff.
+
+Slavery, in North Carolina, 147-148;
+  in Illinois, 155-156, 178, 242-243;
+  in Kansas, 287, 298;
+  Nebraska bill not designed to extend, 234;
+  Douglas on extension of, 179-180, 243;
+  peonage, 186;
+  Douglas on, 126, 311, 388, 390, 415;
+  Lincoln on, 351, 352, 358, 361, 368-369, 379, 381, 385, 386, 390.
+
+Slave-trade, revival proposed, 403, 421;
+  condemned by Douglas, 403-404.
+
+Slidell, John, mission to Mexico, 109;
+  seeks Douglas's defeat (1858), 381-382, 391;
+  project to purchase Cuba, 396;
+  at Charleston, 417.
+
+Smith, Joseph, on Douglas, 58-59;
+  to Mormon voters, 59-60;
+  on polygamy, 90;
+  murdered, 90.
+
+Smith, Theophilus W., 48, 54, 55.
+
+Smithsonian Institution, foundation of, 310;
+  Douglas on board of Regents, 310.
+
+Snyder, Adam W., 59, 60.
+
+Southern Rights advocates, 194.
+
+Spoils system, countenanced by Douglas, 198, 207.
+
+Springfield Resolutions, in Lincoln-Douglas debates, 366-367, 368,
+  369, 370, 374.
+
+"Squatter sovereignty," Cass and Dickinson on, 128;
+  favored by Douglas, 138-139;
+  genesis of, 161 ff.;
+  explained by Douglas, 184-185;
+  and compromise of 1850, 189-190.
+  _See_ Popular sovereignty.
+
+Squier, E.G., drafts treaty, 210.
+
+"Star of the West," sent to Sumter, 452.
+
+Stephens, Alexander H., and annexation of Texas, 89;
+  and territorial bills (1850), 181-182.
+
+Stowe, Harriet B., description of Douglas, 295-296.
+
+Stuart, Charles E., 335, 347.
+
+Stuart, John T., lawyer, 23;
+  Douglas's opponent (1838), 42-44;
+  Whig politician, 50, 58.
+
+Sumner, Charles, and Fugitive Slave Act, 195;
+  on Kansas, 294, 296;
+  altercation with Douglas, 296-298;
+  assaulted, 298;
+  foe to compromise, 463.
+
+
+Tariff, views of Douglas on, 314-315.
+
+Taylor, Zachary, in Mexican War, 109, 114;
+  nominated for presidency, 132;
+  message, 166.
+
+Texas, as campaign issue, 84;
+  Douglas on annexation of, 85;
+  and slavery, 89;
+  and Missouri Compromise, 90;
+  joint resolution adopted, 90;
+  admitted, 100-101;
+  and Mexican boundary, 110-114, 122-123;
+  and New Mexico boundary, 176, 187.
+
+"The Third House," 53, 54.
+
+Toombs, Robert, 189, 190;
+  Kansas bill, 300; 303, 340;
+  on committee of thirteen, 446.
+
+Trumbull, Lyman, senator from Illinois, 268-269;
+  Democracy questioned, 274-275;
+  on Kansas, 294;
+  on Toombs bill, 302;
+  opposes Douglas, 349.
+
+Tyler, John, 79 _n._; 84.
+
+
+Urquhart, J.D., Douglas's law partner, 45.
+
+Utah, territorial organization of, 181-187;
+  Mormons in, 220;
+  polygamy and intervention in, 401.
+
+
+Van Buren, Martin, nominated by Free-Soilers, 132.
+
+
+Wade, Benjamin F., 269, 272, 338, 446, 458, 463.
+
+Walker, Cyrus, 45, 58.
+
+Walker, Isaac P., 140, 174.
+
+Walker, Robert J., governor of Kansas, 325.
+
+Washington _Sentinel_, prints Nebraska bill, 232.
+
+Washington Territory, organization of, 224.
+
+Washington _Union_, on Douglas, 207;
+  forecast of Nebraska legislation, 228;
+  supports Kansas-Nebraska bill, 240;
+  assails Douglas, 341, 381.
+
+Webster, Daniel, on the Constitution, 140.
+
+Whig party, convention of 1848, 132;
+  campaign of 1852, 207;
+  decline, 260-262;
+  nominates Fillmore, 280.
+
+Whitney, Asa, 222.
+
+Wigfall, Louis T., 455-456, 468.
+
+Wilmot proviso, 107, 117, 128, 132.
+
+Wilson, Henry, Republican leader, 348;
+  favors re-election of Douglas, 349;
+  foe to compromise, 463, 473-474.
+
+Winthrop, Robert C., 86.
+
+Wood, Fernando, 418.
+
+Wyandot Indians, memorial of, 222, 223.
+
+Wyatt, John, 21-22.
+
+
+Yancey, William L., resolution of, 132;
+  speech in Charleston convention, 419.
+
+Yates, Richard, 265.
+
+"Young America," 198, 200, 214.
+
+Young, Brigham, 91.
+
+Young, Richard M., 62, 118, 119.
+
+
+
+
+Norman Hapgood's _biographies_
+
+Illustrated with portraits, fac similes, etc.
+
+Abraham Lincoln--The Man of the People
+
+_Library edition, half leather, $2.00_
+
+     "A Life of Lincoln that has never been surpassed in
+     vividness, compactness and lifelike reality,"--_Chicago
+     Tribune_.
+
+     "Perhaps the best short biography that has yet
+     appeared."--_Review of Reviews_.
+
+     "Its depth, its clearness, its comprehensiveness, seem to me
+     to mark the author as a genuine critic of the broader and
+     the higher school."--_Justin McCarthy_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+George Washington
+
+_Half leather, $1.75 net; by mail, $1.90_
+
+     "Mr. Hapgood may have done more brilliant or more
+     entertaining work in other fields but we doubt if any of his
+     previous work will take its place in permanent literature so
+     certainly as this study of Washington."--_Daily Eagle_.
+
+     "Mr. Norman Hapgood's 'George Washington' is characterized
+     by an unusual amount of judicious quotation, and also by
+     many pages of graphic narrative and description. It has not
+     been customary heretofore, in brief biographies of eminent
+     men, to put the reader so closely in touch with the sources
+     of history. In this case, however, the method adopted by Mr.
+     Hapgood has not only greatly enhanced the historical value
+     of his work, but has at the same time added to its intrinsic
+     interest."--_Review of Reviews_.
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK
+
+
+Mr. Owen Wister's _sketch of_
+
+The Seven Ages of Washington
+
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+    _With nine illustrations in photogravure_
+
+     "A bright, enjoyable book, brimfull of individuality,
+     containing one of the truest sketches of Washington ever
+     written,"--_Record-Herald_, Chicago.
+
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+     study of character that it possesses unique value.... It
+     would be a good thing for high school and college students
+     if this study of Washington were made a required text-book
+     in the course of American history. Certainly the young
+     Americans of our day would get from it a far more correct
+     idea of Washington's life, character and influence than from
+     any of the standard biographies or histories."--_San
+     Francisco Chronicle_.
+
+     "The value of the book consists largely in its placing of
+     Washington in the right perspective. Mr. Wister's portrait
+     of him is all of a piece.
+
+     "The background, like the portrait, is handled with perfect
+     discretion. The reader who is searching for an authoritative
+     biography of Washington, brief, and made humanly interesting
+     from the first page to the last, will find it here."--From a
+     column review of the book in _The New York Tribune_, Nov.
+     23, 1907.
+
+     "Mr. Wister has succeeded in revealing a new Washington--a
+     Washington who becomes a wholly lovable man without losing
+     any of his dignity."--_Boston Herald_.
+
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+     frozen god. He steps out of the block of ice into which, as
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+     after death. The book emphasizes the man side of
+     Washington's character. The hero is in the background, and
+     the result is a warm and very convincing picture which it is
+     good to have."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_.
+
+    THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    PUBLISHERS, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK
+
+
+Theodore Roosevelt
+
+The Boy and the Man
+
+By JAMES MORGAN
+
+_Cloth, illustrated, gilt tops, $1.50_
+
+     "It does not pretend to be an analysis of the individual,
+     and it was not written with the intention of advocating or
+     criticising his political policies. It was meant to be a
+     simple, straightforward, yet complete biography of the most
+     interesting personality of our day. Its aim is to present a
+     life of action by portraying the varied dramatic scenes in
+     the career of a man who still has the enthusiasm of a boy,
+     and whose energy and faith have illustrated before the world
+     the spirit of Young America."--_From the Author's Foreword_.
+
+     "The book can go into home or school, north or south,
+     without the possibility of offence.... It is especially
+     tonic for high school youth and college young men. I doubt
+     if any book has been written that will do as much for
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+     it, and tell others to read it."--_Journal of Education_.
+
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+
+     "Whether or not a reader believes in Mr. Roosevelt's
+     policies, we doubt if he can fail, after reading Mr.
+     Morgan's book, to be a better American."--_Sacred Heart
+     Review_.
+
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+     Tribune_.
+
+     "The book is as readable as a novel and the story it tells
+     is packed with inspiration for American boys."--_Hamilton
+     Wright Mabie_.
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+PUBLISHERS, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK
+
+
+_"Unquestionably the Final Edition" of_
+
+The Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin
+
+Edited by ALBERT H. SMYTH, late Professor of English Language and
+Literature in the Central High School, Philadelphia. In ten volumes
+with twenty portraits.
+
+    _Special limited edition, $30.00 net._
+    _Eversley edition, $15.00 net._
+
+     "The volume closes with a copy of Franklin's will and a
+     series of remarkably complete indexes, rendering the
+     contents of all the volumes easily accessible from several
+     different points of view. The whole work bears evidences of
+     painstaking care and devotion to the task for its own sake.
+     It is incomparably the best and most complete edition of
+     Franklin's writings in existence, containing all that is
+     worth preserving, while in arrangement, editorial treatment,
+     and mechanical workmanship it leaves nothing to be desired.
+     The set is certain to have an irresistible attraction for
+     admirers of Franklin and for lovers of well-made
+     books."--_Record-Herald_, Chicago.
+
+     "'Franklin's writings are his best biography.' To few has it
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+     and with shrewd wisdom and such unfailing humor. We have
+     already, on several occasions, described this excellent
+     edition of Franklin, the fullest, the most accurate that we
+     have ever had."--_Churchman._
+
+     "Some interesting notes regarding the twenty rare Franklin
+     portraits that have appeared in these volumes are given in
+     the preface to Volume X. The most interesting portrait is
+     the one appearing as the final volume frontispiece, a
+     photogravure of the painting that originally belonged to
+     Franklin, which was taken from his home in Philadelphia
+     during the British occupation, and after the lapse of 130
+     years was presented to the United States by Earl Gray. It
+     was painted in London in 1759 by Benjamin Wilson, and is now
+     in the White House at Washington."--_Boston Transcript._
+
+    THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+    Sixty-four and Sixty-six Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK
+
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Stephen A. Douglas: A Study In American Politics, by Allen Johnson.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stephen A. Douglas, by Allen Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stephen A. Douglas
+       A Study in American Politics
+
+Author: Allen Johnson
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2005 [EBook #15508]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<div class="tr">
+<p>Transcriber's Note: </p>
+
+<p>Original spellings and inconsistent hyphenation have been kept,
+including the earlier spelling variant Douglass.</p>
+</div>
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h1>STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS:</h1>
+
+<h2>A STUDY IN AMERICAN POLITICS</h2>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+<h2>ALLEN JOHNSON</h2>
+
+<h4 class="sc">Professor Of History In Bowdoin College; <br />
+Sometime Professor Of History In Iowa College</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>New York<br />
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY<br />
+1908</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h4 class="sc">Copyright 1908</h4>
+<h5>By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</h5>
+
+<h6>Set up and electrotyped. Published February 1908</h6>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h5>THE MASON-HENRY PRESS <br />
+SYRACUSE, N.Y.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h4>To</h4>
+
+<h3>PROFESSOR JESSE MACY</h3>
+
+<p class="cen">whose wisdom and kindliness have inspired<br />
+a generation of students</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2>PREFACE</h2>
+<br />
+
+<p>To describe the career of a man who is now chiefly remembered as the
+rival of Abraham Lincoln, must seem to many minds a superfluous, if
+not invidious, undertaking. The present generation is prone to forget
+that when the rivals met in joint debate fifty years ago, on the
+prairies of Illinois, it was Senator Douglas, and not Mr. Lincoln, who
+was the cynosure of all observing eyes. Time has steadily lessened the
+prestige of the great Democratic leader, and just as steadily enhanced
+the fame of his Republican opponent.</p>
+
+<p>The following pages have been written, not as a vindication, but as an
+interpretation of a personality whose life spans the controversial
+epoch before the Civil War. It is due to the chance reader to state
+that the writer was born in a New England home, and bred in an
+anti-slavery atmosphere where the political creed of Douglas could not
+thrive. If this book reveals a somewhat less sectional outlook than
+this personal allusion suggests, the credit must be given to those
+generous friends in the great Middle West, who have helped the writer
+to interpret the spirit of that region which gave both Douglas and
+Lincoln to the nation.</p>
+
+<p>The material for this study has been brought together from many
+sources. Through the kindness of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield,
+Illinois, I have had access to a valuable collection of letters
+written by Douglas to her father, Charles H. Lanphier, Esq., editor of
+the Illinois <i>State Register</i>. Judge Robert M. Douglas of North
+Carolina has permitted me to use an autobiographical sketch of his
+father, as well as other papers in the possession of the family. Among
+those who have lightened my labors, either by copies of letters penned
+by Douglas or by personal recollections, I would mention with
+particular gratitude the late Mrs. L.K. Lippincott (&quot;Grace
+Greenwood&quot;); Mr. J.H. Roberts and Stephen A. Douglas, Esq. of Chicago;
+Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller and the late Hon. Robert E. Hitt of
+Washington. With his wonted generosity, Mr. James F. Rhodes has given
+me the benefit of his wide acquaintance with the newspapers of the
+period, which have been an invaluable aid in the interpretation of
+Douglas's career. Finally, by personal acquaintance and conversation
+with men who knew him, I have endeavored to catch the spirit of those
+who made up the great mass of his constituents.</p>
+
+<p>Brunswick, Maine,</p>
+
+<p>November, 1907.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+
+<br />
+
+<div class="center">
+<div class="content">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1" width="85%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="3" class="tdc"><a href="#BOOK_I">BOOK I.</a> THE CALL OF THE WEST</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl" width="20%"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc" width="70%">From The Green Mountains To The Prairies</td>
+  <td class="tdr" width="10%">3</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Rise Of The Politician</td>
+  <td class="tdr">18</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Law And Politics</td>
+  <td class="tdr">51</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Under The Aegis Of Andrew Jackson</td>
+  <td class="tdr">68</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Manifest Destiny</td>
+  <td class="tdr">84</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">War And Politics</td>
+  <td class="tdr">109</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Mexican Cession</td>
+  <td class="tdr">127</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="3" class="tdc"><br />
+       <a href="#BOOK_II">BOOK II.</a> THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Senator And Constituency</td>
+  <td class="tdr">145</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Measures Of Adjustment</td>
+  <td class="tdr">166</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Young America</td>
+  <td class="tdr">191</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Kansas-Nebraska Act</td>
+  <td class="tdr">220</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Black Republicanism</td>
+  <td class="tdr">260</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Testing Of Popular Sovereignty</td>
+  <td class="tdr">281</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="3" class="tdc"><br />
+       <a href="#BOOK_III">BOOK III.</a> THE IMPENDING CRISIS</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Personal Equation</td>
+  <td class="tdr">309</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Revolt Of Douglas</td>
+  <td class="tdr">324</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Joint Debates With Lincoln</td>
+  <td class="tdr">348</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Aftermath</td>
+  <td class="tdr">393</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Campaign Of 1860</td>
+  <td class="tdr">412</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Merging Of The Partisan In The Patriot</td>
+  <td class="tdr">442</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX</a></td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">The Summons</td>
+  <td class="tdr">475</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdl"><a href="#INDEX">INDEX</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">490</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="BOOK_I" id="BOOK_I"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a>BOOK I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+<h3>THE CALL OF THE WEST <a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a></h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The dramatic moments in the colonizing of coastal New England have
+passed into song, story, and sober chronicle; but the farther
+migration of the English people, from tide-water to interior, has been
+too prosaic a theme for poets and too diverse a movement for
+historians. Yet when all the factors in our national history shall be
+given their full value, none will seem more potent than the great
+racial drift from the New England frontier into the heart of the
+continent. The New Englanders who formed a broad belt from Vermont and
+New York across the Northwest to Kansas, were a social and political
+force of incalculable power, in the era which ended with the Civil
+War. The New Englander of the Middle West, however, ceased to be
+altogether a Yankee. The lake and prairie plains bred a spirit which
+contrasted strongly with the smug provincialism of rock-ribbed and
+sterile New England. The exultation born of wide, unbroken, horizon
+lines and broad, teeming, prairie landscapes, found expression in the
+often-quoted saying, &quot;Vermont is the most glorious spot on the face of
+this globe for a man to be born in, <i>provided</i> he emigrates when he is
+very young.&quot; The career of Stephen Arnold Douglas is intelligible only
+as it is viewed against the background of a New England boyhood, a
+young manhood passed on the prairies of Illinois, and a wedded life
+pervaded by the gentle culture of Southern womanhood.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a>In America, observed De Tocqueville two generations ago, democracy
+disposes every man to forget his ancestors. When the Hon. Stephen A.
+Douglas was once asked to prepare an account of his career for a
+biographical history of Congress, he chose to omit all but the barest
+reference to his forefathers.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1"><sup>[1]</sup></a> Possibly he preferred to leave the
+family tree naked, that his unaided rise to eminence might the more
+impress the chance reader. Yet the records of the Douglass family are
+not uninteresting.<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2"><sup>[2]</sup></a> The first of the name to cross the ocean was
+William Douglass, who was born in Scotland and who wedded Mary Ann,
+daughter of Thomas Marble of Northampton. Just when this couple left
+Old England is not known, but the birth of a son is recorded in
+Boston, in the year 1645. Soon after this event they removed to New
+London, preferring, it would seem, to try their luck in an outlying
+settlement, for this region was part of the Pequot country. Somewhat
+more than a hundred years later, Benajah Douglass, a descendant of
+this pair and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, pushed still
+farther into the interior, and settled in Rensselaer County, in the
+province of New York. The marriage of Benajah Douglass to Martha
+Arnold, a descendant of Governor William Arnold of Rhode Island, has
+an interest for those who are disposed to find Celtic qualities in the
+grandson, for the Arnolds were of Welsh stock, and may be supposed to
+have revived the strain in the Douglass blood.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a>Tradition has made Benajah Douglass a soldier in the war of the
+Revolution, but authentic records go no farther back than the year
+1795, when he removed with his family to Brandon, Vermont. There he
+purchased a farm of about four hundred acres, which he must have
+cultivated with some degree of skill, since it seems to have yielded
+an ample competency. He is described as a man of genial, buoyant
+disposition, with much self-confidence. He was five times chosen
+selectman of Brandon; and five times he was elected to represent the
+town in the General Assembly. The physical qualities of the grandson
+may well have been a family inheritance, since of Benajah we read that
+he was of medium height, with large head and body, short neck, and
+short limbs.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3"><sup>[3]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The portrait of Benajah's son is far less distinct. He was a graduate
+of Middlebury College and a physician by profession. He married Sally
+Fisk, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer in Brandon, by whom he had
+two children, the younger of whom was Stephen Arnold Douglass, born
+April 23, 1813. The promising career of the young doctor was cut short
+by a sudden stroke, which overtook him as he held his infant son in
+his arms. The plain, little one-and-a-half story house, in which the
+boy first saw the light, suggests that the young physician had been
+unable to provide for more than the bare necessities of his family.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4"><sup>[4]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Soon after the death of Dr. Douglass, his widow removed to the farm
+which she and her unmarried brother had inherited from her father. The
+children grew to love this bachelor uncle with almost filial
+<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a>affection. Too young to take thought for the morrow, they led the
+wholesome, natural life of country children. Stephen went to the
+district school on the Brandon turnpike, and had no reason to bemoan
+the fate which left him largely dependent upon his uncle's generosity.
+An old school-mate recalls young Douglass through the haze of years,
+as a robust, healthy boy, with generous instincts though tenacious of
+his rights.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5"><sup>[5]</sup></a> After school hours work and play alternated. The
+regular farm chores were not the least part in the youngster's
+education; he learned to be industrious and not to despise honest
+labor.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6"><sup>[6]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This bare outline of a commonplace boyhood must be filled in with many
+details drawn from environment. Stephen fell heir to a wealth of
+inspiring local traditions. The fresh mountain breezes had also once
+blown full upon the anxious faces of heroes and patriots; the quiet
+valleys had once echoed with the noise of battle; this land of the
+Green Mountains was the Wilderness of colonial days, the frontier for
+restless New Englanders, where with good axe and stout heart they had
+carved their home plots out of the virgin forest. Many a legend of
+adventure, of border warfare, and of personal heroism, was still
+current among the Green Mountain folk. Where was the Vermont lad who
+did not fight over again the battles of Bennington, Ticonderoga, and
+Plattsburg?</p>
+
+<p>Other influences were scarcely less formative in the life of the
+growing boy. Vermont was also the land of <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>the town meeting. Whatever
+may be said of the efficiency of town government, it was and is a
+school of democracy. In Vermont it was the natural political
+expression of social forces. How else, indeed, could the general will
+find fit expression, except through the attrition of many minds? And
+who could know better the needs of the community than the commonalty?
+Not that men reasoned about the philosophy of their political
+institutions: they simply accepted them. And young Douglass grew up in
+an atmosphere friendly to local self-government of an extreme type.</p>
+
+<p>Stephen was nearing his fourteenth birthday, when an event occurred
+which interrupted the even current of his life. His uncle, who was
+commonly regarded as a confirmed old bachelor, confounded the village
+gossips by bringing home a young bride. The birth of a son and heir
+was the nephew's undoing. While the uncle regarded Stephen with
+undiminished affection, he was now much more emphatically <i>in loco
+parentis</i>. An indefinable something had come between them. The subtle
+change in relationship was brought home to both when Stephen proposed
+that he should go to the academy in Brandon, to prepare for college.
+That he was to go to college, he seems to have taken for granted.
+There was a moment of embarrassment, and then the uncle told the lad,
+frankly but kindly, that he could not provide for his further
+education. With considerable show of affection, he advised him to give
+up the notion of going to college and to remain on the farm, where he
+would have an assured competence. In after years the grown man related
+this incident with a tinge of bitterness, averring that there had been
+an <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>understanding in the family that he was to attend college.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7"><sup>[7]</sup></a>
+Momentary disappointment he may have felt, to be sure, but he could
+hardly have been led to believe that he could draw indefinitely upon
+his uncle's bounty.</p>
+
+<p>Piqued and somewhat resentful, Stephen made up his mind to live no
+longer under his uncle's roof. He would show his spirit by proving
+that he was abundantly able to take care of himself. Much against the
+wishes of his mother, who knew him to be mastered by a boyish whim, he
+apprenticed himself to Nahum Parker, a cabinet-maker in Middlebury.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8"><sup>[8]</sup></a>
+He put on his apron, went to work sawing table legs from two-inch
+planks, and, delighted with the novelty of the occupation and
+exhilarated by his newly found sense of freedom, believed himself on
+the highway to happiness and prosperity. He found plenty of companions
+with whom he spent his idle hours, young fellows who had a taste for
+politics and who rapidly kindled in the newcomer a consuming
+admiration for Andrew Jackson. He now began to read with avidity such
+political works as came to hand. Discussion with his new friends and
+with his employer, who was an ardent supporter of Adams and Clay,
+whetted his appetite for more reading and study. In after years he was
+wont to say that these were the happiest days of his life.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9"><sup>[9]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Toward the end of the year, he became dissatisfied with his employer
+because he was forced to perform &quot;some menial services in the
+house.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10"><sup>[10]</sup></a> He wished his employer to know that he was not a household
+servant, but an apprentice. Further difficulties arose, which
+<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>terminated his apprenticeship in Middlebury. Returning to Brandon, he
+entered the shop of Deacon Caleb Knowlton, also a cabinet-maker; but
+in less than a year he quit this employer on the plea of
+ill-health.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11"><sup>[11]</sup></a> It is quite likely that the confinement and severe
+manual labor may have overtaxed the strength of the growing boy; but
+it is equally clear that he had lost his taste for cabinet work. He
+never again expressed a wish to follow a trade. He again took up his
+abode with his mother; and, the means now coming to hand from some
+source, he enrolled as a student in Brandon Academy, with the avowed
+purpose of preparing for a professional career.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12"><sup>[12]</sup></a> It was a wise
+choice. Vermont may have lost a skilled handworker&mdash;there are those
+who vouch for the excellence of his handiwork<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13"><sup>[13]</sup></a>&mdash;but the Union
+gained a joiner of first-rate ability.</p>
+
+<p>Wedding bells rang in another change in his fortunes. The marriage of
+his sister to a young New Yorker from Ontario County, was followed by
+the marriage of his mother to the father, Gehazi Granger. Both couples
+took up their residence on the Granger estate, and thither also went
+Stephen, with perhaps a sense of loneliness in his boyish heart.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14"><sup>[14]</sup></a>
+He was then but seventeen. This removal to New York State proved to be
+his first step along a path which Vermonters were wearing toward the
+West.</p>
+
+<p>Happily, his academic course was not long interrupted by this
+migration, for Canandaigua Academy, which offered unusual advantages,
+was within easy reach from his new home. Under the wise instruction of
+Professor Henry Howe, he began the study of Latin <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>and Greek; and by
+his own account made &quot;considerable improvement,&quot; though there is
+little evidence in his later life of any acquaintance with the
+classics. He took an active part in the doings of the literary
+societies of the academy, distinguishing himself by his readiness in
+debate. His Democratic proclivities were still strong; and he became
+an ardent defender of Democracy against the rising tide of
+Anti-Masonry, which was threatening to sweep New York from its
+political moorings. Tradition says that young Douglass mingled much
+with local politicians, learning not a little about the arts and
+devices by which the Albany Regency controlled the Democratic
+organization in the State. In this school of practical politics he was
+beyond a peradventure an apt pupil.</p>
+
+<p>A characteristic story is told of Douglass during these school days at
+Canandaigua.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15"><sup>[15]</sup></a> A youngster who occupied a particularly desirable
+seat at table had been ousted by another lad, who claimed a better
+right to the place. Some one suggested that the claimants should have
+the case argued by counsel before a board of arbitration. The
+dispossessed boy lost his case, because of the superior skill with
+which Douglass presented the claims of his client. &quot;It was the first
+assertion of the doctrine of squatter sovereignty,&quot; said the defeated
+claimant, recalling the incident years afterward, when both he and
+Douglas were in politics.</p>
+
+<p>Douglass was now maturing rapidly. His ideals were clearer; his native
+tastes more pronounced. It is not improbable that already he looked
+forward to politics as a career. At all events he took the proximate
+step <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>toward that goal by beginning the study of law in the office of
+local attorneys, at the same time continuing his studies begun in the
+academy. What marked him off from his comrades even at this period was
+his lively acquisitiveness. He seemed to learn quite as much by
+indirection as by persevering application to books.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16"><sup>[16]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1833, the same unrest that sent the first Douglass
+across the sea to the new world, seized the young man. Against the
+remonstrances of his mother and his relatives, he started for the
+great West which then spelled opportunity to so many young men. He was
+only twenty years old, and he had not yet finished his academic
+course; but with the impatience of ambition he was reluctant to spend
+four more years in study before he could gain admission to the bar. In
+the newer States of the West conditions were easier. Moreover, he was
+no longer willing to be a burden to his mother, whose resources were
+limited. And so, with purposes only half formed and with only enough
+money for his immediate needs, he began, not so much a journey, as a
+drift in a westerly direction, for he had no particular destination in
+view.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17"><sup>[17]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>After a short stay in Buffalo and a visit to Niagara Falls and the
+battle ground of Chippewa, the boy took a steamboat to Cleveland,
+where happily he found a friend in Sherlock J. Andrews, Esquire, a
+successful attorney and a man of kindly impulses. Finding the city
+attractive and the requirements for the Ohio bar less rigorous,
+Douglass determined to drop anchor in this pleasant port. Mr. Andrews
+encouraged him in <a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a>this purpose, offering the use of his office and
+law library. In a single year Douglass hoped to gain admission to the
+bar. With characteristic energy, he began his studies. Fate ruled,
+however, that his career should not be linked with the Western
+Reserve. Within a few days he was prostrated by that foe which then
+lurked in the marshes and lowlands of the West&mdash;foe more dreaded than
+the redman&mdash;malarial typhoid. For four weary months he kept his bed,
+hovering between life and death, until the heat of summer was spent
+and the first frosts of October came to revive him. Urgent appeals now
+came to him to return home; but pride kept him from yielding. After
+paying all his bills, he still had forty dollars left. He resolved to
+push on farther into the interior.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18"><sup>[18]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>He was far from well when he took the canal boat from Cleveland to
+Portsmouth on the Ohio river; but he was now in a reckless and
+adventurous mood. He would test his luck by pressing on to Cincinnati.
+He had no well-defined purpose: he was in a listless mood, which was
+no doubt partly the result of physical exhaustion. From Cincinnati he
+drifted on to Louisville, and then to St. Louis. His small funds were
+now almost all spent. He must soon find occupation or starve. His
+first endeavor was to find a law office where he could earn enough by
+copying and other work to pay his expenses while he continued his law
+studies. No such opening fell in his way and he had no letters of
+introduction here to smooth his path. He was now convinced that he
+must seek some small country town. Hearing that Jacksonville,
+Illinois, was a thriving settlement, he resolved to try his luck in
+this quarter. <a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>With much the same desperation with which a gambler
+plays his last stake, he took passage on a river boat up the Illinois,
+and set foot upon the soil of the great prairie State.<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19"><sup>[19]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A primitive stage coach plied between the river and Jacksonville. Too
+fatigued to walk the intervening distance, Douglass mounted the
+lumbering vehicle and ruefully paid his fare. From this point of
+vantage he took in the prairie landscape. Morgan County was then but
+sparsely populated. Timber fringed the creeks and the river bottoms,
+while the prairie grass grew rank over soil of unsuspected fertility.
+Most dwellings were rude structures made of rough-hewn logs and
+designed as makeshifts. Wildcats and wolves prowled through the timber
+lands in winter, and game of all sorts abounded.<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20"><sup>[20]</sup></a> As the stage
+swung lazily along, the lad had ample time to let the first impression
+of the prairie landscape sink deep. In the timber, the trees were
+festooned with bitter-sweet and with vines bearing wild grapes; in the
+open country, nothing but unmeasured stretches of waving grass caught
+the eye.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21"><sup>[21]</sup></a> To one born and bred among the hills, this broad horizon
+and unbroken landscape must have been a revelation. Weak as he was,
+Douglass drew in the fresh autumnal air with zest, and unconsciously
+borrowed from the face of nature a sense of unbounded capacity. Years
+afterward, when he was famous, he testified, &quot;I found my mind
+liberalized and my opinions enlarged, when I got on these broad
+prairies, with only the heavens to bound my vision, instead of having
+<a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>them circumscribed by the little ridges that surrounded the valley
+where I was born.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22"><sup>[22]</sup></a> But of all this he was unconscious, when he
+alighted from the stage in Jacksonville. He was simply a wayworn lad,
+without a friend in the town and with only one dollar and twenty-five
+cents in his pocket.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23"><sup>[23]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Jacksonville was then hardly more than a crowded village of log cabins
+on the outposts of civilized Illinois.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24"><sup>[24]</sup></a> Comfort was not among the
+first concerns of those who had come to subdue the wilderness. Comfort
+implied leisure to enjoy, and leisure was like Heaven,&mdash;to be attained
+only after a wearisome earthly pilgrimage. Jacksonville had been
+scourged by the cholera during the summer; and those who had escaped
+the disease had fled the town for fear of it.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25"><sup>[25]</sup></a> By this time,
+however, the epidemic had spent itself, and the refugees had returned.
+All told, the town had a population of about one thousand souls, among
+whom were no less than eleven lawyers, or at least those who called
+themselves such.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26"><sup>[26]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A day's lodging at the Tavern ate up the remainder of the wanderer's
+funds, so that he was forced to sell a few school books that he had
+brought with him. Meanwhile he left no stone unturned to find
+employment to his liking. One of his first acquaintances was Murray
+McConnell, a lawyer, who advised him to go to Pekin, farther up the
+Illinois River, and open a law office. The young man replied that he
+had no license to practice law and no law books. He was assured <a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a>that
+a license was a matter of no consequence, since anyone could practice
+before a justice of the peace, and he could procure one at his
+leisure. As for books, McConnell, with true Western generosity,
+offered to loan such as would be of immediate use. So again Douglass
+took up his travels. At Meredosia, the nearest landing on the river,
+he waited a week for the boat upstream. There was no other available
+route to Pekin. Then came the exasperating intelligence, that the only
+boat which plied between these points had blown up at Alton. After
+settling accounts with the tavern-keeper, he found that he had but
+fifty cents left.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27"><sup>[27]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There was now but one thing to do, since hard manual labor was out of
+the question: he would teach school. But where? Meredosia was a
+forlorn, thriftless place, and he had no money to travel. Fortunately,
+a kind-hearted farmer befriended him, lodging him at his house over
+night and taking him next morning to Exeter, where there was a
+prospect of securing a school. Disappointment again awaited him; but
+Winchester, ten miles away, was said to need a teacher. Taking his
+coat on his arm&mdash;he had left his trunk at Meredosia&mdash;he set off on
+foot for Winchester.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28"><sup>[28]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Accident, happily turned to his profit, served to introduce him to the
+townspeople of Winchester. The morning after his arrival, he found a
+crowd in the public square and learned that an auction sale of
+personal effects was about to take place. Everyone from the
+administrator of the estate to the village idler, was eager for the
+sale to begin. But a clerk to keep record of the sales and to draw the
+notes was wanting. The eye of the administrator fell upon Douglass;
+<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>something in the youth's appearance gave assurance that he could
+&quot;cipher.&quot;. The impatient bystanders &quot;'lowed that he might do,&quot; so he
+was given a trial. Douglass proved fully equal to the task, and in two
+days was in possession of five dollars for his pains.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29"><sup>[29]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Through the good will of the village storekeeper, who also hailed from
+Vermont, Douglass was presented to several citizens who wished to see
+a school opened in town; and by the first Monday in December he had a
+subscription list of forty scholars, each of whom paid three dollars
+for three months' tuition.<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30"><sup>[30]</sup></a> Luck was now coming his way. He found
+lodgings under the roof of this same friendly compatriot, the village
+storekeeper, who gave him the use of a small room adjoining the
+store-room.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31"><sup>[31]</sup></a> Here Douglass spent his evenings, devoting some hours
+to his law books and perhaps more to comfortable chats with his host
+and talkative neighbors around the stove. For diversion he had the
+weekly meetings of the Lyceum, which had just been formed.<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32"><sup>[32]</sup></a> He owed
+much to this institution, for the the debates and discussions gave him
+a chance to convert the traditional leadership which fell to him as
+village schoolmaster, into a real leadership of talent and ready wit.
+In this Lyceum he made his first political speech, defending Andrew
+Jackson and his attack upon the Bank against Josiah Lamborn, a lawyer
+from Jacksonville.<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33"><sup>[33]</sup></a> For a young man he proved himself astonishingly
+well-informed. If the chronology of his autobiography may be accepted,
+he had already read <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>the debates in the Constitutional Convention of
+1787, the <i>Federalist</i>, the works of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
+and the recent debates in Congress.</p>
+
+<p>Even while he was teaching school, Douglass found time to practice law
+in a modest way before the justices of the peace; and when the first
+of March came, he closed the schoolhouse door on his career as
+pedagogue. He at once repaired to Jacksonville and presented himself
+before a justice of the Supreme Court for license to practice law.
+After a short examination, which could not have been very searching,
+he was duly admitted to the bar of Illinois. He still lacked a month
+of being twenty-one years of age.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34"><sup>[34]</sup></a> Measured by the standard of
+older communities in the East, he knew little law; but there were few
+cases in these Western courts which required much more than
+common-sense, ready speech, and acquaintance with legal procedure.
+<i>Stare decisis</i> was a maxim that did not trouble the average lawyer,
+for there were few decisions to stand upon.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35"><sup>[35]</sup></a> Besides, experience
+would make good any deficiencies of preparation.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1">[1]</a>  There can be little doubt that he supplied the data for
+the sketch in Wheeler's Biographical and Political History of
+Congress.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2">[2]</a>  See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical
+Society, 1901, pp. 113-114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3">[3]</a>  Vermont Historical Gazetteer, III, p. 457.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4">[4]</a>  Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5">[5]</a>  Mr. B.F. Field in the <i>Vermonter</i>, January, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6">[6]</a> For many facts relating to Douglas's life, I am indebted
+to an unpublished autobiographical sketch in the possession of his
+son, Judge R.M. Douglas, of Greensboro, North Carolina.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7">[7]</a>  Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 61; also
+MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8">[8]</a>  Troy <i>Whig</i>, July 6, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9">[9]</a>  MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10">[10]</a>  <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11">[11]</a>  MS. Autobiography; see Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 62.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12">[12]</a>  <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13">[13]</a> <i>Vermonter</i>, January, 1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14">[14]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15">[15]</a> This story was repeated to me by Judge Douglas, on the
+authority, I believe, of Senator Lapham of New York.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16">[16]</a> This is the impression of all who knew him personally,
+then and afterward. See Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17">[17]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18">[18]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19">[19]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20">[20]</a> Kirby, Sketch of Joseph Duncan in Fergus Historical
+Series No. 29; also Historic Morgan, p. 60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21">[21]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22">[22]</a> Speech at Jonesboro, in the debate with Lincoln, Sept.
+15, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23">[23]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24">[24]</a> Kirby, Joseph Duncan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25">[25]</a> James S. Anderson in Historic Morgan.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26">[26]</a> Peck, <i>Gazetteer of Illinois</i>, 1834.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27">[27]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28">[28]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29">[29]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30">[30]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31">[31]</a> Letter of E.G. Miner, January, 1877, in Proceedings of
+the Illinois Association of Sons of Vermont.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32">[32]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33">[33]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>; MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34">[34]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35">[35]</a> Hon. J.C. Conkling in Fergus Historical Series,
+No. 22.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The young attorney who opened a law office in the Court House at
+Jacksonville, bore little resemblance to the forlorn lad who had
+vainly sought a livelihood there some months earlier. The winter winds
+of the prairies, so far from racking the frame of the convalescent,
+had braced and toned his whole system. When spring came, he was in the
+best of health and full of animal spirits. He entered upon his new
+life with zest. Here was a people after his own heart; a generous,
+wholesome, optimistic folk. He opened his heart to them, and, of
+course, hospitable doors opened to him. He took society as he found
+it, rude perhaps, but genuine. With plenty of leisure at command, he
+mingled freely with young people of his own age; he joined the
+boisterous young fellows in their village sports; he danced with the
+maidens; and he did not forget to cultivate the good graces of their
+elders. Mothers liked his animation and ready gallantry; fathers found
+him equally responsive on more serious matters of conversation.
+Altogether, he was a very general favorite in a not too fastidious
+society.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36"><sup>[36]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Nor was the circle of the young attorney's acquaintances limited to
+Jacksonville. As the county seat and most important town in Morgan
+County, Jacksonville was a sort of rural emporium. Thither came
+<a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>farmers from the country round about, to market their produce and to
+purchase their supplies. The town had an unwontedly busy aspect on
+Saturdays. This was the day which drew women to town. While they did
+their shopping, the men loitered on street corners, or around the
+Court House, to greet old acquaintances. Douglass was sure to be found
+among them, joining in that most subtle of all social processes, the
+forming of public opinion. Moving about from group to group, with his
+pockets stuffed with newspapers, he became a familiar figure.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37"><sup>[37]</sup></a>
+Plain farmers, in clothes soiled with the rich loam of the prairies,
+enjoyed hearing the young fellow express so pointedly their own
+nascent convictions.</p>
+
+<p>This forum was an excellent school for the future politician. The dust
+might accumulate upon his law books: he was learning unwritten law in
+the hearts of these countrymen. And yet, even at this time, he
+exhibited a certain maturity. There seems never to have been a time
+when the arts of the politician were not instinctive in him. He had no
+boyish illusions to outlive regarding the nature and conditions of
+public life. His perfect self-possession attested this mental
+maturity.</p>
+
+<p>One of the first friendships which the young lawyer formed in his new
+home was with S.S. Brooks, Esq., editor of the Jacksonville <i>News</i>.
+While Douglass was still in Winchester, the first issue of this sheet
+had appeared; and he had written a complimentary letter to Brooks,
+congratulating him on his enterprise. The grateful editor never forgot
+this kindly word of <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>encouragement.<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38"><sup>[38]</sup></a> The intimacy which followed
+was of great value to the younger man, who needed just the advertising
+which the editor was in a position to give. The bond between them was
+their devotion to the fortunes of Andrew Jackson. Together they
+labored to consolidate the Democratic forces of the county, with
+results which must have surprised even the sanguine young lawyer.</p>
+
+<p>The political situation in Morgan County, as the State election
+approached, is not altogether clear. President Jackson's high-handed
+acts, particularly his attitude toward the National Bank, had alarmed
+many men who had supported him in 1832. There were defections in the
+ranks of the Democracy. The State elections would surely turn on
+national issues. The Whigs were noisy, assertive, and confident.
+Largely through the efforts of Brooks and Douglass, the Democrats of
+Jacksonville were persuaded to call a mass-meeting of all good
+Democrats in the county. It was on this occasion, very soon after his
+arrival in town, that Douglass made his d&eacute;but on the political stage.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that accident brought the young lawyer into prominence at
+this meeting. A well-known Democrat who was to have presented
+resolutions, demurred, at the last minute, and thrust the copy into
+Douglass' hands, bidding him read them. The Court House was full to
+overflowing with interested observers of this little by-play.
+Excitement ran high, for the opposition within the party was vehement
+in its protest to cut-and-dried resolutions commending Jackson. An
+older man with more discretion and modesty, would have hesitated to
+face the audience; but Douglass possessed <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>neither retiring modesty
+nor the sobriety which comes with years. He not only read the
+resolutions, but he defended them with such vigorous logic and with
+such caustic criticism of Whigs and half-hearted Democrats, that he
+carried the meeting with him in tumultuous approval of the course of
+Andrew Jackson, past and present.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39"><sup>[39]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The next issue of the <i>Patriot</i>, the local Whig paper, devoted two
+columns to the speech of this young Democratic upstart; and for weeks
+thereafter the editor flayed him on all possible occasions. The result
+was such an enviable notoriety for the young attorney among Whigs and
+such fame among Democrats, that he received collection demands to the
+amount of thousands of dollars from persons whom he had never seen or
+known. In after years, looking back on these beginnings, he used to
+wonder whether he ought not to have paid the editor of the <i>Patriot</i>
+for his abuse, according to the usual advertising rates.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40"><sup>[40]</sup></a> The
+political outcome was not in every respect so gratifying. The
+Democratic county ticket was elected and a Democratic congressman from
+the district; but the Whigs elected their candidate for governor.</p>
+
+<p>A factional quarrel among members of his own party gave Douglass his
+reward for services to the cause of Democracy, and his first political
+office. Captain John Wyatt nursed a grudge against John J. Hardin,
+Esq., who had been elected State's attorney for the district through
+his influence, but who had subsequently proved ungrateful. Wyatt had
+been re-elected member of the <a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>legislature, however, in spite of
+Hardin's opposition, and now wished to revenge himself, by ousting
+Hardin from his office. With this end in view, Wyatt had Douglass
+draft a bill making the State's attorneys elective by the legislature,
+instead of subject to the governor's appointment. Since the new
+governor was a Whig, he could not be used by the Democrats. The bill
+met with bitter opposition, for it was alleged that it had no other
+purpose than to vacate Hardin's office for the benefit of Douglass.
+This was solemnly denied;<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41"><sup>[41]</sup></a> but when the bill had been declared
+unconstitutional by the Council of Revision, Douglass' friends made
+desperate exertions to pass the bill over the veto, with the now
+openly avowed purpose to elect him to the office. The bill passed, and
+on the 10th of February, 1835, the legislature in joint session
+elected the boyish lawyer State's attorney for the first judicial
+district, by a majority of four votes over an attorney of experience
+and recognized merit. It is possible, as Douglass afterward averred,
+that he neither coveted the office nor believed himself fitted for it;
+and that his judgment was overruled by his friends. But he accepted
+the office, nevertheless.</p>
+
+<p>When Douglas,&mdash;for he had now begun to drop the superfluous s in the
+family name, for simplicity's sake,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42"><sup>[42]</sup></a>&mdash;set out on his judicial
+circuit, he was not an imposing figure. There was little in his boyish
+face to command attention, except his dark-blue, lustrous eyes. His
+big head seemed out of proportion to his <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>stunted figure. He measured
+scarcely over five feet and weighed less than a hundred and ten
+pounds. Astride his horse, he looked still more diminutive. His mount
+was a young horse which he had borrowed. He carried under his arm a
+single book, also loaned, a copy of the criminal law.<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43"><sup>[43]</sup></a> His chief
+asset was a large fund of Yankee shrewdness and good nature.</p>
+
+<p>An amusing incident occurred in McLean County at the first court which
+Douglas attended. There were many indictments to be drawn, and the new
+prosecuting attorney, in his haste, misspelled the name of the
+county&mdash;M Clean instead of M'Lean. His professional brethren were
+greatly amused at this evidence of inexperience; and made merry over
+the blunder. Finally, John T. Stuart, subsequently Douglas's political
+rival, moved that all the indictments be quashed. Judge Logan asked
+the discomfited youth what he had to say to support the indictments.
+Smarting under the gibes of Stuart, Douglas replied obstinately that
+he had nothing to say, as he supposed the Court would not quash the
+indictments until the point had been proven. This answer aroused more
+merriment; but the Judge decided that the Court could not rule upon
+the matter, until the precise spelling in the statute creating the
+county had been ascertained. No one doubted what the result would be;
+but at least Douglas had the satisfaction of causing his critics some
+annoyance and two days' delay, for the statutes had to be procured
+from an adjoining county. To the astonishment of Court and Bar, and of
+Douglas himself, it appeared that Douglas had spelled the name
+correctly. To the indescribable chagrin of the learned Stuart, the
+<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>Court promptly sustained all the indictments. The young attorney was
+in high feather; and he made the most of his triumph. The incident
+taught him a useful lesson: henceforth he would admit nothing, and
+require his opponents to prove everything that bore upon the case in
+hand. Some time later, upon comparing the printed statute of the
+county with the enrolled bill in the office of the Secretary of State,
+Douglas found that the printer had made a mistake and that the name of
+the county should have been M'Lean.<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44"><sup>[44]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the whole Douglas seems to have discharged his not very onerous
+duties acceptably. The more his fellow practitioners saw of him, the
+more respect they had for him. Moreover, they liked him personally.
+His wholesome frankness disarmed ill-natured opponents; his generosity
+made them fast friends. There was not an inn or hostelry in the
+circuit, which did not welcome the sight of the talkative,
+companionable, young district attorney.</p>
+
+<p>Politically as well as socially, Illinois was in a transitional stage.
+Although political parties existed, they were rather loose
+associations of men holding similar political convictions than parties
+in the modern sense with permanent organs of control. He who would
+might stand for office, either announcing his own candidacy in the
+newspapers, or if his modesty forbade this course, causing such an
+announcement to be made by &quot;many voters.&quot; In benighted districts,
+where the light of the press did not shine, the candidate offered
+<a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>himself in person. Even after the advent of Andrew Jackson in national
+politics, allegiance to party was so far subordinated to personal
+ambition, that it was no uncommon occurrence for several candidates
+from each party to enter the lists.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45"><sup>[45]</sup></a> From the point of view of
+party, this practice was strategically faulty, since there was always
+the possibility that the opposing party might unite on a single
+candidate. What was needed to insure the success of party was the
+rationale of an army. But organization was abhorrent to people so
+tenacious of their personal freedom as Illinoisans, because
+organization necessitated the subordination of the individual to the
+centralized authority of the group. To the average man organization
+spelled dictation.</p>
+
+<p>The first step in the effective control of nominations by party in
+Illinois, was taken by certain Democrats, foremost among whom was S.A.
+Douglas, Esq. His rise as a politician, indeed, coincides with this
+development of party organization and machinery. The movement began
+sporadically in several counties. At the instance of Douglas and his
+friend Brooks of the <i>News</i>, the Democrats of Morgan County put
+themselves on record as favoring a State convention to choose
+delegates to the national convention of 1836.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46"><sup>[46]</sup></a> County after county
+adopted the suggestion, until the movement culminated in a
+well-attended convention at Vandalia in April, 1835. Not all counties
+were represented, to be sure, and no permanent organization was
+effected; but provision was made for a second convention in December,
+to nominate presidential electors.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47"><sup>[47]</sup></a> Among the delegates from Morgan
+County in this <a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a>December convention was Douglas, burning with zeal for
+the consolidation of his party. Signs were not wanting that he was in
+league with other zealots to execute a sort of <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> within
+the party. Early in the session, one Ebenezer Peck, recently from
+Canada, boldly proposed that the convention should proceed to nominate
+not only presidential electors but candidates for State offices as
+well. A storm of protests broke upon his head, and for the moment he
+was silenced; but on the second day, he and his confidants succeeded
+in precipitating a general discussion of the convention system.
+Peck&mdash;contemptuously styled &quot;the Canadian&quot; by his enemies&mdash;secured the
+floor and launched upon a vigorous defense of the nominating
+convention as a piece of party machinery. He thought it absurd to talk
+of a man's having a right to become a candidate for office without the
+indorsement of his party. He believed it equally irrational to allow
+members of the party to consult personal preferences in voting. The
+members of the party must submit to discipline, if they expected to
+secure control of office. Confusion again reigned. The presiding
+officer left the chair precipitately, denouncing the notions of Peck
+as anti-republican.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48"><sup>[48]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the exciting wrangle that followed, Douglas was understood to say
+that he had seen the workings of the nominating convention in New
+York, and he knew it to be the only way to manage elections
+successfully. The opposition had overthrown the great DeWitt Clinton
+only by organizing and adopting the convention system. Gentlemen were
+mistaken who feared that the people of the West had enjoyed their own
+opinions too long <a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>to submit quietly to the wise regulations of a
+convention. He knew them better: he had himself had the honor of
+introducing the nominating convention into Morgan County, where it had
+already prostrated one individual high in office. These wise
+admonitions from a mere stripling failed to mollify the conservatives.
+The meeting broke up in disorder, leaving the party with divided
+counsels.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49"><sup>[49]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Successful county and district conventions did much to break down the
+resistance to the system. During the following months, Morgan County,
+and the congressional district to which it belonged, became a
+political experiment station. A convention at Jacksonville in April
+not only succeeded in nominating one candidate for each elective
+office, but also in securing the support of the disappointed aspirants
+for office, which under the circumstances was in itself a triumph.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50"><sup>[50]</sup></a>
+Taking their cue from the enemy, the Whigs of Morgan County also
+united upon a ticket for the State offices, at the head of which was
+John J. Hardin, a formidable campaigner. When the canvass was fairly
+under way, not a man could be found on the Democratic ticket to hold
+his own with Hardin on the hustings. The ticket was then reorganized
+so as to make a place for Douglas, who was already recognized as one
+of the ablest debaters in the county. Just how this transposition was
+effected is not clear. Apparently one of the nominees of the
+convention for State representative was persuaded to withdraw.<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51"><sup>[51]</sup></a> The
+Whigs promptly pointed <a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a>out the inconsistency of this performance.
+&quot;What are good Democrats to do?&quot; asked the Sangamo <i>Journal</i>
+mockingly. Douglas had told them to vote for no man who had not been
+nominated by a caucus!<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52"><sup>[52]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Democrats committed also another tactical blunder. The county
+convention had adjourned without appointing delegates to the
+congressional district convention, which was to be held at Peoria.
+Such of the delegates as had remained in town, together with resident
+Democrats, were hastily reassembled to make good this omission.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53"><sup>[53]</sup></a>
+Douglas and eight others were accredited to the Peoria convention; but
+when they arrived, they found only four other delegates present, one
+from each of four counties. Nineteen counties were unrepresented.<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54"><sup>[54]</sup></a>
+Evidently there was little or no interest in this political
+innovation. In no wise disheartened, however, these thirteen delegates
+declared themselves a duly authorized district convention and put
+candidates in nomination for the several offices. Again the Whig press
+scored their opponents. &quot;Our citizens cannot be led at the dictation
+of a dozen unauthorized individuals, but will act as freemen,&quot; said
+the Sangamo <i>Journal</i>.<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55"><sup>[55]</sup></a> There were stalwart Democrats, too, who
+refused to put on &quot;the Caucus collar.&quot; Douglas and his &quot;Peoria Humbug
+Convention&quot; were roundly abused on all sides. The young politician
+might have replied, and doubtless did reply, that the rank and file
+had not yet become accustomed to the system, and that the bad roads
+and inclement weather were largely responsible for the slim attendance
+at Peoria.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>The campaign was fought with the inevitable concomitants of an
+Illinois election. The weapons that slew the adversary were not always
+forged by logic. In rude regions, where the rougher border element
+congregated, country stores were subsidized by candidates, and liquor
+liberally dispensed. The candidate who refused to treat was doomed. He
+was the last man to get a hearing, when the crowds gathered on
+Saturday nights to hear the candidates discuss the questions at issue.
+To speak from an improvised rostrum&mdash;&quot;the stump&quot;&mdash;to a boisterous
+throng of men who had already accepted the orator's hospitality at the
+store, was no light ordeal. This was the school of oratory in which
+Douglas was trained.<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56"><sup>[56]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The election of all but one of the Democratic nominees was hailed as a
+complete vindication of the nominating convention as a piece of party
+machinery. Douglas shared the elation of his fellow workers, even
+though he was made to feel that his nomination was not due to this
+much-vaunted caucus system. At all events, the value of organization
+and discipline had been demonstrated. The day of the professional
+politician and of the machine was dawning in the frontier State of
+Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>During the campaign there had been much wild talk about internal
+improvements. The mania which had taken possession of the people in
+most Western States had affected the grangers of Illinois. It amounted
+to an obsession. The State was called upon to use its resources and
+unlimited credit to provide a market for their produce, by supplying
+transportation facilities for every aspiring community. Elsewhere
+State credit <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>was building canals and railroads: why should Illinois,
+so generously endowed by nature, lag behind? Where crops were spoiling
+for a market, farmers were not disposed to inquire into the mysteries
+of high finance and the nature of public credit. All doubts were laid
+to rest by the magic phrase &quot;natural resources.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57"><sup>[57]</sup></a> Mass-meetings
+here and there gave propulsion to the movement.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58"><sup>[58]</sup></a> Candidates for
+State office were forced to make the maddest pledges. A grand
+demonstration was projected at Vandalia just as the legislature
+assembled.</p>
+
+<p>The legislature which met in December, 1836, is one of the most
+memorable, and least creditable, in the annals of Illinois. In full
+view of the popular demonstrations at the capital, the members could
+not remained unmoved and indifferent to the demands of their
+constituents, if they wished. Besides, the great majority were already
+committed in favor of internal improvements in some form. The subject
+dwarfed all others. For a time two sessions a day were held; and
+special committees prolonged their labors far into the night.
+Petitions from every quarter deluged the assembly.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59"><sup>[59]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A plan for internal improvements had already taken shape in the mind
+of the young representative from Morgan County.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60"><sup>[60]</sup></a> He made haste to
+lay it before his colleagues. First of all, he would have the State
+complete the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improve the navigation
+of the Illinois and Wabash rivers. Then <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>he would have two railroads
+constructed which would cross the State from north to south, and from
+east to west. For these purposes he would negotiate a loan, pledging
+the credit of the State, and meet the interest payments by judicious
+sales of the public lands which had been granted by the Federal
+government for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.
+The most creditable feature of these proposals is their moderation.
+This youth of twenty-three evinced far more conservatism than many
+colleagues twice his age.</p>
+
+<p>There was not the slightest prospect, however, that moderate views
+would prevail. Log-rolling had already begun; the lobby was active;
+and every member of the legislature who had pledged himself to his
+constituents was solicitous that his section of the State should not
+be passed over, in the general scramble for appropriations. In the end
+a bill was drawn, which proposed to appropriate no less than
+$10,230,000 for public works. A sum of $500,000 was set aside for
+river improvements, but the remainder was to be expended in the
+construction of eight railroads. A sop of $200,000 was tossed to those
+counties through which no canal or railroad was to pass.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61"><sup>[61]</sup></a> What were
+prudent men to do? Should they support this bill, which they believed
+to be thoroughly pernicious, or incur the displeasure of their
+constituents by defeating this, and probably every other, project for
+the session? Douglas was put in a peculiarly trying position. He had
+opposed this &quot;mammoth bill,&quot; but he knew his constituents favored it.
+With great reluctance, he voted for <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>the bill.<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62"><sup>[62]</sup></a> He was not minded
+to immolate himself on the altar of public economy at the very
+threshold of his career.<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63"><sup>[63]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Much the same issue was forced upon Douglas in connection with the
+Illinois and Michigan canal. Unexpected obstacles to the construction
+of the canal had been encountered. To allow the waters of Lake
+Michigan to flow through the projected canal, it was found that a cut
+eighteen feet deep would have to be made for twenty-eight miles
+through solid rock. The cost of such an undertaking would exceed the
+entire appropriation. It was then suggested that a shallow cut might
+be made above the level of Lake Michigan which would then permit the
+Calumet River or the Des Plaines, to be used as a feeder. The problem
+was one for expert engineers to solve; but it devolved upon an
+ignorant assembly, which seems to have done its best to reduce the
+problem to a political equation. A majority of the House&mdash;Douglas
+among them&mdash;favored a shallow cut, while the Senate voted for the deep
+cut. The deadlock continued for some weeks, until a conference
+committee succeeded in agreeing upon the Senate's programme. As a
+member of the conferring committee, Douglas vigorously opposed this
+settlement, but on the final vote in the House he yielded his
+convictions. In after years he took great satisfaction in pointing
+out&mdash;as evidence of his prescience&mdash;that the State became financially
+<a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>embarrassed and had finally to adopt the shallow cut.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64"><sup>[64]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The members of the 10th General Assembly have not been wont to point
+with pride to their record. With a few notable exceptions they had
+fallen victims to a credulity which had become epidemic. When the
+assembly of 1840 repealed this magnificent act for the improvement of
+Illinois, they encountered an accumulated indebtedness of over
+$14,000,000. There are other aspects of the assembly of 1836-37 upon
+which it is pleasanter to dwell.</p>
+
+<p>As chairman of a committee on petitions Douglas rendered a real
+service to public morality. The general assembly had been wont upon
+petition to grant divorces by special acts. Before the legislature had
+been in session ten days, no less than four petitions for divorces had
+been received. It was a custom reflecting little credit upon the
+State.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65"><sup>[65]</sup></a> Reporting for his committee, Douglas contended that the
+legislature had no power to grant divorces, but only to enact salutary
+laws, which should state the circumstances under which divorces might
+be granted by the courts. The existing practice, he argued, was
+contrary to those provisions of the constitution which expressly
+separated the three departments of government. Moreover, everyone
+recognized the injustice and unwisdom of dissolving marriage contracts
+by act of legislature, upon <i>ex parte</i> evidence.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66"><sup>[66]</sup></a> Without
+expressing an opinion on the constitutional questions involved, the
+assembly accepted the main recommendation of the committee, that
+<a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>henceforth the legislature should not grant bills of divorce.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67"><sup>[67]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>One of the recurring questions during this session was whether the
+State capital should be moved. Vandalia was an insignificant town,
+difficult of access and rapidly falling far south of the center of
+population in the State. Springfield was particularly desirous to
+become the capital, though there were other towns which had claims
+equally strong. The Sangamon County delegation was annoyingly
+aggressive in behalf of their county seat. They were a conspicuous
+group, not merely because of their stature, which earned for them the
+nickname of &quot;the Long Nine,&quot; but also because they were men of real
+ability and practical shrewdness. By adroit management, a vote was
+first secured to move the capital from Vandalia, and then to locate it
+at Springfield. Unquestionably there was some trading of votes in
+return for special concessions in the Internal Improvements bill. It
+is said that Abraham Lincoln was the virtual head of the Sangamon
+delegation, and the chief promoter of the project.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68"><sup>[68]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, Douglas resigned his
+seat to become Register of the Land Office at Springfield; and when
+&quot;the Long Nine&quot; returned to their constituents and were f&ecirc;ted and
+banqueted by the grateful citizens of Springfield, Douglas sat among
+the guests of honor.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69"><sup>[69]</sup></a> It began to be rumored about that the young
+man owed his appointment to the Sangamon delegation, whose schemes he
+had industriously furthered in the legislature. <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>Finally, the Illinois
+<i>Patriot</i> made the direct accusation of bargain.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70"><sup>[70]</sup></a> Touched to the
+quick, Douglas wrote a letter to the editor which fairly bristles with
+righteous indignation. His circumstantial denial of the charge,&mdash;his
+well-known opposition to the removal of the capital and to all the
+schemes of the Sangamon delegation during the session,&mdash;cleared him of
+all complicity. Indeed, Douglas was too zealous a partisan to play
+into the hands of the Sangamon Whigs.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71"><sup>[71]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The advent of the young Register at the Land Office was noted by the
+Sangamo Whig <i>Journal</i> in these words: &quot;The Land Office at this place
+was opened on Monday last. We are told the <i>little man</i> from Morgan
+was perfectly astonished, at finding himself making money at the rate
+of from one to two hundred dollars a day!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72"><sup>[72]</sup></a> This sarcastic comment
+is at least good evidence that the office was doing a thriving
+business. In two respects Douglas had bettered himself by this change
+of occupation. He could not afford to hold his seat in the legislature
+with its small salary. Now he was assured of a competence. Besides, as
+a resident of Springfield, he could keep in touch with politics at the
+future capital and bide his time until he was again promoted for
+conspicuous service to his party.</p>
+
+<p>The educative value of his new office was no small consideration to
+the young lawyer. He not only kept the records and plans of surveys
+within his district, but put up each tract at auction, in accordance
+with <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>the proclamation of the President, and issued certificates of
+sale to all purchasers, describing the land purchased. The duties were
+not onerous, but they required considerable familiarity with land laws
+and with the practical difficulties arising from imperfect surveys,
+pre-emption rights, and conflicting claims.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73"><sup>[73]</sup></a> Daily contact with the
+practical aspects of the public land policy of the country, seems to
+have opened his eyes to the significance of the public domain as a
+national asset. With all his realism, Douglas was gifted with a
+certain sort of imagination in things political. He not only saw what
+was obvious to the dullest clerk,&mdash;the revenue derived from land
+sales,&mdash;but also those intangible and prospective gains which would
+accrue to State and nation from the occupation and cultivation of the
+national domain. He came to believe that, even if not a penny came
+into the treasury, the government would still be richer from having
+parcelled out the great uninhabited wastes in the West. Beneath the
+soiled and uncomely exterior of the Western pioneer, native or
+foreigner, Douglas discerned not only a future tax-bearer, but the
+founder of Commonwealths.</p>
+
+<p>Only isolated bits of tradition throw light upon the daily life of the
+young Register of the Land Office. All point to the fact that politics
+was his absorbing interest. He had no avocations; he had no private
+life, no esoteric tastes which invite a prying curiosity; he had no
+subtle aspects of character and temperament which sometimes make even
+commonplace lives dramatic. His life was lived in the open. Lodging at
+the <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>American Tavern, he was always seen in company with other men.
+Diller's drug-store, near the old market, was a familiar rendezvous
+for him and his boon companions. Just as he had no strong interests
+which were not political, so his intimates were likely to be his
+political confr&egrave;res. He had no literary tastes: if he read at all, he
+read law or politics.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74"><sup>[74]</sup></a> Yet while these characteristics suggest
+narrowness, they were perhaps the inevitable outcome of a society
+possessing few cultural resources and refinements, but tremendous
+directness of purpose.</p>
+
+<p>One of the haunts of Douglas in these Springfield days was the office
+of the <i>Republican</i>, a Democratic journal then edited by the Webers.
+There he picked up items of political gossip and chatted with the
+chance comer, or with habitu&eacute;s like himself. He was a welcome visitor,
+just the man whom a country editor, mauling over hackneyed matter,
+likes to have stimulate his flagging wits with a jest or a racy
+anecdote. Now and then Douglas would take up a pen good-naturedly, and
+scratch off an editorial which would set Springfield politicians by
+the ears. The tone of the <i>Republican</i>, as indeed of the Western press
+generally at this time, was low. Editors of rival newspapers heaped
+abuse upon each other, without much regard to either truth or decency.
+Feuds were the inevitable product of these editorial amenities.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, the <i>Republican</i> 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
+<a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>straightforward defense of their expenditures. The <i>Republican</i>
+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
+<i>Republican</i> 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.<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75"><sup>[75]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76"><sup>[76]</sup></a> 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 <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>urged to form a similar committee.
+Another committee was also created&mdash;the Committee of Thirty&mdash;to
+prepare an address to the voters. Fifth on this latter committee was
+the name of S.A. Douglas of Sangamon.<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77"><sup>[77]</sup></a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 &quot;Address
+to the Democratic Republicans of Illinois&quot; which may have been coined
+in his mint. The statement that &quot;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,&quot; has a familiar, full-mouthed quality.<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78"><sup>[78]</sup></a> 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 &quot;the only safe and
+proper way of securing union and victory.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79"><sup>[79]</sup></a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>Before many weeks of the campaign had passed, Douglas had ceased to be
+merely a consultative <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>specialist on party ailments. Not at all
+unwillingly, he was drawn into active service. It was commonly
+supposed that the Honorable William L. May, who had served a term in
+Congress acceptably, would again become the nominee of the Democratic
+party without opposition. If the old-time practice prevailed, he would
+quietly assume the nomination &quot;at the request of many friends.&quot; Still,
+consistency required that the nomination should be made in due form by
+a convention. The Springfield <i>Republican</i> clamored for a convention;
+and the Jacksonville <i>News</i> echoed the cry.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80"><sup>[80]</sup></a> Other Democratic
+papers took up the cry, until by general agreement a congressional
+district convention was summoned to meet at Peoria. The Jacksonville
+<i>News</i> was then ready with a list of eligible candidates among whom
+Douglas was mentioned. At the same time the enterprising Brooks
+announced &quot;authoritatively&quot; that <i>if</i> Mr. May concluded to become a
+candidate, he would submit his claims to the consideration of the
+convention.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81"><sup>[81]</sup></a> This was the first intimation that the gentleman's
+claims were likely to be contested in the convention. Meantime, good
+friends in Sangamon County saw to it that the county delegation was
+made up of men who were favorably disposed toward Douglas, and bound
+them by instructions to act as a unit in the convention.<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82"><sup>[82]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The history of the district convention has never been written: it
+needs no historian. Under the circumstances the outcome was a foregone
+conclusion. Not all the counties were represented; some were <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>poorly
+represented; most of the delegates came without any clearly defined
+aims; all were unfamiliar with the procedure of conventions. The
+Sangamon County delegation alone, with the possible exception of that
+from Morgan County, knew exactly what it wanted. When a ballot was
+taken, Douglas received a majority of votes cast, and was declared to
+be the regular nominee of the party for Congress.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83"><sup>[83]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There was much shaking of heads over this machine-made nomination. An
+experienced public servant had been set aside to gratify the ambition
+of a mere stripling. Even Democrats commented freely upon the
+untrustworthiness of a device which left nominations to the caprice of
+forty delegates representing only fourteen counties out of
+thirty-five.<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84"><sup>[84]</sup></a> The Whigs made merry over the folly of their
+opponents. &quot;No nomination could suit us better,&quot; declared the Sangamo
+<i>Journal</i>.<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85"><sup>[85]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Democratic State convention met at the appointed time, and again
+new methods prevailed. In spite of strong opposition, a slate was made
+up and proclaimed as the regular ticket of the party. Unhappily, the
+nominee for governor fell under suspicion as an alleged defaulter to
+the government, so that his deposition became imperative.<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86"><sup>[86]</sup></a> The
+Democrats were in a sorry plight. Defeat stared them in the face.
+There was but one way to save the situation, and that was to call a
+second convention. This was done. On June 5th, a new ticket was put in
+the field, without further <a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>mention of the discredited nominee of the
+earlier convention.<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87"><sup>[87]</sup></a> It so happened that Carlin, the nominee for
+Governor, and McRoberts, candidate for Congress from the first
+district, were receivers in land offices. This &quot;Land Office Ticket&quot;
+became a fair mark for wags in the Whig party.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88"><sup>[88]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In after years, Douglas made his friends believe that he accepted the
+nomination with no expectation of success: his only purpose was to
+&quot;consolidate the party.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89"><sup>[89]</sup></a> If this be true, his buoyant optimism
+throughout the canvass is admirable. He was pitted against a
+formidable opponent in the person of Major John T. Stuart, who had
+been the candidate of the Whigs two years before. Stuart enjoyed great
+popularity. He was &quot;an old resident&quot; of Springfield,&mdash;as Western
+people then reckoned time. He had earned his title in the Black Hawk
+War, since which he had practiced law. For the arduous campaign, which
+would range over thirty-four counties,&mdash;from Calhoun, Morgan and
+Sangamon on the south to Cook County on the north,&mdash;Stuart was
+physically well-equipped.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90"><sup>[90]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was eager to match himself against Stuart. They started off
+together, in friendly rivalry. As they rode from town to town over
+much the same route, they often met in joint debate; and at night,
+striking a truce, they would on occasion, when inns were few and far
+between, occupy the same quarters. Accommodations were primitive in
+the wilderness of the northern <a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>counties. An old resident relates how
+he was awakened one night by the landlord of the tavern, who insisted
+that he and his companion should share their beds with two belated
+travelers. The late arrivals turned out to be Douglas and Stuart.
+Douglas asked the occupants of the beds what their politics were, and
+on learning that one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, he said to
+Stuart, &quot;Stuart, you sleep with the Whig, and I'll sleep with the
+Democrat.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91"><sup>[91]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas never seemed conscious of the amusing discrepancy between
+himself and his rival in point of physique. Stuart was fully six feet
+tall and heavily built, so that he towered like a giant above his
+boyish competitor. Yet strange to relate, the exposure to all kinds of
+weather, the long rides, and the incessant speaking in the open air
+through five weary months, told on the robust Stuart quite as much as
+on Douglas. In the midst of the canvass Douglas found his way to
+Chicago. He must have been a forlorn object. His horse, his clothes,
+his boots, and his hat were worn out. His harness was held together
+only by ropes and strings. Yet he was still plucky. And so his friends
+fitted him out again and sent him on his way rejoicing.<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92"><sup>[92]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The rivals began the canvass good-naturedly, but both gave evidence of
+increasing irritability as the summer wore on. Shortly before the
+election, they met in joint debate at Springfield, in front of the
+Market House. In the course of his speech, Douglas used language that
+offended his big opponent. Stuart then promptly tucked Douglas's head
+under his arm, and carried him <i>hors de combat</i> around the square. In
+his <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>efforts to free himself, Douglas seized Stuart's thumb in his
+mouth and bit it vigorously, so that Stuart carried a scar, as a
+memento of the occasion, for many a year.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93"><sup>[93]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As the canvass advanced, the assurance of the Whigs gave way to
+ill-disguised alarm. Disquieting rumors of Douglas's popularity among
+some two thousand Irishmen, who were employed on the canal excavation,
+reached the Whig headquarters.<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94"><sup>[94]</sup></a> The young man was assiduously
+cultivating voters in the most inaccessible quarters. He was a far
+more resourceful campaigner than his older rival.</p>
+
+<p>The election in August was followed by weeks of suspense. Both parties
+claimed the district vociferously. The official count finally gave the
+election to Stuart by a majority of thirty-five, in a total vote of
+over thirty-six thousand.<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95"><sup>[95]</sup></a> Possibly Douglas might have successfully
+contested the election.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96"><sup>[96]</sup></a> There were certain discrepancies in the
+counting of the votes; but he declined to vex Congress with the
+question, so he said, because similar cases were pending and he could
+not hope to secure a decision before Congress adjourned. It is
+doubtful whether this merciful consideration for Congress was
+uppermost in his mind in the year 1838. The fact is, that Douglas
+wrote to Senator Thomas H. Benton to ascertain the proper procedure in
+such cases;<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97"><sup>[97]</sup></a> and abandoned the notion of <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>carrying his case before
+Congress, when he learned how costly such a contest would be.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98"><sup>[98]</sup></a> He
+had resigned his position as Register of the Land Office to enter the
+campaign, and he had now no other resources than his profession.</p>
+
+<p>It was comforting to the wounded pride of the young man to have the
+plaudits of his own party, at least. He had made a gallant fight; and
+when Democrats from all over the State met at a dinner in honor of
+Governor-elect Carlin, at Quincy, they paid him this generous tribute:
+&quot;Although so far defeated in the election that the certificate will be
+given to another, yet he has the proud gratification of knowing that
+the people are with him. His untiring zeal, his firm integrity, and
+high order of talents, have endeared him to the Democracy of the State
+and they will remember him two years hence.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99"><sup>[99]</sup></a> Meantime there was
+nothing left for him to do but to solicit a law practice. He entered
+into partnership with a Springfield attorney by the name of Urquhart.</p>
+
+<p>By the following spring, Douglas was again dabbling in local politics,
+and by late fall he was fully immersed in the deeper waters of
+national politics. Preparations for the presidential campaign drew him
+out of his law office,&mdash;where indeed there was nothing to detain
+him,&mdash;and he was once again active in party conclaves. He presided
+over a Democratic county convention, and lent a hand in the drafting
+of a platform.<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100"><sup>[100]</sup></a> In November he was summoned to answer Cyrus
+Walker, <a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>a Whig who was making havoc of the Democratic programme at a
+mass-meeting in the Court House. In the absence of any reliable
+records, nothing more can be said of Douglas's rejoinder than that it
+moved the Whigs in turn to summon reinforcements, in the person of the
+awkward but clever Lincoln. The debate was prolonged far into the
+night; and on which side victory finally folded her wings, no man can
+tell.<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101"><sup>[101]</sup></a> Douglas made the stronger impression, though Whigs
+professed entire satisfaction with the performance of their
+protagonist. There were some in the audience who took exception to
+Lincoln's stale anecdotes, and who thought his manner clownish.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102"><sup>[102]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Not long after this encounter, Douglas came in for his share of public
+ridicule. Considering himself insulted by a squib in the Sangamo
+<i>Journal</i>, Douglas undertook to cane the editor. But as Francis was
+large and rotund, and Douglas was not, the affair terminated
+unsatisfactorily for the latter. Lincoln described the incident with
+great relish, in a letter to Stuart: &quot;Francis caught him by the hair
+and jammed him back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by
+Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous
+that Francis and everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing
+about it ever since.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103"><sup>[103]</sup></a> The Illinois <i>State Register</i> tried to save
+Douglas's dignity by the following account of the rencontre: &quot;Mr.
+Francis had applied scurrilous language to Mr. Douglas, which could be
+noticed in no other way. Mr. Douglas, therefore, gave him a sound
+caning, which Mr. Francis took with Abolition patience, and is now
+<a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>praising God that he was neither killed nor scathed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The executive talents of Douglas were much in demand. First he was
+made a member of the Sangamon County delegation to the State
+convention;<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104"><sup>[104]</sup></a> then chairman of the State Central Committee; and
+finally, virtual manager of the Democratic campaign in Illinois.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105"><sup>[105]</sup></a>
+He was urged to stand for election to the legislature; but he steadily
+refused this nomination. &quot;Considerations of a private nature,&quot; he
+wrote, &quot;constrain me to decline the nomination, and leave the field to
+those whose avocations and private affairs will enable them to devote
+the requisite portion of their time to the canvass.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106"><sup>[106]</sup></a> Inasmuch as
+Sangamon County usually sent a Whig delegation to the legislature,
+this declination could hardly have cost him many hours of painful
+deliberation.<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107"><sup>[107]</sup></a> At all events his avocations did not prevent him
+from making every effort to carry the State for the Democratic party.</p>
+
+<p>An unfortunate legal complication had cost the Democrats no end of
+worry. Hitherto the party had counted safely on the vote of the aliens
+in the State; that is, actual inhabitants whether naturalized or
+not.<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108"><sup>[108]</sup></a> The right of unnaturalized aliens to vote had never been
+called in question. But during the campaign, two Whigs of Galena
+instituted a collusive suit to test the rights of aliens, hoping, of
+course, to embarrass their opponents.<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109"><sup>[109]</sup></a> The Circuit Court had
+<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>already decided the case adversely, when Douglas assumed direction of
+the campaign. If the decision were allowed to stand, the Democratic
+ticket would probably lose some nine thousand votes and consequently
+the election. The case was at once appealed.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110"><sup>[110]</sup></a> Douglas and his old
+friend and benefactor, Murray McConnell, were retained as counsel for
+the appellant. The opposing counsel were Whigs. The case was argued in
+the winter term of the Supreme Court, but was adjourned until the
+following June, a scant six months before the elections.</p>
+
+<p>It was regrettable that a case, which from its very nature was
+complicated by political considerations, should have arisen in the
+midst of a campaign of such unprecedented excitement as that of 1840.
+It was taken for granted, on all sides, that the judges would follow
+their political predilections&mdash;and what had Democrats to expect from a
+bench of Whigs? The counsel for the appellant strained every nerve to
+secure another postponement. Fortune favored the Democrats. When the
+court met in June, Douglas, prompted by Judge Smith, the only Democrat
+on the bench, called attention to clerical errors in the record, and
+on this technicality moved that the case be dismissed. Protracted
+arguments <i>pro and con</i> ensued, so that the whole case finally was
+adjourned until the next term of court in November, after the
+election.<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111"><sup>[111]</sup></a> Once more, at all events, the Democrats could count on
+the alien vote. Did ever lawyer serve politician so well?</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>As Chairman of the State Central Committee, Douglas had no perfunctory
+position. The Whigs were displaying unusual aggressiveness. Their
+leaders were adroit politicians and had taken a leaf from Democratic
+experience in the matter of party organization. The processions, the
+torch-light parades, the barbecues and other noisy demonstrations of
+the Whigs, were very disconcerting. Such performances could not be
+lightly dismissed as &quot;Whig Humbuggery,&quot; for they were alarmingly
+effective in winning votes. In self-defense, the Democratic managers
+were obliged to set on foot counter-demonstrations. On the whole, the
+Democrats were less successful in manufacturing enthusiasm. When one
+convention of young Democrats failed, for want of support, Douglas
+saved the situation only by explaining that hard-working Democrats
+could not leave their employment to go gadding. They preferred to
+leave noise and sham to their opponents, knowing that in the end &quot;the
+quiet but certain influence of truth and correct principles&quot; would
+prevail.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112"><sup>[112]</sup></a> And when the Whigs unwittingly held a great
+demonstration for &quot;Tippecanoe and Tyler too,&quot; on the birthday of King
+George III, Douglas saw to it that an address was issued to voters,
+warning them against the chicane of unpatriotic demagogues. As a
+counter-blast, &quot;All Good Democrats&quot; were summoned to hold
+mass-meetings in the several counties on the Fourth of July. &quot;We
+select the Fourth of July,&quot; read this pronunciamento, &quot;not to
+desecrate it with unhallowed shouts ... but in cool and calm devotion
+to our country, to renew upon the altars of its liberties, a sacred
+oath of fidelity to its principles.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113"><sup>[113]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>Both parties now drew upon their reserves. Douglas went to the front
+whenever and wherever there was hard fighting to be done.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114"><sup>[114]</sup></a> He
+seemed indefatigable. Once again he met Major Stuart on the
+platform.<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115"><sup>[115]</sup></a> He was pitted against experienced campaigners like
+ex-Governor Duncan and General Ewing of Indiana. Douglas made a
+fearless defence of Democratic principles in a joint debate with both
+these Whig champions at Springfield.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116"><sup>[116]</sup></a> The discussion continued far
+into the night. In his anxiety to let no point escape, Douglas had his
+supper brought to him; and it is the testimony of an old Whig who
+heard the debate, that Duncan was &quot;the worst used-up man&quot; he ever
+saw.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117"><sup>[117]</sup></a> Whether Douglas took the field as on this occasion, or
+directed the campaign from headquarters, he was cool, collected, and
+resourceful. If the sobriquet of &quot;the Little Giant&quot; had not already
+been fastened upon him, it was surely earned in this memorable
+campaign of 1840. The victory of Van Buren over Harrison in Illinois
+was little less than a personal triumph for Douglas, for Democratic
+reverses elsewhere emphasized the already conspicuous fact that
+Illinois had been saved only by superior organization and leadership.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36">[36]</a> Joseph Wallace in a letter to the Illinois <i>State
+Register</i>, April 30, 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37">[37]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, April 30, 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38">[38]</a> Sheahan, Life of Douglas, pp. 16-17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39">[39]</a> Sheahan's account of this incident (pp. 18-20) is
+confused. The episode is told very differently in the MS.
+Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40">[40]</a> MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41">[41]</a> In the Autobiography, Douglas makes a vigorous defense
+of his connection with the whole affair.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42">[42]</a> Just when he dropped the final s, I am unable to say.
+Joseph Wallace thinks that he did so soon after coming to Illinois.
+See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1901, p.
+114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43">[43]</a> Joseph Wallace in the Illinois <i>State Register</i>, April
+30, 1899.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44">[44]</a>  Douglas tells the story with great relish in his
+autobiography. The title of the act reads &quot;An Act creating M'Lean
+County,&quot; but the body of the act gives the name as McLean. Douglas had
+used the exact letters of the name, though he had twisted the capital
+letters, writing a capital C for a capital L.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45">[45]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 285-286; see contemporary
+newspapers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46">[46]</a> Illinois <i>Advocate</i>, May 4, 1835.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47">[47]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, May 6, 1835.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48">[48]</a> Illinois <i>Advocate</i>, Dec. 17, 1835; Sangamo <i>Journal</i>,
+Feb. 6, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49">[49]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, February 6, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50">[50]</a> There was one exception, see Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51">[51]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26; Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 67; Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, May 7, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52">[52]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, May 7, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53">[53]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54">[54]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, May 14, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55">[55]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56">[56]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 103-105.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57">[57]</a> See letter of &quot;M&mdash;&quot; in the Illinois <i>State Register</i>,
+July 29, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58">[58]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, October 28, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59">[59]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, December 8, 1836.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60">[60]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 29; MS. Autobiography.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61">[61]</a> Act of February 27, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62">[62]</a> In his Autobiography Douglas says that the friends of
+the bill persuaded his constituents to instruct him to vote for the
+bill; hence his affirmative vote was the vote of his constituents.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63">[63]</a> Douglas was in good company at all events. Abraham
+Lincoln was one of those who voted for the bill.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64">[64]</a> See Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, Chapter 40;
+Wheeler, Biographical History, pp. 68-70; Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+32-33.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65">[65]</a> But it was no worse than the English custom before the
+Act of 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66">[66]</a> House Journal, p. 62.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67">[67]</a> The assembly substituted the word &quot;inexpedient&quot; for
+&quot;unconstitutional,&quot; in the resolution submitted by Douglas. House
+Journal, p. 62.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68">[68]</a> Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, I, pp. 137-138.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69">[69]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 139.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70">[70]</a> Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 111.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71">[71]</a> Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, pp. 111-112. The Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, August 5, 1837, says that
+Douglas owed his appointment to the efforts of Senator Young in his
+behalf.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72">[72]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, August 29, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73">[73]</a> Douglas describes his duties in Cutts, Const. and Party
+Questions, pp. 160 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74">[74]</a> Conversation with Charles A. Keyes, Esq., of
+Springfield, and with Dr. A.W. French, also of Springfield, Illinois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75">[75]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, July 1, 1837. The newspaper accounts
+of this affair are confusing; but they are in substantial agreement as
+to the causes and outcome of the attack upon the office of the
+<i>Republican</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76">[76]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, July 22, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77">[77]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, July 22, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78">[78]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, November 4, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79">[79]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, October 27, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80">[80]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, October 13, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81">[81]</a> Jacksonville <i>News</i>, quoted by Illinois <i>State
+Register</i>, Oct. 13, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82">[82]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, October 27, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83">[83]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 9, 1837; Sangamo
+<i>Journal</i>, November 25, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84">[84]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, November 25, 1837; but see also
+Peoria <i>Register</i>, November 25, 1837.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85">[85]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86">[86]</a> See Illinois <i>State Register</i>, May 11, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87">[87]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, June 8, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88">[88]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, July 21, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89">[89]</a> Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress I, pp. 72-73;
+Sheahan, Douglas, p. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90">[90]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 36-37; Transactions of the
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1902, pp. 109 ff; Peoria
+<i>Register</i>, May 19, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91">[91]</a> Palmer, Personal Recollections, p. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92">[92]</a> Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93">[93]</a> Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1902,
+p. 110.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94">[94]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, August 25, 1838; Peoria <i>Register</i>,
+August 11, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95">[95]</a> Election returns in the Office of the Secretary of
+State.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96">[96]</a> See Sheahan, Douglas, p. 37; also Illinois <i>State
+Register</i>, October 12, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97">[97]</a> MS. Letter, Benton to Douglas, October 27, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98">[98]</a> For correspondence between Douglas and Stuart, see
+Illinois <i>State Register</i>, April 5, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99">[99]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, October 26, 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100">[100]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, April 5, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101">[101]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, November 23, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102">[102]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103">[103]</a> Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, I, p. 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104">[104]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, November 23, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105">[105]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, February 21, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106">[106]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, April 24, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107">[107]</a> See Illinois <i>State Register</i>, August 7, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108">[108]</a> The Constitution of 1819 bestowed the suffrage upon
+every white male &quot;inhabitant&quot; twenty-one years of age.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109">[109]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 44-45.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110">[110]</a> The title of the case was Thomas Spraggins, appellant
+<i>vs.</i> Horace H. Houghton, appellee.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111">[111]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 45-46; Wheeler, Biographical
+History of Congress, p. 76.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112">[112]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, May 15, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113">[113]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, June 12, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114">[114]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, July 10, 1840; Forney,
+Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115">[115]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, September 4, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116">[116]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, October 2, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117">[117]</a> Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago, to the
+writer; see also Illinois <i>State Register</i>, October 2, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>LAW AND POLITICS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The years were passing rapidly during which Douglas should have laid
+broad and deep the foundations of his professional career, if indeed
+law was to be more than a convenient avocation. These were formative
+years in the young man's life; but as yet he had developed neither the
+inclination nor the capacity to apply himself to the study of the more
+intricate and abstruse phases of jurisprudence. To be sure, he had
+picked up much practical information in the courts, but it was not of
+the sort which makes great jurists. Besides, his law practice had
+been, and was always destined to be, the handmaid of his political
+ambition. In such a school, a naturally ardent, impulsive temperament
+does not acquire judicial poise and gravity. After all, he was only a
+soldier of political fortune, awaiting his turn for promotion. A
+reversal in the fortunes of his party might leave him without hope of
+preferment, and bind him to a profession which is a jealous mistress,
+and to which he had been none too constant. Happily, his party was now
+in power, and he was entitled to first consideration in the
+distribution of the spoils. Under somewhat exceptional circumstances
+the office of Secretary of State fell vacant in the autumn of 1840,
+and the chairman of the Democratic Central Committee entered into his
+reward.</p>
+
+<p>When Governor Carlin took office in 1838, he sent to the Senate the
+nomination of John A. McClernand as <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>Secretary of State, assuming that
+the office had been vacated and that a new Governor might choose his
+advisers.<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118"><sup>[118]</sup></a> Precedent, it is true, militated against this theory,
+for Secretary Field had held office under three successive governors;
+but now that parties had become more sharply defined, it was deemed
+important that the Secretary of State should be of the same political
+persuasion as the Governor,&mdash;and Field was a Whig. The Senate refused
+to indorse this new theory. Whereupon the Governor waited until the
+legislature adjourned, and renewed his appointment of McClernand, who
+promptly brought action against the tenacious Field to obtain
+possession of the office. The case was argued in the Circuit Court
+before Judge Breese, who gave a decision in favor of McClernand. The
+case was then appealed. Among the legal talent arrayed on the side of
+the claimant, when the case appeared on the docket of the Supreme
+Court, was Douglas&mdash;as a matter of course. Everyone knew that this was
+not so much a case at law as an issue in politics. The decision of the
+Supreme Court reversing the judgment of the lower court was received,
+therefore, as a partisan move to protect a Whig office-holder.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119"><sup>[119]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>For a time the Democrats, in control elsewhere, found themselves
+obliged to tolerate a dissident in their political family; but the
+Democratic majority in the new legislature came promptly to the aid of
+the Governor's household. Measures were set on foot to terminate
+Secretary Field's tenure of office by legislative enactment. Just at
+this juncture that gentleman prudently resigned; and Stephen A.
+Douglas was <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>appointed to the office which he had done his best to
+vacate.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120"><sup>[120]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This appointment was a boon to the impecunious young attorney. He
+could now count on a salary which would free him from any concern
+about his financial liabilities,&mdash;if indeed they ever gave him more
+than momentary concern. Besides, as custodian of the State Library, he
+had access to the best collection of law books in the State. The
+duties of his office were not so exacting but that he could still
+carry on his law studies, and manage such incidental business as came
+his way. These were the obvious and tangible advantages which Douglas
+emphasized in the mellow light of recollection.<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121"><sup>[121]</sup></a> Yet there were
+other, less obvious, advantages which he omitted to mention.</p>
+
+<p>The current newspapers of this date make frequent mention of an
+institution popularly dubbed &quot;the Third House,&quot; or &quot;Lord Coke's
+Assembly.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122"><sup>[122]</sup></a> The archives of state do not explain this unique
+institution. Its location was in the lobby of the State House. Like
+many another extra-legal body it kept no records of its proceedings;
+yet it wielded a potent influence. It was attended regularly by those
+officials who made the lobby a rendezvous; irregularly, by politicians
+who came to the Capitol on business; and on pressing occasions, by
+members of the legislature who wished to catch the undertone of party
+opinion. The debates in this Third House often surpassed in interest
+the formal proceedings behind closed doors across the <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>corridor.
+Members of this house were not held to rigid account for what they
+said. Many a political <i>coup</i> was plotted in the lobby. The grist
+which came out of the legislative mill was often ground by
+irresponsible politicians out of hearing of the Speaker of the House.
+The chance comer was quite as likely to find the Secretary of State in
+the lobby as in his office among his books.</p>
+
+<p>The lobby was a busy place in this winter session of 1840-41. It was
+well known that Democratic leaders had planned an aggressive
+reorganization of the Supreme Court, in anticipation of an adverse
+decision in the famous Galena alien case. The Democratic programme was
+embodied in a bill which proposed to abolish the existing Circuit
+Courts, and to enlarge the Supreme Court by the addition of five
+judges. Circuit Courts were to be held by the nine judges of the
+Supreme Court.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123"><sup>[123]</sup></a> Subsequent explanations did not, and could not,
+disguise the real purpose of this chaste reform.<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124"><sup>[124]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While this revolutionary measure was under fire in the legislature and
+in the Third House, the Supreme Court rendered its opinion in the
+alien case. To the amazement of the reformers, the decision did not
+touch the broad, constitutional question of the right of aliens to
+vote, but simply the concrete, particular question arising under the
+Election Law of 1829.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125"><sup>[125]</sup></a> Judge Smith alone dissented and argued the
+larger issue. The admirable self-restraint of the Court, so far from
+stopping the mouths of detractors, only excited more unfavorable
+comment. The suspicion <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>of partisanship, sedulously fed by angry
+Democrats, could not be easily eradicated. The Court was now condemned
+for its contemptible evasion of the real question at issue.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas made an impassioned speech to the lobby, charging the Court
+with having deliberately suppressed its decision on the paramount
+issue, in order to disarm criticism and to avert the impending
+reorganization of the bench.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126"><sup>[126]</sup></a> He called loudly for the passage of
+the bill before the legislature; and the lobby echoed his sentiments.
+McClernand in the House corroborated this charge by stating, &quot;under
+authorization,&quot; that the judges had withdrawn the opinion which they
+had prepared in June.<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127"><sup>[127]</sup></a> Thereupon four of the five judges made an
+unqualified denial of the charge.<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128"><sup>[128]</sup></a> McClernand fell back helplessly
+upon the word of Douglas. Pushed into a corner, Douglas then stated
+publicly, that he had made his charges against the Court on the
+explicit information given to him privately by Judge Smith. Six others
+testified that they had been similarly informed, or misinformed, by
+the same high authority.<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129"><sup>[129]</sup></a> At all events, the mischief had been
+done. Under the party whip the bill to reorganize the Supreme Court
+was driven through both houses of the legislature, and unofficially
+ratified by Lord Coke's Assembly in the lobby.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a>Already it was noised abroad that Douglas was &quot;slated&quot; for one of the
+newly created judgeships. The Whig press ridiculed the suggestion but
+still frankly admitted, that if party services were to qualify for
+such an appointment, the &quot;Generalessimo of the Loco-focos of Illinois&quot;
+was entitled to consideration. When rumor passed into fact, and
+Douglas was nominated by the Governor, even Democrats demurred. It
+required no little generosity on the part of older men who had
+befriended the young man, to permit him to pass over their heads in
+this fashion.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130"><sup>[130]</sup></a> Besides, what legal qualifications could this young
+man of twenty-seven possess for so important a post?</p>
+
+<p>The new judges entered upon their duties under a cloud. Almost their
+first act was to vacate the clerkship of the court, for the benefit of
+that arch-politician, Ebenezer Peck; and that, too,&mdash;so men
+said,&mdash;without consulting their Whig associates on the bench. It was
+commonly reported that Peck had changed his vote in the House just
+when one more vote was needed to pass the Judiciary Bill.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131"><sup>[131]</sup></a> Very
+likely this rumor was circulated by some malicious newsmonger, but the
+appointment of Peck certainly did not inspire confidence in the newly
+organized court.</p>
+
+<p>Was it to make his ambition seem less odious, that Douglas sought to
+give the impression that he accepted the appointment with reluctance
+and at a &quot;pecuniary sacrifice&quot;; or was he, as Whigs maintained, forced
+out of the Secretaryship of State to make way for one of the
+Governor's favorites?<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132"><sup>[132]</sup></a> He could not have been <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>perfectly sincere,
+at all events, when he afterward declared that he supposed he was
+taking leave of political life forever.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133"><sup>[133]</sup></a> No one knew better than
+he, that a popular judge is a potential candidate for almost any
+office in the gift of the people.</p>
+
+<p>Before starting out on his circuit Douglas gave conspicuous proof of
+his influence in the lobby, and incidentally, as it happened, cast
+bread upon the waters. The Mormons who had recently settled in Nauvoo,
+in Hancock County, had petitioned the legislature for acts
+incorporating the new city and certain of its peculiar institutions.
+Their sufferings in Missouri had touched the people of Illinois, who
+welcomed them as a persecuted sect. For quite different reasons,
+Mormon agents were cordially received at the Capitol. Here their
+religious tenets were less carefully scrutinized than their political
+affiliations. The Mormons found little trouble in securing lobbyists
+from both parties. Bills were drawn to meet their wishes and presented
+to the legislature, where parties vied with each other in befriending
+the unfortunate refugees from Missouri.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134"><sup>[134]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Chance&mdash;or was it design?&mdash;assigned Judge Douglas to the Quincy
+circuit, within which lay Hancock County and the city of Nauvoo. The
+appointment was highly satisfactory to the Mormons, for while they
+enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy by virtue of their new
+charter, they deemed it advantageous to have the court of the vicinage
+presided over by one who had proved himself a friend. Douglas at once
+confirmed this good impression. He appointed the commander <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>of the
+Nauvoo Legion a master in chancery; and when a case came before him
+which involved interpretation of the act incorporating this peculiar
+body of militia, he gave a constructive interpretation which left the
+Mormons independent of State officers in military affairs.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135"><sup>[135]</sup></a>
+Whatever may be said of this decision in point of law, it was at least
+good politics; and the dividing line between law and politics was none
+too sharply drawn in the Fifth Judicial District.</p>
+
+<p>Politicians were now figuring on the Mormon vote in the approaching
+congressional election. The Whigs had rather the better chance of
+winning their support, if the election of 1840 afforded any basis for
+calculation, for the Mormons had then voted <i>en bloc</i> for Harrison and
+Tyler.<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136"><sup>[136]</sup></a> Stuart was a candidate for re-election. It was generally
+believed that Ralston, whom the Democrats pitted against him, had
+small chance of success. Still, Judge Douglas could be counted on to
+use his influence to procure the Mormon vote.</p>
+
+<p>Undeterred by his position on the bench, Douglas paid a friendly visit
+to the Mormon city in the course of the campaign; and there
+encountered his old Whig opponent, Cyrus Walker, Esq., who was also on
+a mission. Both made public addresses of a flattering description. The
+Prophet, Joseph Smith, was greatly impressed with Judge Douglas's
+friendliness. &quot;Judge Douglas,&quot; he wrote to the Faithful, &quot;has ever
+proved himself friendly to this people; and interested himself to
+obtain for us our several charters, holding at the same time the
+office of Secretary of State.&quot; But what particularly flattered the
+Mormon leader, was the <a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>edifying spectacle of representatives from
+both parties laying aside all partisan motives to mingle with the
+Saints, as &quot;brothers, citizens, and friends.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137"><sup>[137]</sup></a> This touching
+account would do for Mormon readers, but Gentiles remained somewhat
+skeptical.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this coquetting with the Saints, the Democratic candidate
+suffered defeat. It was observed with alarm that the Mormons held the
+balance of power in the district, and might even become a makeweight
+in the State elections, should they continue to increase in
+numbers.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138"><sup>[138]</sup></a> The Democrats braced themselves for a new trial of
+strength in the gubernatorial contest. The call for a State convention
+was obeyed with alacrity;<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139"><sup>[139]</sup></a> and the outcome justified the high
+expectations which were entertained of this body. The convention
+nominated for governor, Adam W. Snyder, whose peculiar availability
+consisted in his having fathered the Judiciary Bill and the several
+acts which had been passed in aid of the Mormons. The practical wisdom
+of this nomination was proved by a communication of Joseph Smith to
+the official newspaper of Nauvoo. The pertinent portion of this
+remarkable manifesto read as follows: &quot;The partisans in this county
+who expected to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will
+find themselves mistaken,&mdash;we care not a fig for <i>Whig or Democrat</i>:
+they are both alike to us; but we shall go for our <i>friends</i>, our
+TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of <i>human liberty</i> which is the cause of
+God.... DOUGLASS is a <i>Master Spirit</i>, and <i>his friends are our
+friends</i>&mdash;we are willing to cast our <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>banners on the air, and fight by
+his side in the cause of humanity, and equal rights&mdash;the cause of
+liberty and the law. SNYDER and MOORE, are <i>his</i> friends&mdash;they are
+<i>ours</i>.... Snyder, and Moore, are <i>known</i> to be our friends; their
+friendship is <i>vouched</i> for by those whom we have tried. We will never
+be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude&mdash;they <i>have</i> served us,
+and we <i>will</i> serve them.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140"><sup>[140]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This was a discomfiting revelation to the Whigs, who had certainly
+labored as industriously as the Democrats, to placate the Saints of
+Nauvoo. From this moment the Whigs began a crusade against the
+Mormons, who were already, it is true, exhibiting the characteristics
+which had made them odious to the people of Missouri.<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141"><sup>[141]</sup></a> Rightly or
+wrongly, public opinion was veering; and the shrewd Duncan, who headed
+the Whig ticket, openly charged Douglas with bargaining for the Mormon
+vote.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142"><sup>[142]</sup></a> The Whigs hoped that their opponents, having sowed the
+wind, would reap the whirlwind.</p>
+
+<p>Only three months before the August elections of 1844, the Democrats
+were thrown into consternation by the death of Snyder, their
+standard-bearer. Here was an emergency to which the convention system
+was not equal, in the days of poor roads and slow stage-coaches. What
+happened was this, to borrow the account of the chief Democratic
+organ, &quot;A large number of Democratic citizens from almost all parts of
+the State of Illinois met together by a general and public <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>call&quot;&mdash;and
+nominated Judge Thomas Ford for governor.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143"><sup>[143]</sup></a> It adds significance to
+this record to note that this numerous body of citizens met in the
+snug office of the <i>State Register</i>. Democrats in distant parts of the
+State were disposed to resent this action on the part of &quot;the
+Springfield clique&quot;; but the onset of the enemy quelled mutiny. In one
+way the nomination of Ford was opportune. It could not be said of him
+that he had showed any particular solicitude for the welfare of the
+followers of Joseph Smith.<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144"><sup>[144]</sup></a> The ticket could now be made to face
+both ways. Ford could assure hesitating Democrats who disliked the
+Mormons, that he had not hobnobbed with the Mormon leaders, while
+Douglas and his crew could still demonstrate to the Prophet that the
+cause of human liberty, for which he stood so conspicuously, was safe
+in Democratic hands. The game was played adroitly. Ford carried
+Hancock County by a handsome majority and was elected governor.<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145"><sup>[145]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It has already been remarked that as judge, Douglas was potentially a
+candidate for almost any public office. He still kept in touch with
+Springfield politicians, planning with them the moves and
+counter-moves on the checker-board of Illinois politics. There was
+more than a grain of truth in the reiterated charges of the Whig
+press, that the Democratic party was dominated by an arbitrary
+clique.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146"><sup>[146]</sup></a> It was a matter of common observation, that before
+Democratic candidates put to sea in the troubled waters of State
+<a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>politics, they took their dead-reckoning from the office of the <i>State
+Register</i>. It was noised abroad in the late fall that Douglas would
+not refuse a positive call from his party to enter national politics;
+and before the year closed, his Springfield intimates were actively
+promoting his candidacy for the United States Senate, to succeed
+Senator Young. This was an audacious move, since even if Young were
+passed over, there were older men far more justly entitled to
+consideration. Nevertheless, Douglas secured in some way the support
+of several delegations in the legislature, so that on the first ballot
+in the Democratic caucus he stood second, receiving only nine votes
+less than Young. A protracted contest followed. Nineteen ballots were
+taken. Douglas's chief competitor proved to be, not Young, but Breese,
+who finally secured the nomination of the caucus by a majority of five
+votes.<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147"><sup>[147]</sup></a> The ambition of Judge Douglas had overshot the mark.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the young man's absorbing interest in politics, his slender
+legal equipment, and the circumstances under which he received his
+appointment, one wonders whether the courts he held could have been
+anything but travesties on justice. But the universal testimony of
+those whose memories go back so far, is that justice was on the whole
+faithfully administered.<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148"><sup>[148]</sup></a> The conditions of life in Illinois were
+still comparatively simple. The suits instituted at law were not such
+as to demand profound knowledge of jurisprudence. The wide-spread
+financial distress which followed the crisis of 1837, gave rise to
+many processes to collect <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>debts and to set aside fraudulent
+conveyances. &quot;Actions of slander and trespass for assault and battery,
+engendered by the state of feeling incident to pecuniary
+embarrassment, were frequent.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149"><sup>[149]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The courts were in keeping with the meagre legal attainments of those
+who frequented them. Rude frame, or log houses served the purposes of
+bench and bar. The judge sat usually upon a platform with a plain
+table, or pine board, for a desk. A larger table below accommodated
+the attorneys who followed the judge in his circuit from county to
+county. &quot;The relations between the Bench and the Bar were free and
+easy, and flashes of wit and humor and personal repartee were
+constantly passing from one to the other. The court rooms in those
+days were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses
+and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier
+settlements.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150"><sup>[150]</sup></a> In this little world, popular reputations were made
+and unmade.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Douglas was thoroughly at home in this primitive environment.
+His freedom from affectation and false dignity recommended him to the
+laity, while his fairness and good-nature put him in quick sympathy
+with his legal brethren and their clients. Long years afterward, men
+recalled the picture of the young judge as he mingled with the crowd
+during a recess. &quot;It was not unusual to see him come off the bench, or
+leave his chair at the bar, and take a seat on the knee of a friend,
+and with one arm thrown familiarly around a friend's neck, have a
+friendly talk, or a legal or <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>political discussion.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151"><sup>[151]</sup></a> An attorney
+recently from the East witnessed this familiarity with dismay. &quot;The
+judge of our circuit,&quot; he wrote, &quot;is S.A. Douglas, a youth of 28....
+He is a Vermonter, a man of considerable talent, and, in the way of
+despatching business, is a perfect 'steam engine in breeches.' ... He
+is the most democratic judge I ever knew.... I have often thought we
+should cut a queer figure if one of our Suffolk bar should
+accidentally drop in.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152"><sup>[152]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime, changes were taking place in the political map of Illinois,
+which did not escape the watchful eye of Judge Douglas. By the census
+of 1840, the State was entitled to seven, instead of four
+representatives in Congress.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153"><sup>[153]</sup></a> A reapportionment act was therefore
+to be expected from the next legislature. Democrats were already at
+work plotting seven Democratic districts on paper, for, with a
+majority in the legislature, they could redistrict the State at will.
+A gerrymander was the outcome.<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154"><sup>[154]</sup></a> If Douglas did not have a hand in
+the reapportionment, at least his friends saw to it that a desirable
+district was carved out, which included the most populous counties in
+his circuit. Who would be a likelier candidate for Congress in this
+Democratic constituency than the popular judge of the Fifth Circuit
+Court?</p>
+
+<p>Seven of the ten counties composing the Fifth Congressional District
+were within the so-called &quot;military tract,&quot; between the Mississippi
+and Illinois rivers; <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>three counties lay to the east on the lower
+course of the Illinois. Into this frontier region population began to
+flow in the twenties, from the Sangamo country; and the organization
+of county after county attested the rapid expansion northward. Like
+the people of southern Illinois, the first settlers were of Southern
+extraction; but they were followed by Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and
+New Englanders. In the later thirties, the Northern immigration, to
+which Douglas belonged, gave a somewhat different complexion to
+Peoria, Fulton, and other adjoining counties. Yet there were diverse
+elements in the district: Peoria had a cosmopolitan population of
+Irish, English, Scotch, and German immigrants; Quincy became a city of
+refuge for &quot;Young Germany,&quot; after the revolutionary disturbances of
+1830 in Europe.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155"><sup>[155]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>No sooner had the reapportionment act passed than certain members of
+the legislature, together with Democrats who held no office, took it
+upon themselves to call a nominating convention, on a basis of
+representation determined in an equally arbitrary fashion.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156"><sup>[156]</sup></a> The
+summons was obeyed nevertheless. Forty &quot;respectable Democats&quot;
+assembled at Griggsville, in Pike County, on June 5, 1843. It was a
+most satisfactory body. The delegates did nothing but what was
+expected of them. On the second ballot, a majority cast their votes
+for Douglas as the candidate of the party for Congress. The other
+aspirants then graciously <a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>withdrew their claims, and pledged their
+cordial support to the regular nominee of the convention.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157"><sup>[157]</sup></a> Such
+machine-like precision warmed the hearts of Democratic politicians.
+The editor of the <i>People's Advocate</i> declared the integrity of
+Douglas to be &quot;as unspotted as the vestal's fame&mdash;as untarnished and
+as pure as the driven snow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Griggsville convention also supplied the requisite machinery for
+the campaign: vigilant precinct committees; county committees; a
+district corresponding committee; a central district committee. The
+party now pinned its faith to the efficiency of its organization, as
+well as to the popularity of its candidate.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas made a show of declining the nomination on the score of
+ill-health, but yielded to the urgent solicitations of friends, who
+would fain have him believe that he was the only Democrat who could
+carry the district.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158"><sup>[158]</sup></a> Secretly pleased to be overruled, Douglas
+burned his bridges behind him by resigning his office, and plunged
+into the thick of the battle. His opponent was O.H. Browning, a
+Kentuckian by birth and a Whig by choice. It was Kentucky against
+Vermont, South against North, for neither was unwilling to appeal to
+sectional prejudice. Time has obscured the political issues which they
+debated from Peoria to Macoupin and back; but history has probably
+suffered no great loss. Men, not measures, were at stake in this
+campaign, for on the only national issue which they seemed to have
+discussed&mdash;Oregon&mdash;they were in practical agreement.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159"><sup>[159]</sup></a> Both
+cultivated the little arts <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>which relieve the tedium of politics.
+Douglas talked in heart to heart fashion with his &quot;esteemed
+fellow-citizens,&quot; inquired for the health of their families, expressed
+grief when he learned that John had the measles and that Sally was
+down with the chills and fever.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160"><sup>[160]</sup></a> And if Browning was less
+successful in this gentle method of wooing voters, it was because he
+had less genuine interest in the plain common people, not because he
+despised the petty arts of the politician.</p>
+
+<p>The canvass was short but exhausting. Douglas addressed public
+gatherings for forty successive days; and when election day came, he
+was prostrated by a fever from which he did not fully recover for
+months.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161"><sup>[161]</sup></a> Those who gerrymandered the State did their work well.
+Only one district failed to elect a Democratic Congressman. Douglas
+had a majority over Browning of four hundred and sixty-one votes.<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162"><sup>[162]</sup></a>
+This cheering news hastened his convalescence, so that by November he
+was able to visit his mother in Canandaigua. Member of Congress at the
+age of thirty! He had every reason to be well satisfied with himself.
+He was fully conscious that he had begun a new chapter in his career.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118">[118]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 213-214.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119">[119]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 454-455.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120">[120]</a> Why McClernand was passed over is not clear. Douglas
+entered upon the duties of his office November 30, 1840.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121">[121]</a> Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122">[122]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 43.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123">[123]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, p. 217.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124">[124]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 212-222.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125">[125]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, p. 456.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126">[126]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, January 29, 1841; Ford,
+History of Illinois, p. 220.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127">[127]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 457-458.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128">[128]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 457-458.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129">[129]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, February 5, 1841. Judge
+Smith is put in an unenviable light by contemporary historians. There
+seems to be no reason to doubt that he misinformed Douglas and others.
+See Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 458-459.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130">[130]</a> Chicago <i>American</i>, February 18, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131">[131]</a> Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, March 19, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132">[132]</a> Chicago <i>American</i>, February 18, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133">[133]</a> Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134">[134]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 263-265; Linn, Story of
+the Mormons, pp. 236-237.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135">[135]</a> Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 237-238.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136">[136]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 244.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137">[137]</a> <i>Times and Seasons</i>, II, p. 414.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138">[138]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, August 13, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139">[139]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, September 24, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140">[140]</a> <i>Times and Seasons</i>, III, p. 651.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141">[141]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, p. 269.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142">[142]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, June 17, 1842. Douglas
+replied in a speech of equal tartness. See <i>Register</i>, July 1, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143">[143]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, June 10, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144">[144]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 277-278.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145">[145]</a> Gregg, History of Hancock County, p. 419.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146">[146]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, November 4, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147">[147]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 23, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148">[148]</a> Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149">[149]</a> Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150">[150]</a> Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151">[151]</a> Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152">[152]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, p. 698.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153">[153]</a> Statute of June 25, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154">[154]</a> A sheet called <i>The Gerrymander</i> was published in March
+1843, which contained a series of cartoons exhibiting the
+monstrosities of this apportionment. The Fifth District is called &quot;the
+Nondescript.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155">[155]</a> Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois, Fergus
+Historical Series No. 14; K&ouml;rner, Das deutsche Element in den
+Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 245, 277; Baker, America as the Political
+Utopia of Young Germany; Peoria <i>Register</i>, June 30, 1838; Ballance,
+History of Peoria, pp. 201-202.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156">[156]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, March 10, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157">[157]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, June 16, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158">[158]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 55; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159">[159]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong. 1 Sess. App. pp. 598 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160">[160]</a> Alton <i>Telegraph</i>, July 20, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161">[161]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 56; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75; Alton <i>Telegraph</i>, August 26, 1843.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162">[162]</a> According to the returns in the office of the Secretary
+of State. The <i>Whig Almanac</i> gives 451 as Douglas's majority.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>In his own constituency a member of the national House of
+Representatives may be a marked man; but his office confers no
+particular distinction at the national capital. He must achieve
+distinction either by native talent or through fortuitous
+circumstance; rarely is greatness thrust upon him. A newly elected
+member labors under a peculiar and immediate necessity to acquire
+importance, since the time of his probation is very brief. The
+representative who takes his seat in December of the odd year, must
+stand for re-election in the following year. Between these termini,
+lies only a single session. During his absence eager rivals may be
+undermining his influence at home, and the very possession of office
+may weaken his chances among those disposed to consider rotation in
+office a cardinal principle of democracy. If a newly elected
+congressman wishes to continue in office, he is condemned to do
+something great.</p>
+
+<p>What qualities had Douglas which would single him out from the crowd
+and impress his constituents with a sense of his capacity for public
+service? What had he to offset his youth, his rawness, and his
+legislative inexperience? None of his colleagues cared a fig about his
+record in the Illinois Legislature and on the Bench. In Congress, as
+then constituted, every man had to stand on his own feet, unsupported
+by the dubious props of a local reputation.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>There was certainly nothing commanding in the figure of the gentleman
+from Illinois. &quot;He had a herculean frame,&quot; writes a contemporary,
+&quot;with the exception of his lower limbs, which were short and small,
+dwarfing what otherwise would have been a conspicuous figure.... His
+large round head surmounted a massive neck, and his features were
+symmetrical, although his small nose deprived them of dignity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163"><sup>[163]</sup></a>
+It was his massive forehead, indeed, that redeemed his appearance from
+the commonplace. Beneath his brow were deep-set, dark eyes that also
+challenged attention.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164"><sup>[164]</sup></a> It was not a graceful nor an attractive
+exterior surely, but it was the very embodiment of force. Moreover,
+the Little Giant had qualities of mind and heart that made men forget
+his physical shortcomings. His ready wit, his suavity, and his
+heartiness made him a general favorite almost at once.<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165"><sup>[165]</sup></a> He was
+soon able to demonstrate his intellectual power.</p>
+
+<p>The House was considering a bill to remit the fine imposed upon
+General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans for contempt of court. It was a
+hackneyed theme. No new, extenuating circumstances could be adduced to
+clear the old warrior of high-handed conduct; but a presidential
+election was approaching and there was political capital to be made by
+defending &quot;Old Hickory.&quot; From boyhood Douglas had idolized Andrew
+Jackson. With much the same boyish indignation which led him to tear
+down the coffin handbills in old Brandon, he now sprang to the defense
+of his hero. The case had been well threshed already. Jackson <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>had
+been defended eloquently, and sometimes truthfully. A man of less
+audacity would have hesitated to swell this tide of eloquence, and at
+first, it seemed as though Douglas had little but vehemence to add to
+the eulogies already pronounced. There was nothing novel in the
+assertion that Jackson had neither violated the Constitution by
+declaring martial law at New Orleans, nor assumed any authority which
+was not &quot;fully authorized and legalized by his position, his duty, and
+the unavoidable necessity of the case.&quot; The House was used to these
+dogmatic reiterations. But Douglas struck into untrodden ways when he
+contended, that even if Jackson had violated the laws and the
+Constitution, his condemnation for contempt of court was &quot;unjust,
+irregular and illegal.&quot; Every unlawful act is not necessarily a
+contempt of court, he argued. &quot;The doctrine of contempts only applies
+to those acts which obstruct the proceedings of the court, and against
+which the general laws of the land do not afford adequate
+protection.... It is incumbent upon those who defend and applaud the
+conduct of the judge to point out the specific act done by General
+Jackson which constituted a contempt of court. The mere declaration of
+martial law is not of that character.... It was a matter over which
+the civil tribunals had no jurisdiction, and with which they had no
+concern, unless some specific crime had been committed or injury done;
+and not even then until it was brought before them according to the
+forms of law.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166"><sup>[166]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The old hero had never had a more adroit counsel. Like a good lawyer,
+Douglas seemed to feel himself in duty bound to spar for every
+technical advantage, <a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>and to construe the law, wherever possible, in
+favor of his client. At the same time he did not forget that the House
+was the jury in this case, and capable of human emotions upon which he
+might play. At times he became declamatory beyond the point of good
+taste. In voice and manner he betrayed the school in which he had been
+trained. &quot;When I hear gentlemen,&quot; he cried in strident tones,
+&quot;attempting to justify this unrighteous fine upon General Jackson upon
+the ground of non-compliance with rules of court and mere formalities,
+I must confess that I cannot appreciate the force of the argument. In
+cases of war and desolation, in times of peril and disaster, we should
+look at the substance and not the shadow of things. I envy not the
+feelings of the man who can reason coolly and calmly about the force
+of precedents and the tendency of examples in the fury of the war-cry,
+when 'booty and beauty' is the watchword. Talk not to me about rules
+and forms in court when the enemy's cannon are pointed at the door,
+and the flames encircle the cupola! The man whose stoicism would
+enable him to philosophize coolly under these circumstances would
+fiddle while the Capitol was burning, and laugh at the horror and
+anguish that surrounded him in the midst of the conflagration! I claim
+not the possession of these remarkable feelings. I concede them all to
+those who think that the savior of New Orleans ought to be treated
+like a criminal for not possessing them in a higher degree. Their
+course in this debate has proved them worthy disciples of the doctrine
+they profess. Let them receive all the encomiums which such sentiments
+are calculated to inspire.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167"><sup>[167]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>His closing words were marked with much the same perfervid rhetoric,
+only less objectionable because they were charged with genuine
+emotion: &quot;Can gentlemen see nothing to admire, nothing to commend, in
+the closing scenes, when, fresh from the battlefield, the victorious
+general&mdash;the idol of his army and the acknowledged savior of his
+countrymen&mdash;stood before Judge Hall, and quelled the tumult and
+indignant murmurs of the multitude by telling him that 'the same arm
+which had defended the city from the ravages of a foreign enemy should
+protect him in the discharge of his duty?' Is this the conduct of a
+lawless desperado, who delights in trampling upon Constitution, and
+law, and right? Is there no reverence for the supremacy of the laws
+and the civil institutions of the country displayed on this occasion?
+If such acts of heroism and moderation, of chivalry and submission,
+have no charms to excite the admiration or soften the animosities of
+gentlemen in the Opposition, I have no desire to see them vote for
+this bill. The character of the hero of New Orleans requires no
+endorsement from such a source. They wish to fix a mark, a stigma of
+reproach, upon his character, and send him to his grave branded as a
+criminal. His stern, inflexible adherence to Democratic principles,
+his unwavering devotion to his country, and his intrepid opposition to
+her enemies, have so long thwarted their unhallowed schemes of
+ambition and power, that they fear the potency of his name on earth,
+even after his spirit shall have ascended to heaven.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An eloquent, sophistical speech, prodigiously admired by the slave
+Democracy of the House,&quot; was the comment of John Quincy Adams; words
+of high praise, <a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a>for the veteran statesman had little patience with
+the style of oratory affected by this &quot;homunculus.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168"><sup>[168]</sup></a> A
+correspondent of a Richmond newspaper wrote that this effort had given
+Douglas high rank as a debater.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169"><sup>[169]</sup></a> Evidence on every hand confirms
+the impression that by a single, happy stroke the young Illinoisan had
+achieved enviable distinction; but whether he had qualities which
+would secure an enduring reputation, was still open to question.</p>
+
+<p>In the long run, the confidence of party associates is the surest
+passport to real influence in the House. It might easily happen,
+indeed, that Douglas, with all his rough eloquence, would remain an
+impotent legislator. The history of Congress is strewn with oratorical
+derelicts, who have often edified their auditors, but quite as often
+blocked the course of legislation. No one knew better than Douglas,
+that only as he served his party, could he hope to see his wishes
+crystallize into laws, and his ambitions assume the guise of reality.
+His opportunity to render effective service came also in this first
+session.</p>
+
+<p>Four States had neglected to comply with the recent act of Congress
+reapportioning representation, having elected their twenty-one members
+by general ticket. The language of the statute was explicit: &quot;In every
+case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the
+number to which each State shall be entitled under this apportionment
+shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory equal in
+number to the number of Representatives, to which said State may be
+entitled, no one district electing <a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>more than one Representative.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170"><sup>[170]</sup></a>
+Now all but two of these twenty-one Representatives were Democrats.
+Would a Democratic majority punish this flagrant transgression of
+Federal law by unseating the offenders?</p>
+
+<p>In self-respect the Democratic members of the House could not do less
+than appoint a committee to investigate whether the representatives in
+question had been elected &quot;in conformity to the Constitution and the
+law.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171"><sup>[171]</sup></a> Thereupon it devolved upon the six Democratic members of
+this committee of nine to construct a theory, by which they might seat
+their party associates under cover of legality. Not that they held
+<i>any</i> such explicit mandate from the party, nor that they deliberately
+went to work to pervert the law; they were simply under psychological
+pressure from which only men of the severest impartiality could free
+themselves. The work of drafting the majority report (it was a
+foregone conclusion that the committee would divide), fell to Douglas.
+It pronounced the law of 1842 &quot;not a <i>law</i> made in pursuance of the
+Constitution of the United States, and valid, operative, and binding
+upon the States.&quot; Accordingly, the representatives of the four States
+in question were entitled to their seats.</p>
+
+<p>By what process of reasoning had Douglas reached this conclusion? The
+report directed its criticism chiefly against the second section of
+the Act of 1842, which substituted the district for the general ticket
+in congressional elections. The Constitution provides that &quot;the Times,
+Places, and Manner of holding <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>elections for Senators and
+Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
+thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
+Regulations.&quot; But by the law of 1842, contended the report, Congress
+had only partially exercised its power, and had attempted &quot;to subvert
+the entire system of legislation adopted by the several States of the
+Union, and to compel them to conform to certain rules established by
+Congress for their government.&quot; Congress &quot;may&quot; make or alter such
+regulations, but &quot;the right to change State laws or to enact others
+which shall suspend them, does not imply the right to compel the State
+legislatures to make such change or new enactments.&quot; Congress may
+exercise the privilege of making such regulations, only when the State
+legislatures refuse to act, or act in a way to subvert the
+Constitution. If Congress acts at all in fixing times, places, and
+manner of elections, it must act exhaustively, leaving nothing for the
+State legislatures to do. The Act of 1842 was general in its nature,
+and inoperative without State legislation. The history of the
+Constitutional Convention of 1787 was cited to prove that it was
+generally understood that Congress would exercise this power only in a
+few specified cases.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172"><sup>[172]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Replying to the attacks which this report evoked, Douglas took still
+higher ground. He was ready to affirm that Congress had no power to
+district the States. To concede to Congress so great a power was to
+deny those reserved rights of the States, without which their
+sovereignty would be an empty title. &quot;Congress may alter, but it
+cannot supersede these regulations [of the States] till it supplies
+others in <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>their places, so as to leave the right of representation
+perfect.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173"><sup>[173]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The argument of the report was bold and ingenious, if not convincing.
+The minority were ready to admit that the case had been cleverly
+stated, although hardly a man doubted that political considerations
+had weighed most heavily with the chairman of the committee. Douglas
+resented the suggestion with such warmth, however, that it is
+charitable to suppose he was not conscious of the bias under which he
+had labored.</p>
+
+<p>Upon one auditor, who to be sure was inexpressibly bored by the whole
+discussion of the &quot;everlasting general ticket elections,&quot; Douglas made
+an unhappy impression. John Quincy Adams recorded in his diary,&mdash;that
+diary which was becoming a sort of Rogues' Gallery: &quot;He now raved out
+his hour in abusive invectives upon the members who had pointed out
+its slanders and upon the Whig party. His face was convulsed, his
+gesticulation frantic, and he lashed himself into such a heat that if
+his body had been made of combustible matter, it would have burnt out.
+In the midst of his roaring, to save himself from choking, he stripped
+off and cast away his cravat, and unbuttoned his waist-coat, and had
+the air and aspect of a half-naked pugilist. And this man comes from a
+judicial bench, and passes for an eloquent orator.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174"><sup>[174]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>No one will mistake this for an impartial description. Nearly every
+Democrat who spoke upon this tedious question, according to Adams,
+either &quot;raved&quot; or &quot;foamed at the mouth.&quot; The old gentleman was too
+wearied and disgusted with the affair to be a fair <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>reporter. But as a
+caricature, this picture of the young man from Illinois certainly hits
+off the style which he affected, in common with most Western orators.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding his very substantial services to his party, Douglas
+had sooner or later to face his constituents with an answer to the
+crucial question, &quot;What have you done for us?&quot; It is a hard, brutal
+question, which has blighted many a promising career in American
+politics. The interest which Douglas exhibited in the Western Harbors
+bill was due, in part at least, to his desire to propitiate those by
+virtue of whose suffrages he was a member of the House of
+Representatives. At the same time, he was no doubt sincerely devoted
+to the measure, because he believed profoundly in its national
+character. Local and national interests were so inseparable in his
+mind, that he could urge the improvement of the Illinois River as a
+truly national undertaking. &quot;Through this channel, and this alone,&quot; he
+declared all aglow with enthusiasm, &quot;we have a connected and
+uninterrupted navigation for steamboats and large vessels from the
+Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, to all the northern lakes.&quot;
+Considerations of war and defense, as well as of peace and commerce,
+counselled the proposed expenditure. &quot;We have no fleet upon the lakes;
+we have no navy-yard there at which we could construct one, and no
+channel through which we could introduce our vessels from the
+sea-board. In times of war, those lakes must be defended, if defended
+at all, by a fleet from the naval depot and a yard on the Mississippi
+River.&quot; After the State of Illinois had expended millions on the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, was Congress to begrudge a few thousands
+to remove the sand-bars which impeded <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>navigation in this &quot;national
+highway by an irrevocable ordinance&quot;?<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175"><sup>[175]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This special plea for the Illinois River was prefaced by a lengthy
+exposition of Democratic doctrine respecting internal improvements,
+for it was incumbent upon every good Democrat to explain a measure
+which seemed to countenance a broad construction of the powers of the
+Federal government. Douglas was at particular pains to show that the
+bill did not depart from the principles laid down in President
+Jackson's famous Maysville Road veto-message.<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176"><sup>[176]</sup></a> To him Jackson
+incarnated the party faith; and his public documents were a veritable,
+political testament. In the art of reading consistency into his own,
+or the conduct of another, Douglas had no equal. To the end of his
+days he possessed in an extraordinary degree the subtle power of
+redistributing emphasis so as to produce a desired effect. It was the
+most effective and the most insidious of his many natural gifts, for
+it often won immediate ends at the permanent sacrifice of his
+reputation for candor and veracity. The immediate result of this essay
+in interpretation of Jacksonian principles, was to bring down upon
+Douglas's devoted head the withering charge, peculiarly blighting to a
+budding statesman, that he was conjuring with names to the exclusion
+of arguments. With biting sarcasm, Representative Holmes drew
+attention to the gentleman's disposition, after the fashion of little
+men, to advance to the fray under the seven-fold shield of the
+Telamon <a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>Ajax&mdash;a classical allusion which was altogether lost on the
+young man from Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>The appropriation for the Illinois River was stricken from the Western
+Harbors bill much to Douglas's regret.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177"><sup>[177]</sup></a> Still, he had evinced a
+genuine concern for the interests of his constituents and his reward
+was even now at hand. Early in the year the Peoria <i>Press</i> had
+recommended a Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for
+Congress.<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178"><sup>[178]</sup></a> The <i>State Register</i>, and other journals friendly to
+Douglas, took up the cry, giving the movement thus all the marks of
+spontaneity. The Democratic organization was found to be intact; the
+convention was held early in May at Pittsfield; and the Honorable
+Stephen A. Douglas was unanimously re-nominated for Representative to
+Congress from the Fifth Congressional District.<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179"><sup>[179]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Soon after this well-ordered convention in the little Western town of
+Pittsfield, came the national convention of the Democratic party at
+Baltimore, where the unexpected happened. To Douglas, as to the rank
+and file of the party, the selection of Polk must have come as a
+surprise; but whatever predilections he may have had for another
+candidate, were speedily suppressed.<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180"><sup>[180]</sup></a> With the platform, at least,
+he found himself in hearty accord; and before the end of the session
+he convinced his associates on the Democratic side of the House, that
+he was no lukewarm supporter of the ticket.</p>
+
+<p>While the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriations bill <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>was under
+discussion in the House, a desultory debate occurred on the politics
+of Colonel Polk. Such digressions were not unusual on the eve of a
+presidential election. Seizing the opportunity, Douglas obtained
+recognition from the Speaker and launched into a turgid speech in
+defence of Polk, &quot;the standard-bearer of Democracy and freedom.&quot; It
+had been charged that Colonel Polk was &quot;the industrious follower of
+Andrew Jackson.&quot; Douglas turned the thrust neatly by asserting, &quot;He is
+emphatically a Young Hickory&mdash;the unwavering friend of Old Hickory in
+all his trials&mdash;his bosom companion&mdash;his supporter and defender on all
+occasions, in public and private, from his early boyhood until the
+present moment. No man living possessed General Jackson's confidence
+in a greater degree.... That he has been the industrious follower of
+General Jackson in those glorious contests for the defence of his
+country's rights, will not be deemed the unpardonable sin by the
+American people, so long as their hearts beat and swell with gratitude
+to their great benefactor. He is the very man for the times&mdash;a 'chip
+of the old block'&mdash;of the true hickory stump. The people want a man
+whose patriotism, honesty, ability, and devotion to democratic
+principles, have been tested and tried in the most stormy times of the
+republic, and never found wanting. That man is James K. Polk of
+Tennessee.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181"><sup>[181]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There could be no better evidence that Douglas felt sure of his own
+fences, than his willingness to assist in the general campaign outside
+of his own district and State. He not only addressed a mass-meeting of
+delegates from many Western States at Nashville, <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>Tennessee,<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182"><sup>[182]</sup></a> but
+journeyed to St. Louis and back again, in the service of the
+Democratic Central Committee, speaking at numerous points along the
+way with gratifying success, if we may judge from the grateful words
+of appreciation in the Democratic press.<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183"><sup>[183]</sup></a> It was while he was in
+attendance on the convention in Nashville that he was brought face to
+face with Andrew Jackson. The old hero was then living in retirement
+at the Hermitage. Thither, as to a Mecca, all good Democrats turned
+their faces after the convention. Douglas received from the old man a
+greeting which warmed the cockles of his heart, and which, duly
+reported by the editor of the Illinois <i>State Register</i>, who was his
+companion, was worth many votes at the cross-roads of Illinois. The
+scene was described as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Governor Clay, of Alabama, was near General Jackson, who was himself
+sitting on a sofa in the hall, and as each person entered, the
+governor introduced him to the hero and he passed along. When Judge
+Douglas was thus introduced, General Jackson raised his still
+brilliant eyes and gazed for a moment in the countenance of the judge,
+still retaining his hand. 'Are you the Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, who
+delivered a speech last session on the subject of the fine imposed on
+me for declaring martial law at New Orleans?'&quot; asked General Jackson.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I have delivered a speech in the House of Representatives upon that
+subject,' was the modest reply of our friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then stop,' said General Jackson; 'sit down here beside me. I desire
+to return you my thanks for that <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>speech. You are the first man that
+has ever relieved my mind on a subject which has rested upon it for
+thirty years. My enemies have always charged me with violating the
+Constitution of my country by declaring martial law at New Orleans,
+and my friends have always admitted the violation, but have contended
+that circumstances justified me in that violation. I never could
+understand how it was that the performance of a solemn duty to my
+country&mdash;a duty which, if I had neglected, would have made me a
+traitor in the sight of God and man, could properly be pronounced a
+violation of the Constitution. I felt convinced in my own mind that I
+was not guilty of such a heinous offense; but I could never make out a
+legal justification of my course, nor has it ever been done, sir,
+until you, on the floor of Congress, at the late session, established
+it beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt. I thank you, sir, for
+that speech. It has relieved my mind from the only circumstance that
+rested painfully upon it. Throughout my whole life I never performed
+an official act which I viewed as a violation of the Constitution of
+my country; and I can now go down to the grave in peace, with the
+perfect consciousness that I have not broken, at any period of my
+life, the Constitution or laws of my country.'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thus spoke the old hero, his countenance brightened by emotions which
+it is impossible for us to describe. We turned to look at Douglas&mdash;he
+was speechless. He could not reply, but convulsively shaking the aged
+veteran's hand, he rose and left the hall. Certainly General Jackson
+had paid him the highest compliment he could have bestowed on any
+individual.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184"><sup>[184]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>When the August elections had come and gone, Douglas found himself
+re-elected by a majority of fourteen hundred votes and by a plurality
+over his Whig opponent of more than seventeen hundred.<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185"><sup>[185]</sup></a> He was to
+have another opportunity to serve his constituents; but the question
+was still open, whether his talents were only those of an adroit
+politician intent upon his own advancement, or those of a statesman,
+capable of conceiving generous national policies which would efface
+the eager ambitions of the individual and the grosser ends of party.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163">[163]</a> Poore, Reminiscences, I, pp. 316-317.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164">[164]</a> Joseph Wallace in the Illinois <i>State Register</i>, April
+19, 1885.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165">[165]</a> Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, 1, p. 146.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166">[166]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 44.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167">[167]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 45.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168">[168]</a> J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 478.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169">[169]</a> Richmond <i>Enquirer</i>, Jan. 6, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170">[170]</a> Act of June 25, 1842; United States Statutes at Large,
+V, p. 491.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171">[171]</a> December 14, 1843. <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong. I Sess. p. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172">[172]</a> Niles' <i>Register</i>, Vol. 65, pp. 393-396.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173">[173]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong. I Sess. pp. 276-277.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174">[174]</a> J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 510.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175">[175]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 549-550. For the trend
+of public opinion in the district which Douglas represented, see
+Peoria <i>Register,</i> September 21, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176">[176]</a> <i>Globe,</i>28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 527-528</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177">[177]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 534.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178">[178]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, February 9, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179">[179]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, May 17, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180">[180]</a> It was intimated that he had at first aided Tyler in
+his forlorn hope of a second term.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181">[181]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 598 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182">[182]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, August 30, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183">[183]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, September 27, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184">[184]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 70-71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185">[185]</a> Official returns in the office of the Secretary of
+State.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>MANIFEST DESTINY</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The defeat of President Tyler's treaty in June, 1844, just on the eve
+of the presidential campaign, gave the Texas question an importance
+which the Democrats in convention had not foreseen, when they inserted
+the re-annexation plank in the platform. The hostile attitude of Whig
+senators and of Clay himself toward annexation, helped to make Texas a
+party issue. While it cannot be said that Polk was elected on this
+issue alone, there was some plausibility in the statement of President
+Tyler, that &quot;a controlling majority of the people, and a majority of
+the States, have declared in favor of immediate annexation.&quot; At all
+events, when Congress reassembled, President Tyler promptly acted on
+this supposition. In his annual message, and again in a special
+message a fortnight later, he urged &quot;prompt and immediate action on
+the subject of annexation.&quot; Since the two governments had already
+agreed on terms of annexation, he recommended their adoption by
+Congress &quot;in the form of a joint resolution, or act, to be perfected
+and made binding on the two countries, when adopted in like manner by
+the government of Texas.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186"><sup>[186]</sup></a> A policy which had not been able to
+secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate was now to be endorsed
+by a majority of both houses. In short, a legislative treaty was to be
+enacted by Congress.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>The Hon. Stephen A. Douglas had taken his seat in the House with
+augmented self-assurance. He had not only secured his re-election and
+the success of his party in Illinois, but he had served most
+acceptably as a campaign speaker in Polk's own State. Surely he was
+entitled to some consideration in the councils of his party. In the
+appointment of standing committees, he could hardly hope for a
+chairmanship. It was reward enough to be made a member of the
+Committee of Elections and of the Committee on the Judiciary. On the
+paramount question before this Congress, he entertained strong
+convictions, which he had no hesitation in setting forth in a series
+of resolutions, while older members were still feeling their way. The
+preamble of these &quot;Joint Resolutions for the annexation of Texas&quot; was
+in itself a little stump speech: &quot;Whereas the treaty of 1803 had
+provided that the people of Texas should be incorporated into the
+Union and admitted as soon as possible to citizenship, and whereas the
+present inhabitants have signified their willingness to be re-annexed;
+therefore&quot;.... Particular interest attaches to the Eighth Resolution
+which proposed to extend the Missouri Compromise line through Texas,
+&quot;inasmuch as the compromise had been made prior to the treaty of 1819,
+by which Texas was ceded to Spain.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187"><sup>[187]</sup></a> The resolutions never
+commanded any support worth mentioning, attention being drawn to the
+joint resolution of the Committee on Foreign Affairs which was known
+to have the sanction of the President. The proposal of Douglas to
+settle the matter of slavery in Texas in the act of annexation itself,
+was perhaps his only contribution to the <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>discussion of ways and
+means. An aggressive Southern group of representatives readily caught
+up the suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>The debate upon the joint resolution was well under way before Douglas
+secured recognition from the Speaker. The opposition was led by
+Winthrop of Massachusetts and motived by reluctance to admit slave
+territory, as well as by constitutional scruples regarding the process
+of annexation by joint resolution. Douglas spoke largely in rejoinder
+to Winthrop. A clever retort to Winthrop's reference to &quot;this odious
+measure devised for sinister purposes by a President not elected by
+the people,&quot; won for Douglas the good-natured attention of the House.
+It was President Adams and not President Tyler, Douglas remonstrated,
+who had first opened negotiations for annexation; but perhaps the
+gentleman from Massachusetts intended to designate his colleague, Mr.
+Adams, when he referred to &quot;a president not elected by the
+people&quot;!<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188"><sup>[188]</sup></a> Moreover, it was Mr. Adams, who as Secretary of State
+had urged our claims to all the country as far as the Rio del Norte,
+under the Treaty of 1803. In spite of these just boundary claims and
+our solemn promise to admit the inhabitants of the Louisiana purchase
+to citizenship, we had violated that pledge by ceding Texas to Spain
+in 1819. These people had protested against this separation, only a
+few months after the signing of the treaty; they now asked us to
+redeem our ancient pledge. Honor and violated faith required the
+immediate annexation of Texas.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189"><sup>[189]</sup></a> Had Douglas known, or taken pains
+to ascertain, who these people were, who protested against the treaty
+of 1819, <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>he would hardly have wasted his commiseration upon them.
+Enough: the argument served his immediate purpose.</p>
+
+<p>To those who contended that Congress had no power to annex territory
+with a view to admitting new States, Douglas replied that the
+Constitution not only grants specific powers to Congress, but also
+general power to pass acts necessary and proper to carry out the
+specific powers. Congress may admit new States, but in the present
+instance Congress cannot exercise that power without annexing
+territory. &quot;The annexation of Texas is a prerequisite without the
+performance of which Texas cannot be admitted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190"><sup>[190]</sup></a> The Constitution
+does not state that the President and Senate may admit new States, nor
+that they shall make laws for the acquisition of territory in order to
+enable Congress to admit new States. The Constitution declares
+explicitly, &quot;<i>Congress</i> may admit new States.&quot; &quot;When the grant of
+power is to Congress, the authority to pass all laws necessary to its
+execution is also in Congress; and the treaty-making power is to be
+confined to those cases where the power is not located elsewhere by
+the Constitution.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191"><sup>[191]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With those weaklings who feared lest the extension of the national
+domain should react unfavorably upon our institutions, and who
+apprehended war with Mexico, Douglas had no patience. The States of
+the Union were already drawn closer together than the thirteen
+original States in the first years of the Union, because of the
+improved means of communication. Transportation facilities were now
+multiplying more rapidly than population. &quot;Our federal system,&quot; he
+<a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>exclaimed, with a burst of jingoism that won a round of applause from
+Western Democrats as he resumed his seat, &quot;Our federal system is
+admirably adapted to the whole continent; and, while I would not
+violate the laws of nations, nor treaty stipulations, nor in any
+manner tarnish the national honor, I would exert all legal and
+honorable means to drive Great Britain and the last vestiges of royal
+authority from the continent of North America, and extend the limits
+of the republic from ocean to ocean. I would make this an ocean-bound
+republic, and have no more disputes about boundaries, or 'red lines'
+upon the maps.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192"><sup>[192]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In this speech there was one notable omission. The slavery question
+was not once touched upon. Those who have eyes only to see plots
+hatched by the slave power in national politics, are sure to construe
+this silence as part of an ignoble game. It is possible that Douglas
+purposely evaded this question; but it does not by any means follow
+that he was deliberately playing into the hands of Southern leaders.
+The simple truth is, that it was quite possible in the early forties
+for men, in all honesty, to ignore slavery, because they regarded it
+either as a side issue or as no issue at all. It was quite possible to
+think on large national policies without confusing them with slavery.
+Men who shared with Douglas the pulsating life of the Northwest wanted
+Texas as a &quot;theater for enterprise and industry.&quot; As an Ohio
+representative said, they desired &quot;a West for their sons and daughters
+where they would be free from family influences, from associated
+wealth and from those thousand things which in the old settled country
+have the tendency of <a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>keeping down the efforts and enterprises of
+young people.&quot; The hearts of those who, like Douglas, had carved out
+their fortunes in the new States, responded to that sentiment in a way
+which neither a John Quincy Adams nor a Winthrop could understand.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the question of slavery in the proposed State of Texas was thrust
+upon the attention of Congress by the persistent tactics of Alexander
+H. Stephens and a group of Southern associates. They refused to accept
+all terms of annexation which did not secure the right of States
+formed south of the Missouri Compromise line to come into the Union
+with slavery, if they desired to do so.<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193"><sup>[193]</sup></a> Douglas met this
+opposition with the suggestion that not more than three States besides
+Texas should be created out of the new State, but that such States
+should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the
+people of each should determine, at the time of their application to
+Congress for admission. As the germ of the doctrine of Popular
+Sovereignty, this resolution has both a personal and a historic
+interest. While it failed to pass,<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194"><sup>[194]</sup></a> it suggested to Stephens and
+his friends a mode of adjustment which might satisfy all sides. It was
+at his suggestion that Milton Brown of Tennessee proposed resolutions
+providing for the admission of not more than four States besides
+Texas, out of the territory acquired. If these States should be formed
+south of the Missouri Compromise line, they were to be admitted with
+or without slavery, as the people of each should determine. Northern
+men demurred, but Douglas saved the situation by offering <a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>as an
+amendment, &quot;And in such States as shall be formed north of said
+Missouri Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude, except for
+crime, shall be prohibited.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195"><sup>[195]</sup></a> The amendment was accepted, and thus
+amended, the joint resolution passed by an ample margin of votes. In
+view of later developments, this extension of the Missouri Compromise
+line is a point of great significance in the career of Douglas.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after Douglas had voiced his vision of &quot;an ocean-bound
+republic,&quot; he was called upon to assist one of the most remarkable
+emigrations westward, from his own State. The Mormons in Hancock
+County had become the most undesirable of neighbors to his
+constituents. Once the allies of the Democrats, they were now held in
+detestation by all Gentiles of adjoining counties, irrespective of
+political affiliations. The announcement of the doctrine of polygamy
+by the Prophet Smith had been accompanied by acts of defiance and
+followed by depredations, which, while not altogether unprovoked,
+aroused the non-Mormons to a dangerous pitch of excitement. In the
+midst of general disorder in Hancock County, Joseph Smith was
+murdered. Every deed of violence was now attributed to the Danites, as
+the members of the militant order of the Mormon Church styled
+themselves. Early in the year 1845, the Nauvoo Charter was repealed;
+and Governor Ford warned his quondam friends confidentially that they
+had better betake themselves westward, suggesting California as &quot;a
+field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern
+times.&quot; Disgraceful outrages filled the summer months of 1845 in
+Hancock County. A band of Mormon-haters <a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>ravaged the county, burning
+houses, barns, and grain stacks, and driving unprotected Mormon
+settlers into Nauvoo. To put an end to this state of affairs, Governor
+Ford sent Judge Douglas and Attorney-General McDougal, with a force of
+militia under the command of General Hardin, into Hancock County.
+Public meetings in all the adjoining counties were now demanding the
+expulsion of the Mormons in menacing language.<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196"><sup>[196]</sup></a> While General
+Hardin issued a proclamation bidding Mormons and anti-Mormons to
+desist from further violence, and promised that his scanty force of
+four hundred would enforce the laws impartially, the commissioners
+entered into negotiations with the Mormon authorities. On the pressing
+demand of the commissioners and of a deputation from the town of
+Quincy, Brigham Young announced that the Mormons purposed to leave
+Illinois in the spring, &quot;for some point so remote that there will not
+need to be a difficulty with the people and ourselves.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There can be little doubt that Douglas's advice weighed heavily with
+the Mormons. As a judge, he had administered the law impartially
+between Mormon and non-Mormon; and this was none too common in the
+civic history of the Mormon Church. As an aspirant for office, he had
+frankly courted their suffrages; but times had changed. The reply of
+the commissioners, though not unkindly worded, contained some
+wholesome advice. &quot;We think that steps should be taken by you to make
+it apparent that you are actually preparing to remove in the spring.
+By <a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>carrying out, in good faith, your proposition to remove, as
+submitted to us, we think you should be, and will be, permitted to
+depart peaceably next spring for your destination, west of the Rocky
+Mountains.... We recommend to you to place every possible restraint in
+your power over the members of your church, to prevent them from
+committing acts of aggression or retaliation on any citizens of the
+State, as a contrary course may, and most probably will, bring about a
+collision which will subvert all efforts to maintain the peace in this
+county; and we propose making a similar request of your opponents in
+this and the surrounding counties.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197"><sup>[197]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Announcing the result of their negotiations to the anti-Mormon people
+of Hancock County, the commissioners gave equally good advice:
+&quot;Remember, whatever may be the aggression against you, the sympathy of
+the public may be forfeited. It cannot be denied that the burning of
+the houses of the Mormons ... was an act criminal in itself, and
+disgraceful to its perpetrators.... A resort to, or persistence in,
+such a course under existing circumstances will make you forfeit all
+the respect and sympathy of the community.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Unhappily this advice was not long heeded by either side. While
+Douglas was giving his vote for men and money for the Mexican War and
+the gallant Hardin was serving his country in command of a regiment,
+&quot;the last Mormon war&quot; broke out, which culminated in the siege and
+evacuation of Nauvoo. Passing westward into No-man's-land, the Mormons
+became eventually the founders of one of the Territories by which
+Douglas sought to span the continent.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>It was only in the Northwest that the cry for the re-occupation of
+Oregon had the ring of sincerity; elsewhere it had been thought of as
+a response to the re-annexation of Texas,&mdash;more or less of a
+vote-catching device. The sentiment in Douglas's constituency was
+strongly in favor of an aggressive policy in Oregon. The first band of
+Americans to go thither, for the single purpose of settlement and
+occupation, set out from Peoria.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198"><sup>[198]</sup></a> These were &quot;young men of the
+right sort,&quot; in whom the eternal <i>Wanderlust</i> of the race had been
+kindled by tales of returned missionaries. Public exercises were held
+on their departure, and the community sanctioned this outflow of its
+youthful strength. Dwellers in the older communities of the East had
+little sympathy with this enterprise. It was ill-timed, many hundred
+years in advance of the times. Why emigrate from a region but just
+reclaimed from barbarism, where good land was still abundant?<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199"><sup>[199]</sup></a>
+Perhaps it was in reply to such doubts that an Illinois rhymester bade
+his New England brother</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;Scan the opening glories of the West,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Her boundless prairies and her thousand streams,<br /></span>
+<span>The swarming millions who will crowd her breast,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Mid scenes enchanting as a poet's dreams:<br /></span>
+<span>And then bethink you of your own stern land,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where ceaseless toil will scarce a pittance earn,<br /></span>
+<span>And gather quickly to a hopeful band,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Say parting words,&mdash;and to the westward turn.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200"><sup>[200]</sup></a><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Douglas tingled to his fingers' ends with the sentiment expressed in
+these lines. The prospect of <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>forfeiting this Oregon country,&mdash;this
+greater Northwest,&mdash;to Great Britain, stirred all the belligerent
+blood in his veins. Had it fallen to him to word the Democratic
+platform, he would not have been able to choose a better phrase than
+&quot;re-occupation of Oregon.&quot; The elemental jealousy and hatred of the
+Western pioneer for the claim-jumper found its counterpart in his
+hostile attitude toward Great Britain. He was equally fearful lest a
+low estimate of the value of Oregon should make Congress indifferent
+to its future. He had endeavored to have Congress purchase copies of
+Greenhow's <i>History of the Northwest Coast of North America</i>, so that
+his colleagues might inform themselves about this El Dorado.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201"><sup>[201]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There was, indeed, much ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.
+To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia
+River, a vast region on the northwest coast. As defined by the
+authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon
+was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of
+42&deg; and 54&deg; 40' north latitude.<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202"><sup>[202]</sup></a> Treaties between Russia and Great
+Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the
+southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54&deg; 40'; a
+treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second
+parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a
+joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States
+in 1818,&mdash;renewed in 1827,&mdash;had established a <i>modus vivendi</i> between
+the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on
+<a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>twelve months' notice. Meantime Great Britain and the United States
+were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and
+islands between Spanish and Russian America. Whether the technical
+questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was
+something that did not concern the resolute expansionist. It was
+enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of
+discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger
+&quot;national right,&quot; by virtue of the process by which their people were
+settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West. This was but
+another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.</p>
+
+<p>No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their
+force unless followed up by vigorous action. Priority of occupation
+was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the
+government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two
+isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of
+suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the
+establishment of the territory of Nebraska;<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203"><sup>[203]</sup></a> the other, for the
+establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and
+Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico
+and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204"><sup>[204]</sup></a> Though neither
+bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be
+forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their
+persistent author.</p>
+
+<p>A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories,
+boldly extending the government of the <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>United States over the whole
+disputed area.<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205"><sup>[205]</sup></a> Conservatives in both parties deprecated such
+action as both hasty and unwise, in view of negotiations then in
+progress; but the Hotspurs would listen to no prudential
+considerations. Sentiments such as those expressed by Morris of
+Pennsylvania irritated them beyond measure. Why protect this wandering
+population in Oregon? he asked. Let them take care of themselves; or
+if they cannot protect themselves, let the government defend them
+during the period of their infancy, and then let them form a republic
+of their own. He did not wish to imperil the Union by crossing
+barriers beyond which nature had intended that we should not go.</p>
+
+<p>This frank, if not cynical, disregard of the claims of American
+emigrants,&mdash;&quot;wandering and unsettled&quot; people, Morris had called
+them,&mdash;brought Douglas to his feet. Memories of a lad who had himself
+once been a wanderer from the home of his fathers, spurred him to
+resent this thinly veiled contempt for Western emigrants and the part
+which they were manfully playing in the development of the West. The
+gentleman should say frankly, retorted Douglas, that he is desirous of
+dissolving the Union. Consistency should force him to take the ground
+that our Union must be dissolved and divided up into various, separate
+republics by the Alleghanies, the Green and the White Mountains.
+Besides, to cede the territory of Oregon to its inhabitants would be
+tantamount to ceding it to Great Britain. He, for one, would never
+yield an inch of Oregon either to Great Britain or any other
+government. He looked forward to a time when Oregon <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>would become a
+considerable member of the great American family of States. Wait for
+the issue of the negotiations now pending? When had negotiations not
+been pending! Every man in his senses knew that there was no hope of
+getting the country by negotiation. He was for erecting a government
+on this side of the Rockies, extending our settlements under military
+protection, and then establishing the territorial government of
+Oregon. Facilitate the means of communication across the Rocky
+Mountains, and let the people there know and feel that they are a part
+of the government of the United States, and under its protection; that
+was his policy.</p>
+
+<p>As for Great Britain: she had already run her network of possessions
+and fortifications around the United States. She was intriguing for
+California, and for Texas, and she had her eye on Cuba; she was
+insidiously trying to check the growth of republican institutions on
+this continent and to ruin our commerce. &quot;It therefore becomes us to
+put this nation in a state of defense; and when we are told that this
+will lead to war, all I have to say is this, violate no treaty
+stipulations, nor any principle of the law of nations; preserve the
+honor and integrity of the country, but, at the same time, assert our
+right to the last inch, and then, if war comes, let it come. We may
+regret the necessity which produced it, but when it does come, I would
+administer to our citizens Hannibal's oath of eternal enmity, and not
+terminate the war until the question was settled forever. I would blot
+out the lines on the map which now mark our national boundaries on
+this continent, and make the area of liberty as broad as the continent
+itself. I would not suffer <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>petty rival republics to grow up here,
+engendering jealousy of each other, and interfering with each other's
+domestic affairs, and continually endangering their peace. I do not
+wish to go beyond the great ocean&mdash;beyond those boundaries which the
+God of nature has marked out, I would limit myself only by that
+boundary which is so clearly defined by nature.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206"><sup>[206]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The vehemence of these words startled the House, although it was not
+the only belligerent speech on the Oregon question. Cooler heads, like
+J.Q. Adams, who feared the effect of such imprudent utterances falling
+upon British ears, remonstrated at the unseemly haste with which the
+bill was being &quot;driven through&quot; the House, and counselled with all the
+weight of years against the puerility of provoking war in this
+fashion. But the most that could be accomplished in the way of
+moderation was an amendment, which directed the President to give
+notice of the termination of our joint treaty of occupation with Great
+Britain. This precaution proved to be unnecessary, as the Senate
+failed to act upon the bill.</p>
+
+<p>No one expected from the new President any masterful leadership of the
+people as a whole or of his party. Few listened with any marked
+attention, therefore, to his inaugural address. His references to
+Texas and Oregon were in accord with the professions of the Democratic
+party, except possibly at one point, which was not noted at the time
+but afterward widely commented upon. &quot;Our title to the country of the
+Oregon,&quot; said he, &quot;is clear and unquestionable.&quot; The text of the
+Baltimore platform read, &quot;Our title to the <i>whole</i> of the territory of
+Oregon is clear and <a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>unquestionable.&quot; Did President Polk mean to be
+ambiguous at this point? Had he any reason to swerve from the strict
+letter of the Democratic creed?</p>
+
+<p>In his first message to Congress, President Polk alarmed staunch
+Democrats by stating that he had tried to compromise our clear and
+unquestionable claims, though he assured his party that he had done so
+only out of deference to his predecessor in office. Those inherited
+policies having led to naught, he was now prepared to reassert our
+title to the whole of Oregon, which was sustained &quot;by irrefragable
+facts and arguments.&quot; He would therefore recommend that provision be
+made for terminating the joint treaty of occupation, for extending the
+jurisdiction of the United States over American citizens in Oregon,
+and for protecting emigrants in transit through the Indian country.
+These were strong measures. They might lead to war; but the temper of
+Congress was warlike; and a group of Democrats in both houses was
+ready to take up the programme which the President had outlined.
+&quot;Fifty-four forty or fight&quot; was the cry with which they sought to
+rally the Chauvinists of both parties to their standard. While Cass
+led the skirmishing line in the Senate, Douglas forged to the fore in
+the House.<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207"><sup>[207]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It is good evidence of the confidence placed in Douglas by his
+colleagues that, when territorial questions of more than ordinary
+importance were pending, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on
+Territories.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208"><sup>[208]</sup></a> If there was one division of legislative <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>work in
+which he showed both capacity and talent, it was in the organization
+of our Western domain and in its preparation for statehood. The vision
+which dazzled his imagination was that of an ocean-bound republic; to
+that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any
+self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his
+imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by
+contact with actual Western conditions. Finance, the tariff, and
+similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to
+leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a
+continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness. He had
+now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be
+indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was
+made chairman of a similar committee. His career must be measured by
+the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was
+called upon to solve concerning the public domain. In this sphere he
+laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required;
+but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound
+up more or less intimately with the slavery question. Upon this
+delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to
+bear? Time only could tell. Meantime, the House Committee on
+Territories had urgent business on hand.</p>
+
+<p>Texas was now knocking at the door of the Union, and awaited only a
+formal invitation to become one of the family of States, as the
+chairman was wont to say cheerily. Ten days after the opening of the
+session Douglas reported from his committee a joint <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>resolution for
+the admission of Texas, &quot;on an equal footing with the original states
+in all respects whatever.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209"><sup>[209]</sup></a> There was a certain pleonasm about
+this phrasing that revealed the hand of the chairman: the simple
+statement must be reinforced both for legal security and for
+rhetorical effect. Six days later, after but a single speech, the
+resolution went to a third reading and was passed by a large
+majority.<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210"><sup>[210]</sup></a> Voted upon with equal dispatch by the Senate, and
+approved by the President, the joint resolution became law, December
+29, 1845.</p>
+
+<p>While the belligerent spirit of Congress had abated somewhat since the
+last session, no such change had passed over the gentleman from
+Illinois. No sooner had the Texas resolution been dispatched than he
+brought in a bill to protect American settlers in Oregon, while the
+joint treaty of occupation continued. He now acquiesced, it is true,
+in the more temperate course of first giving Great Britain twelve
+months' notice before terminating this treaty; but he was just as
+averse as ever to compromise and arbitration. &quot;For one,&quot; said he, &quot;I
+never will be satisfied with the valley of the Columbia, nor with 49&deg;,
+nor with 54&deg; 40'; nor will I be, while Great Britain shall hold
+possession of one acre on the northwest coast of America. And, Sir, I
+never will agree to any arrangement that shall recognize her right to
+one inch of soil upon the northwest coast; and for this simple reason:
+Great Britain never did own, she never did have a valid title to one
+inch of the country.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211"><sup>[211]</sup></a> He moved that the question of title should
+not be left to arbitration.<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212"><sup>[212]</sup></a> His countrymen, he felt sure, would
+never trust their interests to <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>European arbitrators, prejudiced as
+they inevitably would be by their monarchical environment.<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213"><sup>[213]</sup></a> This
+feeling was, indeed, shared by the President and his cabinet advisers.</p>
+
+<p>With somewhat staggering frankness, Douglas laid bare his inmost
+motive for unflinching opposition to Great Britain. The value of
+Oregon was not to be measured by the extent of its seacoast nor by the
+quality of its soil. &quot;The great point at issue between us and Great
+Britain is for the freedom of the Pacific Ocean, for the trade of
+China and Japan, of the East Indies, and for the maritime ascendency
+on all these waters.&quot; Oregon held a strategic position on the Pacific,
+controlling the overland route between the Atlantic and the Orient. If
+this country were yielded to Great Britain&mdash;&quot;this power which holds
+control over all the balance of the globe,&quot;&mdash;it would make her
+maritime ascendency complete.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214"><sup>[214]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Stripped of its rhetorical garb, Douglas's speech of January 27, 1846,
+must be acknowledged to have a substratum of good sense and the
+elements of a true prophecy. When it is recalled that recent
+developments in the Orient have indeed made the mastery of the Pacific
+one of the momentous questions of the immediate future, that the
+United States did not then possess either California or Alaska, and
+that Oregon included the only available harbors on the coast,&mdash;the
+pleas of Douglas, which rang false in the ears of his own generation,
+sound prophetic in ours. Yet all that he said was vitiated by a
+fallacy which a glance at a map of the Northwest will expose. The line
+of 49&deg; <a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a>eventually gave to the United States Puget Sound with its
+ample harbors.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it was the same uncompromising spirit that prompted Douglas's
+constituents in far away Illinois to seize the moment to endorse his
+course in Congress. Early in January, nineteen delegates, defying the
+inclemency of the season, met in convention at Rushville, and
+renominated Douglas for Congress by acclamation.<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215"><sup>[215]</sup></a> History
+maintains an impenetrable silence regarding these faithful nineteen;
+it is enough to know that Douglas had no opposition to encounter in
+his own bailiwick.</p>
+
+<p>When the joint resolution to terminate the treaty of occupation came
+to a vote, the intransigeants endeavored to substitute a declaration
+to the effect that Oregon was no longer a subject for negotiation or
+compromise. It was a silly proposition, in view of the circumstances,
+yet it mustered ten supporters. Among those who passed between the
+tellers, with cries of &quot;54&deg; 40' forever,&quot; amid the laughter of the
+House, were Stephen A. Douglas and four of his Illinois
+colleagues.<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216"><sup>[216]</sup></a> Against the substitute, one hundred and forty-six
+votes were recorded,&mdash;an emphatic rebuke, if only the ten had chosen
+so to regard it.</p>
+
+<p>While the House resolution was under consideration in the Senate, it
+was noised abroad that President Polk still considered himself free to
+compromise with Great Britain on the line of 49&deg;. Consternation fell
+upon the Ultras. In the words of Senator Hannegan, they had believed
+the President committed to 54&deg; 40' in as <a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>strong language as that
+which makes up the Holy Book. As rumor passed into certainty, the
+feelings of Douglas can be imagined, but not described. He had
+committed himself, and,&mdash;so far as in him lay,&mdash;his party, to the line
+of 54&deg; 40', in full confidence that Polk, party man that he was, would
+stubbornly contest every inch of that territory. He had called on the
+dogs of war in dauntless fashion, and now to find &quot;the standard-bearer
+of Democracy,&quot; &quot;Young Hickory,&quot; and many of his party, disposed to
+compromise on 49&deg;,&mdash;it was all too exasperating for words. In contrast
+to the soberer counsels that now prevailed, his impetuous advocacy of
+the whole of Oregon seemed decidedly boyish. It was greatly to his
+credit, however, that, while smarting under the humiliation of the
+moment, he imposed restraint upon his temper and indulged in no bitter
+language.</p>
+
+<p>Some weeks later, Douglas intimated that some of his party associates
+had proved false to the professions of the Baltimore platform. No
+Democrat, he thought, could consistently accept part of Oregon instead
+of the whole. &quot;Does the gentleman,&quot; asked Seddon, drawing him out for
+the edification of the House, &quot;hold that the Democratic party is
+pledged to 54&deg; 40'?&quot; Douglas replied emphatically that he thought the
+party was thus solemnly pledged. &quot;Does the gentleman,&quot; persisted his
+interrogator, &quot;understand the President to have violated the
+Democratic creed in offering to compromise on 49&deg;?&quot; Douglas replied
+that he did understand Mr. Polk in his inaugural address &quot;as standing
+up erect to the pledge of the Baltimore Convention.&quot; And if ever
+negotiations were again opened in violation of that pledge, &quot;sooner
+let his tongue <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>cleave to the roof of his mouth than he would defend
+that party which should yield one inch of Oregon.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217"><sup>[217]</sup></a> Evidently he
+had made up his mind to maintain his ground. Perhaps he had faint
+hopes that the administration would not compromise our claims. He
+still clung tenaciously to his bill for extending governmental
+protection over American citizens in Oregon and for encouraging
+emigration to the Pacific coast; and in the end he had the empty
+satisfaction of seeing it pass the House.<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218"><sup>[218]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime a war-cloud had been gathering in the Southwest. On May 11th,
+President Polk announced that war existed by act of Mexico. From this
+moment an amicable settlement with Great Britain was assured. The most
+bellicose spirit in Congress dared not offer to prosecute two wars at
+the same time. The warlike roar of the fifty-four forty men subsided
+into a murmur of mild disapprobation. Yet Douglas was not among those
+who sulked in their tents. To the surprise of his colleagues, he
+accepted the situation, and he was among the first to defend the
+President's course in the Mexico imbroglio.</p>
+
+<p>A month passed before Douglas had occasion to call at the White House.
+He was in no genial temper, for aside from personal grievances in the
+Oregon affair, he had been disappointed in the President's recent
+appointments to office in Illinois. The President marked his
+unfriendly air, and suspecting the cause, took pains to justify his
+course not only in the matter of the appointments, but in the Oregon
+affair. If not convinced, Douglas was at least willing to let bygones
+be <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>bygones. Upon taking his departure, he assured the President that
+he would continue to support the administration. The President
+responded graciously that Mr. Douglas could lead the Democratic party
+in the House if he chose to do so.<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219"><sup>[219]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When President Polk announced to Congress the conclusion of the Oregon
+treaty with Great Britain, he recommended the organization of a
+territorial government for the newly acquired country, at the earliest
+practicable moment. Hardly had the President's message been read, when
+Douglas offered a bill of this tenor, stating that it had been
+prepared before the terms of the treaty had been made public. His
+committee had not named the boundaries of the new Territory in the
+bill, for obvious reasons. He also stated, parenthetically, that he
+felt so keenly the humiliation of writing down the boundary of 49&deg;,
+that he preferred to leave that duty to those who had consented to
+compromise our claims. In drafting the bill, he had kept in mind the
+provisional government adopted by the people of Oregon: as they had in
+turn borrowed nearly all the statutes of Iowa, it was to be presumed
+that the people knew their own needs better than Congress.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220"><sup>[220]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Before the bill passed the House it was amended at one notable point.
+Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should ever exist in the
+Territory, following the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 for the
+Northwest Territory. Presumably Douglas was not opposed to this
+amendment,<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221"><sup>[221]</sup></a> though he voted against the <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>famous Wilmot Proviso two
+days later. Already Douglas showed a disposition to escape the toils
+of the slavery question by a <i>laissez faire</i> policy, which was
+compounded of indifference to the institution itself and of a strong
+attachment to states-rights. When Florida applied for admission into
+the Union with a constitution that forbade the emancipation of slaves
+and permitted the exclusion of free negroes, he denied the right of
+Congress to refuse to receive the new State. The framers of the
+Federal Constitution never intended that Congress should pass upon the
+propriety or expediency of each clause in the constitutions of States
+applying for admission. The great diversity of opinion resulting from
+diversity of climate, soil, pursuits, and customs, made uniformity
+impossible. The people of each State were to form their constitution
+in their own way, subject to the single restriction that it should be
+republican in character. &quot;They are subject to the jurisdiction and
+control of Congress during their infancy, their minority; but when
+they obtain their majority and obtain admission into the Union, they
+are free from all restraints ... except such as the Constitution of
+the United States has imposed.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222"><sup>[222]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The absorbing interest of Douglas at this point in his career is
+perfectly clear. To span the continent with States and Territories, to
+create an ocean-bound republic, has often seemed a gross,
+materialistic ideal. Has a nation no higher destiny than mere
+territorial bigness? Must an intensive culture with spiritual aims be
+sacrificed to a vulgar exploitation of physical resources? Yet the
+ends which this strenuous Westerner <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>had in view were not wholly gross
+and materialistic. To create the body of a great American Commonwealth
+by removing barriers to its continental expansion, so that the soul of
+Liberty might dwell within it, was no vulgar ambition. The conquest of
+the continent must be accounted one of the really great achievements
+of the century. In this dramatic exploit Douglas was at times an
+irresponsible, but never a weak nor a false actor.</p>
+
+<p>The session ended where it had begun, so far as Oregon was concerned.
+The Senate failed to act upon the bill to establish a territorial
+government; the earlier bill to protect American settlers also failed
+of adoption; and thus American caravans continued to cross the plains
+unprotected and ignored. But Congress had annexed a war.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186">[186]</a> Message of December 3, 1844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187">[187]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 85.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188">[188]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189">[189]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190">[190]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191">[191]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192">[192]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 68.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193">[193]</a> <i>American Historical Review</i>, VIII, pp. 93-94.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194">[194]</a> It was voted down 107 to 96; <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 192.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195">[195]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196">[196]</a> Linn's Story of the Mormons, Chs. 10-20, gives in great
+detail the facts connected with this Mormon emigration. I have
+borrowed freely from this account for the following episode.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197">[197]</a> Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 340-341.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198">[198]</a> Lyman, History of Oregon, III, p. 188.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199">[199]</a> See the letter of a New England Correspondent in the
+Peoria <i>Register</i>, May, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200">[200]</a> Peoria <i>Register</i>, June 8, 1839.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201">[201]</a> <i>Globe</i>,28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 198 and 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202">[202]</a> Greenhow, Northwest Coast of North America, p. 200.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203">[203]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204">[204]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 173.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205">[205]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206">[206]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 225-226.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207">[207]</a> His capacity for leadership was already recognized. His
+colleagues conceded that he was &quot;a man of large faculties.&quot; See
+Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, p. 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208">[208]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 25.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209">[209]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210">[210]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211">[211]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 259.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212">[212]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 86.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213">[213]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 260.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214">[214]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 258-259.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215">[215]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, Jan. 15, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216">[216]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 347; Wheeler, History of
+Congress, pp. 114-115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217">[217]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess. p. 497.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218">[218]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 85, 189, 395, 690-691.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219">[219]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 17, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220">[220]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1203.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221">[221]</a> He voted for a similar amendment in 1844; see <i>Globe</i>,
+28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 236.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222">[222]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 284.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>WAR AND POLITICS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>A long and involved diplomatic history preceded President Polk's
+simple announcement that &quot;Mexico has passed the boundary of the United
+States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon
+American soil.&quot; Rightly to evaluate these words, the reader should
+bear in mind that the mission of John Slidell to Mexico had failed;
+that the hope of a peaceable adjustment of the Texas boundary and of
+American claims against Mexico had vanished; and that General Taylor
+had been ordered to the Rio Grande in disregard of Mexican claims to
+that region. One should also know that, from the beginning of his
+administration, Polk had hoped to secure from our bankrupt neighbor
+the cession of California as an indemnity.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223"><sup>[223]</sup></a> A motive for
+forbearance in dealing with the distraught Mexican government was thus
+wholly absent from the mind of President Polk.</p>
+
+<p>Such of these facts as were known at the time, supplied the Whig
+opposition in Congress with an abundance of ammunition against the
+administration. Language was used which came dangerously near being
+unparliamentary. So the President was willing to sacrifice Oregon to
+prosecute this &quot;illegal, unrighteous and damnable war&quot; for Texas,
+sneered Delano. &quot;Where did the gentleman from Illinois stand now? Was
+he still in favor of 61?&quot; This sally brought <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>Douglas to his feet and
+elicited one of his cleverest extempore speeches. He believed that
+such words as the gentleman had uttered could come only from one who
+desired defeat for our arms. &quot;All who, after war is declared, condemn
+the justice of our cause, are traitors in their hearts. And would to
+God that they would commit some overt act for which they could be
+dealt with according to their deserts.&quot; Patriots might differ as to
+the expediency of entering upon war; but duty and honor forbade
+divided counsels after American blood had been shed on American soil.
+Had he foreseen the extraordinary turn of the discussion, he assured
+his auditors, he could have presented &quot;a catalogue of aggressions and
+insults; of outrages on our national flag&mdash;on persons and property of
+our citizens; of the violation of treaty stipulations, and the murder,
+robbery, and imprisonment of our countrymen.&quot; These were all anterior
+to the annexation of Texas, and perhaps alone would have justified a
+declaration of war; but &quot;magnanimity and forbearance toward a weak and
+imbecile neighbor&quot; prevented hostilities. The recent outrages left the
+country no choice but war. The invasion of the country was the last of
+the cumulative causes for war.</p>
+
+<p>But was the invaded territory properly &quot;our country&quot;? This was the
+<i>crux</i> of the whole matter. On this point Douglas was equally
+confident and explicit. Waiving the claims which the treaty of San
+Ildefonso may have given to the boundary of the Rio Grande, he rested
+the whole case upon &quot;an immutable principle&quot;&mdash;the Republic of Texas
+held the country on the left bank of that river by virtue of a
+successful revolution. The United States had received Texas as a State
+with all <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>her territory, and had no right to surrender any portion of
+it.<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224"><sup>[224]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The evidence which Douglas presented to confirm these claims is highly
+interesting. The right of Texas to have and to hold the territory from
+the Nueces to the Rio Grande was, in his opinion, based
+incontrovertibly on the treaty made by Santa Anna after the battle of
+San Jacinto, which acknowledged the independence of Texas and
+recognized the Rio Grande as its boundary. To an inquiry whether the
+treaty was ever ratified by the government of Mexico, Douglas replied
+that he was not aware that it had been ratified by anyone except Santa
+Anna, for the very good reason that he was the government at the time.
+&quot;Has not that treaty with Santa Anna been since discarded by the
+Mexican government?&quot; asked the venerable J.Q. Adams. &quot;I presume it
+has,&quot; replied Douglas, &quot;for I am not aware of any treaty or compact
+which that government ever entered into that has not either been
+violated or repudiated by them afterwards.&quot; But Santa Anna, as
+recognized dictator, was the <i>de facto</i> government, and the acts of a
+<i>de facto</i> government were binding on the nation as against foreign
+nations. &quot;It is immaterial, therefore, whether Mexico has or has not
+since repudiated Santa Anna's treaty with Texas. It was executed at
+the time by competent authority. She availed herself of all its
+benefits.&quot; Forthwith Texas established counties beyond the Nueces,
+even to the Rio Grande, and extended her jurisdiction over that
+region, while in a later armistice Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as
+the boundary. It was in the clear light of these facts that Congress
+had passed <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>an act extending the revenue laws of the United States
+over the country between the Rio Grande and the Nueces&mdash;the very
+country in which American soldiers had been slain by an invading
+force.</p>
+
+<p>All things considered, Douglas's line of argument was as well
+sustained as any presented by the supporters of the war. The absence
+of any citations to substantiate important points was of course due to
+the impromptu nature of the speech. Two years later,<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225"><sup>[225]</sup></a> in a
+carefully prepared speech constructed on much the same principles, he
+made good these omissions, but without adding much, it must be
+confessed, to the strength of his argument. The chain of evidence was
+in fact no stronger than its weakest link, which was the so-called
+treaty of Santa Anna with the President of the Republic of Texas.
+Nowhere in the articles, public or secret, is there an express
+recognition of the independence of the Republic, nor of the boundary.
+Santa Anna simply pledged himself to do his utmost to bring about a
+recognition of independence, and an acknowledgment of the claims of
+Texas to the Rio Grande as a boundary.<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226"><sup>[226]</sup></a> Did Douglas misinterpret
+these articles, or did he chance upon an unauthentic version of them?
+In the subsequent speech to which reference has been made, he cited
+specific articles which supported his contention. These citations do
+not tally with either the public or secret treaty. It may be doubted
+whether the secret articles were generally known at this time; but the
+open treaty had been published in Niles' <i>Register</i> correctly, and had
+been cited by President Polk.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227"><sup>[227]</sup></a> The inference would seem <a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>to be
+that Douglas unwittingly used an unauthenticated version, and found in
+it a conclusive argument for the claim of Texas to the disputed
+territory.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. John Quincy Adams had followed Douglas with the keenest interest,
+for with all the vigor which his declining strength permitted, he had
+denounced the war as an aggression upon a weaker neighbor. He had
+repeatedly interrupted Douglas, so that the latter almost insensibly
+addressed his remarks to him. They presented a striking contrast: the
+feeble, old man and the ardent, young Westerner. When Douglas alluded
+to the statement of Mr. Adams in 1819, that &quot;our title to the Rio del
+Norte is as clear as to the island of New Orleans,&quot; the old man
+replied testily, &quot;I never said that our title was good to the Rio del
+Norte from its mouth to its source.&quot; But the gentleman surely did
+claim the Rio del Norte in general terms as the boundary under the
+Louisiana treaty, persisted Douglas. &quot;I have the official evidence
+over his own signature.... It is his celebrated dispatch to Don Onis,
+the Spanish minister.&quot; &quot;I wrote that dispatch as Secretary of State,&quot;
+responded Mr. Adams, somewhat disconcerted by evidence from his own
+pen, &quot;and endeavored to make out the best case I could for my own
+country, as it was my duty; but I utterly deny that I claimed the Rio
+del Norte in its whole extent. I only claimed it as the line a short
+distance up, and then took a line northward, some distance from the
+river.&quot; &quot;I have heard of this line to which the gentleman refers,&quot;
+replied Douglas. &quot;It followed a river near the gorge of the mountains,
+certainly more than a hundred miles above Matamoras. Consequently,
+taking the gentleman on his own claim, the position occupied <a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>by
+General Taylor opposite Matamoras, and every inch of the ground upon
+which an American soldier has planted his foot, were clearly within
+our own territory as claimed by him in 1819.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228"><sup>[228]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It seemed to an eyewitness of this encounter that the veteran
+statesman was decidedly worsted. &quot;The House was divided between
+admiration for the new actor on the great stage of national affairs
+and reverence for the retiring chief,&quot; wrote a friend in after years,
+with more loyalty than accuracy.<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229"><sup>[229]</sup></a> The Whig side of the chamber was
+certainly in no mood to waste admiration on any Democrat who defended
+&quot;Polk the Mendacious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had the war begun when there was a wild scramble among
+Democrats for military office. It seemed to the distressed President
+as though every Democratic civilian became an applicant for some
+commission. Particularly embarrassing was the passion for office that
+seized upon members of Congress. Even Douglas felt the spark of
+military genius kindling within him. His friends, too, were convinced
+that he possessed qualities which would make him an intrepid leader
+and a tactician of no mean order. The entire Illinois delegation
+united to urge his appointment as Brigadier Major of the Illinois
+volunteers. Happily for the President, his course in this instance was
+clearly marked out by a law, which required him to select only
+officers already in command of State militia.<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230"><sup>[230]</sup></a> Douglas was keenly
+disappointed. He even presented himself in person to overrule the
+President's objection. The <a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>President was kind, but firm. He advised
+Douglas to withdraw his application. In his judgment, Mr. Douglas
+could best serve his country in Congress. Shortly afterward Douglas
+sent a letter to the President, withdrawing his application&mdash;&quot;like a
+sensible man,&quot; commented the relieved Executive.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231"><sup>[231]</sup></a> It is not likely
+that the army lost a great commander by this decision.</p>
+
+<p>In a State like Illinois, which had been staunchly Democratic for many
+years, elections during a war waged by a Democratic administration
+were not likely to yield any surprises. There was perhaps even less
+doubt of the result of the election in the Fifth Congressional
+District. By the admission of his opponents Douglas was stronger than
+he had been before.<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232"><sup>[232]</sup></a> Moreover, the war was popular in the counties
+upon whose support he had counted in other years. He had committed no
+act for which he desired general oblivion; his warlike utterances on
+Oregon, which had cost him some humiliation at Washington, so far from
+forfeiting the confidence of his followers, seem rather to have
+enhanced his popularity. Douglas carried every county in his district
+but one, and nearly all by handsome majorities. He had been first sent
+to Congress by a majority over Browning of less than five hundred
+votes; in the following canvass he had tripled his majority; and now
+he was returned to Congress by a majority of over twenty-seven hundred
+votes.<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233"><sup>[233]</sup></a> He <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>had every reason to feel gratified with this showing,
+even though some of his friends were winning military glory on Mexican
+battlefields. So long as he remained content with his seat in the
+House, there were no clouds in his political firmament. Not even the
+agitation of Abolitionists and Native Americans need cause him any
+anxiety, for the latter were wholly a negligible political quantity
+and the former practically so.<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234"><sup>[234]</sup></a> Everywhere but in the Seventh
+District, from which Lincoln was returned, Democratic Congressmen were
+chosen; and to make the triumph complete, a Democratic State ticket
+was elected and a Democratic General Assembly again assured.</p>
+
+<p>Early in the fall, on his return from a Southern trip, Douglas called
+upon the President in Washington. He was cordially welcomed, and not a
+little flattered by Polk's readiness to talk over the political
+situation before Congress met.<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235"><sup>[235]</sup></a> Evidently his support was
+earnestly desired for the contemplated policies of the administration.
+It was needed, as events proved. No sooner was Congress assembled than
+the opposition charged Polk with having exceeded his authority in
+organizing governments in the territory wrested from Mexico. Douglas
+sprang at once to the President's defense. He would not presume to
+speak with authority in the matter, but an examination of the
+accessible official papers had convinced him that the course of the
+President and of the commanders of the army was altogether defensible.
+&quot;In conducting the war, conquest was effected, and the right growing
+<a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>out of conquest was to govern the subdued provinces in a temporary and
+provisional manner, until the home government should establish a
+government in another form.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236"><sup>[236]</sup></a> And more to this effect, uttered in
+the heated language of righteous indignation.</p>
+
+<p>For thus throwing himself into the breach, Douglas was rewarded by
+further confidences. Before Polk replied to the resolution of inquiry
+which the House had voted, he summoned Douglas and a colleague to the
+White House, to acquaint them with the contents of his message and
+with the documents which would accompany it, so &quot;that they might be
+prepared to meet any attacks.&quot; And again, with four other members of
+the House, Douglas was asked to advise the President in the matter of
+appointing Colonel Benton to the office of lieutenant-general in
+command of the armies in the field. At the same time, the President
+laid before them his project for an appropriation of two millions to
+purchase peace; <i>i.e.</i> to secure a cession of territory from Mexico.
+With one accord Douglas and his companions advised the President not
+to press Benton's appointment, but all agreed that the desired
+appropriation should be pushed through Congress with all possible
+speed.<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237"><sup>[237]</sup></a> Yet all knew that such a bill must run the gauntlet of
+amendment by those who had attached the Wilmot Proviso to the
+two-million-dollar bill of the last session.</p>
+
+<p>While Douglas was thus rising rapidly to the leadership of his party
+in the House, the Legislature of his State promoted him to the Senate.
+For six years he <a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>had been a potential candidate for the office,
+despite his comparative youth.<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238"><sup>[238]</sup></a> What transpired in the Democratic
+caucus which named him as the candidate of the party, history does not
+record. That there was jealousy on the part of older men, much
+heart-burning among the younger aspirants, and bargaining on all
+sides, may be inferred from an incident recorded in Polk's diary.<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239"><sup>[239]</sup></a>
+Soon after his election, Douglas repaired to the President's office to
+urge the appointment of Richard M. Young of Illinois as Commissioner
+of the General Land Office. This was not the first time that Douglas
+had urged the appointment, it would seem. The President now inquired
+of Senator Breese, who had accompanied Douglas and seconded his
+request, whether the appointment would be satisfactory to the Illinois
+delegation. Both replied that it would, if Mr. Hoge, a member of the
+present Congress, who had been recommended at the last session, could
+not be appointed. The President repeated his decision not to appoint
+members of Congress to office, except in special cases, and suggested
+another candidate. Neither Douglas nor Breese would consent. Polk then
+spoke of a diplomatic charge for Young, but they would not hear of it.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning Douglas returned to the attack, and the President, under
+pressure, sent the nomination of Young to the Senate; before five
+o'clock of the same day, Polk was surprised to receive a notification
+from the Secretary of the Senate that the nomination had been
+confirmed. The President was a good deal <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>mystified by this unusual
+promptness, until three members of the Illinois delegation called some
+hours later, in a state of great excitement, saying that Douglas and
+Breese had taken advantage of them. They had no knowledge that Young's
+nomination was being pressed, and McClernand in high dudgeon intimated
+that this was all a bargain between Young and the two Senators.
+Douglas and Breese had sought to prevent Young from contesting their
+seats in the Senate, by securing a fat office for him. All this is <i>ex
+parte</i> evidence against Senator Douglas; but there is nothing
+intrinsically improbable in the story. In these latter days, so
+comparatively innocent a deal would pass without comment.</p>
+
+<p>Immediately upon taking his seat in the Senate, Douglas was appointed
+chairman of the Committee on Territories. It was then a position of
+the utmost importance, for every question of territorial organization
+touched the peculiar interests of the South. The varying currents of
+public opinion crossed in this committee. Senator Bright of Indiana is
+well described by the hackneyed and often misapplied designation, a
+Northern Democrat with Southern principles; Butler was Calhoun's
+colleague; Clayton of Delaware was a Whig and represented a border
+State which was vacillating between slavery and freedom; while Davis
+was a Massachusetts Whig. Douglas was placed, as it appeared, in the
+very storm center of politics, where his well-known fighting qualities
+would be in demand. It was not so clear to those who knew him, that he
+possessed the not less needful qualities of patience and tact for
+occasions when battles are not won by fighting. Still, life at the
+capital had smoothed his many little asperities of manner. He had
+learned <a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>to conform to the requirements of a social etiquette to which
+he had been a stranger; yet without losing the heartiness of manner
+and genial companionableness with all men which was, indeed, his
+greatest personal charm. His genuineness and large-hearted regard for
+his friends grappled them to him and won respect even from those who
+were not of his political faith.<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240"><sup>[240]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>An incident at the very outset of his career in the Senate, betrayed
+some little lack of self-restraint. When Senator Cass introduced the
+so-called Ten Regiments bill, Calhoun asked that its consideration
+might be postponed, in order to give him opportunity to discuss
+resolutions on the prospective annexation of Mexico. Cass was disposed
+to yield for courtesy's sake; but Douglas resented the interruption.
+He failed to see why public business should be suspended in order to
+discuss abstract propositions. He believed that this doctrine of
+courtesy was being carried to great lengths.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241"><sup>[241]</sup></a> Evidently the young
+Senator, fresh from the brisk atmosphere of the House, was restive
+under the conventional restraints of the more sedate Senate. He had
+not yet become acclimated.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas made his first formal speech in the Senate on February 1,
+1848. Despite his disclaimers, he had evidently made careful
+preparation, for his desk was strewn with books and he referred
+frequently to his authorities. The Ten Regiments bill was known to be
+a measure of the administration; and for this reason, if for no other,
+it was bitterly opposed. The time seemed opportune for a vindication
+of the President's policy. Douglas indignantly repelled the charge
+that <a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a>the war had from the outset been a war of conquest. &quot;It is a war
+of self-defense, forced upon us by our enemy, and prosecuted on our
+part in vindication of our honor, and the integrity of our territory.
+The enemy invaded our territory, and we repelled the invasion, and
+demanded satisfaction for all our grievances. In order to compel
+Mexico to do us justice, it was necessary to follow her retreating
+armies into her territory ... and inasmuch as it was certain that she
+was unable to make indemnity in money, we must necessarily take it in
+land. Conquest was not the motive for the prosecution of the war;
+satisfaction, indemnity, security, was the motive&mdash;conquest and
+territory the means.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242"><sup>[242]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Once again Douglas reviewed the origin of the war re-arguing the case
+for the administration. If the arguments employed were now well-worn,
+they were repeated with an incisiveness that took away much of their
+staleness. This speech must be understood as complementary to that
+which he had made in the House at the opening of hostilities. But he
+had not changed his point of view, nor moderated his contentions. Time
+seemed to have served only to make him surer of his evidence. Douglas
+exhibited throughout his most conspicuous excellencies and his most
+glaring defects. From first to last he was an attorney, making the
+best possible defense of his client. Nothing could excel his adroit
+selection of evidence, and his disposition and massing of telling
+testimony. Form and presentation were admirably calculated to disarm
+and convince. It goes without saying that Douglas's mental attitude
+was the opposite of the scientific and <a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a>historic spirit. Having a
+proposition to establish, he cared only for pertinent evidence. He
+rarely inquired into the character of the authorities from which he
+culled his data.</p>
+
+<p>That this attitude of mind and these unscholarly habits often were his
+undoing, was inevitable. He was often betrayed by fallacies and hasty
+inferences. The speech before us illustrates this lamentable mental
+defect. With the utmost assurance Douglas pointed out that Texas had
+actually extended her jurisdiction over the debatable land between the
+Nueces and the Rio Grande, fixing by law the times of holding court in
+the counties of San Patricio and Bexar. This was in the year 1838. The
+conclusion was almost unavoidable that when Texas came into the Union,
+her actual sovereignty extended to the Rio Grande. But further
+examination would have shown Douglas, that the only inhabited portion
+of the so-called counties were the towns on the right bank of the
+Nueces: beyond, lay a waste which was still claimed by Mexico. Was he
+misinformed, or had he hastily selected the usable portion of the
+evidence? Once again, in his eagerness to show that Mexico, so
+recently as 1842, had tacitly recognized the Rio Grande as a boundary
+in her military operations, he controverted his own argument that
+Texas had been in undisturbed possession of the country. He
+corroborated the conviction of those who from the first had asserted
+that, in annexing Texas, the United States had annexed a war. This
+from the man who had formerly declared that the danger of war was
+remote, because there had been no war between Mexico and Texas for
+nine years!</p>
+
+<p>Before a vote could be reached on the Ten Regiments <a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>bill, the draft
+of the Mexican treaty had been sent to the Senate. What transpired in
+executive session and what part Douglas sustained in the discussion of
+the treaty, may be guessed pretty accurately by his later admissions.
+He was one of an aggressive minority who stoutly opposed the provision
+of the fifth article of the treaty, which was to this effect: &quot;The
+boundary-line established by this article shall be religiously
+respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be
+made therein except by the express and free consent of both nations,
+lawfully given by the general government of each, in conformity with
+its own Constitution.&quot; This statement was deemed a humiliating avowal
+that the United States had wrongfully warred upon Mexico, and a solemn
+pledge that we would never repeat the offense. The obvious retort was
+that certain consciences now seemed hypersensitive about the war.
+However that may be, eleven votes were recorded for conscience' sake
+against the odious article.</p>
+
+<p>This was not the only ground of complaint. Douglas afterward stated
+the feeling of the minority in this way: &quot;It violated a great
+principle of public policy in relation to this continent. It pledges
+the faith of this Republic that our successors shall not do that which
+duty to the interests and honor of the country, in the progress of
+events, may compel them to do.&quot; But he hastened to add that he
+meditated no aggression upon Mexico. In short, the Republic,&mdash;such was
+his hardly-concealed thought,&mdash;might again fall out with its imbecile
+neighbor and feel called upon to administer punishment by demanding
+indemnity. There <a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>was no knowing what &quot;the progress of events&quot; might
+make a national necessity.<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243"><sup>[243]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As yet Douglas had contributed nothing to the solution of the problem
+which lurked behind the Mexican cession; nor had he tried his hand at
+making party opinion on new issues. He seemed to have no concern
+beyond the concrete business on the calendar of the Senate. He classed
+all anticipatory discussion of future issues as idle abstraction. Had
+he no imagination? Had he no eyes to see beyond the object immediately
+within his field of vision? Had his alert intelligence suddenly become
+myopic?</p>
+
+<p>On the subject of Abolitionism, at least, he had positive convictions,
+which he did not hesitate to express. An exciting episode in the
+Senate drew from him a sharp arraignment of the extreme factions North
+and South. An acrimonious debate had been precipitated by a bill
+introduced by that fervid champion of Abolitionism, Senator Hale of
+New Hampshire, which purported to protect property in the District of
+Columbia against rioters. A recent attack upon the office of the
+<i>National Era</i>, the organ of Abolitionism, at the capital, as everyone
+understood, inspired the bill, and inevitably formed the real subject
+of debate.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244"><sup>[244]</sup></a> It was in the heated colloquy that ensued that Senator
+Foote of Mississippi earned his sobriquet of &quot;Hangman,&quot; by inviting
+Hale to visit Mississippi and to &quot;grace one of the tallest trees of
+the forest, with a rope around his neck.&quot; Calhoun, too, was excited
+beyond his wont, declaring that he would as soon argue with a maniac
+<a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>from Bedlam as with the Senator from New Hampshire.</p>
+
+<p>With cool audacity and perfect self-possession, Douglas undertook to
+recall the Senate to its wonted composure,&mdash;a service not likely to be
+graciously received by the aggrieved parties. Douglas remarked
+sarcastically that Southern gentlemen had effected just what the
+Senator from New Hampshire, as presidential candidate of the
+Abolitionists, had desired: they had unquestionably doubled his vote
+in the free States. The invitation of the Senator from Mississippi
+alone was worth not less than ten thousand votes to the Senator from
+New Hampshire. &quot;It is the speeches of Southern men, representing slave
+States, going to an extreme, breathing a fanaticism as wild and as
+reckless as that of the Senator from New Hampshire, which creates
+Abolitionism in the North.&quot; These were hardly the words of the
+traditional peacemaker. Senator Foote was again upon his feet
+breathing out imprecations. &quot;I must again congratulate the Senator
+from New Hampshire,&quot; resumed Douglas, &quot;on the accession of the five
+thousand votes!&quot; Again a colloquy ensued. Calhoun declared Douglas's
+course &quot;at least as offensive as that of the Senator from New
+Hampshire.&quot; Douglas was then permitted to speak uninterruptedly. He
+assured his Southern colleagues that, as one not altogether
+unacquainted with life in the slave States, he appreciated their
+indignation against Abolitionists and shared it; but as he had no
+sympathy for Abolitionism, he also had none for that extreme course of
+Southern gentlemen which was akin to Abolitionism. &quot;We stand up for
+all your constitutional rights, in which we will protect you to the
+last.... But <a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>we protest against being made instruments&mdash;puppets&mdash;in
+this slavery excitement, which can operate only to your interest and
+the building up of those who wish to put you down.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245"><sup>[245]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Dignified silence, however, was the last thing to be expected from the
+peppery gentleman from Mississippi. He must speak &quot;the language of
+just indignation.&quot; He gladly testified to the consideration with which
+Douglas was wont to treat the South, but he warned the young Senator
+from Illinois that the old adage&mdash;<i>&quot;in medio tutissimus ibis&quot;</i>&mdash;might
+lead him astray. He might think to reach the goal of his ambitions by
+keeping clear of the two leading factions and by identifying himself
+with the masses, but he was grievously mistaken.</p>
+
+<p>The reply of Douglas was dignified and guarded. He would not speak for
+or against slavery. The institution was local and sustained by local
+opinion; by local sentiment it would stand or fall. &quot;In the North it
+is not expected that we should take the position that slavery is a
+positive good&mdash;a positive blessing. If we did assume such a position,
+it would be a very pertinent inquiry. Why do you not adopt this
+institution? We have moulded our institutions at the North as we have
+thought proper; and now we say to you of the South, if slavery be a
+blessing, it is your blessing; if it be a curse, it is your curse;
+enjoy it&mdash;on you rest all the responsibility! We are prepared to aid
+you in the maintenance of all your constitutional rights; and I
+apprehend that no man, South or North, has shown more consistently a
+disposition to do so than myself.... But I claim the privilege of
+pointing out to you how you give strength and encouragement to the
+Abolitionists of the North.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246"><sup>[246]</sup></a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223">[223]</a> See Garrison, Westward Extension, Ch. 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224">[224]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 815.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225">[225]</a> February 1, 1848.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226">[226]</a> See Bancroft's History of Mexico, pp. 173-174 note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227">[227]</a> Niles' <i>Register</i>, Vol. 50, p. 336.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228">[228]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 816-817.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229">[229]</a> Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, p. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230">[230]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 22, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231">[231]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 23, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232">[232]</a> Even the Alton <i>Telegraph</i>, a Whig paper, and in times
+past no admirer of Douglas, spoke (May 30, 1846) of the &quot;most
+admirable&quot; speech of Judge Douglas in defense of the Mexican War (May
+13th).</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233">[233]</a> The official returns were as follows:</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 3em;">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="30%" summary="footnote table">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="70%" class="tdl">Douglas</td>
+  <td width="30%" class="tdr">9629</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Vandeventer</td>
+  <td class="tdr">6864</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Wilson</td>
+  <td class="tdr">395</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234">[234]</a> The Abolitionist candidate in 1846 showed no marked
+gain over the candidate in 1844; Native Americanism had no candidates
+in the field.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235">[235]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for September 4, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236">[236]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 13-14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237">[237]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 14, 1846.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238">[238]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, p. 390.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239">[239]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for January 6, 1847.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240">[240]</a> Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, pp. 146-147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241">[241]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242">[242]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 222.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243">[243]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 172.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244">[244]</a> The debate is reported in the <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., App., pp. 500 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245">[245]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 506.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246">[246]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 507.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>CHAPTER VII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE MEXICAN CESSION</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When Douglas entered Washington in the fall of 1847, as junior Senator
+from Illinois, our troops had occupied the city of Mexico and
+negotiations for peace were well under way. Perplexing problems
+awaited Congress. President Polk sternly reminded the two Houses that
+peace must bring indemnity for the past and security for the future,
+and that the only indemnity which Mexico could offer would be a
+cession of territory. Unwittingly, he gave the signal for another
+bitter controversy, for in the state of public opinion at that moment,
+every accession of territory was bound to raise the question of the
+extension of slavery. The country was on the eve of another
+presidential election. Would the administration which had precipitated
+the war, prove itself equal to the legislative burdens imposed by that
+war? Could the party evolve a constructive programme and at the same
+time name a candidate that would win another victory at the polls?</p>
+
+<p>It soon transpired that the Democratic party was at loggerheads. Of
+all the factions, that headed by the South Carolina delegation
+possessed the greatest solidarity. Under the leadership of Calhoun,
+its attitude toward slavery in the Territories was already clearly
+stated in almost syllogistic form: the States are co-sovereigns in the
+Territories; the general government is only the agent of the
+co-sovereigns; therefore, the citizens of each State may settle in the
+Territories <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>with whatever is recognized as property in their own
+State. The corollary of this doctrine was: Congress may not exclude
+slavery from the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>At the other pole of political thought, stood the supporters of the
+Wilmot Proviso, who had twice endeavored to attach a prohibition of
+slavery to all territory which should be acquired from Mexico, and who
+had retarded the organization of Oregon by insisting upon a similar
+concession to the principle of slavery-restriction in that Territory.
+Next to these Ultras were those who doubted the necessity of the
+Wilmot Proviso, believing that slavery was already prohibited in the
+new acquisitions by Mexican law. Yet not for an instant did they doubt
+the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Between these extremes were grouped the followers of Senator Cass of
+Michigan, who was perhaps the most conspicuous candidate for the
+Democratic nomination. In his famous Nicholson letter of December 24,
+1847, he questioned both the expediency and constitutionality of the
+Wilmot Proviso. It seemed to him wiser to confine the authority of the
+general government to the erection of proper governments for the new
+countries, leaving the inhabitants meantime to regulate their internal
+concerns in their own way. In all probability neither California nor
+New Mexico would be adapted to slave labor, because of physical and
+climatic conditions. Dickinson of New York carried this doctrine,
+which was promptly dubbed &quot;Squatter Sovereignty,&quot; to still greater
+lengths. Not only by constitutional right, but by &quot;inherent,&quot; &quot;innate&quot;
+sovereignty, were the people of the Territories vested with the power
+to determine their own concerns.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>Beside these well-defined groups there were others which professed no
+doctrines and no policies. Probably the rank and file of the party
+were content to drift: to be non committal was safer than to be
+doctrinaire; besides, it cost less effort. Such was the plight of the
+Democratic party on the eve of a presidential election. If harmony was
+to proceed out of this diversity, the process must needs be
+accelerated.</p>
+
+<p>The fate of Oregon had been a hard one. Without a territorial
+government through no fault of their own, the settlers had been
+repeatedly visited by calamities which the prompt action of Congress
+might have averted.<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247"><sup>[247]</sup></a> The Senate had failed to act on one
+territorial bill; twice it had rejected bills which had passed the
+House, and the only excuse for delay was the question of slavery,
+which everybody admitted could never exist in Oregon. On January 10,
+1848, for the fourth time, Douglas presented a bill to provide a
+territorial government for Oregon;<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248"><sup>[248]</sup></a> but before he could urge its
+consideration, he was summoned to the bed-side of his father-in-law.
+His absence left a dead-lock in the Committee on Territories:
+Democrats and Whigs could not agree on the clause in the bill which
+prohibited slavery in Oregon. What was the true inwardness of this
+unwillingness to prohibit slavery where it could never go?</p>
+
+<p>The Senate seemed apathetic; but its apathy was more feigned than
+real. There was, indeed, great interest in the bill, but equally great
+reluctance to act upon it. What the South feared was not that Oregon
+would be free soil,&mdash;that was conceded,&mdash;but that an <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>unfavorable
+precedent would be established. Were it conceded that Congress might
+exclude slavery from Oregon, a similar power could not be denied
+Congress in legislating for the newly acquired Territories where
+slavery was possible.<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249"><sup>[249]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As a last resort, a select committee was appointed, of which Senator
+Clayton became chairman. Within a week, a compromise was reported
+which embraced not only Oregon, but California and New Mexico as well.
+The laws of the provisional government of Oregon were to stand until
+the new legislature should alter them, while the legislatures of the
+prospective Territories of California and New Mexico were forbidden to
+make laws touching slavery. The question whether, under existing laws,
+slaves might or might not be carried into these two Territories, was
+left to the courts with right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the
+United States.<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250"><sup>[250]</sup></a> The Senate accepted this compromise after a
+prolonged debate, but the House laid it on the table without so much
+as permitting it to be read.<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251"><sup>[251]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas returned in time to give his vote for the Clayton
+compromise,<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252"><sup>[252]</sup></a> but when this laborious effort to adjust controverted
+matters failed, he again pressed his original bill.<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253"><sup>[253]</sup></a> Hoping to
+make this more palatable, he suggested an amendment to the
+objectionable prohibitory clause: &quot;inasmuch as the said territory is
+north of the parallel of 36&deg; 30' of north latitude, usually known as
+the Missouri Compromise.&quot; It was the wish of his committee, he told
+the Senate, that &quot;no Senator's <a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a>vote on the bill should be understood
+as committing him on the great question.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254"><sup>[254]</sup></a> In other words, he
+invited the Senate to act without creating a precedent; to extend the
+Missouri Compromise line without raising troublesome constitutional
+questions in the rest of the public domain; to legislate for a special
+case on the basis of an old agreement, without predicating anything
+about the future. When this amendment came to vote, only Douglas and
+Bright supported it.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255"><sup>[255]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas then proposed to extend the Missouri Compromised line to the
+Pacific, by an amendment which declared the old agreement &quot;revived ...
+and in full force and binding for the future organization of the
+Territories of the United States, in the same sense and with the same
+understanding with which it was originally adopted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256"><sup>[256]</sup></a> This was
+President Polk's solution of the question. It commended itself to
+Douglas less on grounds of equity than of expediency. It was a
+compromise which then cost him no sacrifice of principle; but though
+the Senate agreed to the proposal, the House would have none of
+it.<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257"><sup>[257]</sup></a> In the end, after an exhausting session, the Senate gave
+way,<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258"><sup>[258]</sup></a> and the Territory of Oregon was organized with the
+restrictive clause borrowed from the Ordinance of 1787. All this
+turmoil had effected nothing except ill-feeling, for the final act was
+identical with the bill which Douglas had originally introduced in the
+House.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, national party conventions for the nomination of
+presidential candidates had been held. <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>The choice of the Democrats
+fell upon Cass; but his nomination could not be interpreted as an
+indorsement of his doctrine of squatter sovereignty. By a decisive
+vote, the convention rejected Yancey's resolution favoring
+&quot;non-interference with the rights of property of any portion of the
+people of this confederation, be it in the States or in the
+Territories, by any other than the parties interested in them.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259"><sup>[259]</sup></a>
+The action of the convention made it clear that traditional principles
+and habitual modes of political thought and action alone held the
+party together. The Whig party had no greater organic unity. The
+nomination of General Taylor, who was a doubtful Whig, was a
+confession that the party was non-committal on the issues of the hour.
+There was much opposition to both candidates. Many anti-slavery Whigs
+could not bring themselves to vote for Taylor, who was a slave-owner;
+Democrats who had supported the Wilmot Proviso, disliked the evasive
+doctrine of Cass.</p>
+
+<p>The disaffected of both parties finally effected a fusion in the
+Free-Soil convention, and with other anti-slavery elements nominated
+Van Buren as their presidential candidate. With the cry of &quot;Free soil,
+free speech, free labor, and free men,&quot; the new party threatened to
+upset the calculations of politicians in many quarters of the country.</p>
+
+<p>The defeat of the Democratic party in the election of 1848 was
+attributed to the war of factions in New York. Had the Barnburners
+supported Cass, he would have secured the electoral vote of the State.
+They were accused of wrecking the party out of revenge. Certain it is
+that the outcome was indecisive, so far as the <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>really vital questions
+of the hour were concerned. A Whig general had been sent to the White
+House, but no one knew what policies he would advocate. The Democrats
+were still in control of the Senate; but thirteen Free-Soilers held
+the balance of power in the House.<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260"><sup>[260]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Curiosity was excited to know what the moribund administration of the
+discredited Polk would do. Douglas shared this inquisitiveness. He had
+parted with the President in August rather angrily, owing to a fancied
+grievance. On his return he called at the White House and apologized
+handsomely for his &quot;imprudent language.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261"><sup>[261]</sup></a> The President was more
+than glad to patch up the quarrel, for he could ill afford now, in
+these waning hours of his administration, to part company with one
+whom he regarded as &quot;an ardent and active political supporter and
+friend.&quot; Cordial relations resumed, Polk read to Douglas
+confidentially such portions of his forthcoming message as related to
+the tariff, the veto power, and the establishment of territorial
+governments in California and New Mexico. In the spirit of compromise
+he was still willing to approve an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line through our new possessions. Should this prove
+unacceptable, he would give his consent to a bill which would leave
+the vexing question of slavery in the new Territories to the
+judiciary, as Clayton had proposed. Douglas was now thoroughly
+deferential. He gratified the President by giving the message his
+unqualified approval.<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262"><sup>[262]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>However, by the time Congress met, Douglas had made out his own
+programme; and it differed in one respect from anything that the
+President, or for that matter anyone else, had suggested. He proposed
+to admit both New Mexico and California; <i>i.e.</i> all of the territory
+acquired from Mexico, into the Union <i>as a State</i>. Some years later,
+Douglas said that he had introduced his California bill with the
+approval of the President;<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263"><sup>[263]</sup></a> but in this his memory was surely at
+fault. The full credit for this innovation belongs to Douglas.<a name="FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href="#Footnote_264_264"><sup>[264]</sup></a> He
+justified the departure from precedent in this instance, on the score
+of California's astounding growth in population. Besides, a
+territorial bill could hardly pass in this short session, &quot;for reasons
+which may be apparent to all of us.&quot; Three bills had already been
+rejected.<a name="FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href="#Footnote_265_265"><sup>[265]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Now while California had rapidly increased in population, there were
+probably not more than twenty-six thousand souls within its borders,
+and of these more than a third were foreigners.<a name="FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href="#Footnote_266_266"><sup>[266]</sup></a> One would
+naturally suppose that a period of territorial tutelage would have
+been peculiarly fitting for this distant possession. Obviously,
+Douglas did not disclose his full thought. What he really proposed,
+was to avoid raising the spectre of slavery again. If the people of
+California could skip the period of their political minority and leap
+into their majority, they might then create their own institutions: no
+one could gainsay this right, <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>when once California should be a
+&quot;sovereign State.&quot; This was an application of squatter sovereignty at
+which Calhoun, least of all, could mock.</p>
+
+<p>The President and his cabinet were taken by surprise. Frequent
+consultations were held. Douglas was repeatedly closeted with the
+President. All the members of the cabinet agreed that the plan of
+leaving the slavery question to the people of the new State was
+ingenious; but many objections were raised to a single State. In
+repeated interviews, Polk urged Douglas to draft a separate bill for
+New Mexico; but Douglas was obdurate.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id="FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267"><sup>[267]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>To Douglas's chagrin, the California bill was not referred to his
+committee, but to the Committee on the Judiciary. Perhaps this course
+was in accord with precedent, but it was noted that four out of the
+five members of this committee were Southerners, and that the vote to
+refer was a sectional one.<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a href="#Footnote_268_268"><sup>[268]</sup></a> An adverse report was therefore to be
+expected. Signs were not wanting that if the people of the new
+province were left to work out their own salvation, they would exclude
+slavery.<a name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href="#Footnote_269_269"><sup>[269]</sup></a> The South was acutely sensitive to such signs. Nothing
+of this bias, however, appeared in the report of the committee. With
+great cleverness and circumspection they chose another mode of attack.</p>
+
+<p>The committee professed to discover in the bill a radical departure
+from traditional policy. When had Congress ever created a State out of
+&quot;an unorganized body of people having no constitution, or laws, or
+legitimate bond of union?&quot; California was to be a &quot;<a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>sovereign State,&quot;
+yet the bill provided that Congress should interpose its authority to
+form new States out of it, and to prescribe rules for elections to a
+constitutional convention. What sort of sovereignty was this?
+Moreover, since Texas claimed a part of New Mexico, endless
+litigations would follow. In the judgment of the committee, it would
+be far wiser to organize the usual territorial governments for
+California and New Mexico.<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a href="#Footnote_270_270"><sup>[270]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>To these sensible objections, Douglas replied ineffectively. The
+question of sovereignty, he thought, did not depend upon the size of a
+State: without doing violence to the sovereignty of California,
+Congress could surely carve new States out of its territory; but if
+there were doubts on this point, he would move to add the saving
+clause, &quot;with the consent of the State.&quot; He suggested no expedient for
+the other obstacles in the way of State sovereignty. As for
+precedents, there were the first three States admitted into the
+Union,&mdash;Kentucky, Vermont, and Tennessee,&mdash;none of which had any
+organized government recognized by Congress.<a name="FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href="#Footnote_271_271"><sup>[271]</sup></a> They never furnished
+their constitutions to Congress for inspection. Here Douglas hit wide
+of the mark. No one had contended that a State must present a written
+constitution before being recognized, but only that the people must
+have some form of political organization, before they could be treated
+as constituting a State in a constitutional sense.<a name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href="#Footnote_272_272"><sup>[272]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At the same time, halting as this defense was, Douglas gave ample
+proof of his disinterestedness in <a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a>advocating a State government for
+California. &quot;I think, Sir,&quot; he said, &quot;that the only issue now
+presented, is whether you will admit California as a State, or whether
+you will leave it without government, exposed to all the horrors of
+anarchy and violence. I have no hope of a Territorial government this
+session. No man is more willing to adopt such a form of government
+than I would be; no man would work with more energy and assiduity to
+accomplish that object at this session than I would.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id="FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273"><sup>[273]</sup></a> Indeed, so
+far from questioning his motives, the members of the Judiciary
+Committee quite overwhelmed Douglas by their extreme deference.<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id="FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274"><sup>[274]</sup></a>
+Senator Butler, the chairman, assured him that the committee was
+disposed to treat the bill with all the respect due to its author; for
+his own part, he had always intended to show marked respect to the
+Senator from Illinois.<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a href="#Footnote_275_275"><sup>[275]</sup></a> Douglas responded somewhat grimly that he
+was quite at a loss to understand &quot;why these assurances came so thick
+on this point.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Most men would have accepted the situation as thoroughly hopeless; but
+Douglas was nothing if not persistent. In quick succession he framed
+two more bills, one of which provided for a division of California and
+for the admission of the western part as a State;<a name="FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href="#Footnote_276_276"><sup>[276]</sup></a> and then when
+this failed to win support, he reverted to Folk's suggestion&mdash;the
+admission of New Mexico and California as two States.<a name="FNanchor_277_277" id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277"><sup>[277]</sup></a> But the
+Senate evinced no enthusiasm for this patch-work legislation.<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id="FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278"><sup>[278]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The difficulty of legislating for California was <a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>increased by the
+disaffection of the Southern wing of the Democratic party. Calhoun was
+suspected of fomenting a conspiracy to break up the Union.<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id="FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279"><sup>[279]</sup></a> Yet in
+all probability he contemplated only the formation of a distinctly
+Southern party based on common economic and political interests.<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id="FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280"><sup>[280]</sup></a>
+He not only failed in this, because Southern Whigs were not yet ready
+to break with their Northern associates; but he barely avoided
+breaking up the solidarity of Southern Democrats, and he made it
+increasingly difficult for Northern and Southern Democrats to act
+together in matters which did not touch the peculiar institution of
+the South.<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id="FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281"><sup>[281]</sup></a> Thenceforth, harmonious party action was possible only
+through a deference of Northern Democrats to Southern, which was
+perpetually misinterpreted by their opponents.</p>
+
+<p>Senator Hale thought the course of Northern representatives and
+senators pusillanimous and submissive to the last degree; and no
+considerations of taste prevented him from expressing his opinions on
+all occasions. Nettled by his taunts, and no doubt sensitive to the
+grain of truth in the charge, perplexed also by the growing
+factionalism in his party, Douglas retorted that the fanaticism of
+certain elements at the North was largely responsible for the growth
+of sectional rancor. For the first time he was moved to state publicly
+his maturing belief in the efficacy of squatter sovereignty, as a
+solvent of existing problems in the public domain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir, if we wish to settle this question of slavery, <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>let us banish
+the agitation from these halls. Let us remove the causes which produce
+it; let us settle the territories we have acquired, in a manner to
+satisfy the honor and respect the feelings of every portion of the
+Union.... Bring those territories into this Union as States upon an
+equal footing with the original States. Let the people of such States
+settle the question of slavery within their limits, as they would
+settle the question of banking, or any other domestic institution,
+according to their own will.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href="#Footnote_282_282"><sup>[282]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>And again, he said, &quot;No man advocates the extension of slavery over a
+territory now free. On the other hand, they deny the propriety of
+Congress interfering to restrain, upon the great fundamental principle
+that the people are the source of all power; that from the people must
+emanate all government; that the people have the same right in these
+territories to establish a government for themselves that we have to
+overthrow our present government and establish another, if we please,
+or that any other government has to establish one for itself.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href="#Footnote_283_283"><sup>[283]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Not the least interesting thing about these utterances, is the fact
+that even Douglas could not now avoid public reference to the slavery
+question. He could no longer point to needed legislation quite apart
+from sectional interests; he could no longer treat slavery with
+assumed indifference; he could no longer affect to rise above such
+petty, local concerns to matters of national importance. He was now
+bound to admit that slavery stood squarely in the way of national
+expansion. This change of attitude was brought about in <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>part, at
+least, by external pressure applied by the legislature of Illinois.
+With no little chagrin, he was forced to present resolutions from his
+own State legislature, instructing him and his colleagues in Congress
+to use their influence to secure the prohibition of slavery in the
+Mexican cession.<a name="FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href="#Footnote_284_284"><sup>[284]</sup></a> It was not easy to harmonize these instructions
+with the principle of non-interference which he had just enunciated.</p>
+
+<p>Ten days before the close of the session, the California question
+again came to the fore. Senator Walker of Wisconsin proposed a rider
+to the appropriations bill, which would extend the Constitution and
+laws in such a way as to authorize the President to set up a
+quasi-territorial government, in the country acquired from
+Mexico.<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id="FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285"><sup>[285]</sup></a> It was a deliberate hold-up, justified only by the
+exigencies of the case, as Walker admitted. But could Congress thus
+extend the Constitution, by this fiat? questioned Webster. The
+Constitution extends over newly acquired territory <i>proprio vigore</i>,
+replied Calhoun.<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id="FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286"><sup>[286]</sup></a> Douglas declined to enter into the subtle
+questions of constitutional law thus raised. The &quot;metaphysics&quot; of the
+subject did not disturb him. If the Senate would not pass his
+statehood bill, he was for the Walker amendment. A fearful
+responsibility rested upon Congress. The sad fate of a family from his
+own State, which had moved to California, had brought home to him the
+full measure of his responsibility. He was not disposed to quibble
+over points of law, while American citizens in <a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>California were
+exposed to the outrages of desperadoes, and of deserters from our own
+army and navy.<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id="FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287"><sup>[287]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While the Senate yielded to necessity and passed the appropriations
+bill, rider and all, the House stubbornly clung to its bill organizing
+a territorial government for California, excluding slavery.<a name="FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href="#Footnote_288_288"><sup>[288]</sup></a> The
+following days were among the most exciting in the history of
+Congress. A conference committee was unable to reach any agreement.
+Then Douglas tried to seize the psychological moment to persuade the
+Senate to accept the House bill. &quot;I have tried to get up State bills,
+territorial bills, and all kinds of bills in all shapes, in the hope
+that some bill, in some shape, would satisfy the Senate; but thus far
+I have found their taste in relation to this matter too fastidious for
+my humble efforts. Now I wish to make another and a final effort on
+this bill, to see if the Senate are disposed to do anything towards
+giving a government to the people of California.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a href="#Footnote_289_289"><sup>[289]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Both Houses continued in session far into the night of March 3d.
+Sectional feeling ran high. Two fist-fights occurred in the House and
+at least one in the Senate.<a name="FNanchor_290_290" id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290"><sup>[290]</sup></a> It seemed as though Congress would
+adjourn, leaving our civil and diplomatic service penniless. Douglas
+frankly announced that for his part he would rather leave our
+office-holders without salaries, than our citizens without the
+protection of law.<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id="FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291"><sup>[291]</sup></a> Inauguration Day was dawning when the
+dead-lock was broken. <a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a>The Senate voted the appropriations bill
+without the rider, but failed to act on the House bill.<a name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href="#Footnote_292_292"><sup>[292]</sup></a> The
+people of California were thus left to their own devices.</p>
+
+<p>The outcome was disheartening to the chairman of the Committee on
+Territories. His programme had miscarried at every important point.
+Only his bill for the organization of Minnesota became law.<a name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href="#Footnote_293_293"><sup>[293]</sup></a> A
+similar bill for Nebraska failed to receive consideration. The future
+of California remained problematic. Indeed, political changes in
+Illinois made his own future somewhat problematic.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247">[247]</a> This was Benton's opinion; see <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 804.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248">[248]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 136, 309.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249">[249]</a> See remarks of Mason of Virginia, <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 903.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250">[250]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 950. The bill is printed on pp. 1002-1005.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251">[251]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1007.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252">[252]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1002.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253">[253]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1027.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254">[254]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1048.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255">[255]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1061.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256">[256]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1061-1062.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257">[257]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1062-1063.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258">[258]</a> Douglas voted finally to recede from his amendment,
+<i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1078.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259">[259]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 236.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260">[260]</a> Garrison, Westward Extension, p. 284.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261">[261]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for November 13, 1848.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262">[262]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263">[263]</a> See Douglas's Speech of December 23, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href="#FNanchor_264_264">[264]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 11, 1848.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href="#FNanchor_265_265">[265]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href="#FNanchor_266_266">[266]</a> Hunt, Genesis of California's First Constitution, in
+Johns Hopkins University Studies, XIII, pp. 16, 30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href="#FNanchor_267_267">[267]</a> Polk, MS. Diary, Entries for December 11, 12, 13, 14,
+1848.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href="#FNanchor_268_268">[268]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 46-49.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href="#FNanchor_269_269">[269]</a> See the petition of the people of New Mexico, <i>Ibid.</i>,
+p. 33.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href="#FNanchor_270_270">[270]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 190-192.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href="#FNanchor_271_271">[271]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 192-193.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href="#FNanchor_272_272">[272]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 196; particularly the incisive reply of
+Westcott.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href="#FNanchor_273_273">[273]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href="#FNanchor_274_274">[274]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 196.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href="#FNanchor_275_275">[275]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 194.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href="#FNanchor_276_276">[276]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 262.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href="#FNanchor_277_277">[277]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 381.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href="#FNanchor_278_278">[278]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 435, 551, 553.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href="#FNanchor_279_279">[279]</a> Von Holst, Constitutional History of the United States,
+III, p. 418.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href="#FNanchor_280_280">[280]</a> Calhoun, Works, VI, pp. 290-303.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href="#FNanchor_281_281">[281]</a> Von Holst, Const. History, III, pp. 422-423.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href="#FNanchor_282_282">[282]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 208.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href="#FNanchor_283_283">[283]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 314.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href="#FNanchor_284_284">[284]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 394.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href="#FNanchor_285_285">[285]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 561.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href="#FNanchor_286_286">[286]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, App., pp. 253 ff. The debate summarized by Von
+Holst, III, pp. 444-451.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href="#FNanchor_287_287">[287]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., App., pp. 275-276.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href="#FNanchor_288_288">[288]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 595, 665.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href="#FNanchor_289_289">[289]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 668.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href="#FNanchor_290_290">[290]</a> Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 277.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href="#FNanchor_291_291">[291]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 685.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href="#FNanchor_292_292">[292]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 691-692.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href="#FNanchor_293_293">[293]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 635-637; p. 693.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="BOOK_II" id="BOOK_II"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>BOOK II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+
+<h3>THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY<a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a></h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>CHAPTER VIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>SENATOR AND CONSTITUENCY</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When Douglas took his seat in Congress for the first time, an unknown
+man in unfamiliar surroundings, he found as his near neighbor, one
+David S. Reid, a young lawyer from North Carolina, who was of his own
+age, of his own party, and like him, serving a first term. An
+acquaintance sprang up between these young Democrats, which, in spite
+of their widely different antecedents, deepened into intimacy. It was
+a friendship that would have meant much to Douglas, even if it had not
+led to an interesting romance. Intercourse with this able young
+Southerner<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a href="#Footnote_294_294"><sup>[294]</sup></a> opened the eyes of this Western Yankee to the finer
+aspects of Southern social life, and taught him the quality of that
+Southern aristocracy, which, when all has been said, was the truest
+aristocracy that America has seen. And when Reid entertained his
+friends and relatives in Washington, Douglas learned also to know the
+charm of Southern women.</p>
+
+<p>Among the most attractive of these visitors was Reid's cousin, Miss
+Martha Denny Martin, daughter of Colonel Robert Martin of Rockingham
+County, North Carolina. Rumor has it that Douglas speedily fell
+captive to the graces of this young woman. She was not only charming
+in manner and fair of face, but keen-witted and intelligent. In spite
+of the gay <a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a>badinage with which she treated this young Westerner, she
+revealed a depth and positiveness of character, to which indeed her
+fine, broad forehead bore witness on first acquaintance. In the give
+and take of small talk she more than held her own, and occasionally
+discomfited her admirer by sallies which were tipped with wit and
+reached their mark unerringly.<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href="#Footnote_295_295"><sup>[295]</sup></a> Did she know that just such
+treatment&mdash;strange paradox&mdash;won, while it at times wounded, the heart
+of the unromantic Westerner?</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Robert Martin was a typical, western North Carolina planter.
+He belonged to that stalwart line of Martins whose most famous
+representative was Alexander, of Revolutionary days, six times
+Governor of the State. On the banks of the upper Dan, Colonel Martin
+possessed a goodly plantation of about eight hundred acres, upon which
+negro slaves cultivated cotton and such of the cereals as were needed
+for home consumption.<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id="FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296"><sup>[296]</sup></a> Like other planters, he had felt the
+competition of the virgin lands opened up to cotton culture in the
+gulf plains of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and like his
+fellow planters, he had invested in these Western lands, on the Pearl
+River in Mississippi. This Pearl River plantation was worked by about
+one hundred and fifty negroes and was devoted to the raising of
+cotton.</p>
+
+<p>When Douglas accepted Reid's invitation to visit North Carolina, the
+scene of the romance begun on the Potomac shifted to the banks of the
+Dan. Southern <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>hospitality became more than a conventional phrase on
+Douglas's lips. He enjoyed a social privilege which grew rarer as
+North and South fell apart. Intercourse like this broke down many of
+those prejudices unconsciously cherished by Northerners. Slavery in
+the concrete, on a North Carolina plantation, with a kindly master
+like Colonel Martin,<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id="FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297"><sup>[297]</sup></a> bore none of the marks of a direful tyranny.
+Whatever may have been his mental reservations as to slavery as a
+system of labor, Douglas could not fail to feel the injustice of the
+taunts hurled against his Southern friends by the Abolitionist press.
+As he saw the South, the master was not a monster of cruelty, nor the
+slave a victim of malevolent violence.</p>
+
+<p>The romance on the banks of the Dan flowed far more clearly and
+smoothly toward its goal than the waters of that turbid stream. On
+April 7, 1847, Miss Martin became the wife of the Honorable Stephen
+Arnold Douglas, who had just become Senator from the State of
+Illinois. It was in every way a fateful alliance. Next to his Illinois
+environment, no external circumstance more directly shaped his career
+than his marriage to the daughter of a North Carolina planter. The
+subtle influences of a home and a wife dominated by Southern culture,
+were now to work upon him. Constant intercourse with Southern men and
+women emancipated him from the narrowness of his hereditary
+environment.<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id="FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298"><sup>[298]</sup></a> He was bound to acquire an insight into the nature
+of Southern life; he was compelled to comprehend, by the most tender
+and intimate <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>of human relationships, the meaning and responsibility
+of a social order reared upon slave labor.</p>
+
+<p>A year had hardly passed when the death of Colonel Martin left Mrs.
+Douglas in possession of all his property in North Carolina. It had
+been his desire to put his Pearl River plantation, the most valuable
+of his holdings, in the hands of his son-in-law. But Douglas had
+refused to accept the charge, not wishing to hold negroes. Indeed, he
+had frankly told Colonel Martin that the family already held more
+slaves than was profitable.<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id="FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299"><sup>[299]</sup></a> In his will, therefore, Colonel
+Martin was constrained to leave his Mississippi plantation and slaves
+to Mrs. Douglas and her children. It was characteristic of the man and
+of his class, that his concern for his dependents followed him to the
+grave. A codicil to his will provided, that if Mrs. Douglas should
+have no children, the negroes together with their increase were to be
+sent to Liberia, or to some other colony in Africa. By means of the
+net proceeds of the last crop, they would be able to reach Africa and
+have a surplus to aid them in beginning planting. &quot;I trust in
+Providence,&quot; wrote this kindly master, &quot;she will have children and if
+so I wish these negroes to belong to them, as nearly every head of the
+family have expressed to me a desire to belong to you and your
+children rather than go to Africa; and to set them free where they
+are, would entail on them a greater curse, far greater in my opinion,
+as well as in that of the intelligent among themselves, than to have a
+humane master whose duty it would be to see they <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>were properly
+protected ... and properly provided for in sickness as well as in
+health.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a href="#Footnote_300_300"><sup>[300]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The legacy of Colonel Martin gave a handle to Douglas's enemies. It
+was easy to believe that he had fallen heir to slave property. That
+the terms of the bequest were imperfectly known, did not deter the
+opposition press from malevolent insinuations which stung Douglas to
+the quick. It was fatal to his political career to allow them to go
+unchallenged. In the midsummer of 1850, while Congress was wrestling
+with the measures of compromise, Douglas wrote to his friend, the
+editor of the Illinois <i>State Register</i>,&quot; It is true that my wife does
+own about 150 negroes in Mississippi on a cotton plantation. My
+father-in-law in his lifetime offered them to me and I refused to
+accept them. <i>This fact is stated in his will</i>, but I do not wish it
+brought before the public as the public have no business with my
+private affairs, and besides anybody would see that the information
+must have come from me. My wife has no negroes except those in
+Mississippi. We have other property in North Carolina, but no negroes.
+It is our intention, however, to remove all our property to Illinois
+as soon as possible.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a href="#Footnote_301_301"><sup>[301]</sup></a> To correct the popular rumor, Douglas
+enclosed a statement which might be published editorially, or
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>The dictated statement read as follows: &quot;The Quincy <i>Whig</i> and other
+Whig papers are publishing an article purporting to be copied from a
+Mississippi paper abusing Judge Douglas as the owner of 100 <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>slaves
+and at the same time accusing him of being a Wilmot Free-soiler. That
+the article originated in this State, and was sent to Mississippi for
+publication in order that it might be re-published here we shall not
+question nor take the trouble to prove. The paternity of the article,
+the malice that prompted it, and the misrepresentations it contains
+are too obvious to require particular notice. If it had been written
+by a Mississippian he would have known that the statement in regard to
+the ownership of the negroes was totally untrue. No one will pretend
+that Judge Douglas has any other property in Mississippi than that
+which was acquired in the right of his wife by inheritance upon the
+death of her father, and anyone who will take the trouble to examine
+the statutes of that State in the Secretary's office in this City will
+find that by the laws of Mississippi all the property of a married
+woman, whether acquired by will, gift or otherwise, becomes her
+separate and exclusive estate and is not subject to the control or
+disposal of her husband nor subject to his debts. We do not pretend to
+know whether the father of Mrs. Douglas at the time of his death owned
+slaves in Mississippi or not. We have heard the statement made by the
+Whigs but have not deemed it of sufficient importance to inquire into
+its truth. If it should turn out so, in no event could Judge Douglas
+become the owner or have the disposal of or be responsible for them.
+The laws of the State forbid it, and also forbid slaves under such
+circumstances from being removed without or emancipated within the
+limits of the State.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Born a Yankee, bred a Westerner, wedded to the mistress of a Southern
+plantation, Douglas represented a Commonwealth whose population was
+made up of <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>elements from all sections. The influences that shaped his
+career were extraordinarily complex. No account of his subsequent
+public life would be complete, without reference to the peculiar
+social and political characteristics of his constituency.</p>
+
+<p>The people of early Illinois were drawn southward by the pull of
+natural forces: the Mississippi washes the western border on its
+gulf-ward course; and the chief rivers within the State have a general
+southerly trend.<a name="FNanchor_302_302" id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302"><sup>[302]</sup></a> But quite as important historically is the
+convergence of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee on the
+southern border of Illinois; for it was by these waterways that the
+early settlers reached the Illinois Territory from the States of
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. The apex of the
+irregular, inverted triangle of Illinois, thrust down to the 37th
+parallel of latitude, brought the first settlers well within the
+sphere of Southern influence. Two slave States flanked this southern
+end. Nearly one-half of Illinois lay south of a direct, westward
+extension of Mason and Dixon's line.</p>
+
+<p>In the early days, the possession by the Indians of the northern areas
+accentuated the southern connections of Illinois. At the same time the
+absence at the North of navigable waterways and passable highways
+between East and West, left the Ohio and its tributaries the only
+connecting lines of travel with the remote northern Atlantic States.
+Had Illinois been admitted into the Union with the boundaries first
+proposed, it would have been, by all those subtle influences which go
+<a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>to make public sentiment, a Southern State. But the extension of the
+northern boundary to 42&deg; 30' gave Illinois a frontage of fifty miles
+on Lake Michigan, and deflected the whole political and social history
+of the Commonwealth. This contact with the great waterways of the
+North brought to the State, in the course of time, an immense share of
+the lake traffic and a momentous connection with the northern central
+and northern Atlantic States. The passing of the Indians, the opening
+up of the great northern prairies to occupation, and the completion of
+the Illinois-Michigan canal made the northern part of Illinois fallow
+for New England seeding. Geographically, Illinois became the
+connecting link in the slender chain which bound the men of the lake
+and prairie plains with the men of the gulf plains. The inevitable
+interpenetration of Northern and Southern interests in Illinois,
+resulting from these contacts, is the most important fact in the
+social and political history of the State. It bred in Illinois
+statesmen a disposition to compromise for the sake of political
+harmony and economic progress, a passionate attachment to the Union as
+the <i>sine qua non</i> of State unity, and a glowing nationalism. Illinois
+was in short a microcosm: the larger problems of the nation existed
+there in miniature.</p>
+
+<p>When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, all the organized
+counties lay to the south of the projected national road between Terre
+Haute and Alton, hence well within the sphere of surrounding Southern
+influences. The society of Illinois was at this time predominantly
+Southern in its origin and characteristics.<a name="FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href="#Footnote_303_303"><sup>[303]</sup></a> Social life and
+political thought were shaped <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>by Southern life and Southern thought.
+Whatever points of contact there were with the outside world were with
+the Southern world. The movement to make Illinois a slave State was
+motived by the desire to accelerate immigration from the South.</p>
+
+<p>But people had already begun to come into the State who were not of
+Southern origin, and who succeeded in deflecting the current of
+Illinois politics at this critical juncture. The fertile river bottoms
+and intervening prairies of southern Illinois no longer sufficed. The
+new comers were impelled toward the great, undulating prairies which
+expand above the 39th parallel. The rise of new counties marks the
+volume of this immigration;<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id="FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304"><sup>[304]</sup></a> the attitude of the older settlers
+toward it, fixes sufficiently its general social character. This was
+the beginning of the &quot;Yankee&quot; invasion, New York and Pennsylvania
+furnishing the vanguard.</p>
+
+<p>As the northern prairies became accessible by the lake route and the
+stage roads, New England and New York poured a steady stream of
+homeseekers into the Commonwealth. By the middle of the century, this
+Northern immigration had begun to inundate the northern counties and
+to overflow into the interior, where it met and mingled with the
+counter-current. These Yankee settlers were viewed with hostility, not
+unmixed with contempt, by those whose culture and standards of <a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a>taste
+had been formed south of Mason and Dixon's line.<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id="FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305"><sup>[305]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This sectional antagonism was strengthened by the rapid commercial
+advance of northern Illinois. Yankee enterprise and thrift worked
+wonders in a decade. Governor Ford, all of whose earlier associations
+were with the people of southern Illinois, writing about the middle of
+the century, admits that although the settlers in the southern part of
+the State were twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years in advance, on
+the score of age, they were ten years behind in point of wealth and
+all the appliances of a higher civilization.<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id="FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306"><sup>[306]</sup></a> The completion of
+the canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, however much
+it might contribute to the general welfare of the State, seemed likely
+to profit the northern rather than the southern portion. It had been
+opposed at the outset by Southerners, who argued soberly that it would
+flood the State with Yankees;<a name="FNanchor_307_307" id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307"><sup>[307]</sup></a> and at every stage in its progress
+it had encountered Southern obstruction, though the grounds for this
+opposition were more wisely chosen.</p>
+
+<p>Political ideals and customs were also a divisive force in Illinois
+society. True to their earlier political training, the Southern
+settlers had established the county as a unit of local government. The
+Constitution of 1818 put the control of local concerns in the hands of
+three county commissioners, who, though elected by the people, were
+not subjected to that scrutiny which selectmen encountered in the New
+England town meeting. To the democratic New Englander, <a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>every system
+seemed defective which gave him no opportunity to discuss neighborhood
+interests publicly, and to call local officers to account before an
+assembly of the vicinage. The new comers in northern Illinois became
+profoundly dissatisfied with the autocratic board of county
+commissioners. Since the township might act as a corporate body for
+school purposes, why might they not enjoy the full measure of township
+government? Their demands grew more and more insistent, until they won
+substantial concessions from the convention which framed the
+Constitution of 1848. But all this agitation involved a more or less
+direct criticism of the system which the people of southern Illinois
+thought good enough for Yankees, if it were good enough for
+themselves.<a name="FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href="#Footnote_308_308"><sup>[308]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the early history of Illinois, negro slavery was a bone of
+contention between men of Northern and of Southern antecedents. When
+Illinois was admitted as a State, there were over seven hundred
+negroes held in servitude. In spite of the Ordinance of 1787, Illinois
+was practically a slave Territory. There were, to be sure, stalwart
+opponents of slavery even among those who had come from slave-holding
+communities; but taken in the large, public opinion in the Territory
+sanctioned negro slavery as it existed under a loose system of
+indenture.<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id="FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309"><sup>[309]</sup></a> Even the Constitution of 1818, under which Illinois
+came into the Union as a free State, continued the old system of
+indenture with slight modification.<a name="FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href="#Footnote_310_310"><sup>[310]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>It was in the famous contest over the proposed constitutional
+convention of 1824 that the influence of Northern opinion respecting
+slavery was first felt. The contest had narrowed down to a struggle
+between those who desired a convention in order to draft a
+constitution legalizing slavery and those who, from policy or
+principle, were opposed to slavery in Illinois. Men of Southern birth
+were, it is true, among the most aggressive leaders of the
+anti-convention forces, but the decisive votes against the convention
+were cast in the seven counties recently organized, in which there was
+a strong Northern element.<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id="FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311"><sup>[311]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This contest ended, the anti-slavery sentiment evaporated. The &quot;Black
+Laws&quot; continued in force. Little or no interest was manifested in the
+fate of indentured black servants, who were to all intents and
+purposes as much slaves as their southern kindred. The leaven of
+Abolitionism worked slowly in Illinois society. By an almost unanimous
+vote, the General Assembly adopted joint resolutions in 1837 which
+condemned Abolitionism as &quot;more productive of evil than of moral and
+political good.&quot; There were then not a half-dozen anti-slavery
+societies in the State, and these soon learned to confine their labors
+to central and northern Illinois, abandoning Egypt as hopelessly
+inaccessible to the light.<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id="FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312"><sup>[312]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The issues raised by the Mexican War and the prospective acquisition
+of new territory, materially changed the temper of northern Illinois.
+Moreover, in the later forties a tide of immigration from the
+northeastern States, augmented by Germans who came in <a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>increasing
+numbers after the European agitation of 1848, was filling the
+northernmost counties with men and women who held positive convictions
+on the question of slavery extension. These transplanted New
+Englanders were outspoken advocates of the Wilmot Proviso. When they
+were asked to vote upon that article of the Constitution of 1848 which
+proposed to prevent the immigration of free negroes, the fourteen
+northern counties voted no, only to find themselves outvoted two to
+one.<a name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href="#Footnote_313_313"><sup>[313]</sup></a> A new factor had appeared in Illinois politics.</p>
+
+<p>Many and diverse circumstances contributed to the growth of
+sectionalism in Illinois. The disruptive forces, however, may be
+easily overestimated. The unifying forces in Illinois society were
+just as varied, and in the long run more potent. As in the nation at
+large so in Illinois, religious, educational, and social organizations
+did much to resist the strain of countervailing forces. But no
+organization proved in the end so enduring and effective as the
+political party. Illinois had by 1840 two well-developed party
+organizations, which enveloped the people of the State, as on a large
+scale they embraced the nation. These parties came to have an
+enduring, institutional character. Men were born Democrats and Whigs.
+Southern and Northern Whigs, Northern and Southern Democrats there
+were, of course; but the necessity of harmony for effective action
+tended to subordinate individual and group interests to the larger
+good of the whole. Parties continued to be organized on national
+lines, after the churches had been rent in twain by sectional forces.
+Of the two party organizations in Illinois, the Democratic party was
+numerically the larger, and in point <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>of discipline, the more
+efficient. It was older; it had been the first to adopt the system of
+State and district nominating conventions; it had the advantage of
+prestige and of the possession of office. The Democratic party could
+&quot;point with pride&quot; to an unbroken series of victories in State and
+presidential elections. By successful gerrymanders it had secured the
+lion's share of congressional districts. Above all it had intelligent
+leadership. The retirement of Senator Breese left Stephen A. Douglas
+the undisputed leader of the party.</p>
+
+<p>The dual party system in Illinois, as well as in the nation, was
+seriously threatened by the appearance of a third political
+organization with hostility to slavery as its cohesive force. The
+Liberty party polled its first vote in Illinois in the campaign of
+1840, when its candidate for the presidency received 160 votes.<a name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href="#Footnote_314_314"><sup>[314]</sup></a>
+Four years later its total vote in Illinois was 3,469, a notable
+increase.<a name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href="#Footnote_315_315"><sup>[315]</sup></a> The distribution of these votes, however, is more
+noteworthy than their number, for in no county did the vote amount to
+more than thirty per cent of the total poll of all parties. The
+heaviest Liberty vote was in the northern counties. The votes cast in
+the central and southern parts of the State were indicative, for the
+most part, of a Quaker or New England element in the population.<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id="FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316"><sup>[316]</sup></a>
+As yet the older parties had no reason to fear for their prestige; but
+in 1848 the Liberty party gave place to the Free-Soil party, which
+developed unexpected strength in the presidential vote. It rallied
+anti-slavery elements by its cry of &quot;Free Soil, Free Speech, Free
+Labor, and Free Men!&quot; and for the first time broke the serried <a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>ranks
+of the older parties. Van Buren, the candidate of the Free-Soilers,
+received a vote of 15,774, concentrated in the northeastern counties,
+but reaching formidable proportions in the counties of the northwest
+and west.<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id="FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317"><sup>[317]</sup></a> Of the older organizations, the Whig party seemed less
+affected, Taylor having received 53,047 votes, an increase of 7,519
+over the Whig vote of 1844. The Democratic candidate, Cass, received
+only 56,300, an absolute decrease of 1,620. This was both an absolute
+and a relative decline, for the total voting population had increased
+by 24,459. Presumptive evidence points to a wholesale desertion of the
+party by men of strong anti-slavery convictions. Whither they had
+gone&mdash;whether into the ranks of Whigs or Free-Soilers,&mdash;concerned
+Democratic leaders less than the palpable fact that they had gone
+somewhere.</p>
+
+<p>At the close of this eventful year, the political situation in
+Illinois was without precedent. To offset Democratic losses in the
+presidential election, there were, to be sure, the usual Democratic
+triumphs in State and district elections. But the composition of the
+legislature was peculiar. On the vote for Speaker of the House, the
+Democrats showed a handsome majority: there was no sign of a third
+party vote. A few days later the following resolution was carried by a
+vote which threw the Democratic ranks into confusion: &quot;That our
+senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested,
+to use all honorable means in their power, to procure the enactment of
+such laws by Congress for the government of the countries and
+territories of the United States, acquired by the treaty of peace,
+friendship, limits, and settlement, with <a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>the republic of Mexico,
+concluded February 2, A.D. 1848; as shall contain the express
+declaration, that there shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary
+servitude in said territories, otherwise than for the punishment of
+crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href="#Footnote_318_318"><sup>[318]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At least fifteen representatives of what had hitherto been Democratic
+constituencies, had combined with the Whigs to embarrass the
+Democratic delegation at Washington.<a name="FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href="#Footnote_319_319"><sup>[319]</sup></a> Their expectation seems to
+have been that they could thus force Senator Douglas to resign his
+seat, for he had been an uncompromising opponent of the Wilmot
+Proviso. Free-Soilers, Whigs, and Northern Democrats with anti-slavery
+leanings had voted for the instructions; only the Democrats from the
+southern counties voted solidly to sustain the Illinois delegation in
+its opposition to the Proviso.<a name="FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href="#Footnote_320_320"><sup>[320]</sup></a> While not a strict sectional vote,
+it showed plainly enough the rift in the Democratic party. A
+disruptive issue had been raised. For the moment a re-alignment of
+parties on geographical lines seemed imminent. This was precisely the
+trend in national politics at this moment.</p>
+
+<p>There was a traditional remedy for this sectional malady&mdash;compromise.
+It was an Illinois senator, himself a slave-owner, who had proposed
+the original Missouri proviso. Senator Douglas had repeatedly proposed
+to extend the Missouri Compromise line to <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>the Pacific, in the same
+spirit in which compromise had been offered in 1820, but the essential
+conditions for a compromise on this basis were now wanting.</p>
+
+<p>It was precisely at this time, when the Illinois legislature was
+instructing him to reverse his attitude toward the Wilmot Proviso,
+that Senator Douglas began to change his policy. Believing that the
+combination against him in the legislature was largely accidental and
+momentary, he refused to resign.<a name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href="#Footnote_321_321"><sup>[321]</sup></a> Events amply justified his
+course; but the crisis was not without its lessons for him. The
+futility of a compromise based on an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line was now apparent. Opposition to the extension of
+slavery was too strong; and belief in the free status of the acquired
+territory too firmly rooted in the minds of his constituents. There
+remained the possibility of reintegrating the Democratic party through
+the application of the principle of &quot;squatter sovereignty,&quot; Was it
+possible to offset the anti-slavery sentiment of his Northern
+constituents by an insistent appeal to their belief in local
+self-government?</p>
+
+<p>The taproot from which squatter sovereignty grew and flourished, was
+the instinctive attachment of the Western American to local
+government; or to put the matter conversely, his dislike of external
+authority. So far back as the era of the Revolution, intense
+individualism, bold initiative, strong dislike of authority, elemental
+jealousy of the fruits of labor, and passionate attachment to the soil
+that has been cleared for a home, are qualities found in varying
+intensity among the colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. Nowhere,
+however, were they so marked as along the Western <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>border, where
+centrifugal forces were particularly strong and local attachments were
+abnormally developed. Under stress of real or fancied wrongs, it was
+natural for settlers in these frontier regions to meet for joint
+protest, or if the occasion were grave enough, to enter into political
+association, to resist encroachment upon what they felt to be their
+natural rights. Whenever they felt called upon to justify their
+course, they did so in language that repeated, consciously or
+unconsciously, the theory of the social contract, with which the
+political thought of the age was surcharged. In these frontier
+communities was born the political habit that manifested itself on
+successive frontiers of American advance across the continent, and
+that finally in the course of the slavery controversy found apt
+expression in the doctrine of squatter sovereignty.<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id="FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322"><sup>[322]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>None of the Territories carved out of the original Northwest had shown
+greater eagerness for separate government than Illinois. The isolation
+of the original settlements grouped along the Mississippi, their
+remoteness from the seat of territorial government on the Wabash, and
+the consequent difficulty of obtaining legal protection and efficient
+government, predisposed the people of Illinois to demand a territorial
+government of their own, long before Congress listened to their
+memorials. Bitter controversy and even bloodshed attended their
+efforts.<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id="FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323"><sup>[323]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A generation later a similar contest occurred for the separation of
+the fourteen northern counties from the <a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a>State. When Congress changed
+the northern boundary of Illinois, it had deviated from the express
+provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, which had drawn the line through
+the southern bend of Lake Michigan. This departure from the Magna
+Charta of the Northwest furnished the would-be secessionists with a
+pretext. But an editorial in the <i>Northwestern Gazette and Galena
+Advertiser</i>, January 20, 1842, naively disclosed their real motive.
+Illinois was overwhelmed with debt, while Wisconsin was &quot;young,
+vigorous, and free from debt.&quot; &quot;Look at the district as it is now,&quot;
+wrote the editor fervidly, &quot;the <i>fag end</i> of the State of
+Illinois&mdash;its interest wholly disregarded in State legislation&mdash;in
+short, treated as a mere <i>province</i>&mdash;taxed; laid under tribute in the
+form of taxation for the benefit of the South and Middle.&quot; The right
+of the people to determine by vote whether the counties should be
+annexed to Illinois, was accepted without question. A meeting of
+citizens in Jo Daviess County resolved, that &quot;until the Ordinance of
+1787 was altered by common consent, the free inhabitants of the region
+had, in common with the free inhabitants of the Territory of
+Wisconsin, an absolute, vested, indefeasible right to form a permanent
+constitution and State government.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a href="#Footnote_324_324"><sup>[324]</sup></a> This was the burden of many
+memorials of similar origin.</p>
+
+<p>The desire of the people of Illinois to control local interests
+extended most naturally to the soil which nourished them. That the
+Federal Government should without their consent dispose of lands which
+they had brought under cultivation, seemed to verge on tyranny. It
+mattered not that the settler had taken up lands to which he had no
+title in law. The wilderness belonged <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>to him who subdued it.
+Therefore land leagues and claim associations figure largely in the
+history of the Northwest. Their object was everywhere the same, to
+protect the squatter against the chance bidder at a public land sale.</p>
+
+<p>The concessions made by the constitutional convention of 1847, in the
+matter of local government, gave great satisfaction to the Northern
+element in the State. The new constitution authorized the legislature
+to pass a general law, in accordance with which counties might
+organize by popular vote under a township system. This mode of
+settling a bitter and protracted controversy was thoroughly in accord
+with the democratic spirit of northern Illinois. The newspapers of the
+northern counties welcomed the inauguration of the township system as
+a formal recognition of a familiar principle. Said the <i>Will County
+Telegraph</i>:<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a href="#Footnote_325_325"><sup>[325]</sup></a> &quot;The great principle on which the new system is based
+is this: that except as to those things which pertain to State unity
+and those which are in their nature common to the whole county, it is
+right that each small community should regulate its own local matters
+without interference.&quot; It was this sentiment to which popular
+sovereignty made a cogent appeal.</p>
+
+<p>No man was more sensitive than Senator Douglas to these subtle
+influences of popular tradition, custom, and current sentiment. Under
+the cumulative impression of the events which have been recorded, his
+confidence in popular sovereignty as an integrating force in national
+and local politics increased, and his public utterances became more
+assured and positive.<a name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href="#Footnote_326_326"><sup>[326]</sup></a> By the <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>close of the year 1850, he had the
+satisfaction of seeing the collapse of the Free-Soil party in
+Illinois, and of knowing that the joint resolutions had been repealed
+which had so nearly accomplished his overthrow. A political storm had
+been weathered. Yet the diverse currents in Illinois society might
+again roil local politics. So long as a bitter commercial rivalry
+divided northern and southern Illinois, and social differences held
+the sections apart, misunderstandings dangerous to party and State
+alike would inevitably follow. How could these diverse elements be
+fused into a true and enduring union? To this task Douglas set his
+hand. The ways and means which he employed, form one of the most
+striking episodes in his career.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href="#FNanchor_294_294">[294]</a> Reid was afterward Governor of North Carolina and
+United States Senator.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href="#FNanchor_295_295">[295]</a> For many of the facts relating to Douglas's courtship
+and marriage, I am indebted to his son, Judge Robert Martin Douglas,
+of North Carolina.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href="#FNanchor_296_296">[296]</a> At the death of Colonel Martin, this plantation was
+worked by some seventeen slaves, according to his will.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href="#FNanchor_297_297">[297]</a> This impression is fully confirmed by the terms of his
+will.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href="#FNanchor_298_298">[298]</a> He was himself fully conscious of this influence. See
+his speech at Raleigh, August 30, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href="#FNanchor_299_299">[299]</a> The facts are so stated in Colonel Martin's will, for a
+transcript of which I am indebted to Judge R.M. Douglas.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href="#FNanchor_300_300">[300]</a> Extract from the will of Colonel Martin.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href="#FNanchor_301_301">[301]</a> This letter, dated August 3, 1850, is in the possession
+of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield, Illinois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href="#FNanchor_302_302">[302]</a> The characteristics of Illinois as a constituency in
+1850 are set forth in greater detail, in an article by the writer in
+the <i>Iowa Journal of History and Politics</i>, July, 1905.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href="#FNanchor_303_303">[303]</a> See Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois in
+the Fergus Historical Series, No. 14. Also Ford, History of Illinois,
+pp. 38, 279-280; and Greene, Sectional forces in the History of
+Illinois&mdash;in the Publications of Illinois Historical Library, 1903.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href="#FNanchor_304_304">[304]</a> Between 1818 and 1840, fifty-seven new counties were
+organized, of which fourteen lay in the region given to Illinois by
+the shifting of the northern boundary. See Publications of the
+Illinois Historical Library, No. 8, pp. 79-80.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href="#FNanchor_305_305">[305]</a> Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 280-281.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href="#FNanchor_306_306">[306]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 280.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href="#FNanchor_307_307">[307]</a> See Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, Chapter on
+&quot;State Policy.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href="#FNanchor_308_308">[308]</a> Shaw, Local Government in Illinois, in the Johns
+Hopkins University Studies, Vol. I; Newell, Township Government in
+Illinois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href="#FNanchor_309_309">[309]</a> Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, Chapter II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href="#FNanchor_310_310">[310]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Chapter III. See Article VI of the
+Constitution.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href="#FNanchor_311_311">[311]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Chapter IV. See also Moses, History of
+Illinois, Vol. I, p. 324.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href="#FNanchor_312_312">[312]</a> Harris, Negro Servitude, pp. 125, 136-357</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href="#FNanchor_313_313">[313]</a> Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, pp.
+453-456.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href="#FNanchor_314_314">[314]</a> <i>Whig Almanac</i>, 1841.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href="#FNanchor_315_315">[315]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 1845.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href="#FNanchor_316_316">[316]</a> Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 326-327.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href="#FNanchor_317_317">[317]</a> Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 328-329.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href="#FNanchor_318_318">[318]</a> House Journal, p. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href="#FNanchor_319_319">[319]</a> All these fifteen voted for the Democratic candidate
+for Speaker of the House.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href="#FNanchor_320_320">[320]</a> House Journal, p. 52; Senate Journal, p. 44. See also
+Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, p. 177.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href="#FNanchor_321_321">[321]</a> See Speech in Senate, December 23, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href="#FNanchor_322_322">[322]</a> See the writer's article on &quot;The Genesis of Popular
+Sovereignty&quot; in the <i>Iowa Journal of History and Politics</i> for
+January, 1905.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href="#FNanchor_323_323">[323]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 241-242.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href="#FNanchor_324_324">[324]</a> <i>Northwestern Gazette</i>, March 19, 1842.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href="#FNanchor_325_325">[325]</a> September 27, 1849.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href="#FNanchor_326_326">[326]</a> Compare his utterances on the following dates: January
+10, 1849; January 22, 1849; October 23, 1849 at Springfield, Illinois;
+February 12, 1850; June 3, 1850.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>CHAPTER IX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>MEASURES OF ADJUSTMENT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When Congress assembled in December, 1849, statesmen of the old
+school, who could agree in nothing else, were of one mind in this: the
+Union was in peril. In the impressive words of Webster, &quot;the
+imprisoned winds were let loose. The East, the North, and the stormy
+South combined to throw the whole sea into commotion, to toss its
+billows to the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths.&quot; Clay and
+Calhoun were equally apprehensive. Yet there were younger men who
+shared none of these fears. To be sure, the political atmosphere of
+Washington was electric. The House spent weeks wrangling over the
+Speakership, so that when the serious work of legislation began, men
+were overwrought and excitable. California with a free constitution
+was knocking at the door of the Union. President Taylor gave Congress
+to understand that at no distant day the people of New Mexico would
+take similar action. And then, as though he were addressing a body of
+immortals, he urged Congress to await calmly the action of the people
+of the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas was among those unimpressionable younger men who would not
+believe the Union to be in danger. Perhaps by his Southern connections
+he knew better than most Northern men, the real temper of the South.
+Perhaps he did not give way to the prevailing hysteria, because he was
+diverted from the great issues by the pressing, particular interests
+of his constituents. At <a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>all events, he had this advantage over Clay,
+Webster, and Calhoun, that when he did turn his attention to schemes
+of compromise, his vision was fresh, keen, and direct. He escaped that
+subtle distortion of mental perception from which others were likely
+to suffer because of long-sustained attention. To such, Douglas must
+have seemed unemotional, unsensitive, and lacking in spiritual
+fineness.</p>
+
+<p>Illinois with its North and its South was also facing a crisis. To the
+social and political differences that bisected the State, was added a
+keen commercial rivalry between the sections. While the State
+legislature under northern control was appropriating funds for the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, it exhibited far less liberality in
+building railroads, which alone could be the arteries of traffic in
+southern Illinois. At a time when railroads were extending their lines
+westward from the Atlantic seaboard, and reaching out covetously for
+the produce of the Mississippi Valley, Illinois held geographically a
+commanding position. No roads could reach the great river, north of
+the Ohio at least, without crossing her borders. The avenues of
+approach were given into her keeping. To those who directed State
+policy, it seemed possible to determine the commercial destinies of
+the Commonwealth by controlling the farther course of the railroads
+which now touched the eastern boundary. Well-directed effort, it was
+thought, might utilize these railroads so as to build up great
+commercial cities on the eastern shore of the Mississippi. State
+policy required that none of these cross-roads should in any event
+touch St. Louis, and thus make it, rather than the Illinois towns now
+struggling toward commercial greatness, the entrep&ocirc;t <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>between East and
+West. With its unrivalled site at the mouth of the Missouri, Alton was
+as likely a competitor for the East and West traffic, and for the
+Mississippi commerce, as St. Louis. Alton, then, must be made the
+terminus of the cross-roads.<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id="FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327"><sup>[327]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The people of southern Illinois thought otherwise. Against the
+background of such distant hopes, they saw a concrete reality. St.
+Louis was already the market for their produce. From every railroad
+which should cross the State and terminate at St. Louis, they
+anticipated tangible profits. They could not see why these very real
+advantages should be sacrificed on the altar of northern interests.
+After the opening of the northern canal, they resented this exclusive
+policy with increased bitterness.</p>
+
+<p>Upon one point, and only one, the people of northern and southern
+Illinois were agreed: they believed that every possible encouragement
+should be given to the construction of a great central railroad, which
+should cross the State from north to south. Such a railroad had been
+projected as early as 1836 by a private corporation. Subsequently the
+State took up the project, only to abandon it again to a private
+company, after the bubble of internal improvements had been pricked.
+Of this latter corporation,&mdash;the Great Western Railroad
+Company,&mdash;Senator Breese was a director and the accredited agent in
+Congress. It was in behalf of this corporation that he had petitioned
+Congress unsuccessfully for pre-emption rights on the public
+domain.<a name="FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href="#Footnote_328_328"><sup>[328]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>Circumstances enlisted Douglas's interest powerfully in the proposed
+central railroad. These circumstances were partly private and
+personal; partly adventitious and partly of his own making. The
+growing sectionalism in Illinois gave politicians serious concern. It
+was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the integrity of
+political parties, when sectional issues were thrust into the
+foreground of political discussion. Yankee and Southerner did not mix
+readily in the caldron of State politics. But a central railroad which
+both desired, might promote a mechanical mixture of social and
+commercial elements. Might it not also, in the course of time, break
+up provincial feeling, cause a transfusion of ideas, and in the end
+produce an organic union?</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1847, Senator-elect Douglas took up his residence in
+Chicago, and identified himself with its commercial interests by
+investing in real estate.<a name="FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href="#Footnote_329_329"><sup>[329]</sup></a> Few men have had a keener instinct for
+speculation in land.<a name="FNanchor_330_330" id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330"><sup>[330]</sup></a> By a sort of sixth sense, he foresaw the
+growth of the ugly but enterprising city on Lake Michigan. He saw that
+commercially Chicago held a strategic position, commanding both the
+lake traffic eastward, and the interior waterway gulfward by means of
+the canal. As yet, however, these advantages were far from
+realization. The city was not even included within the route of the
+proposed central railroad. Influential business men, Eastern
+capitalists, and shippers along the Great Lakes were not a little
+exercised over this neglect. In some way the claims of Chicago must be
+urged upon the promoters of the <a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>railroad. Just here Douglas could
+give invaluable aid. He pointed out that if the railroad were to
+secure a land grant, it would need Eastern votes in Congress. The old
+Cairo-Galena line would seem like a sectional enterprise, likely to
+draw trade down the Mississippi and away from the Atlantic seaports.
+But if Chicago were connected with the system, as a terminal at the
+north, the necessary congressional support might be secured.<a name="FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href="#Footnote_331_331"><sup>[331]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>During the summer, Douglas canvassed the State, speaking repeatedly in
+behalf of this larger project. For a time he hoped that Senator Breese
+would co-operate with him. Numerous conferences took place both before
+and after Congress had assembled; but Douglas found his colleague
+reluctant to abandon his pre-emption plan. Regardless of the memorials
+which poured in upon him from northern Illinois, Breese introduced his
+bill for pre-emption rights on the public domain, in behalf of the
+Holbrook Company, as the Great Western Railway Company was popularly
+called. Thereupon Douglas offered a bill for a donation of public
+lands to aid the State of Illinois in the construction of a central
+railroad from Cairo to Galena, with a branch from Centralia to
+Chicago.<a name="FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href="#Footnote_332_332"><sup>[332]</sup></a> Though Breese did not actively oppose his colleague, his
+lack of cordiality no doubt prejudiced Congress against a grant of any
+description. From the outset, Douglas's bill encountered obstacles:
+the opposition of those who doubted the constitutional power of
+Congress to grant lands for internal improvements of this sort; the
+opposition of landless States, which still viewed the public <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>domain
+as a national asset from which revenue should be derived; and,
+finally, the opposition of the old States to the new. Nevertheless,
+the bill passed the Senate by a good majority. In the House it
+suffered defeat, owing to the undisguised opposition of the South and
+of the landless States both East and West. The Middle States showed
+distrust and uncertainty. It was perfectly clear that before such a
+project could pass the House, Eastern and Southern representatives
+would have to be won over.<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id="FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333"><sup>[333]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>After Congress adjourned, Douglas journeyed to the State of
+Mississippi, ostensibly on a business trip to his children's
+plantation. In the course of his travels, he found himself in the city
+of Mobile&mdash;an apparent digression; but by a somewhat remarkable
+coincidence he met certain directors of the Mobile Railroad in the
+city. Now this corporation was in straits. Funds had failed and the
+construction of the road had been arrested. The directors were casting
+about in search of relief. Douglas saw his opportunity. He offered the
+distraught officials an alliance. He would include in his Illinois
+Central bill a grant of land for their road; in return, they were to
+make sure of the votes of their senators and representatives.<a name="FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href="#Footnote_334_334"><sup>[334]</sup></a>
+Such, at least, is the story told by Douglas; and some such bargain
+may well have been made. Subsequent events give the color of veracity
+to the tale.</p>
+
+<p>When Douglas renewed his Illinois Central bill in a revised form on
+January 3, 1850, Senator Breese had been succeeded by Shields, who was
+well-disposed <a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a>toward the project.<a name="FNanchor_335_335" id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335"><sup>[335]</sup></a> The fruits of the Mobile
+conference were at once apparent. Senator King of Alabama offered an
+amendment, proposing a similar donation of public lands to his State
+and to Mississippi, for the purpose of continuing the projected
+central railroad from the mouth of the Ohio to the port of Mobile.
+Douglas afterward said that he had himself drafted this amendment, but
+that he had thought best to have Senator King present it.<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id="FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336"><sup>[336]</sup></a> Be that
+as it may, the suspicion of collusion between them can hardly be
+avoided, since the amendment occasioned no surprise to the friends of
+the bill and was adopted without division.</p>
+
+<p>The project now before Congress was of vastly greater consequence than
+the proposed grant to Illinois. Here was a bill of truly national
+importance. It spoke for itself; it appealed to the dullest
+imagination. What this amended bill contemplated, was nothing less
+than a trunk line connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico.
+Now, indeed, as Douglas well said, &quot;nationality had been imparted to
+the project,&quot; At the same time, it offered substantial advantages to
+the two landless States which would be traversed by the railroad, as
+well as to all the Gulf States. As thus devised, the bill seemed
+reasonably sure to win votes.</p>
+
+<p>Yet it must not be inferred that the bill passed smoothly to a third
+reading. There was still much shaking of heads among senators of the
+strict construction school. Many were conquered by expediency and
+threw logic to the winds; some preferred to be <a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a>consistent and spoil a
+good cause. The bill did not sail on untroubled seas, even after it
+had been steered clear of constitutional shoals. It narrowly ran foul
+of that obstinate Western conviction, that the public lands belonged
+of right to the home-seeker, to whose interests all such grants were
+inimical, by reason of the increased price of adjoining sections of
+land.<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a href="#Footnote_337_337"><sup>[337]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The real battleground, however, was not the Senate, but the House. As
+before, the bill passed the upper chamber by an ample margin of
+votes.<a name="FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href="#Footnote_338_338"><sup>[338]</sup></a> In the lower house, there was no prolonged debate upon the
+bill. Constitutional scruples do not seem to have been ruffled. The
+main difficulty was to rivet the attention of the members. Several
+times the bill was pushed aside and submerged by the volume of other
+business. Finally, on the same day that it passed the last of the
+compromise measures, on the 17th of September, 1850, the House passed
+the Illinois Central Railroad bill by a vote of 101 to 75.<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id="FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339"><sup>[339]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A comparison of this vote with that on the earlier bill shows a change
+of three votes in the Middle States, one in the South, ten in the Gulf
+States, and five in Tennessee and Kentucky.<a name="FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href="#Footnote_340_340"><sup>[340]</sup></a> This was a triumphant
+vindication of Douglas's sagacity, for whatever may have been the
+services of his colleagues in winning Eastern votes,<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id="FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341"><sup>[341]</sup></a> it was his
+bid for the vote of the Gulf <a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a>States and of the landless, intervening
+States of Kentucky and Tennessee which had been most effective. But
+was all this anything more than the clever manoeuvering of an adroit
+politician in a characteristic parliamentary game? A central railroad
+through Illinois seemed likely to quell factional and sectional
+quarrels in local politics; to merge Northern and Southern interests
+within the Commonwealth; and to add to the fiscal resources of State
+and nation. It was a good cause, but it needed votes in Congress.
+Douglas became a successful procurator and reaped his reward in
+increased popularity.</p>
+
+<p>There is an aspect of this episode, however, which lifts it above a
+mere log-rolling device to secure an appropriation. Here and there it
+fired the imagination of men. There is abundant reason to believe that
+the senior Senator from Illinois was not so sordid in his bargaining
+for votes as he seemed. Above and apart from the commercial welfare of
+the Lake Region, the Mississippi Valley, and the Gulf Plains, there
+was an end subserved, which lay in the background of his consciousness
+and which came to expression rarely if ever. Practical men may see
+visions and dream dreams which they are reluctant to voice. There was
+genuine emotion beneath the materialism of Senator Walker's remarks
+(and he was reared in Illinois), when he said: &quot;Anything that improves
+the connection between the North and the South is a great enterprise.
+To cross parallels of latitude, to enable the man of commerce to make
+up his assorted cargo, is infinitely more important than anything you
+can propose within the same parallels of latitude. I look upon it as a
+great chain to unite North and <a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a>South.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id="FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342"><sup>[342]</sup></a> Senator Shields of
+Illinois only voiced the inmost thought of Douglas, when he exclaimed,
+&quot;The measure is too grand, too magnificent a one to meet with such a
+fate at the hands of Congress. And really, as it is to connect the
+North and South so thoroughly, it may serve to get rid of even the
+Wilmot Proviso, and tie us together so effectually that the idea of
+separation will be impossible.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a href="#Footnote_343_343"><sup>[343]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The settlement of the West had followed parallels of latitude. The men
+of the Lake Plains were transplanted New Englanders, New Yorkers,
+Pennsylvanians; the men of the Gulf Plains came from south of Mason
+and Dixon's line,&mdash;pioneers both, aggressive, bold in initiative, but
+alienated by circumstances of tremendous economic significance. If
+ever North should be arrayed against South, the makeweight in the
+balance would be these pioneers of the Northwest and Southwest. It was
+no mean conception to plan for the &quot;man of commerce&quot; who would cross
+from one region to the other, with his &quot;assorted cargo,&quot;<a name="FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href="#Footnote_344_344"><sup>[344]</sup></a> for in
+that cargo were the destinies of two sections and his greatest
+commerce was to consist in the exchange of imponderable ideas. The
+ideal which inspired Douglas never found nobler expression, than in
+these words with which he replied to Webster's slighting reference to
+the West:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a power in this nation greater than either the North or the
+South&mdash;a growing, increasing, <a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>swelling power, that will be able to
+speak the law to this nation, and to execute the law as spoken. That
+power is the country known as the great West&mdash;the Valley of the
+Mississippi, one and indivisible from the gulf to the great lakes, and
+stretching, on the one side and the other, to the extreme sources of
+the Ohio and Missouri&mdash;from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains.
+There, Sir, is the hope of this nation&mdash;the resting place of the power
+that is not only to control, but to save, the Union. We furnish the
+water that makes the Mississippi, and we intend to follow, navigate,
+and use it until it loses itself in the briny ocean. So with the St.
+Lawrence. We intend to keep open and enjoy both of these great outlets
+to the ocean, and all between them we intend to take under our
+especial protection, and keep and preserve as one free, happy, and
+united people. This is the mission of the great Mississippi Valley,
+the heart and soul of the nation and the continent.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_345_345" id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345"><sup>[345]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Congress was endeavoring to avert the clash of sections by
+other measures of accommodation. The veteran Clay, in his favorite
+r&ocirc;le of peacemaker, had drafted a series of resolutions as a sort of
+legislative programme; and with his old-time vigor, was pleading for
+mutual forbearance. All wounds might be healed, he believed, by
+admitting California with her free constitution; by organizing
+territorial governments without any restriction as to slavery, in the
+region acquired from Mexico; by settling the Texas boundary and the
+Texas debt on a fair basis; by prohibiting the slave trade, but not
+slavery, in the District of Columbia; and by providing more carefully
+for the <a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>rendition of fugitive slaves. Clay, Calhoun, and Webster had
+spoken with all the weight of their years upon these propositions,
+before Douglas was free to address the Senate.</p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of Douglas that he chose to speak on the
+concrete question raised by the application of California for
+admission into the Union. His opening words betrayed no elevation of
+feeling, no alarmed patriotism transcending party lines, no great
+moral uplift. He made no direct reference to the state of the public
+mind. Clay began with an invocation; Webster pleaded for a hearing,
+not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American
+and as a Senator, with the preservation of the Union as his theme;
+Douglas sprang at once to the defense of his party. With the brush of
+a partisan, he sketched the policy of Northern Democrats in advocating
+the annexation of Texas, repudiating the insinuations of Webster that
+Texas had been sought as a slave State. He would not admit that the
+whole of Texas was bound to be a slave Territory. By the very terms of
+annexation, provision had been made for admitting free States out of
+Texas. As for Webster's &quot;law of nature, of physical geography,&mdash;the
+law of the formation of the earth,&quot; from which the Senator from
+Massachusetts derived so much comfort, it was a pity that he could not
+have discovered that law earlier. The &quot;law of nature&quot; surely had not
+been changed materially since the election, when Mr. Webster opposed
+General Cass, who had already enunciated this general principle.<a name="FNanchor_346_346" id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346"><sup>[346]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In his reply to Calhoun, Douglas emancipated himself successfully from
+his gross partisanship. Planting <a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>himself firmly upon the national
+theory of the Federal Union, he hewed away at what he termed Calhoun's
+fundamental error&mdash;&quot;the error of supposing that his particular section
+has a right to have a 'due share of the territories' set apart and
+assigned to it.&quot; Calhoun had said much about Southern rights and
+Northern aggressions, citing the Ordinance of 1787 as an instance of
+the unfair exclusion of the South from the public domain. Douglas
+found a complete refutation of this error in the early history of
+Illinois, where slavery had for a long time existed in spite of the
+Ordinance. His inference from these facts was bold and suggestive, if
+not altogether convincing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;These facts furnish a practical illustration of that great truth,
+which ought to be familiar to all statesmen and politicians, that a
+law passed by the national legislature to operate locally upon a
+people not represented, will always remain practically a dead letter
+upon the statute book, if it be in opposition to the wishes and
+supposed interests of those who are to be affected by it, and at the
+same time charged with its execution. The Ordinance of 1787 was
+practically a dead letter. It did not make the country, to which it
+applied, practically free from slavery. The States formed out of the
+territory northwest of the Ohio did not become free by virtue of the
+ordinance, nor in consequence of it ... [but] by virtue of their own
+will.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id="FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347"><sup>[347]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was equally convinced that the Missouri Compromise had had no
+practical effect upon slavery. So far from depriving the South of its
+share of the West, that Compromise had simply &quot;allayed an <a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>unfortunate
+excitement which was alienating the affections of different portions
+of the Union.&quot; &quot;Slavery was as effectually excluded from the whole of
+that country, by the laws of nature, of climate, and production,
+before, as it is now, by act of Congress.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href="#Footnote_348_348"><sup>[348]</sup></a> As for the exclusion
+of the South from the Oregon Territory, the law of 1848 &quot;did nothing
+more than re-enact and affirm the law which the people themselves had
+previously adopted, and rigorously executed, for the period of twelve
+years.&quot; The exclusion of slavery was the deliberate act of the people
+of Oregon: &quot;it was done in obedience to that great Democratic
+principle, that it is wiser and better to leave each community to
+determine and regulate its own local and domestic affairs in its own
+way.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href="#Footnote_349_349"><sup>[349]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>An amendment to the Constitution to establish a permanent equilibrium
+between slave and free States, Douglas rightly characterized as &quot;a
+moral and physical impossibility.&quot; The cause of freedom had steadily
+advanced, while slavery had receded. &quot;We all look forward with
+confidence to the time when Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
+and Missouri, and probably North Carolina and Tennessee, will adopt a
+gradual system of emancipation. In the meantime,&quot; said he, with the
+exultant spirit of the exuberant West, &quot;we have a vast territory,
+stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific, which is rapidly
+filling up with a hardy, enterprising, and industrious population,
+large enough to form at least seventeen new free States, one half of
+which we may expect to see represented in this body during our day. Of
+these I calculate that four will be formed out of Oregon, five out of
+our late <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>acquisition from Mexico, including the present State of
+California, two out of the territory of Minnesota, and the residue out
+of the country upon the Missouri river, <i>including Nebraska</i>. I think
+I am safe in assuming, that each of these will be free territories and
+free States whether Congress shall prohibit slavery or not. Now, let
+me inquire, where are you to find the slave territory with which to
+balance these seventeen free territories, or even any one of
+them?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href="#Footnote_350_350"><sup>[350]</sup></a> Truer prophecy was never uttered in all the long
+controversy over the extension of slavery.</p>
+
+<p>With a bit of brag, which was perhaps pardonable tinder the
+circumstances, Douglas reminded the Senate of his efforts to secure
+the admission of California and of his prediction that the people of
+that country would form a free State constitution. A few months had
+sufficed to vindicate his position at the last session. And yet,
+strangely enough, the North was still fearful lest slavery should be
+extended to New Mexico and Utah. &quot;There is no ground for apprehension
+on this point,&quot; he stoutly contended. &quot;If there was one inch of
+territory in the whole of our acquisition from Mexico, where slavery
+could exist, it was in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin,
+within the limits of the State of California. It should be borne in
+mind, that climate regulates this matter, and that climate depends
+upon the elevation above the sea as much as upon parallels of
+latitude.&quot; Why then leave the question open for further agitation?
+Give the people of California the government to which they are
+entitled. &quot;The country is now free by law and in fact&mdash;it is free
+<a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>according to those laws of nature and of God, to which the Senator
+from Massachusetts alluded, and must forever remain free. It will be
+free under any bill you may pass, or without any bill at all.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id="FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351"><sup>[351]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Though he did not discuss the compromise resolutions nor commit
+himself to their support, Douglas paid a noble tribute to the spirit
+in which they had been offered. He spoke feelingly of &quot;the
+self-sacrificing spirit which prompted the venerable Senator from
+Kentucky to exhibit the matchless moral courage of standing undaunted
+between the two great hostile factions, and rebuking the violence and
+excesses of each, and pointing out their respective errors, in a
+spirit of kindness, moderation, and firmness, which made them
+conscious that he was right.&quot; Clay's example was already, he believed,
+checking the tide of popular excitement. For his part, he entertained
+no fears as to the future. &quot;The Union will not be put in peril;
+California will be admitted; governments for the territories must be
+established; and thus the controversy will end, and I trust forever.&quot;
+A cheerful bit of Western optimism to which the country at large was
+not yet ready to subscribe.</p>
+
+<p>With his wonted aggressiveness Douglas had a batch of bills ready by
+March 25th, covering the controverted question of California and the
+Territories. The origin of these bills is a matter of no little
+interest. A group of Southern Whigs in the House, led by Toombs and
+Stephens of Georgia, had taken a determined stand against the
+admission of California, until assurances were given that concessions
+would be made <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>to the South in the organization of the new
+Territories.<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id="FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352"><sup>[352]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With both Toombs and Stephens, Douglas was on friendly terms, despite
+their political differences. Perhaps it was at his suggestion that
+McClernand of Illinois approached these gentlemen with an olive
+branch. At all events, a conference was arranged at the Speaker's
+house, at which Douglas was represented by his friends McClernand,
+Richardson, and Linn Boyd of Kentucky. Boyd was chairman of the House
+Committee on Territories; and Richardson a member of the committee.
+McClernand announced that he had consulted with Douglas and that they
+were in entire agreement on the points at issue. Douglas had thought
+it better not to be present in person. The Southerners stated their
+position frankly and fully. They would consent to the admission of
+California only upon condition that, in organizing the territorial
+governments, the power should be given to the people to legislate in
+regard to slavery, and to frame constitutions with or without slavery.
+Congress was to bind itself to admit them as States, without any
+restrictions upon the subject of slavery. The wording of the
+territorial bills, which would compass these ends, was carefully
+agreed upon and put in writing. On the basis of this agreement Douglas
+and McClernand drafted bills for both the Senate and the House
+Committees.<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id="FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353"><sup>[353]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But the suggestion had already been made and was growing in favor,
+that a select committee should be intrusted with these and other
+delicate questions, in <a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>order to secure a basis of compromise in the
+spirit of Clay's resolutions. Believing that such a course would
+indefinitely delay, and even put in jeopardy, the measure that lay
+nearest to his heart,&mdash;the admission of California,&mdash;Douglas resisted
+the appointment of such a committee. If it seemed best to join the
+California bill with others now pending, he preferred that the Senate,
+rather than a committee, should decide the conditions. But when he was
+outvoted, Douglas adopted the sensible course of refusing to obstruct
+the work of the Committee of Thirteen by any instructions. He was
+inclined to believe the whole project a farce: well, if it was, the
+sooner it was over, the better; he was not disposed to wrangle and
+turn the farce into a tragedy.<a name="FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href="#Footnote_354_354"><sup>[354]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was not chosen a member of the select Committee of Thirteen.
+He could hardly expect to be; but he contributed not a little to its
+labors, if a traditional story be true. In a chance conversation,
+Clay, who was chairman of the committee, told Douglas that their
+report would recommend the union of his two bills,&mdash;the California and
+the Territorial bills,&mdash;instead of a bill of their own. Clay intimated
+that the committee felt some delicacy about appropriating Douglas's
+carefully drawn measures. With a courtesy quite equal to Clay's,
+Douglas urged him to use the bills if it was deemed wise. For his
+part, he did not believe that they could pass the Senate as a single
+bill. In that event, he could then urge the original bills separately
+upon the Senate. Then Clay, extending his hand, said, &quot;You are the
+most generous man living. I <i>will</i> unite the bills and report them;
+but <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>justice shall nevertheless be done you as the real author of the
+measures.&quot; A pretty story, and not altogether improbable. At all
+events, the first part of &quot;the Omnibus Bill,&quot; reported by the
+Committee of Thirteen, consisted of Douglas's two bills joined
+together by a wafer.<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id="FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355"><sup>[355]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There was one highly significant change in the territorial bills
+inside the Omnibus. Douglas's measures had been silent on the slavery
+question; these forbade the territorial legislatures to pass any
+measure in respect to African slavery, restricting the powers of the
+territorial legislatures at a vital point. Now on this question
+Douglas's instructions bound him to an affirmative vote. He was in the
+uncomfortable and hazardous position of one who must choose between
+his convictions, and the retention of political office. It was a
+situation all the more embarrassing, because he had so often asserted
+the direct responsibility of a representative to his constituents. He
+extricated himself from the predicament in characteristic fashion. He
+reaffirmed his convictions; sought to ward off the question; but
+followed instructions when he had to give his vote. He obeyed the
+letter, but violated the spirit of his instructions.</p>
+
+<p>In the debates on the Omnibus Bill, Douglas reiterated his theory of
+non-interference with the right of the people to legislate for
+themselves on the question of slavery. He was now forced to further
+interesting assertions by some pointed questions from Senator Davis of
+Mississippi. &quot;The Senator says that the <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>inhabitants of a territory
+have a right to decide what their institutions shall be. When? By what
+authority? How many of them?&quot; Douglas replied: &quot;Without determining
+the precise number, I will assume that the right ought to accrue to
+the people at the moment they have enough to constitute a
+government.... Your bill concedes that a representative government is
+necessary&mdash;a government founded upon the principles of popular
+sovereignty, and the right of the people to enact their own laws; and
+for this reason you give them a legislature constituted of two
+branches, like the legislatures of the different States and
+Territories of the Union; you confer upon them the right to legislate
+upon all rightful subjects of legislation, except negroes. Why except
+negroes?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href="#Footnote_356_356"><sup>[356]</sup></a> Forced to a further explanation, he added, &quot;I am not,
+therefore, prepared to say that under the constitution, we have not
+the power to pass laws excluding negro slaves from the territories....
+But I do say that, if left to myself to carry out my own opinions, I
+would leave the whole subject to the people of the territories
+themselves.... I believe it is one of those rights to be conceded to
+the territories the moment they have governments and legislatures
+established for them.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href="#Footnote_357_357"><sup>[357]</sup></a> In short, this was a policy dictated by
+expediency, and not&mdash;as yet&mdash;by any constitutional necessity. Douglas
+was not yet ready to abandon the high national ground of supreme,
+Federal control over the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>But the restrictive clause in the territorial bills satisfied the
+radical Southerners as little as it pleased Douglas. Berrien wished to
+make the clause more precise by forbidding the territorial
+legislatures &quot;to <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>establish or prohibit African slavery&quot;; but Hale,
+with his preternatural keenness for the supposed intrigues of the
+slave power, believed that even with these restrictions the
+legislatures might still recognize slavery as an already established
+institution; and he therefore moved to add the word &quot;allow.&quot; Douglas
+voted consistently; first against Berrien's amendment, and then, when
+it carried, for Hale's, hoping thereby to discredit the former.<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id="FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358"><sup>[358]</sup></a>
+Douglas's own amendment removing all restrictions, was voted
+down.<a name="FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href="#Footnote_359_359"><sup>[359]</sup></a> True to his instructions, he voted for Seward's proposition
+to impose the Wilmot Proviso upon the Territories, but he was happy to
+find himself in the minority.<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a href="#Footnote_360_360"><sup>[360]</sup></a> And so the battle went on,
+threatening to end in a draw.</p>
+
+<p>A motion to abolish and prohibit peon slavery elicited an apparently
+spontaneous and sincere expression of detestation from Douglas of
+&quot;this revolting system.&quot; Black slavery was not abhorrent to him; but a
+species of slavery not confined to any color or race, which might,
+because of a trifling debt, condemn the free white man and his
+posterity to an endless servitude&mdash;this was indeed intolerable. If the
+Senate was about to abolish black slavery, being unwilling to intrust
+the territorial legislature with such measures, surely it ought in all
+consistency to abolish also peonage. But the Senate preferred not to
+be consistent.<a name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href="#Footnote_361_361"><sup>[361]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>By the last of July, the Omnibus&mdash;in the words of Benton&mdash;had been
+overturned, and all the inmates but one spilled out. The Utah bill was
+the lucky survivor, but even it was not suffered to pass without
+material alterations. Clay now joined with Douglas <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>to secure the
+omission of the clause forbidding the territorial legislature to touch
+the subject of slavery. In this they finally succeeded.<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a href="#Footnote_362_362"><sup>[362]</sup></a> The bill
+was thus restored to its original form.<a name="FNanchor_363_363" id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363"><sup>[363]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Everyone admitted that the compromise scheme had been wrecked. It was
+highly probable, however, that with some changes the proposals of the
+committee could be adopted, if they were considered separately. Such
+was Douglas's opinion. The eventuality had occurred which he had
+foreseen. He was ready for it. He had promptly called up his original
+California bill and had secured its consideration, when the Utah bill
+passed to a third reading. Then a bill to settle the Texan boundary
+controversy was introduced. The Senate passed many weary days
+discussing first one and then the other. The Texas question was
+disposed of on August 9th; the California bill, after weathering many
+storms, came to port four days later; and two days afterward, New
+Mexico was organized as a Territory under the same conditions as Utah.
+That is to say, the Senate handed on these bills with its approval to
+the lower house, where all were voted. It remained only to complete
+the compromise programme piece-meal, by abolishing the slave trade in
+the District of Columbia and by providing a more stringent fugitive
+slave law. By the middle of September, these measures had become law,
+and the work of Congress went to its final review before the tribunal
+of public opinion.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas voted for all the compromise measures but <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>the Fugitive Slave
+Law. This was an unfortunate omission, for many a Congressman had
+sought to dodge the question.<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id="FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364"><sup>[364]</sup></a> The partisan press did not spare
+him, though he stated publicly that he would have voted for the bill,
+had he not been forced to absent himself. Such excuses were common and
+unconvincing. Irritated by sly thrusts on every side, Douglas at last
+resolved to give a detailed account of the circumstances that had
+prevented him from putting himself on record in the vote. This public
+vindication was made upon the floor of the Senate a year later.<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a href="#Footnote_365_365"><sup>[365]</sup></a> A
+&quot;pecuniary obligation&quot; for nearly four thousand dollars was about to
+fall due in New York. Arrangements which he had made to pay the note
+miscarried, so that he was compelled to go to New York at once, or
+suffer the note to be protested. Upon the assurance of his fellow
+senators that the discussion of the bill would continue at least a
+week, he hastened to New York. While dining with some friends from
+Illinois, he was astounded to hear that the bill had been ordered
+engrossed for a third reading. He immediately left the city for
+Washington, but arrived too late. He was about to ask permission then
+to explain his absence, when his colleague dissuaded him. Everyone
+knew, said Shields, that he was in favor of the bill; besides, very
+probably the bill would be returned from the House with amendments.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstantial nature of this defense now seems quite unnecessary.
+After all, the best refutation of the charge lay in Douglas's
+reputation for courageous and manly conduct. He was true to himself
+when he <a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>said, &quot;The dodging of votes&mdash;the attempt to avoid
+responsibility&mdash;is no part of my system of political tactics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If it is difficult to distribute the credit&mdash;or discredit&mdash;of having
+passed the compromise measures, it verges on the impossible to fix the
+responsibility on any individual. Clay fathered the scheme of
+adjustment; but he did not work out the details, and it was just this
+matter of details which aggravated the situation. Clay no longer
+coveted glory. His dominant feeling was one of thankfulness. &quot;It was
+rather a triumph for the Union, for harmony and concord.&quot; Douglas
+agreed with him: &quot;No man and no party has acquired a triumph, except
+the party friendly to the Union.&quot; But the younger man did covet honor,
+and he could not refrain from reminding the Senate that he had played
+&quot;an humble part in the enactment of all these great measures.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href="#Footnote_366_366"><sup>[366]</sup></a>
+Oddly enough, Jefferson Davis condescended to tickle the vanity of
+Douglas by testifying, &quot;If any man has a right to be proud of the
+success of these measures, it is the Senator from Illinois.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href="#Footnote_367_367"><sup>[367]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Both Douglas and Toombs told their constituents that Congress had
+agreed upon a great, fundamental principle in dealing with the
+Territories. Both spoke with some degree of authority, for the two
+territorial bills had passed in the identical form upon which they had
+agreed in conference. But what was this principle? Toombs called it
+the principle which the South had unwisely compromised away in
+1820&mdash;the principle of non-interference with slavery by Congress, the
+right of the people to hold slaves in the common Territories. <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>Douglas
+called the great principle, &quot;the right of the people to form and
+regulate their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in
+their own way.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id="FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368"><sup>[368]</sup></a> So stated the principle seems direct and simple.
+But was Toombs willing to concede that the people of a Territory might
+exclude slavery? He never said so; while Douglas conceded both the
+positive power to exclude, and the negative power to permit, slavery.
+Here was a discrepancy.<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id="FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369"><sup>[369]</sup></a> And it was probably because they could
+not agree on this point, that a provision was added to the territorial
+bills, providing that cases involving title to slaves might be
+appealed to the Supreme Court. Whether the people of Utah and New
+Mexico might exclude slaves, was to be left to the judiciary. In any
+case Congress was not to interfere with slavery in the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>One other question was raised subsequently. Was it intended that
+Congress should act on this principle in organizing future
+Territories? In other words, was the principle, newly recovered, to be
+applied retroactively? There was no answer to the question in 1850,
+for the simple reason that no one thought to ask it.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href="#FNanchor_327_327">[327]</a> See the chapter on &quot;State Policy&quot; in Davidson and
+Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href="#FNanchor_328_328">[328]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 573-574;
+Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads, in Fergus Historical Series, p.
+32.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href="#FNanchor_329_329">[329]</a> Letter of Breese to Douglas, Illinois <i>State Register</i>,
+February 6, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href="#FNanchor_330_330">[330]</a> Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 18-20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href="#FNanchor_331_331">[331]</a> Letter of Douglas to Breese, <i>State Register</i>, January
+20, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href="#FNanchor_332_332">[332]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, January 20, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href="#FNanchor_333_333">[333]</a> Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of
+Railways, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, pp. 27-30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href="#FNanchor_334_334">[334]</a> Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp.
+193-194.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href="#FNanchor_335_335">[335]</a> Douglas renewed his bill in the short session of
+1848-1849, but did not secure action upon it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href="#FNanchor_336_336">[336]</a> Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 195.
+There is so much brag in this account that one is disposed to distrust
+the details.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href="#FNanchor_337_337">[337]</a> Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 31-34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href="#FNanchor_338_338">[338]</a> <i>Globe,</i>31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 904. The vote was 26 to
+14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href="#FNanchor_339_339">[339]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1838.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href="#FNanchor_340_340">[340]</a> Sanborn, Congressional Grants, p. 35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href="#FNanchor_341_341">[341]</a> John Wentworth, in his <i>Congressional Reminiscences</i>,
+hints at some vote-getting in the East by tariff concessions; but
+Douglas insisted that it was the Chicago branch, promising to connect
+with Eastern roads, which won votes in New York, Pennsylvania and New
+England. See Illinois <i>State Register</i>, March 13, 1851. The subject is
+discussed by Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 35-36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href="#FNanchor_342_342">[342]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href="#FNanchor_343_343">[343]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 869.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href="#FNanchor_344_344">[344]</a> The economic significance of the Illinois Central
+Railroad appears in a letter of Vice-President McClellan to Douglas in
+1856. The management was even then planning to bring sugar from Havana
+directly to the Chicago market, and to take the wheat and pork of the
+Northwest to the West Indies <i>via</i> New Orleans.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href="#FNanchor_345_345">[345]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href="#FNanchor_346_346">[346]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 366.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href="#FNanchor_347_347">[347]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 369-370.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href="#FNanchor_348_348">[348]</a> <i>Globe,</i> 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 370.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href="#FNanchor_349_349">[349]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href="#FNanchor_350_350">[350]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 371. I have
+italicized one phrase because of its interesting relation to the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href="#FNanchor_351_351">[351]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 373.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href="#FNanchor_352_352">[352]</a> Stephens, Const. View of the War between the States,
+II, pp. 178 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href="#FNanchor_353_353">[353]</a> For an account of this interesting episode, see
+Stephens, War Between the States, II, pp. 202-204. Boyd, not
+McClernand, was chairman of the House Committee, but the latter
+introduced the bills by agreement with Richardson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href="#FNanchor_354_354">[354]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 662, 757.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href="#FNanchor_355_355">[355]</a> See Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 132-134. See also Douglas's
+speech in the Senate, Dec. 23, 1851, and the testimony of Jefferson
+Davis, <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1830.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href="#FNanchor_356_356">[356]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href="#FNanchor_357_357">[357]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1116.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href="#FNanchor_358_358">[358]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1134-1135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href="#FNanchor_359_359">[359]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href="#FNanchor_360_360">[360]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1134.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href="#FNanchor_361_361">[361]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1143-1144.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href="#FNanchor_362_362">[362]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 305-306; also
+Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 80-81.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href="#FNanchor_363_363">[363]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 1480-1481.
+Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href="#FNanchor_364_364">[364]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp. 182-183.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href="#FNanchor_365_365">[365]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href="#FNanchor_366_366">[366]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1829-1830.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href="#FNanchor_367_367">[367]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1830.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href="#FNanchor_368_368">[368]</a> See his speech in Chicago; Sheahan, Douglas, p. 169.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href="#FNanchor_369_369">[369]</a> When Douglas reported the bills, he announced that
+there was a difference of opinion in the committee on some points, in
+regard to which each member reserved the right of stating his own
+opinion and of acting in accordance therewith. See <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong.,
+1 Sess., p. 592.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>CHAPTER X<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>YOUNG AMERICA</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>When Douglas reached Chicago, immediately after the adjournment of
+Congress, he found the city in an uproar. The strong anti-slavery
+sentiment of the community had been outraged by the Fugitive Slave
+Law. Reflecting the popular indignation, the Common Council had
+adopted resolutions condemning the act as a violation of the
+Constitution and a transgression of the laws of God. Those senators
+and representatives who voted for the bill, or &quot;who basely sneaked
+away from their seats and thereby evaded the question,&quot; were
+stigmatized as &quot;fit only to be ranked with the traitors, Benedict
+Arnold and Judas Iscariot.&quot; This was indeed a sorry home-coming for
+one who believed himself entitled to honors.</p>
+
+<p>Learning that a mass-meeting was about to indorse the action of the
+city fathers, Douglas determined to face his detractors and meet their
+charges. Entering the hall while the meeting was in progress, he
+mounted the platform, and announced that on the following evening he
+would publicly defend all the measures of adjustment. He was greeted
+with hisses and jeers for his pains; but in the end he had the
+satisfaction of securing an adjournment until his defense had been
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>It was infinitely to his credit that when he confronted a hostile
+audience on the next evening, he stooped to no cheap devices to divert
+resentment, but <a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a>sought to approve his course to the sober
+intelligence of his hearers.<a name="FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href="#Footnote_370_370"><sup>[370]</sup></a> It is doubtful if the Fugitive Slave
+Law ever found a more skillful defender. The spirit in which he met
+his critics was admirably calculated to disarm prejudice. Come and let
+us reason together, was his plea. Without any attempt to ignore the
+most obnoxious parts of the act, he passed directly to the discussion
+of the clauses which apparently denied the writ of <i>habeas corpus</i> and
+trial by jury to the fugitive from service. He reminded his hearers
+that this act was supplementary to the Act of 1793. No one had found
+fault with the earlier act because it had denied these rights. Both
+acts, in fact, were silent on these points; yet in neither case was
+silence to be construed as a denial of constitutional obligations. On
+the contrary, they must be assumed to continue in full force under the
+act. Misapprehension arose in these matters, because the recovery of
+the fugitive slave was not viewed as a process of extradition. The act
+provided for the return of the alleged slave to the State from which
+he had fled. Trial of the facts by jury would then follow under the
+laws of the State, just as the fugitive from justice would be tried in
+the State where the alleged crime had been committed. The testimony
+before the original court making the requisition, would necessarily be
+<i>ex parte</i>, as in the case of the escaped criminal; but this did not
+prevent a fair trial on return of the fugitive. Regarding the question
+of establishing the identity of the apprehended person with the
+fugitive described in the record, Douglas asserted that the terms of
+the act required proof <a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a>satisfactory to the judge or commissioner, and
+not merely the presentment of the record. &quot;Other and further evidence&quot;
+might be insisted upon.</p>
+
+<p>At various times Douglas was interrupted by questions which were
+obviously contrived to embarrass him. To all such he replied
+courteously and with engaging frankness. &quot;Why was it,&quot; asked one of
+these troublesome questioners, &quot;that the law provided for a fee of ten
+dollars if the commissioner decided in favor of the claimant, and for
+a fee of only five dollars if he decided otherwise? Was this not in
+the nature of an inducement, a bribe?&quot; &quot;I presume,&quot; said Douglas,
+&quot;that the reason was that he would have more labor to perform. If,
+after hearing the testimony, the commissioner decided in favor of the
+claimant, the law made it his duty to prepare and authenticate the
+necessary papers to authorize him to carry the fugitive home; but if
+he decided against him, he had no such labor to perform.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>After all, as Douglas said good-naturedly, all these objections were
+predicated on a reluctance to return a slave to his master under any
+circumstances. Did his hearers realize, he insisted, that refusal to
+do so was a violation of the Constitution? And were they willing to
+shatter the Union because of this feeling? At this point he was again
+interrupted by an individual, who wished to know if the provisions of
+the Constitution were not in violation of the law of God. &quot;The divine
+law,&quot; responded Douglas, &quot;does not prescribe the form of government
+under which we shall live, and the character of our political and
+civil institutions. Revelation has not furnished us with a
+constitution&mdash;a code of international law&mdash;and a system of civil and
+municipal <a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>jurisprudence.&quot; If this Constitution were to be repudiated,
+he begged to know, &quot;who is to be the prophet to reveal the will of
+God, and establish a theocracy for us?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of his speech, Douglas offered a series of
+resolutions expressing the obligation of all good citizens to maintain
+the Constitution and all laws duly enacted by Congress in pursuance of
+the Constitution. With a remarkable revulsion of feeling, the audience
+indorsed these sentiments without a dissenting voice, and subsequently
+repudiated in express terms the resolutions of the Common
+Council.<a name="FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href="#Footnote_371_371"><sup>[371]</sup></a> The triumph of Douglas was complete. It was one of those
+rare instances where the current of popular resentment is not only
+deflected, but actually reversed, by the determination and eloquence
+of one man.</p>
+
+<p>There were two groups of irreconcilables to whom such appeals were
+unavailing&mdash;radical Abolitionists at the North and Southern Rights
+advocates. Not even the eloquence of Webster could make willing
+slave-catchers of the anti-slavery folk of Massachusetts. The rescue
+of the negro Shadrach, an alleged fugitive slave, provoked intense
+excitement, not only in New England but in Washington. The incident
+was deemed sufficiently ominous to warrant a proclamation by the
+President, counseling all good citizens to uphold the law. Southern
+statesmen of the radical type saw abundant evidence in this episode of
+a deliberate purpose at the North not to enforce the essential
+features of the compromise. Both Whig and Democratic leaders, with few
+exceptions, roundly denounced all attempts to nullify the Fugitive
+Slave Law.<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id="FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372"><sup>[372]</sup></a> None was <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>more vehement than Douglas. He could not
+regard this Boston rescue as a trivial incident. He believed that
+there was an organization in many States to evade the law. It was in
+the nature of a conspiracy against the government. The ring-leaders
+were Abolitionists, who were exciting the negroes to excesses. He was
+utterly at a loss to understand how senators, who had sworn to obey
+and defend the Constitution, could countenance these palpable
+violations of law.<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a href="#Footnote_373_373"><sup>[373]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In spite of similar untoward incidents, the vast majority of people in
+the country North and South were acquiescing little by little in the
+settlement reached by the compromise measures. There was an evident
+disposition on the part of both Whig and Democratic leaders to drop
+the slavery issue. When Senator Sumner proposed a repeal of the
+Fugitive Slave Act, Douglas deprecated any attempt to &quot;fan the flames
+of discord that have so recently divided this great people,&quot;<a name="FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href="#Footnote_374_374"><sup>[374]</sup></a>
+intimating that Sumner's speech was intended to &quot;operate upon the
+presidential election.&quot; It ill became the Senator from Illinois to
+indulge in such taunts, for no one, it may safely be said, was
+calculating his own political chances more intently. &quot;Things look
+well,&quot; he had written to a friend, referring to his chances of
+securing the nomination, &quot;and the prospect is brightening every day.
+All that is necessary now to insure success is that the northwest
+should unite and speak out.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href="#Footnote_375_375"><sup>[375]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When the Democrats of Illinois proposed Douglas's name for the
+presidency in 1848, no one was disposed <a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>to take the suggestion
+seriously, outside the immediate circle of his friends. To graybeards
+there was something almost humorous in the suggestion that five years
+of service in Congress gave a young man of thirty-five a claim to
+consideration! Within three short years, however, the situation had
+changed materially. Older aspirants for the chief magistracy were
+forced, with no little alarm, to acknowledge the rise of a really
+formidable rival. By midsummer of 1851, competent observers thought
+that Douglas had the best chance of winning the Democratic nomination.
+In the judgment of certain Whig editors, he was the strongest man. It
+was significant of his growing favor, that certain Democrats of the
+city and county of New York tendered him a banquet, in honor of his
+distinguished services to the party and his devotion to the Union
+during the past two years.</p>
+
+<p>Politicians of both parties shared the conviction that unless the
+Whigs could get together,&mdash;which was unlikely,&mdash;a nomination at the
+hands of a national Democratic convention was equivalent to an
+election. Consequently there were many candidates in the field. The
+preliminary canvass promised to be eager. It was indeed well under way
+long before Congress assembled in December, and it continued actively
+during the session. &quot;The business of the session,&quot; wrote one observer
+in a cynical frame of mind, &quot;will consist mainly in the manoeuvres,
+intrigues, and competitions for the next Presidency.&quot; Events justified
+the prediction. &quot;A politician does not sneeze without reference to the
+Presidency,&quot; observed the same writer, some weeks after the beginning
+of the session. &quot;<a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>Congress does little else but intrigue for the
+respective candidates.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href="#Footnote_376_376"><sup>[376]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Prospective candidates who sat in Congress had at least this
+advantage, over their outside competitors,&mdash;they could keep themselves
+in the public eye by making themselves conspicuous in debate. But the
+wisdom of such devices was questionable. Those who could not point
+with confident pride to their record, wisely chose to remain
+non-committal on matters of personal history. Douglas was one of those
+who courted publicity. Perhaps as a young man pitted against older
+rivals, he felt that he had everything to gain thereby and not much to
+lose. The irrepressible Foote of Mississippi gave all his colleagues a
+chance to mar their reputations, by injecting into the deliberations
+of the Senate a discussion of the finality of the compromise
+measures.<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id="FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377"><sup>[377]</sup></a> It speedily appeared that fidelity to the settlement of
+1850, from the Southern point of view, consisted in strict adherence
+to the Fugitive Slave Act.<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id="FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378"><sup>[378]</sup></a> This was the touchstone by which
+Southern statesmen proposed to test their Northern colleagues.
+Prudence whispered silence into many an ear; but Douglas for one
+refused to heed her admonitions. Within three weeks after the session
+began, he was on his feet defending the consistency of his course,
+with an apparent ingenuousness which carried conviction to the larger
+audience who read, but did not hear, his declaration of political
+faith.</p>
+
+<p>Two features of this speech commended it to <a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>Democrats: its
+recognition of the finality of the compromise, and its insistence upon
+the necessity of banishing the slavery question from politics. &quot;The
+Democratic party,&quot; he asseverated, &quot;is as good a Union party as I
+want, and I wish to preserve its principles and its organization, and
+to triumph upon its old issues. I desire no new tests&mdash;no
+interpolations into the old creed.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id="FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379"><sup>[379]</sup></a> For his part, he was resolved
+never to speak again upon the slavery question in the halls of
+Congress.</p>
+
+<p>But this was after all a negative programme. Could a campaign be
+successfully fought without other weapons than the well-worn
+blunderbusses in the Democratic arsenal? This was a do-nothing policy,
+difficult to reconcile with the enthusiastic liberalism which Young
+America was supposed to cherish. Yet Douglas gauged the situation
+accurately. The bulk of the party wished a return to power more than
+anything else. To this end, they were willing to toot for old issues
+and preserve the old party alignment. For four years, the Democratic
+office-hunters had not tasted of the loaves and fishes within the gift
+of the executive. They expected liberality in conduct, if not
+liberalism in creed, from their next President. Douglas shared this
+political hunger. He had always been a believer in rotation in office,
+and an exponent of that unhappy, American practice of using public
+office as the spoil of party victory. In this very session, he put
+himself on record against permanence in office for the clerks of the
+Senate, holding that such positions should fall vacant at stated
+intervals.<a name="FNanchor_380_380" id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380"><sup>[380]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>But had Douglas no policy peculiarly his own, to qualify him for the
+leadership of his party? Distrustful Whigs accused him of being
+willing to offer Cuba for the support of the South.<a name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href="#Footnote_381_381"><sup>[381]</sup></a> Indeed, he
+made no secret of his desire to acquire the Pearl of the Antilles.
+Still, this was not the sort of issue which it was well to drag into a
+presidential campaign. Like all the other aspirants for the
+presidency, Douglas made what capital he could out of the visit of
+Kossuth and the question of intervention in behalf of Hungary. When
+the matter fell under discussion in the Senate, Douglas formulated
+what he considered should be the policy of the government:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hold that the principle laid down by Governor Kossuth as the basis
+of his action&mdash;that each State has a right to dispose of her own
+destiny, and regulate her internal affairs in her own way, without the
+intervention of any foreign power&mdash;is an axiom in the laws of nations
+which every State ought to recognize and respect.... It is equally
+clear to my mind, that any violation of this principle by one nation,
+intervening for the purpose of destroying the liberties of another, is
+such an infraction of the international code as would authorize any
+State to interpose, which should conceive that it had sufficient
+interest in the question to become the vindicator of the laws of
+nations.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id="FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382"><sup>[382]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Cass had said much the same thing, but with less virility. Douglas
+scored on his rival in this speech: first, when he declared with a bit
+of Chauvinism, &quot;I do not deem it material whether the reception of
+Governor Kossuth give offence to the crowned heads <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>of Europe,
+provided it does not violate the law of nations, and give just <i>cause</i>
+of offence&quot;; and again, scorning the suggestion of an alliance with
+England, &quot;The peculiar position of our country requires that we should
+have an <i>American policy</i> in our foreign relations, based upon the
+principles of our own government, and adapted to the spirit of the
+age.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id="FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383"><sup>[383]</sup></a> There was a stalwart conviction in these utterances which
+gave promise of confident, masterful leadership. These are qualities
+which the people of this great democracy have always prized, but
+rarely discovered, in their Presidents.</p>
+
+<p>It was at this moment in the canvass that the promoters of Douglas's
+candidacy made a false move. Taking advantage of the popular
+demonstration over Kossuth and the momentary diversion of public
+attention from the slavery question to foreign politics, they sought to
+thrust Douglas upon the Democratic party as the exponent of a
+progressive foreign policy. They presumed to speak in behalf of &quot;Young
+America,&quot; as against &quot;Old Fogyism.&quot; Seizing upon the <i>Democratic
+Review</i> as their organ, these progressives launched their boom by a
+sensational article in the January number, entitled &quot;Eighteen-Fifty-Two
+and the Presidency.&quot; Beginning with an arraignment of &quot;Webster's
+un-American foreign policy, the writer,&mdash;or writers,&mdash;called upon
+honest men to put an end to this &quot;Quaker policy.&quot; &quot;The time has come
+for strong, sturdy, clear-headed and honest men to act; and the
+Republic must have them, should it be compelled, as the colonies were
+in 1776, to drag the hero of the time out of a hole in a wild forest,
+[<i>sic</i>] whether in Virginia or the illimitable <a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>West.&quot; To inaugurate
+such an era, the presidential chair must be filled by a man, not of the
+last generation, but of this. He must not be &quot;trammeled with ideas
+belonging to an anterior era, or a man of merely local fame and local
+affections, but a statesman who can bring young blood, young ideas, and
+young hearts to the councils of the Republic. He must not be a mere
+general, a mere lawyer, a mere wire-puller. &quot;Your beaten horse, whether
+he ran for a previous presidential cup as first or second,&quot; will not
+do. He must be 'a tried civilian, not a second and third rate general.'
+&quot;Withal, a practical statesman, not to be discomfited in argument, or
+led wild by theory, but one who has already, in the councils and
+tribunals of the nation, reared his front to the dismay of the shallow
+conservative, to the exposure of the humanitarian incendiary, and the
+discomfiture of the antiquated rhetorician.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If anyone was so dense as not to recognize the portrait here painted,
+he had only to turn to an article entitled &quot;Intervention,&quot; to find the
+name of the hero who was to usher in the new era. The author of this
+paper finds his sentiments so nearly identical with those of Stephen
+A. Douglas, that he resorts to copious extracts from his speech
+delivered in the Senate on the welcome of Kossuth, &quot;entertaining no
+doubt that the American people, the <i>democracy</i> of the country will
+endorse these doctrines by an overwhelming majority.&quot; Still another
+article in this formidable broadside from the editors of the
+<i>Democratic Review</i>, deprecated Foote's efforts to thrust the slavery
+issue again upon Congress, and expressed the pious wish that Southern
+delegates might join with Northern in the Baltimore convention, to
+nominate a candidate who would in <a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a>future &quot;evince the most profound
+ignorance as to the topographical bearing of that line of discord
+known as 'Mason and Dixon's.'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If all this was really the work of Douglas's friends,&mdash;and it is more
+than likely,&mdash;he had reason to pray to be delivered from them. At best
+the whole manoeuvre was clumsily planned and wretchedly executed; it
+probably did him irreparable harm. His strength was not sufficient to
+confront all his rivals; yet the almost inevitable consequence of the
+odious comparisons in the <i>Review</i> was combinations against him. The
+leading article gave mortal offense in quarters where he stood most in
+need of support.<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id="FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384"><sup>[384]</sup></a> Douglas was quick to detect the blunder and
+appreciate its dangers to his prospects. His friends now began
+sedulously to spread the report that the article was a ruse of the
+enemy, for the especial purpose of spoiling his chances at Baltimore.
+It was alleged that proof sheets had been found in the possession of a
+gentleman in Washington, who was known to be hostile to Douglas.<a name="FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href="#Footnote_385_385"><sup>[385]</sup></a>
+Few believed this story: the explanation was too far-fetched.
+Nevertheless, one of Douglas's intimates subsequently declared, on the
+floor of the House, that the Judge was not responsible for anything
+that appeared in the <i>Review</i>, that he had no interest in or control
+over the magazine, and that he knew nothing about the January number
+until he saw it in print.<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id="FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386"><sup>[386]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In spite of this untoward incident, Douglas made a <a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>formidable
+showing.<a name="FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href="#Footnote_387_387"><sup>[387]</sup></a> He was himself well pleased at the outlook. He wrote to
+a friend, &quot;Prospects look well and are improving every day. If two or
+three western States will speak out in my favor the battle is over.
+Can anything be done in Iowa and Missouri? That is very important. If
+some one could go to Iowa, I think the convention in that State would
+instruct for me. In regard to our own State, I will say a word. Other
+States are appointing a large number of delegates to the convention,
+... ought not our State to do the same thing so as to ensure the
+attendance of most of our leading politicians at Baltimore?... This
+large number would exert a great moral influence on the other
+delegates.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href="#Footnote_388_388"><sup>[388]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Among the States which had led off in his favor was California; and it
+was a representative of California who first sounded the charge for
+Douglas's cohorts in the House. In any other place and at any other
+time, Marshall's exordium would have overshot the mark. Indeed, in
+indorsing the attack of the <i>Review</i> on the old fogies in the party,
+he tore open wounds which it were best to let heal; but gauged by the
+prevailing standard of taste in politics, the speech was acceptable.
+It so far commended itself to the editors of the much-abused <i>Review</i>
+that it appeared in the April number, under the caption &quot;The Progress
+of Democracy vs. Old Fogy Retrograder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To clear-headed outsiders, there was something factitious in this
+parade of enthusiasm for Douglas. &quot;<a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>What most surprises one,&quot; wrote
+the correspondent of the New York <i>Tribune</i>, &quot;is that these
+Congressmen, with beards and without; that verdant, flippant, smart
+detachment of Young America that has got into the House, propose to
+make a candidate for the Baltimore convention without consulting their
+masters, the people. With a few lively fellows in Congress and the aid
+of the <i>Democratic Review</i>, they fancy themselves equal to the
+achievement of a small job like this.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a href="#Footnote_389_389"><sup>[389]</sup></a> As the first of June
+approached, the older, experienced politicians grew confident that
+none of the prominent candidates could command a two-thirds vote in
+the convention. Some had foreseen this months beforehand and had been
+casting about for a compromise candidate. Their choice fell eventually
+upon General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. Friends were active in
+his behalf as early as April, and by June they had hatched their plot.
+It was not their plan to present his name to the convention at the
+outset, but to wait until the three prominent candidates (Cass,
+Douglas, and Buchanan) were disposed of. He was then to be put forward
+as an available, compromise candidate.<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id="FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390"><sup>[390]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Was Douglas cognizant of the situation? While his supporters did not
+abate their noisy demonstrations, there is some ground to believe that
+he did not share their optimistic spirit. At all events, in spite of
+his earlier injunctions, only eleven delegates from Illinois attended
+the convention, while Pennsylvania sent fifty-five, Tennessee
+twenty-seven, and Indiana thirty-nine. <a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>Had Douglas sent home the
+intimation that the game was up? The first ballot told the story of
+his defeat. Common rumor had predicted that a large part of the
+Northwest would support him. Only fifteen of his twenty votes came
+from that quarter, and eleven of these were cast by Illinois. It was
+said that the Indiana delegates would divert their strength to him,
+when they had cast one ballot for General Lane; but Indiana cast no
+votes for Douglas. Although his total vote rose to ninety-two and on
+the thirty-first ballot he received the highest vote of any of the
+candidates, there was never a moment when there was the slightest
+prospect of his winning the prize.<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a href="#Footnote_391_391"><sup>[391]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the thirty-fifth ballot occurred a diversion. Virginia cast fifteen
+votes for Franklin Pierce. The schemers had launched their project.
+But it was not until the forty-ninth ballot that they started the
+avalanche. Pierce then received all but six votes. Two Ohio delegates
+clung to Douglas to the bitter end. With the frank manliness which
+made men forget his less admirable qualities, Douglas dictated this
+dispatch to the convention: &quot;I congratulate the Democratic party upon
+the nomination, and Illinois will give Franklin Pierce a larger
+majority than any other State in the Union,&quot;&mdash;a promise which he was
+not able to redeem.</p>
+
+<p>If Douglas had been disposed to work out his political prospects by
+mathematical computation, he would have arrived at some interesting
+conclusions from the balloting in the convention. Indeed, very
+probably he drew some deductions in his own intuitive way, without any
+adventitious aid. Of the three rivals, Cass <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>received the most widely
+distributed vote, although Douglas received votes from as many States.
+While they drew votes from twenty-one States, Buchanan received votes
+from only fifteen. Cass and Douglas obtained their highest percentages
+of votes from the West; Buchanan found his strongest support in the
+South. Douglas and Cass received least support in the Middle States;
+Buchanan had no votes from the West. But while Cass had, on his
+highest total, thirty per centum of the whole vote of the Middle
+States, Douglas was relatively weak in the Middle States rather than
+in the South. On the basis of these figures, it is impossible to
+justify the statement that he could expect nothing in future from New
+England and Pennsylvania, but would look to the South for support for
+the presidency.<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id="FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392"><sup>[392]</sup></a> On the contrary, one would say that his strong
+New England following would act as an equipoise, preventing too great
+a dip toward the Southern end of the scales. Besides, Douglas's hold
+on his own constituents and the West was contingent upon the favor of
+the strong New England element in the Northwest. If this convention
+taught Douglas anything, it must have convinced him that narrow,
+sectional policies and undue favor to the South would never land him
+in the White House. To win the prize which he frankly coveted, he must
+grow in the national confidence, and not merely in the favor of a
+single section, however powerful.<a name="FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href="#Footnote_393_393"><sup>[393]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Pledges aside, Douglas was bound to give vigorous <a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>aid to the party
+candidates. His term as senator was about to expire. His own fortunes
+were inseparably connected with those of his party in Illinois. The
+Washington <i>Union</i> printed a list of his campaign engagements,
+remarking with evident satisfaction that Judge Douglas was &quot;in the
+field with his armor on.&quot; His itinerary reached from Virginia to
+Arkansas, and from New York to the interior counties of his own State.
+Stray items from a speech in Richmond suggest the tenuous quality of
+these campaign utterances. It was quite clear to his mind that General
+Scott's acceptance of the Whig nomination could not have been written
+by that manly soldier, but by <i>Politician</i> Scott under the control of
+<i>General</i> Seward. Was it wise to convert a good general into a bad
+president? Could it be true that Scott had promised the entire
+patronage of his administration to the Whigs? Why, &quot;there had never
+been a Democratic administration in this Union that did not retain at
+least one-third of their political opponents in office!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href="#Footnote_394_394"><sup>[394]</sup></a> And yet,
+when Pierce had been elected, Douglas could say publicly, without so
+much as a blush, that Democrats must now have the offices. &quot;For every
+Whig removed there should be a competent Democrat put in his place ...
+The best men should be selected, and everybody knows that the best men
+voted for Pierce and King.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href="#Footnote_395_395"><sup>[395]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The outcome of the elections in Illinois was gratifying save in one
+particular. In consequence of the redistricting of the State, the
+Whigs had increased the number of their representatives in Congress.
+But the <a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>re-election of Douglas was assured.<a name="FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href="#Footnote_396_396"><sup>[396]</sup></a> His hold upon his
+constituency was unshaken. With right good will he participated in the
+Democratic celebration at Washington. As an influential personage in
+Democratic councils he was called upon to sketch in broad lines what
+he deemed to be sound Democratic policy; but only a casual reference
+to Cuba redeemed his speech from the commonplace. &quot;Whenever the people
+of Cuba show themselves worthy of freedom by asserting and maintaining
+independence, and apply for annexation, they ought to be annexed;
+whenever Spain is ready to sell Cuba, with the consent of its
+inhabitants, we ought to accept it on fair terms; and if Spain should
+transfer Cuba to England or any other European power, we should take
+and hold Cuba anyhow.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href="#Footnote_397_397"><sup>[397]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Ambition and a buoyant optimism seemed likely to make Douglas more
+than ever a power in Democratic politics, when a personal bereavement
+changed the current of his life. His young wife whom he adored, the
+mother of his two boys, died shortly after the new year. For the
+moment he was overwhelmed; and when he again took his place in the
+Senate, his colleagues remarked in him a bitterness and acerbity of
+temper which was not wonted. One hostage that he had given to Fortune
+had been taken away, and a certain recklessness took possession of
+him. He grew careless in his personal habits, slovenly in his dress,
+disregardful of his associates, and if possible more vehemently
+partisan in his public utterances.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>It was particularly regrettable that, while Douglas was passing
+through this domestic tragedy, he should have been drawn into a
+controversy relating to British claims in Central America. It was
+rumored that Great Britain, in apparent violation of the terms of the
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty, had taken possession of certain islands in the
+Bay of Honduras and erected them into the colony of &quot;the Bay Islands.&quot;
+On the heels of this rumor came news that aroused widespread
+indignation. A British man-of-war had fired upon an American steamer,
+which had refused to pay port dues on entering the harbor of Greytown.
+Over this city, strategically located at the mouth of the San Juan
+River, Great Britain exercised an ill-disguised control as part of the
+Mosquito protectorate.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the excited debate which immediately followed in
+Congress, Cass astonished everybody by producing the memorandum which
+Bulwer had given Clayton just before the signing of the treaty.<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id="FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398"><sup>[398]</sup></a>
+In this remarkable note, the British ambassador stated that his
+government did not wish to be understood as renouncing its existing
+claims to Her Majesty's settlement at Honduras and &quot;its dependencies.&quot;
+And Clayton seemed to have admitted the force of this reservation. For
+his part, Cass made haste to say, he wished the Senate distinctly to
+understand that when he had voted for the treaty, he believed Great
+Britain was thereby prevented from establishing any such dependency.
+His object&mdash;and he had supposed it to be the object of the treaty&mdash;was
+to sweep away all British claims to Central America.</p>
+
+<p>Behind this imbroglio lay an intricate diplomatic <a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>history which can
+be here only briefly recapitulated. The interest of the United States
+in the Central American States dated from the discovery of gold in
+California. The value of the control of the means of transportation
+across the isthmus at Nicaragua became increasingly clear, as the gold
+seekers sought that route to the Pacific coast. In the latter days of
+his administration, President Polk had sent one Elijah Hise to
+cultivate friendly relations with the Central American States and to
+offset the paramount influence of Great Britain in that region. Great
+Britain was already in possession of the colony of Belize and was
+exercising an ill-defined protectorate over the Mosquito Indians on
+the eastern coast of Nicaragua. In his ardor to serve American
+interests, Hise exceeded his instructions and secured a treaty with
+Nicaragua, which gave to the United States exclusive privileges over
+the route of the proposed canal, on condition that the sovereignty of
+Nicaragua were guaranteed. The incoming Whig administration would have
+nothing to do with the Hise <i>entente</i>, preferring to dispatch its own
+agent to Central America. Though Squier succeeded in negotiating a
+more acceptable treaty, the new Secretary of State, Clayton, was
+disposed to come to an understanding with Great Britain. The outcome
+of these prolonged negotiations was the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty,
+by which both countries agreed to further the construction of a ship
+canal across the isthmus through Nicaragua, and to guarantee its
+neutrality. Other countries were invited to join in securing the
+neutrality of this and other regions where canals might be
+constructed. Both Great Britain and the United States explicitly
+renounced any &quot;dominion <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito
+coast or any part of Central America.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href="#Footnote_399_399"><sup>[399]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The opposition would have been something less than human, if they had
+not seized upon the occasion to discredit the outgoing administration.
+Cass had already introduced a resolution reaffirming the terms of the
+famous Monroe message respecting European colonization in America, and
+thus furnishing the pretext for partisan attacks upon Secretary of
+State Clayton. But Cass unwittingly exposed his own head to a sidelong
+blow from his Democratic rival from Illinois, who affected the r&ocirc;le of
+Young America once more.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to convey in cold print the biting sarcasm, the
+vindictive bitterness, and the reckless disregard of justice, with
+which Douglas spoke on February 14th. He sneered at this new
+profession of the Monroe Doctrine. Why keep repeating this talk about
+a policy which the United States has almost invariably repudiated in
+fact? Witness the Oregon treaty! &quot;With an avowed policy, of thirty
+years' standing that no future European colonization is to be
+permitted in America&mdash;affirmed when there was no opportunity for
+enforcing it, and abandoned whenever a case was presented for carrying
+it into practical effect&mdash;is it now proposed to beat another retreat
+under cover of terrible threats of awful consequences when the offense
+shall be repeated? '<i>Henceforth</i>' no 'future' European colony is to be
+planted in America '<i>with our consent!</i>' It is gratifying to learn
+that the United States are never going to 'consent' to the
+repudiation <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>of the Monroe doctrine again. No more Clayton and Bulwer
+treaties; no more British 'alliances' in Central America, New Granada,
+or Mexico; no more resolutions of oblivion to protect 'existing
+rights!' Let England tremble, and Europe take warning, if the offense
+is repeated. 'Should the attempt be made,' says the resolution, 'it
+will leave the United States <i>free to adopt</i> such measures as an
+independent nation may justly adopt in defense of its rights and
+honor.' Are not the United States now <i>free</i> to adopt such measures as
+an independent nation may <i>justly adopt</i> in defense of its <i>rights and
+honor</i>? Have we not given the notice? Is not thirty years sufficient
+notice?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href="#Footnote_400_400"><sup>[400]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>He taunted Clayton with having suppressed the Hise treaty, which
+secured exclusive privileges for the United States over the canal
+route, in order to form a partnership with England and other
+monarchical powers of Europe. &quot;Exclusive privileges&quot; were sacrificed
+to lay the foundation of an alliance by which European intervention in
+American affairs was recognized as a right!</p>
+
+<p>It was generally known that Douglas had opposed the Clayton-Bulwer
+treaty;<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id="FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401"><sup>[401]</sup></a> but the particular ground of his opposition had been only
+surmised. Deeming the injunction of secrecy removed, he now
+emphatically registered his protest against the whole policy of
+pledging the faith of the Republic, not to do what in the future our
+interests, duty, and even safety, might compel us to do. The time
+might come when the United <a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>States would wish to possess some portion
+of Central America. Moreover, the agreement not to fortify any part of
+that region was not reciprocal, so long as Great Britain held Jamaica
+and commanded the entrance to the canal. He had always regarded the
+terms of the British protectorate over the Mosquito coast as
+equivocal; but the insuperable objection to the treaty was the
+European partnership to which the United States was pledged. The two
+parties not only contracted to extend their protection to any other
+practicable communications across the isthmus, whether by canal or
+railway, but invited all other powers to become parties to these
+provisions. What was the purport of this agreement, if it did not
+recognize the right of European powers to intervene in American
+affairs; what then became of the vaunted Monroe Doctrine?</p>
+
+<p>To the undiplomatic mind of Douglas, our proper course was as clear as
+day. Insist upon the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Bay Islands!
+&quot;If we act with becoming discretion and firmness, I have no
+apprehension that the enforcement of our rights will lead to
+hostilities.&quot; And then let the United States free itself from
+entangling alliances by annulling the Clayton-Bulwer treaty.<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id="FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402"><sup>[402]</sup></a>
+Surely this was simplicity itself.</p>
+
+<p>The return of Clayton to the Senate, in the special session of March,
+brought the accused before his accusers. An acrimonious debate
+followed, in the course of which Douglas was forced to state his own
+position more explicitly. He took his stand upon the Hise treaty. Had
+the exclusive control of the canal been given into our hands, and the
+canal thrown open to the <a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>commerce of all nations upon our own terms,
+we would have had a right which would have been ample security for
+every nation under heaven to keep peace with the United States. &quot;We
+could have fortified that canal at each end, and in time of war could
+have closed it against our enemies.&quot; But, suggested Clayton, European
+powers would never have consented to such exclusive control. &quot;Well,
+Sir,&quot; said Douglas, &quot;I do not know that they would have consented: but
+of one thing I am certain I would never have asked their
+consent.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href="#Footnote_403_403"><sup>[403]</sup></a> And such was the temper of Young America that this
+sledge hammer diplomacy was heartily admired.</p>
+
+<p>It was in behalf of Young America again, that Douglas gave free rein
+to his vision of national destiny. Disclaiming any immediate wish for
+tropical expansion in the direction of either Mexico or Central
+America, he yet contended that no man could foresee the limits of the
+Republic. &quot;You may make as many treaties as you please to fetter the
+limits of this giant Republic, and she will burst them all from her,
+and her course will be onward to a limit which I will not venture to
+prescribe.&quot; Why, then, pledge our faith never to annex any more of
+Mexico or any portion of Central America?<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id="FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404"><sup>[404]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>For this characteristic Chauvinism Douglas paid the inevitable
+penalty. Clayton promptly ridiculed this attitude. &quot;He is fond of
+boasting ... that we are a <i>giant</i> Republic; and the Senator himself
+is said to be a 'little giant;' yes, sir, quite a <i>giant</i>, and
+everything that he talks about in these latter days is gigantic. He
+has become so magnificent of late, that he cannot <a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a>consent to enter
+into a partnership on equal terms with any nation on earth&mdash;not he! He
+must have the exclusive right in himself and our noble selves!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id="FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405"><sup>[405]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was inevitable, too, that Douglas should provoke resentment on his
+own side of the chamber. Cass was piqued by his slurs upon Old Fogyism
+and by his trenchant criticism of the policy of reasserting the Monroe
+Doctrine. Badger spoke for the other side of the house, when he
+declared that Douglas spoke &quot;with a disregard to justice and fairness
+which I have seldom seen him exhibit.&quot; It is lamentably true that
+Douglas exhibited his least admirable qualities on such occasions.
+Hatred for Great Britain was bred in his bones. Possibly it was part
+of his inheritance from that grandfather who had fought the Britishers
+in the wars of the Revolution. Possibly, too, he had heard as a boy,
+in his native Vermont village, tales of British perfidy in the recent
+war of 1812. At all events, he was utterly incapable of anything but
+bitter animosity toward Great Britain. This unreasoning prejudice
+blinded his judgment in matters of diplomacy, and vitiated his
+utterances on questions of foreign policy.</p>
+
+<p>Replying to Clayton, he said contemptuously, &quot;I do not sympathize with
+that feeling which the Senator expressed yesterday, that it was a pity
+to have a difference with a nation so friendly to us as England. Sir,
+I do not see the evidence of her friendship. It is not in the nature
+of things that she can be our friend. It is impossible that she can
+love us. I do not blame her for not loving us. Sir, we have wounded
+her vanity and humbled her pride. She can never forgive us.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id="FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406"><sup>[406]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>And when Senator Butler rebuked him for this animosity, reminding him
+that England was after all our mother country, to whom we were under
+deeper obligations than to any other, Douglas retorted, &quot;She is and
+ever has been a cruel and unnatural mother.&quot; Yes, he remembered the
+illustrious names of Hampden, Sidney, and others; but he remembered
+also that &quot;the same England which gave them birth, and should have
+felt a mother's pride and love in their virtues and services,
+persecuted her noble sons to the dungeon and the scaffold.&quot; &quot;He speaks
+in terms of delight and gratitude of the copious and refreshing
+streams which English literature and science are pouring into our
+country and diffusing throughout the land. Is he not aware that nearly
+every English book circulated and read in this country contains
+lurking and insidious slanders and libels upon the character of our
+people and the institutions and policy of our Government?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href="#Footnote_407_407"><sup>[407]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>For Europe in general, Douglas had hardly more reverence. With a
+positiveness which in such matters is sure proof of provincialism, he
+said, &quot;Europe is antiquated, decrepit, tottering on the verge of
+dissolution. When you visit her, the objects which enlist your highest
+admiration are the relics of past greatness; the broken columns
+erected to departed power. It is one vast graveyard, where you find
+here a tomb indicating the burial of the arts; there a monument
+marking the spot where liberty expired; another to the memory of a
+great man, whose place has never been filled. The choicest products of
+her classic soil consist in relics, which remain as sad memorials of
+departed glory and fallen greatness! They bring up the <a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a>memories of
+the dead, but inspire no hope for the living! Here everything is
+fresh, blooming, expanding and advancing.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href="#Footnote_408_408"><sup>[408]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>And yet, soon after Congress adjourned, he set out to visit this vast
+graveyard. It was even announced that he proposed to spend five or six
+months in studying the different governments of Europe. Doubtless he
+regarded this study as of negative value chiefly. From the observation
+of relics of departed grandeur, a live American would derive many a
+valuable lesson. His immediate destination was the country against
+which he had but just thundered. Small wonder if a cordial welcome did
+not await him. His admiring biographer records with pride that he was
+not presented to Queen Victoria, though the opportunity was
+afforded.<a name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href="#Footnote_409_409"><sup>[409]</sup></a> It appears that this stalwart Democrat would not so far
+demean himself as to adopt the conventional court dress for the
+occasion. He would not stoop even to adopt the compromise costume of
+Ambassador Buchanan, and add to the plain dress of an American
+citizen, a short sword which would distinguish him from the court
+lackeys.</p>
+
+<p>At St. Petersburg, his objections to court dress were more
+sympathetically received. Count Nesselrode, who found this
+uncompromising American possessed of redeeming qualities, put himself
+to no little trouble to arrange an interview with the Czar. Douglas
+was finally put under the escort of Baron Stoeckle, who was a member
+of the Russian embassy at Washington, and conducted to the field where
+the Czar was reviewing the army. Mounted upon a charger of huge
+<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>dimensions, the diminutive Douglas was brought into the presence of
+the Czar of all the Russias.<a name="FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href="#Footnote_410_410"><sup>[410]</sup></a> It is said that Douglas was the only
+American who witnessed these manoeuvres; but Douglas afterward
+confessed, with a laugh at his own expense, that the most conspicuous
+feature of the occasion for him was the ominous evolutions of his
+horse's ears, for he was too short of limb and too inexperienced a
+horseman to derive any satisfaction from the military pageant.<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id="FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411"><sup>[411]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>We are assured by his devoted biographer, Sheahan, that Douglas
+personally examined <i>all</i> the public institutions of the capital
+during his two weeks' stay in St. Petersburg; and that he sought a
+thorough knowledge of the manners, laws, and government of that city
+and the Empire.<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id="FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412"><sup>[412]</sup></a> No doubt, with his nimble perception he saw much
+in this brief sojourn, for Russia had always interested him greatly,
+and he had read its history with more than wonted care.<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a href="#Footnote_413_413"><sup>[413]</sup></a> He was
+not content to follow merely the beaten track in central and western
+Europe; but he visited also the Southeast where rumors of war were
+abroad. From St. Petersburg, he passed by carriage through the
+interior to the Crimea and to Sebastopol, soon to be the storm centre
+of war. In the marts of Syria and Asia Minor, he witnessed the contact
+of Orient and Occident. In the Balkan peninsula he caught fugitive
+glimpses of the rule of the unspeakable Turk.<a name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href="#Footnote_414_414"><sup>[414]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>No man with the quick apperceptive powers of Douglas could remain
+wholly untouched by the sights and sounds that crowd upon even the
+careless traveler in the East; yet such experiences are not formative
+in the character of a man of forty. Douglas was still Douglas, still
+American, still Western to the core, when he set foot on native soil
+in late October. He was not a larger man either morally or
+intellectually; but he had acquired a fund of information which made
+him a readier, and possibly a wiser, man. And then, too, he was
+refreshed in body and mind. More than ever he was bold, alert,
+persistent, and resourceful. In his compact, massive frame, were
+stored indomitable pluck and energy; and in his heart the spirit of
+ambition stirred mightily.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href="#FNanchor_370_370">[370]</a> The speech is given in part by Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+171 ff; and at greater length by Flint, Douglas, App., pp. 3 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href="#FNanchor_371_371">[371]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 186; Flint, Douglas, App., p. 30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href="#FNanchor_372_372">[372]</a> <i>Globe,</i>31 Cong., 2 Sess., Debate of February 21 and
+22, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href="#FNanchor_373_373">[373]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 312.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href="#FNanchor_374_374">[374]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 1120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href="#FNanchor_375_375">[375]</a> MS. Letter dated December 30, 1851.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href="#FNanchor_376_376">[376]</a> Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 351, 358, 362.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href="#FNanchor_377_377">[377]</a> Senator Foote introduced the subject December 2, 1851,
+by a resolution pronouncing the compromise measures a &quot;definite
+adjustment and settlement.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href="#FNanchor_378_378">[378]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, 1, p. 230.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href="#FNanchor_379_379">[379]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 68.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href="#FNanchor_380_380">[380]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 63. About this time he
+wrote to a friend, &quot;I shall act on the rule of giving the offices to
+those who fight the battles.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href="#FNanchor_381_381">[381]</a> Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 354.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href="#FNanchor_382_382">[382]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 70.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href="#FNanchor_383_383">[383]</a> <i>Globe,</i>32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 70-71.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href="#FNanchor_384_384">[384]</a> See speech by Breckinridge of Kentucky in <i>Globe</i>, 32
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 299 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href="#FNanchor_385_385">[385]</a> Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href="#FNanchor_386_386">[386]</a> Statement by Richardson of Illinois in reply to J.C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky, March 3, 1852. <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href="#FNanchor_387_387">[387]</a> &quot;What with his Irish Organs, his Democratic reviews and
+an armful of other strings, each industriously pulled, he makes a
+formidable show.&quot; Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href="#FNanchor_388_388">[388]</a> MS. Letter, February 25, 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href="#FNanchor_389_389">[389]</a> Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 118.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href="#FNanchor_390_390">[390]</a> Burke-Pierce Correspondence, printed in <i>American
+Historical Review</i>, X, pp. 110 ff. See also Stanwood, History of the
+Presidency, p. 248, and Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+251-252.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href="#FNanchor_391_391">[391]</a> Proceedings of Democratic National Convention of 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href="#FNanchor_392_392">[392]</a> See Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+424-425.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href="#FNanchor_393_393">[393]</a> To attribute to Douglas, from this time on, as many
+writers have done, a purpose to pander to the South, is not only to
+discredit his political foresight, but to misunderstand his position
+in the Northwest and to ignore his reiterated assertions.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href="#FNanchor_394_394">[394]</a> Richmond <i>Enquirer</i>, quoted in Illinois <i>Register</i>,
+August 3, 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href="#FNanchor_395_395">[395]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 23, 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href="#FNanchor_396_396">[396]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, November 30, 1852. On a joint
+ballot of the legislature Douglas received 75 out of 95 votes. See
+Illinois <i>State Register</i>, January 5, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href="#FNanchor_397_397">[397]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 23, 1852.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href="#FNanchor_398_398">[398]</a> Smith, Parties and Slavery, pp. 88-93.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href="#FNanchor_399_399">[399]</a> MacDonald, Select Documents of the History of the
+United States, No. 77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href="#FNanchor_400_400">[400]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 170.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href="#FNanchor_401_401">[401]</a> Douglas declined to serve on the Senate Committee on
+Foreign Affairs, because he was opposed to the policy of the majority,
+so he afterward intimated. <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href="#FNanchor_402_402">[402]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 173.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href="#FNanchor_403_403">[403]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href="#FNanchor_404_404">[404]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 262.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href="#FNanchor_405_405">[405]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 276.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href="#FNanchor_406_406">[406]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 262.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href="#FNanchor_407_407">[407]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 275.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href="#FNanchor_408_408">[408]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 273.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href="#FNanchor_409_409">[409]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 443-444.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href="#FNanchor_410_410">[410]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 444-445.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href="#FNanchor_411_411">[411]</a> Major McConnell in the Transactions of the Illinois
+Historical Society, IV, p. 48; Linder, Early Bench and Bar of
+Illinois, pp. 80-82.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href="#FNanchor_412_412">[412]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 444.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href="#FNanchor_413_413">[413]</a> Conversation with Judge R.M. Douglas.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href="#FNanchor_414_414">[414]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, and Illinois <i>State Register</i>, May
+26 and November 6, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>CHAPTER XI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>With the occupation of Oregon and of the gold fields of California,
+American colonization lost temporarily its conservative character.
+That heel-and-toe process, which had hitherto marked the occupation of
+the Mississippi Valley, seemed too slow and tame; the pace had
+lengthened and quickened. Consequently there was a great
+waste&mdash;No-man's-land&mdash;between the western boundary of Iowa, Missouri
+and Arkansas, and the scattered communities on the Pacific slope. It
+was a waste broken only by the presence of the Mormons in Utah, of
+nomadic tribes of Indians on the plains, and of tribes of more settled
+habits on the eastern border. In many cases these lands had been given
+to Indian tribes in perpetuity, to compensate for the loss of their
+original habitat in some of the Eastern States. With strange lack of
+foresight, the national government had erected a barrier to its own
+development.</p>
+
+<p>As early as 1844, Douglas had proposed a territorial government for
+the region of which the Platte, or Nebraska, was the central
+stream.<a name="FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href="#Footnote_415_415"><sup>[415]</sup></a> The chief trail to Oregon traversed these prairies and
+plains. If the United States meant to assert and maintain its title to
+Oregon, some sort of government was needed to protect emigrants, and
+to supply a military basis for such forces as should be required to
+hold the disputed <a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>country. Though the Secretary of War indorsed this
+view,<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id="FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416"><sup>[416]</sup></a> Congress was not disposed to anticipate the occupation of
+the prairies. Nebraska became almost a hobby with Douglas. He
+introduced a second bill in 1848,<a name="FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href="#Footnote_417_417"><sup>[417]</sup></a> and a third in 1852,<a name="FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href="#Footnote_418_418"><sup>[418]</sup></a> all
+designed to prepare the way for settled government.</p>
+
+<p>The last of these was unique. Its provisions were designed, no doubt,
+to meet the unusual conditions presented by the overland emigration to
+California. Military protection for the emigrant, a telegraph line,
+and an overland mail were among the ostensible objects. The military
+force was to be a volunteer corps, which would construct military
+posts and at the same time provide for its own maintenance by tilling
+the soil. At the end of three years these military farmers were each
+to receive 640 acres along the route, and thus form a sort of military
+colony.<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id="FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419"><sup>[419]</sup></a> Douglas pressed the measure with great warmth; but
+Southerners doubted the advisability of &quot;encouraging new swarms to
+leave the old hives,&quot; not wishing to foster an expansion in which they
+could not share,<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id="FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420"><sup>[420]</sup></a> nor forgetting that this was free soil by the
+terms of the Missouri Compromise. All sorts of objections were trumped
+up to discredit the bill. Douglas was visibly irritated. &quot;Sir,&quot; he
+exclaimed, &quot;it looks to me as if the design was to deprive us of
+everything like protection in that vast region ... <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>I must remind the
+Senate again that the pointing out of these objections, and the
+suggesting of these large expenditures show us that we are to expect
+no protection at all; they evince direct, open hostility to that
+section of the country.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id="FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421"><sup>[421]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was the fate of the Nebraska country to be bound up more or less
+intimately with the agitation in favor of a Pacific railroad. All
+sorts of projects were in the air. Asa Whitney had advocated, in
+season and out, a railroad from Lake Michigan to some available harbor
+on the Pacific. Douglas and his Chicago friends were naturally
+interested in this enterprise. Benton, on the other hand, jealous for
+the interests of St. Louis, advocated a &quot;National Central Highway&quot;
+from that city to San Francisco, with branches to other points. The
+South looked forward to a Pacific railroad which should follow a
+southern route.<a name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href="#Footnote_422_422"><sup>[422]</sup></a> A northern or central route would inevitably open
+a pathway through the Indian country and force on the settlement and
+organization of the territory;<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id="FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423"><sup>[423]</sup></a> the choice of a southern route
+would in all likelihood retard the development of Nebraska.</p>
+
+<p>While Congress was shirking its duty toward Nebraska, the Wyandot
+Indians, a civilized tribe occupying lands in the fork of the Kansas
+and Missouri rivers, repeatedly memorialized Congress to grant them a
+territorial government.<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id="FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424"><sup>[424]</sup></a> Dogged perseverance may be an Indian
+characteristic, but there is reason to believe <a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a>that outside
+influences were working upon them. Across the border, in Missouri,
+they had a staunch friend in ex-Senator Benton, who had reasons of his
+own for furthering their petitions. In 1850, the opposition, which had
+been steadily making headway against him, succeeded in deposing the
+old parliamentarian and electing a Whig as his successor in the
+Senate. The <i>coup d'&eacute;tat</i> was effected largely through the efforts of
+an aggressive pro-slavery faction led by Senator David E.
+Atchison.<a name="FNanchor_425_425" id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425"><sup>[425]</sup></a> It was while his fortunes were waning in Missouri, that
+Benton interested himself in the Central Highway and in the Wyandots.
+His project, indeed, contemplated grants of land along the route, when
+the Indian title should be extinguished.<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id="FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426"><sup>[426]</sup></a> Possibly it was Benton's
+purpose to regain his footing in Missouri politics by advocating this
+popular measure; possibly, as his opponents hinted, he looked forward
+to residing in the new Territory and some day becoming its first
+senator; at all events, he came to look upon the territorial
+organization of Nebraska as an integral part of his larger railroad
+project.</p>
+
+<p>In this wise, Missouri factional quarrels, Indian titles, railroads,
+territorial government for Nebraska, and land grants had become
+hopelessly tangled, when another bill for the organization of Nebraska
+came before Congress in February, 1853.<a name="FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href="#Footnote_427_427"><sup>[427]</sup></a> The measure was presented
+by Willard P. Hall, a representative from Missouri, belonging to the
+Benton faction. His advocacy of the bill in the House throws a flood
+of light on the motives actuating both friends and opponents.
+<a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>Representatives from Texas evinced a poignant concern for the rights
+of the poor Indian. Had he not been given these lands as a permanent
+home, after being driven from the hunting ground of his fathers? To be
+sure, there was a saving clause in the bill which promised to respect
+Indian claims, but zeal for the Indian still burned hotly in the
+breasts of these Texans. Finally, Hall retorted that Texas had for
+years been trying to drive the wild tribes from her borders, so as to
+make the northern routes unsafe and thus to force the tide of
+emigration through Texas.<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id="FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428"><sup>[428]</sup></a> &quot;Why, everybody is talking about a
+railroad to the Pacific. In the name of God, how is the railroad to be
+made, if you will never let people live on the lands through which the
+road passes?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a href="#Footnote_429_429"><sup>[429]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In other words, the concern of the Missourians was less for the
+unprotected emigrant than for the great central railroad; while the
+South cared less for the Indian than for a southern railroad route.
+The Nebraska bill passed the House by a vote which suggests the
+sectional differences involved in it.<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id="FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430"><sup>[430]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was most significant that, while a bill to organize the Territory
+of Washington passed at once to a third reading in the Senate, the
+Nebraska bill hung fire. Douglas made repeated efforts to gain
+consideration for it; but the opposition seems to have been motived
+here as it was in the House.<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id="FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431"><sup>[431]</sup></a> On the last day of the session, the
+Senate entered upon an irregular, desultory debate, without a quorum.
+Douglas took an unwilling part. He repeated that the measure was &quot;very
+dear to his heart,&quot; that it involved &quot;a matter of <a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>immense
+importance,&quot; that the object in view was &quot;to form a line of
+territorial governments extending from the Mississippi valley to the
+Pacific ocean.&quot; The very existence of the Union seemed to him to
+depend upon this policy. For eight years he had advocated the
+organization of Nebraska; he trusted that the favorable moment had
+come.<a name="FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href="#Footnote_432_432"><sup>[432]</sup></a> But his trust was misplaced. The Senate refused to consider
+the bill, the South voting almost solidly against it, though Atchison,
+who had opposed the bill in the earlier part of the session, announced
+his conversion,&mdash;for the reason that he saw no prospect of a repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise. The Territory might as well be organized now
+as ten years later.<a name="FNanchor_433_433" id="FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433"><sup>[433]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Disappointed by the inaction of Congress, the Wyandots took matters
+into their own hands, and set up a provisional government.<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id="FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434"><sup>[434]</sup></a> Then
+ensued a contest between the Missouri factions to name the territorial
+delegate,&mdash;who was to present the claims of the new government to the
+authorities at Washington. On November 7, 1853, Thomas Johnson, the
+nominee of the Atchison faction, was elected.<a name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href="#Footnote_435_435"><sup>[435]</sup></a> In the meantime
+Senator Atchison had again changed his mind: he was now opposed to the
+organization of Nebraska, unless the Missouri Compromise were
+repealed.<a name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href="#Footnote_436_436"><sup>[436]</sup></a> The motives which prompted this recantation can only be
+surmised. Presumably, for some reason, Atchison no longer believed the
+Missouri Compromise &quot;irremediable.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The strangely unsettled condition of the great tract whose fate was
+pending, is no better illustrated than <a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>by a second election which was
+held on the upper Missouri. One Hadley D. Johnson, sometime member of
+the Iowa legislature, hearing of the proposal of the Wyandots to send
+a territorial delegate to Congress, invited his friends in western
+Iowa to cross the river and hold an election. They responded by
+choosing their enterprising compatriot for their delegate, who
+promptly set out for Washington, bearing their mandate. Arriving at
+the capital, he found Thomas Johnson already occupying a seat in the
+House in the capacity of delegate-elect. Not to be outdone, the Iowa
+Johnson somewhat surreptitiously secured his admission to the floor.
+Subsequently, &quot;the two Johnsons,&quot; as they were styled by the members,
+were ousted, the House refusing very properly to recognize either.
+Thomas Johnson exhibited some show of temper, but was placated by the
+good sense of his rival, who proposed that they should strike for two
+Territories instead of one. Why not; was not Nebraska large enough for
+both?<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id="FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437"><sup>[437]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances, the question of Nebraska seemed likely to
+recur. Certain Southern newspapers were openly demanding the removal
+of the slavery restriction in the new Territory.<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a href="#Footnote_438_438"><sup>[438]</sup></a> Yet the chairman
+of the Senate Committee on Territories, who had just returned from
+Europe, seems to have been unaware of the undercurrents whose surface
+indications have been pointed out. He wrote confidentially on November
+11th:<a name="FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href="#Footnote_439_439"><sup>[439]</sup></a> &quot;It [the administration] has difficulties ahead, <a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>but it
+must meet them boldly and fairly. There is a surplus revenue which
+must be disposed of and the tariff reduced to a legitimate revenue
+standard. It will not do to allow the surplus to accumulate in the
+Treasury and thus create a pecuniary revulsion that would overwhelm
+the business arrangements and financial affairs of the country. The
+River and Harbor question must be met and decided. Now in my opinion
+is the time to put those great interests on a more substantial and
+secure basis by a well devised system of Tonnage duties. I do not know
+what the administration will do on this question, but I hope they will
+have the courage to do what we all feel to be right. The Pacific
+railroad will also be a disturbing element. It will never do to
+commence making railroads by the federal government under any pretext
+of necessity. We can grant alternate sections of land as we did for
+the Central Road, but not a dollar from the National Treasury. These
+are the main questions and my opinions are foreshadowed as you are
+entitled to know them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the same letter occurs an interesting personal allusion: &quot;I see
+many of the newspapers are holding me up as a candidate for the next
+Presidency. I do not wish to occupy that position. I do not think I
+will be willing to have my name used. I think such a state of things
+will exist that I shall not desire the nomination. Yet I do not intend
+to do any act which will deprive me of the control of my own action. I
+shall remain entirely non-committal and hold myself at liberty to do
+whatever my duty to my principles and my friends may require when the
+time for action arrives. Our first duty is to the cause&mdash;the fate of
+individual politicians is of minor consequence. The <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>party is in a
+distracted condition and it requires all our wisdom, prudence and
+energy to consolidate its power and perpetuate its principles. Let us
+leave the Presidency out of view for at least two years to come.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>These are not the words of a man who is plotting a revolution. Had
+Nebraska and the Missouri Compromise been uppermost in his thoughts,
+he would have referred to the subject, for the letter was written in
+strict confidence to friends, from whom he kept no secrets and before
+whom he was not wont to pose.</p>
+
+<p>Those better informed, however, believed that Congress would have to
+deal with the territorial question in the near future. The Washington
+<i>Union</i>, commonly regarded as the organ of the administration,
+predicted that next to pressing foreign affairs, the Pacific railroad
+and the Territories would occupy the attention of the
+administration.<a name="FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href="#Footnote_440_440"><sup>[440]</sup></a> And before Congress assembled, or had been long in
+session, the chairman of the Committee on Territories must have sensed
+the situation, for on December 14, 1853, Senator Dodge of Iowa
+introduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska, which was identical
+with that of the last session.<a name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href="#Footnote_441_441"><sup>[441]</sup></a> The bill was promptly referred to
+the Committee on Territories, and the Nebraska question entered upon
+its last phase. Within a week, Douglas's friends of the Illinois State
+<i>Register</i> were sufficiently well informed of the thoughts and intents
+of his mind to hazard this conjecture: &quot;We believe they [the people of
+Nebraska] <a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>may be safely left to act for themselves.... The territories
+should be admitted to exercise, as nearly as practicable, all the
+rights claimed by the States, and to adopt all such political
+regulations and institutions as their wisdom may suggest.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href="#Footnote_442_442"><sup>[442]</sup></a> A New
+York correspondent announced on December 30th, that the committee would
+soon report a bill for three Territories on the basis of New Mexico and
+Utah; that is, without excluding or admitting slavery. &quot;Climate and
+nature and the necessary pursuits of the people who are to occupy the
+territories,&quot; added the writer complacently, &quot;will settle the
+question&mdash;and these will effectually exclude slavery.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id="FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443"><sup>[443]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>These rumors foreshadowed the report of the committee. The problem was
+to find a mode of overcoming the opposition of the South to the
+organization of a Territory which would not only add eventually to the
+number of free States, but also open up a northern route to the
+Pacific. The price of concession from the South on the latter point
+must be some apparent concession to the South in the matter of
+slavery. The report of January 4, 1854, and the bill which accompanied
+it, was Douglas's solution of the problem.<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a href="#Footnote_444_444"><sup>[444]</sup></a> The principles of the
+compromise measures of 1850 were to be affirmed and carried into
+practical operation within the <a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>limits of the new Territory of
+Nebraska. &quot;In the judgment of your committee,&quot; read the report, &quot;those
+measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring
+effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of the
+recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to
+establish certain great principles ... your committee have deemed it
+their duty to incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill,
+the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other
+consideration were necessary, to render the propriety of this course
+imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the
+Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the slavery
+question, as did New Mexico and Utah, when those Territories were
+organized.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a href="#Footnote_445_445"><sup>[445]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Just as it was a disputed point, the report argued, whether slavery
+was prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico, so it is
+questioned whether slavery is prohibited in the Nebraska country by
+<i>valid</i> enactment. &quot;In the opinion of those eminent statesmen, who
+hold that Congress is invested with no rightful authority to legislate
+upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, the 8th section of the
+act preparatory to the admission of Missouri is null and void; while
+the prevailing sentiment in large portions of the Union sustains the
+doctrine that the Constitution of the United States secures to every
+citizen an inalienable right to move into any of the Territories with
+his property, of whatever kind and description, and to hold and enjoy
+the same under the sanction of law. Your committee do not feel
+themselves called upon to enter upon the discussion of these
+controverted questions. They <a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a>involve the same grave issues which
+produced the agitation, the sectional strife, and the fearful struggle
+of 1850.&quot; And just as Congress deemed it wise in 1850 to refrain from
+deciding the matter in controversy, so &quot;your committee are not
+prepared now to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that
+memorable occasion either by affirming or repealing the 8th section of
+the Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the
+Constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute.&quot; The essential
+features of the Compromise of 1850, which should again be carried into
+practical operation, were stated as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First: That all questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories,
+and in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the
+decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate
+representatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Second: That 'all cases involving title to slaves,' and 'questions of
+personal freedom,' are referred to the adjudication of the local
+tribunals, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Third: That the provision of the Constitution of the United States,
+in respect to fugitives from service, is to be carried into faithful
+execution in all 'the organized Territories,' the same as in the
+States.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The substitute reported by the committee followed the Dodge bill
+closely, but contained the additional statement. &quot;And when admitted as
+a State or States, the said Territory, or any part of the same, shall
+be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their
+Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href="#Footnote_446_446"><sup>[446]</sup></a> This
+phraseology was identical with that <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>of the Utah and New Mexico Acts.
+The bill also made special provision for writs of error and appeals
+from the territorial court to the Supreme Court of the United States,
+in all cases involving title to slaves and personal freedom. This
+feature, too, was copied from the Utah and New Mexico Acts. As first
+printed in the Washington <i>Sentinel</i>, January 7th, the bill contained
+no reference to the Missouri Compromise and no direct suggestion that
+the territorial legislature would decide the question of slavery. The
+wording of the bill and its general tenor gave the impression that the
+prohibition of slavery would continue during the territorial status,
+unless in the meantime the courts should declare the Missouri
+Compromise null and void. Three days later, January 10th, the
+<i>Sentinel</i> reprinted the bill with an additional section, which had
+been omitted by a &quot;clerical error.&quot; This twenty-first section read,
+&quot;In order to avoid all misconstruction, it is hereby declared to be
+the true intent and meaning of this act, so far as the question of
+slavery is concerned, to carry into practical operation the following
+propositions and principles, established by the compromise measures of
+one thousand eight hundred and fifty, to wit:&quot; then followed the three
+propositions which had accompanied the report of January 4th. The last
+of these three propositions had been slightly abbreviated: all
+questions pertaining to slavery were to be left to the decision of the
+people through their appropriate representatives, the clause &quot;to be
+chosen by them for that purpose&quot; being omitted.</p>
+
+<p>This additional section transformed the whole bill. For the first time
+the people of the Territory are mentioned as the determining agents in
+respect to slavery. <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>And the unavoidable inference followed, that they
+were not to be hampered in their choice by the restrictive feature of
+the Missouri Act of 1820. The omission of this weighty section was
+certainly a most extraordinary oversight. Whose was the &quot;clerical
+error&quot;? Attached to the original draft, now in the custody of the
+Secretary of the Senate, is a sheet of blue paper, in Douglas's
+handwriting, containing the crucial article. All evidence points to
+the conclusion that Douglas added this hastily, after the bill had
+been twice read in the Senate and ordered to be printed; but whether
+it was carelessly omitted by the copyist or appended by Douglas as an
+afterthought, it is impossible to say.<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id="FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447"><sup>[447]</sup></a> After his report of
+January 4th, there was surely no reason why Douglas should have
+hesitated to incorporate the three propositions in the bill; but it is
+perfectly obvious that with the appended section, the Nebraska bill
+differed essentially from its prototypes, though Douglas contended
+that he had only made explicit what was contained implicitly in the
+Utah bill.</p>
+
+<p>Two years later Douglas replied to certain criticisms from Trumbull in
+these words: &quot;He knew, or, if not, he ought to know, that the bill in
+the shape in which it was first reported, as effectually repealed the
+Missouri restriction as it afterwards did when the repeal was put in
+express terms. The only question was whether it should be done in the
+language of the acts of 1850, <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>or in the language subsequently
+employed, but the legal effect was precisely the same.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id="FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448"><sup>[448]</sup></a> Of course
+Douglas was here referring to the original bill containing the
+twenty-first section.</p>
+
+<p>It has commonly been assumed that Douglas desired the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise in order to open Nebraska to slavery. This was the
+passionate accusation of his anti-slavery contemporaries; and it has
+become the verdict of most historians. Yet there is ample evidence
+that Douglas had no such wish and intent. He had said in 1850, and on
+other occasions, that he believed the prairies to be dedicated to
+freedom by a law above human power to repeal. Climate, topography, the
+conditions of slave labor, which no Northern man knew better, forbade
+slavery in the unoccupied areas of the West.<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id="FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449"><sup>[449]</sup></a> True, he had no such
+horror of slavery extension as many Northern men manifested; he was
+probably not averse to sacrificing some of the region dedicated by law
+to freedom, if thereby he could carry out his cherished project of
+developing the greater Northwest; but that he deliberately planned to
+plant slavery in all that region, is contradicted by the
+incontrovertible fact that he believed the area of slavery to be
+circumscribed definitely by Nature. Man might propose but physical
+geography would dispose.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>The regrettable aspect of Douglas's course is his attempt to nullify
+the Missouri Compromise by subtle indirection. This was the device of
+a shifty politician, trying to avert suspicion and public alarm by
+clever ambiguities. That he really believed a new principle had been
+substituted for an old one, in dealing with the Territories, does not
+extenuate the offense, for not even he had ventured to assert in 1850,
+that the compromises of that year had in any wise disturbed the status
+of the great, unorganized area to which Congress had applied the
+restrictive proviso of 1820. Besides, only so recently as 1849, he had
+said, with all the emphasis of sincerity, that the compromise had
+&quot;become canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred
+thing, which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to
+disturb.&quot; And while he then opposed the extension of the principle to
+new Territories, he believed that it had been &quot;deliberately
+incorporated into our legislation as a solemn and sacred
+compromise.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a href="#Footnote_450_450"><sup>[450]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>By this time Douglas must have been aware of the covert purpose of
+Atchison and others to secure the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
+though he hoped that they would acquiesce in his mode of doing it. He
+was evidently not prepared for the bold move which certain of the
+senators from slave States were contemplating.<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a href="#Footnote_451_451"><sup>[451]</sup></a> He was therefore
+startled by an amendment which Dixon of Kentucky offered on January
+16th, to the effect that the restrictive clause of the Act <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>of 1820
+should not be so construed as to apply to Nebraska or any other
+Territory; &quot;but that the citizens of the several States or territories
+shall be at liberty to take and hold their slaves within any of the
+territories of the United States or of the States to be formed
+therefrom,&quot; as if the Missouri Act had never been passed. Douglas at
+once left his seat to remonstrate with Dixon, who was on the Whig side
+of the Senate chamber. He disliked the amendment, not so much because
+it wiped out the Missouri Compromise as because it seemed
+&quot;affirmatively to legislate slavery into the Territory.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a href="#Footnote_452_452"><sup>[452]</sup></a> Knowing
+Dixon to be a supporter of the compromise measures of 1850, Douglas
+begged him not to thwart the work of his committee, which was trying
+in good faith to apply the cardinal features of those measures to
+Nebraska. The latter part of Dixon's amendment could hardly be
+harmonized with the principle of congressional non-intervention.<a name="FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href="#Footnote_453_453"><sup>[453]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There seems to be no reason to doubt that Dixon moved in this matter on
+his own initiative;<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id="FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454"><sup>[454]</sup></a> but he was a friend to Atchison and he could
+not have been wholly ignorant of the Missouri factional quarrel.<a name="FNanchor_455_455" id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455"><sup>[455]</sup></a>
+To be sure, Dixon was a Whig, but Southern Whigs and Democrats were at
+one in desiring expansion for the peculiar institution of their
+section. Pressure was now brought to bear upon Douglas to incorporate
+the direct <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>repeal of the compromise in the Nebraska bill.<a name="FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href="#Footnote_456_456"><sup>[456]</sup></a> He
+objected strongly, foreseeing no doubt the storm of protest which would
+burst over his head in the North.<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a href="#Footnote_457_457"><sup>[457]</sup></a> Still, if he could unite the
+party on the principle of non-intervention with slavery in the
+Territories, the risk of temporary unpopularity would be worth taking.
+No doubt personal ambition played its part in forming his purpose, but
+party considerations swayed him most powerfully.<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id="FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458"><sup>[458]</sup></a> He witnessed with
+no little apprehension the divergence between the Northern and Southern
+wings of the party; he had commented in private upon &quot;the distracted
+condition&quot; of the party and the need of perpetuating its principles and
+consolidating its power. Might this not be his opportunity?</p>
+
+<p>On Sunday morning, January 22d, just before the hour for church,
+Douglas, with several of his colleagues, called upon the Secretary of
+War, Davis, stating that the Committees on Territories of the Senate
+and House had agreed upon a bill, for which the President's approval
+was desired. They pressed for an immediate interview inasmuch as they
+desired to report the bill on the morrow. Somewhat reluctantly, Davis
+arranged an interview for them, though the President was not in the
+habit of receiving visitors on Sunday. Yielding to their request,
+President Pierce took the proposed bill under consideration, giving
+careful heed to all explanations; and when they were done, <a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>both he
+and his influential secretary promised their support.<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a href="#Footnote_459_459"><sup>[459]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>What was this momentous bill to which the President thus pledged
+himself? The title indicated the most striking feature. There were now
+to be two Territories: Kansas and Nebraska. Bedded in the heart of
+Section 14, however, was a still more important provision which
+announced that the prohibition of slavery in the Act of 1820 had been
+&quot;superseded by the principles of the legislation of eighteen hundred
+and fifty, commonly called the compromise measures,&quot; and was therefore
+&quot;inoperative.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It has been commonly believed that Douglas contemplated making one
+free and one slave State out of the Nebraska region. His own simple
+explanation is far more credible: the two Johnsons had petitioned for
+a division of the Territory along the fortieth parallel, and both the
+Iowa and Missouri delegations believed that their local interests
+would be better served by two Territories.<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id="FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460"><sup>[460]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Again Pacific railroad interests seem to have crossed the path of the
+Nebraska bill. The suspicions of Delegate-elect Hadley Johnson had
+been aroused by the neglect of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to
+extinguish the claims of the Omaha Indians, whose lands lay directly
+west of Iowa. At the last session, an appropriation had been made for
+the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title to lands west of both
+Missouri and Iowa; and everyone knew that this was a preliminary step
+to settlement by whites. The <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>appropriation had been zealously
+advocated by representatives from Missouri, who frankly admitted that
+the possession of these lands would make the Pacific railroad route
+available. Now as the Indian Commissioner, who had before shown
+himself an active partisan of Senator Atchison, rapidly pushed on the
+treaties with the Indians west of Missouri and dallied with the
+Omahas, the inference was unavoidable, that Iowa interests were being
+sacrificed to Missouri interests. Such was the story that the Iowa
+Johnson poured into the ear of Senator Douglas, to whom he was
+presented by Senator Dodge.<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id="FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461"><sup>[461]</sup></a> The surest way to safeguard the
+interests of Iowa was to divide the Territory of Nebraska, and give
+Iowa her natural outlet to the West.</p>
+
+<p>Senator Dodge had also come to this conclusion. Nebraska would be to
+Iowa, what Iowa had been to Illinois. Were only one Territory
+organized, the seat of government and leading thoroughfares would pass
+to the south of Iowa.<a name="FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href="#Footnote_462_462"><sup>[462]</sup></a> Put in the language of the promoters of the
+Pacific railroad, one Territory meant aid to the central route; two
+Territories meant an equal chance for both northern and central
+routes. As the representative of Chicago interests, Douglas was not
+blind to these considerations.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday, January 23d, Douglas reported the Kansas-Nebraska bill with
+a brief word of explanation. Next day Senator Dixon expressed his
+satisfaction with the amendment, which he interpreted as virtually
+repealing the Missouri Compromise. He disclaimed any other wish or
+intention than to secure the principle which the compromise measures
+of 1850 had <a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>established.<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id="FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463"><sup>[463]</sup></a> An editorial in the Washington <i>Union</i>
+threw the weight of the administration into the balance: &quot;The
+proposition of Mr. Douglas is a practical execution of the principles
+of that compromise [of 1850], and therefore, cannot but be regarded by
+the administration as a test of Democratic orthodoxy.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href="#Footnote_464_464"><sup>[464]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While the administration publicly wheeled into line behind Douglas,
+the &quot;Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of
+the United States&quot; summoned the anti-slavery elements to join battle
+in behalf of the Missouri Compromise. This memorable document had been
+written by Chase of Ohio and dated January 19th, but a postscript was
+added after the revised Kansas-Nebraska bill had been reported.<a name="FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href="#Footnote_465_465"><sup>[465]</sup></a>
+It was an adroitly worded paper. History has falsified many of its
+predictions; history then controverted many of its assumptions; but it
+was colored with strong emotion and had the ring of righteous
+indignation.</p>
+
+<p>The gist of the appeal was contained in two clauses, one of which
+declared that the Nebraska bill would open all the unorganized
+territory of the Union to the ingress of slavery; the other arraigned
+the bill as &quot;a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal
+betrayal of precious rights.&quot; In ominous words, fellow citizens were
+besought to observe how the blight of slavery would settle upon all
+this land, if this bill should become a law. Christians and Christian
+ministers were implored to interpose. &quot;Let all protest, earnestly and
+emphatically, by correspondence, through the press, by <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>memorials, by
+resolutions of public meetings and legislative bodies, and in whatever
+other mode may seem expedient, against this enormous crime.&quot; In the
+postscript Douglas received personal mention. &quot;Not a man in Congress
+or out of Congress, in 1850, pretended that the compromise measures
+would repeal the Missouri prohibition. Mr. Douglas himself never
+advanced such a pretence until this session. His own Nebraska bill, of
+last session, rejected it. It is a sheer afterthought. To declare the
+prohibition inoperative, may, indeed, have effect in law as a repeal,
+but it is a most discreditable way of reaching the object. Will the
+people permit their dearest interests to be thus made the mere hazards
+of a presidential game, and destroyed by false facts and false
+inferences?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a href="#Footnote_466_466"><sup>[466]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This attack roused the tiger in the Senator from Illinois. When he
+addressed the Senate on January 30th, he labored under ill-repressed
+anger. Even in the expurgated columns of the <i>Congressional Globe</i>
+enough stinging personalities appeared to make his friends regretful.
+What excited his wrath particularly was that Chase and Sumner had
+asked for a postponement of discussion, in order to examine the bill,
+and then, in the interval, had sent out their indictment of the
+author. It was certainly unworthy of him to taunt them with having
+desecrated the Sabbath day by writing their plea. The charge was not
+only puerile but amusing, when one considers how Douglas himself was
+observing that particular Sabbath.</p>
+
+<p>It was comparatively easy to question and disprove the unqualified
+statement of the <i>Appeal</i>, that &quot;the original settled policy of the
+United States was <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>non-extension of slavery.&quot; Less convincing was
+Douglas's attempt to prove that the Missouri Compromise was expressly
+annulled in 1850, when portions of Texas and of the former Spanish
+province of Louisiana were added to New Mexico, and also a part of the
+province of Louisiana was joined to Utah. Douglas was in the main
+correct as to geographical data; but he could not, and did not, prove
+that the members of the Thirty-first Congress purposed also to revoke
+the Missouri Compromise restriction in all the other unorganized
+Territories. This contention was one of those <i>non-sequiturs</i> of which
+Douglas, in the heat of argument, was too often guilty. Still more
+regrettable, because it seemed to convict him of sophistry, was the
+mode by which he sought to evade the charge of the <i>Appeal</i>, that the
+act organizing New Mexico and settling the boundary of Texas had
+reaffirmed the Missouri Compromise. To establish his point he had to
+assume that <i>all</i> the land cut off from Texas north of 36&deg; 30', was
+added to New Mexico, thus leaving nothing to which the slavery
+restriction, reaffirmed in the act of 1850, could apply. But Chase
+afterward invalidated this assumption and Douglas was forced so to
+qualify his original statement as to yield the point. This was a
+damaging admission and prejudiced his cause before the country. But
+when he brought his wide knowledge of American colonization to bear
+upon the concrete problems of governmental policy, his grasp of the
+situation was masterly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me ask you where you have succeeded in excluding slavery by an
+act of Congress from one inch of American soil? You may tell me that
+you did it in the northwest territory by the ordinance of 1787. I
+will <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>show you by the history of the country that you did not
+accomplish any such thing. You prohibited slavery there by law, but
+you did not exclude it in fact.... I know of but one territory of the
+United States where slavery does exist, and that one is where you have
+prohibited it by law, and it is in this very Nebraska Territory. In
+defiance of the eighth section of the act of 1820, in defiance of
+Congressional dictation, there have been, not many, but a few slaves
+introduced.... I have no doubt that whether you organize the territory
+of Nebraska or not this will continue for some time to come.... But
+when settlers rush in&mdash;when labor becomes plenty, and therefore cheap,
+in that climate, with its productions, it is worse than folly to think
+of its being a slave-holding country.... I do not like, I never did
+like, the system of legislation on our part, by which a geographical
+line, in violation of the laws of nature, and climate, and soil, and
+of the laws of God, should be run to establish institutions for a
+people.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href="#Footnote_467_467"><sup>[467]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The fate of the bill was determined behind closed doors. After all,
+the Senate chamber was only a public clearing-house, where senators
+elucidated, or per-chance befogged, the issues. The real arena was the
+Democratic caucus. Under the leadership of Douglas, those high in the
+party conclaves met, morning after morning, in the endeavor to compose
+the sharp differences between the Northern and the Southern wings of
+the party.<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id="FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468"><sup>[468]</sup></a> On both sides, there was a disposition to agree on the
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise, <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>though grave misgivings were felt.
+There were Southern men who believed that the repeal would be &quot;an
+unavailing boon&quot;; and there were Northern politicians who foresaw the
+storm of popular indignation that would break upon their heads.<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id="FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469"><sup>[469]</sup></a>
+Southern Democrats were disposed to follow the South Carolina theory
+to its logical extreme: as joint owners of the Territories the
+citizens of all the States might carry their property into the
+Territories without let or hindrance; only the people of the Territory
+in the act of framing a State constitution might exclude slavery.
+Neither Congress nor a territorial legislature might take away
+property in slaves. With equal pertinacity, Douglas and his supporters
+advocated the right of the people in their territorial status, to
+mould their institutions as they chose. Was there any middle ground?</p>
+
+<p>Prolonged discussion made certain points of agreement clear to all. It
+was found that no one questioned the right of a State, with sufficient
+population and a republican constitution, to enter the Union with or
+without slavery as it chose. All agreed that it was best that slavery
+should not be discussed in Congress. All agreed that, whether or no
+Congress had the power to exclude slavery in the Territories, it ought
+not to exercise it. All agreed that if Congress had such power, it
+ought to delegate it to the people. Here agreement ceased. Did
+Congress have such power? Clearly the law of the Constitution could
+alone determine. Then why not delegate the power to control their
+domestic institutions to the people of the Territories, subject to the
+provisions of the Constitution? &quot;And then,&quot; said one of the
+participants later, &quot;in <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>order to provide a means by which the
+Constitution could govern ... we of the South, conscious that we were
+right, the North asserting the same confidence in its own doctrines,
+agreed that every question touching human slavery or human freedom
+should be appealable to the Supreme Court of the United States for its
+decision.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id="FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470"><sup>[470]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While this compromise was being reached in caucus, the bill was under
+constant fire on the floor of the Senate. The <i>Appeal of the
+Independent Democrats</i> had bitterly arraigned the declaratory part of
+the Kansas-Nebraska bill, where the Missouri Compromise was said to
+have been superseded and therefore inoperative. Even staunch Democrats
+like Cass had taken exception to this phraseology, preferring to
+declare the Missouri Compromise null and void in unequivocal terms. To
+Douglas there was nothing ambiguous or misleading in the wording of
+the clause. What was meant was this: the acts of 1850 rendered the
+Missouri Compromise <i>inoperative</i> in Utah and New Mexico; but so far
+as the Missouri Compromise applied to territory not embraced in those
+acts, it was <i>superseded</i> by the great principle established in 1850.
+&quot;Superseded by&quot; meant &quot;inconsistent with&quot; the compromise of 1850.<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a href="#Footnote_471_471"><sup>[471]</sup></a>
+The word &quot;supersede,&quot; however, continued to cause offense. Cass read
+from the dictionary to prove that the word had a more positive force
+than Douglas gave to it. To supersede meant <a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>to set aside: he could
+not bring himself to assent to this statement.<a name="FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href="#Footnote_472_472"><sup>[472]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>By this time agreement had been reached in the caucus, so that Douglas
+was quite willing to modify the phraseology of the bill. &quot;We see,&quot;
+said he, &quot;that the difference here is only a difference as to the
+appropriate word to be used. We all agree in the principle which we
+now propose to establish.&quot; As he was not satisfied with the phrases
+suggested, he desired some time to consult with friends of the bill,
+as to which word would best &quot;carry out the idea which we are intending
+to put into practical operation by this bill.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a href="#Footnote_473_473"><sup>[473]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the following day, February 7th, Douglas reported, not merely &quot;the
+appropriate word,&quot; but an entirely new clause, the product of the
+caucus deliberations.</p>
+
+<p>The eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri
+into the Union is no longer said to be superseded, but &quot;being
+inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with
+slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the
+legislation of 1850, (commonly called the Compromise Measures) is
+hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
+meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
+State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
+perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
+their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
+States.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href="#Footnote_474_474"><sup>[474]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This part of the bill had now assumed its final form. <i>Subject only to
+the Constitution of the United States</i>. <a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>The words were clear; but
+what was their implication? A few days later, Douglas wrote to his
+Springfield confidant, &quot;The Democratic party is committed in the most
+solemn manner to the principle of congressional non-interference with
+slavery in the States and Territories. The administration is committed
+to the Nebraska bill and will stand by it at all hazards.... The
+principle of this bill will form the test of parties, and the only
+alternative is either to stand with the Democracy or rally under
+Seward, John Van Buren &amp; Co.... We shall pass the Nebraska bill in
+both Houses by decisive majorities and the party will then be stronger
+than ever, for it will be united upon principle.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href="#Footnote_475_475"><sup>[475]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Yet there were dissentient opinions. What was in the background of
+Southern consciousness was expressed bluntly by Brown of Mississippi,
+who refused to admit that the right of the people of a Territory to
+regulate their domestic institutions, including slavery, was a right
+to destroy. &quot;If I thought in voting for the bill as it now stands, I
+was conceding the right of the people in the territory, during their
+territorial existence, to exclude slavery, I would withhold my
+vote.... It leaves the question where I am quite willing it should be
+left&mdash;to the ultimate decision of the courts.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id="FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476"><sup>[476]</sup></a> Chase also, though
+for widely different reasons, disputed the power of the people of a
+Territory to exclude slavery, under the terms of this bill.<a name="FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href="#Footnote_477_477"><sup>[477]</sup></a> And
+Senator Clayton pointed out that non-interference was a delusion, so
+long as it lay within the power of any member of Congress to move a
+repeal of any and every <a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>territorial law which came up for approval,
+for the bill expressly provided for congressional approval of
+territorial laws.<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id="FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478"><sup>[478]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was irritated by these aspersions on his cherished principle.
+He declared again, in defiant tones, that the right of the people to
+permit or exclude was clearly included in the wording of the measure.
+He was not willing to be lectured about indirectness. He had heard
+cavil enough about his amendments.<a name="FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href="#Footnote_479_479"><sup>[479]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the course of a debate on March 2d, another unforeseen difficulty
+loomed up in the distance. If the Missouri Compromise were repealed,
+would not the original laws of Louisiana, which legalized slavery, be
+revived? How then could the people of the Territories be free to
+legislate against slavery? It was a knotty question, testing the best
+legal minds in the Senate; and it was dispatched only by an amendment
+which stated that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise should not
+revive any antecedent law respecting slavery.<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a href="#Footnote_480_480"><sup>[480]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The objection raised by Clayton still remained: how was it possible to
+reconcile congressional non-intervention with the right of Congress to
+revise territorial laws? Now Douglas had never contended that the
+right of the people to self-government in the Territories was complete
+as against the power of Congress. He had never sought to confer upon
+them more than a relative degree of self-government&mdash;&quot;the power to
+regulate their domestic institutions.&quot; He could not, and he did not,
+deny the truth and awkwardness of Clayton's contention. Where, then,
+demanded his <a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a>critics, was the guarantee that the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+would banish the slavery controversies from Congress? This challenge
+could not go unanswered. Without other explanation, Douglas moved to
+strike out the provision requiring all territorial laws to be
+submitted to Congress.<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id="FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481"><sup>[481]</sup></a> But did this divest Congress of the power
+of revision? On this point Douglas preserved a discreet silence.</p>
+
+<p>Recognizing also the incongruity of giving an absolute veto power to a
+governor who would be appointed by the President, Douglas proposed a
+suspensive, in place of an absolute, veto power. A two-thirds vote in
+each branch of the territorial legislature would override the
+governor's negative.<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id="FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482"><sup>[482]</sup></a> Chase now tried to push Douglas one step
+farther on the same slippery road. &quot;Can it be said,&quot; he asked, &quot;that
+the people of a territory will enjoy self-government when they elect
+only their legislators and are subject to a governor, judges, and a
+secretary appointed by the Federal Executive?&quot; He would amend by
+making all these officers elective.<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a href="#Footnote_483_483"><sup>[483]</sup></a> Douglas extricated himself
+from this predicament by saying simply that these officers were
+charged with federal rather than with territorial duties.<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id="FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484"><sup>[484]</sup></a> The
+amendment was promptly negatived. Yet seven years later, this very
+proposition was indorsed by Douglas under peculiar circumstances. At
+this time in 1854, it would have effected nothing short of a
+revolution in American territorial policy; and it might have altered
+the whole history of Kansas.</p>
+
+<p>Despite asseverations to the contrary, there were Southern men in
+Congress who nourished the tacit <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>hope that another slave State might
+be gained west of the Missouri. There was a growing conviction among
+Southern people that the possession of Kansas at least might be
+successfully contested.<a name="FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href="#Footnote_485_485"><sup>[485]</sup></a> At all events, no barrier to Southern
+immigration into the Territory was allowed to remain in the bill.
+Objection was raised to the provision, common to nearly all
+territorial bills, that aliens, who had declared their intention of
+becoming citizens, should be permitted to vote in territorial
+elections. In a contest with the North for the possession of the
+territorial government, the South would be at an obvious disadvantage,
+if the homeless aliens in the North could be colonized in Kansas, for
+there was no appreciable alien population in the Southern States.<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id="FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486"><sup>[486]</sup></a>
+So it was that Clayton's amendment, to restrict the right to vote and
+to hold office to citizens of the United States, received the solid
+vote of the South in the Senate. It is significant that Douglas voted
+with his section on this important issue. There can be no better proof
+of his desire that freedom should prevail in the new Territories. The
+Clayton amendment, however, passed the Senate by a close vote.<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id="FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487"><sup>[487]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 2d of March the Kansas-Nebraska bill went to a third reading by
+a vote of twenty-nine to twelve; its passage was thus assured.<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a href="#Footnote_488_488"><sup>[488]</sup></a>
+Debate continued, however, during the afternoon and evening of the
+next day. Friends of the bill had agreed that it should be brought to
+a vote on this night. The privilege of closing the debate belonged to
+the chairman of the Committee on <a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>Territories; but in view of the
+lateness of the hour, he offered to waive his privilege and let a vote
+be taken. Voices were raised in protest, however, and Douglas yielded
+to the urgent request of his friends.<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href="#Footnote_489_489"><sup>[489]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The speech of Douglas was a characteristic performance. It abounded in
+repetitions, and it can hardly be said to have contributed much to the
+understanding of the issues. Yet it was a memorable effort, because it
+exhibited the magnificent fighting qualities of the man. He was
+completely master of himself. He permitted interruptions by his
+opponents; he invited them; indeed, at times, he welcomed them; but at
+no time was he at a loss for a reply. Dialectically he was on this
+occasion more than a match for Chase and Seward. There were no studied
+effects in his oratory. Knowing himself to be addressing a wider
+audience than the Senate chamber and its crowded galleries, he
+appealed with intuitive keenness to certain fundamental traits in his
+constituents. Americans admire self-reliance even in an opponent, and
+the spectacle of a man fighting against personal injustice is often
+likely to make them forget the principle for which he stands. So
+Seward, who surely had no love for Douglas and no respect for his
+political creed, was moved to exclaim in frank admiration, &quot;I hope the
+Senator will yield for a moment, because I have never had so much
+respect for him as I have tonight.&quot; When Chase assured Douglas that he
+always purposed to treat the Senator from Illinois with entire
+courtesy, Douglas retorted: &quot;The Senator says that he never intended
+to do me injustice.... Sir, did he not say in the same document to
+which I have already alluded, that I was engaged, <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>with others, 'in a
+criminal betrayal of precious rights,' 'in an atrocious plot'?... Did
+he not say everything calculated to produce and bring upon my head all
+the insults to which I have been subjected publicly and privately&mdash;not
+even excepting the insulting letters which I have received from his
+constituents, rejoicing at my domestic bereavements, and praying that
+other and similar calamities may befall me!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id="FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490"><sup>[490]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In much the same way, he turned upon Sumner, as the collaborator of
+the <i>Appeal</i>. Here was one who had begun his career as an Abolitionist
+in the Senate, with the words &quot;Strike but hear me first,&quot; but who had
+helped to close the doors of Faneuil Hall against Webster, when he
+sought to speak in self-defense in 1850, and who now&mdash;such was the
+implication&mdash;was denying simple justice to another patriot.<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a href="#Footnote_491_491"><sup>[491]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Personalities aside, the burden of his speech was the reassertion of
+his principle of popular sovereignty. He showed how far he had
+traveled since the Fourth of January in no way more strikingly, than
+when he called in question the substantive character of the Missouri
+Compromise. In his discussion of the legislative history of the
+Missouri acts, he easily convicted both Chase and Seward of
+misapprehensions; but he refused to recognize the truth of Chase's
+words, that &quot;the facts of the transaction taken together and as
+understood by the country for more than thirty years, constitute a
+compact binding in moral force,&quot; though expressed only in the terms of
+ordinary statutes. So far had Douglas gone in his advocacy of his
+measure that he had lost the measure of popular sentiment. <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>He was so
+confident of himself and his cause, so well-assured that he had
+sacrificed nothing but an empty form, in repealing the slavery
+restriction, that he forgot the popular mind does not so readily cast
+aside its prejudices and grasp substance in preference to form. The
+combative instinct in him was strong. He had entered upon a quarrel;
+he would acquit himself well. Besides, he had supreme confidence that
+popular intelligence would slowly approve his course.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Douglas's greatest achievement on this occasion was in coining
+a phrase which was to become a veritable slogan in succeeding years.
+That which had hitherto been dubbed &quot;squatter sovereignty,&quot; Douglas
+now dignified with the name &quot;popular sovereignty,&quot; and provided with a
+pedigree. &quot;This was the principle upon which the colonies separated
+from the crown of Great Britain, the principle upon which the battles
+of the Revolution were fought, and the principle upon which our
+republican system was founded.... The Revolution grew out of the
+assertion of the right on the part of the imperial government to
+interfere with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the
+colonies.... I will not weary the Senate in multiplying evidence upon
+this point. It is apparent that the Declaration of Independence had
+its origin in the violation of the great fundamental principle which
+secured to the people of the colonies the right to regulate their own
+domestic affairs in their own way; and that the Revolution resulted in
+the triumph of that principle, and the recognition of the right
+asserted by it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id="FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492"><sup>[492]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, Douglas said with perfect truthfulness: &quot;I have not
+brought this question forward as a <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>Northern man or as a Southern man.
+I am unwilling to recognize such divisions and distinctions. I have
+brought it forward as an American Senator, representing a State which
+is true to this principle, and which has approved of my action in
+respect to the Nebraska bill. I have brought it forward not as an act
+of justice to the South more than to the North. I have presented it
+especially as an act of justice to the people of those Territories,
+and of the States to be formed therefrom, now and in all time to
+come.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id="FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493"><sup>[493]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Nor did he seem to entertain a doubt as to the universal appeal which
+his principle would make: &quot;I say frankly that, in my opinion, this
+measure will be as popular at the North as at the South, when its
+provisions and principles shall have been fully developed and become
+well understood. The people at the North are attached to the
+principles of self-government; and you cannot convince them that that
+is self-government which deprives a people of the right of legislating
+for themselves, and compels them to receive laws which are forced upon
+them by a legislature in which they are not represented.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id="FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494"><sup>[494]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The rising indignation at the North against the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+was felt much more directly in the House than in the Senate. So strong
+was the counter-current that the Senate bill was at first referred to
+the Committee of the Whole, and thus buried for weeks under a mass of
+other bills. Many believed that the bill had received a quietus for
+the session. Not so Douglas and his friend Richardson of Illinois, who
+was chairman of the Committee on Territories. With a patience born of
+long parliamentary experience, <a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a>they bided their time. In the
+meantime, every possible influence was brought to bear upon
+recalcitrant Democrats. And just here the wisdom of Douglas, in first
+securing the support of the administration, was vindicated. All those
+devices were invoked which President and cabinet could employ through
+the use of the Federal patronage, so that when Richardson, on the 8th
+of May, called upon the House to lay aside one by one the eighteen
+bills which preceded the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he was assured of a
+working majority. The House bill having thus been reached, Richardson
+substituted for it the Senate bill, minus the Clayton amendment. When
+he then announced that only four days would be allowed for debate, the
+obstructionists could no longer contain themselves. Scenes of wild
+excitement followed. In the end, the friends of the bill yielded to
+the demand for longer discussion. Debate was prolonged until May 22d,
+when the bill passed by a vote of 113 to 110, in the face of bitter
+opposition.</p>
+
+<p>Through all these exciting days, Douglas was constantly at
+Richardson's side, cautioning and advising. He was well within the
+truth when he said, in confidential chat with Madison Cutts, &quot;I passed
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act myself. I had the authority and power of a
+dictator throughout the whole controversy in both houses. The speeches
+were nothing. It was the marshalling and directing of men, and
+guarding from attacks, and with a ceaseless vigilance preventing
+surprises.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href="#Footnote_495_495"><sup>[495]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The refusal of the House to accept the Clayton amendment brought the
+Kansas-Nebraska measure again before the Senate. Knowing that a
+refusal to <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>concur would probably defeat the measure for the session,
+Southern senators were disposed to waive their objections to allowing
+aliens to vote in the new Territories. Even Atchison was now disposed
+to think the matter of little consequence. Foreigners were not the
+pioneers in the Territories; they followed the pioneers. He did not
+complete his thought, but it is unmistakable: therefore, native
+citizens as first-comers, rather than foreigners, would probably
+decide the question of slavery in the Territories forever. And so,
+after two days of debate, Douglas again had his way: the Senate voted
+to recede from the Clayton amendment. On May 30th, the President
+signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill and it became law.<a name="FNanchor_496_496" id="FNanchor_496_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_496_496"><sup>[496]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The outburst of wrath at the North which accompanied the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise did not augur well for the future repose of the
+country. Douglas had anticipated angry demonstrations; but even he was
+disturbed by the vehemence of the protestations which penetrated to
+the Senate chamber. Had he failed to gauge the depth of Northern
+public opinion? Senator Everett disturbed the momentary quiet of
+Congress by presenting a memorial signed by over three thousand New
+England clergymen, who, &quot;in the name of Almighty God,&quot; protested
+against the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a great moral wrong and as a breach
+of faith. This brought Douglas to his feet. With fierce invective he
+declared this whole movement was instigated by the circulars sent out
+by the Abolition confederates in the Senate. These preachers had been
+<a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>led by an atrocious falsehood &quot;to desecrate the pulpit, and prostitute
+the sacred desk to the miserable and corrupting influence of party
+politics.&quot; What right had these misguided men to speak in the name of
+Almighty God upon a political question? It was an attempt to establish
+in this country the doctrine that clergymen have a peculiar right to
+determine the will of God in legislative matters. This was
+theocracy.<a name="FNanchor_497_497" id="FNanchor_497_497"></a><a href="#Footnote_497_497"><sup>[497]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Some weeks later, Douglas himself presented another protest, signed by
+over five hundred clergymen of the Northwest and accompanied by
+resolutions which denounced the Senator from Illinois for his &quot;want of
+courtesy and reverence toward man and God.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_498_498" id="FNanchor_498_498"></a><a href="#Footnote_498_498"><sup>[498]</sup></a> His comments upon
+this protest were not calculated to restore him to favor among these
+&quot;divinely appointed ministers for the declaration and enforcement of
+God's will.&quot; His public letter to them, however, was much more
+creditable, for in it he avoided abusive language and appealed frankly
+to the sober sense of the clergy.<a name="FNanchor_499_499" id="FNanchor_499_499"></a><a href="#Footnote_499_499"><sup>[499]</sup></a> Of the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he said again that it was necessary, &quot;in order to
+recognize the great principle of self-government and State equality.
+It does not vary the question in any degree, that human slavery, in
+your opinion, is a great moral wrong. If so, it is not the only wrong
+upon which the people of each of the States and Territories of this
+Union are called upon to act.... You think you are abundantly
+competent to decide this question now and forever. If you should
+remove to Nebraska, with a view of making it your permanent home,
+would you be <a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>any less competent to decide it when you should have
+arrived in the country?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_500_500" id="FNanchor_500_500"></a><a href="#Footnote_500_500"><sup>[500]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The obloquy which Douglas encountered in Washington was mere child's
+play, as compared with the storm of abuse that met him on his return
+to Chicago. He afterwards said that he could travel from Boston to
+Chicago by the light of his own effigies.<a name="FNanchor_501_501" id="FNanchor_501_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_501_501"><sup>[501]</sup></a> &quot;Traitor,&quot;
+&quot;Arnold,&quot;&mdash;with a suggestion that he had the blood of Benedict Arnold
+in his veins,&mdash;&quot;Judas,&quot; were epithets hurled at him from desk and
+pulpit. He was presented with thirty pieces of silver by some
+indignant females in an Ohio village.<a name="FNanchor_502_502" id="FNanchor_502_502"></a><a href="#Footnote_502_502"><sup>[502]</sup></a> So incensed were the people
+of Chicago, that his friends advised him not to return, fearing that
+he would be assaulted.<a name="FNanchor_503_503" id="FNanchor_503_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503_503"><sup>[503]</sup></a> But fear was a sensation that he had never
+experienced. He went to Chicago confident that he could silence
+opposition as he had done four years before.<a name="FNanchor_504_504" id="FNanchor_504_504"></a><a href="#Footnote_504_504"><sup>[504]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Three or four days after his return, he announced that on the night of
+September 1st, he would address his constituents in front of North
+Market Hall. The announcement occasioned great excitement. The
+opposition press cautioned their readers not to be deceived by his
+sophistries, and hinted broadly at the advisability of breaking up the
+meeting.<a name="FNanchor_505_505" id="FNanchor_505_505"></a><a href="#Footnote_505_505"><sup>[505]</sup></a> Many friends <a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>of Douglas believed that personal violence
+was threatened. During the afternoon flags were hung at half mast on
+the lake boats; bells were tolled, as the crowds began to gather in
+the dusk of the evening; some public calamity seemed to impend. At a
+quarter past eight, Douglas began to address the people. He was
+greeted with hisses. He paused until these had subsided. But no sooner
+did he begin again than bedlam broke loose. For over two hours he
+wrestled with the mob, appealing to their sense of fairness; but he
+could not gain a hearing. Finally, for the first time in his career,
+he was forced to admit defeat. Drawing his watch from his pocket and
+observing that the hour was late, he shouted, in an interval of
+comparative quiet, &quot;It is now Sunday morning&mdash;I'll go to church, and
+you may go to Hell!&quot; At the imminent risk of his life, he went to his
+carriage and was driven through the crowds to his hotel.<a name="FNanchor_506_506" id="FNanchor_506_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506_506"><sup>[506]</sup></a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href="#FNanchor_415_415">[415]</a> House Bill No. 444; 28 Cong., 2 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href="#FNanchor_416_416">[416]</a> Executive Docs., 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 124.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href="#FNanchor_417_417">[417]</a> House Bill, No. 170; 30 Cong., 1 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href="#FNanchor_418_418">[418]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1161.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href="#FNanchor_419_419">[419]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1684-1685.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href="#FNanchor_420_420">[420]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1760. Clingman afterward admitted that the
+Southern opposition was motived by reluctance to admit new free
+Territories. &quot;This feeling was felt rather than expressed in words.&quot;
+Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 334.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href="#FNanchor_421_421">[421]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1762.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href="#FNanchor_422_422">[422]</a> See Davis, Union Pacific Railway, Chap. 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href="#FNanchor_423_423">[423]</a> See Benton's remarks in the House, <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 56.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href="#FNanchor_424_424">[424]</a> Connelley, The Provisional Government of the Nebraska
+Territory, published by the Nebraska State Historical Society, pp.
+23-24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href="#FNanchor_425_425">[425]</a> Connelley, Provisional Government, p. 28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href="#FNanchor_426_426">[426]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 56-58.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href="#FNanchor_427_427">[427]</a> House Bill No. 353; 32 Cong., 2 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href="#FNanchor_428_428">[428]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 558.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href="#FNanchor_429_429">[429]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 560.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href="#FNanchor_430_430">[430]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 565.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href="#FNanchor_431_431">[431]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1020.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href="#FNanchor_432_432">[432]</a> <i>Globe</i> 32 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1116-1117.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href="#FNanchor_433_433">[433]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1113.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href="#FNanchor_434_434">[434]</a> Connelley, Provisional Government, pp. 43 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href="#FNanchor_435_435">[435]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 37-41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href="#FNanchor_436_436">[436]</a> Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 183; Connelley,
+pp. 70-77.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href="#FNanchor_437_437">[437]</a> See Hadley D. Johnson's account in the Transactions of
+the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href="#FNanchor_438_438">[438]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 22, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href="#FNanchor_439_439">[439]</a> MS. Letter to the editors of the Illinois <i>State
+Register</i>, dated November 11, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href="#FNanchor_440_440">[440]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, December 3, 1853. See also item
+showing the interest in Nebraska, in the issue of November 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href="#FNanchor_441_441">[441]</a> Senate Bill No. 22. The bounds were fixed at 43&deg; on the
+north; 36&deg; 30' on the south, except where the boundary of New Mexico
+marked the line; the western line of Iowa and Missouri on the east;
+and the Rocky Mountains on the west.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href="#FNanchor_442_442">[442]</a> Illinois <i>State Register</i>, December 22, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href="#FNanchor_443_443">[443]</a> New York <i>Journal of Commerce</i>, December 30, 1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href="#FNanchor_444_444">[444]</a> Two years later, Douglas flatly denied that he had
+brought in the bill at the dictation of Atchison or any one else; and
+I see no good ground on which to doubt his word. His own statement was
+that he first consulted with Senator Bright and one other Senator from
+the Northwest, and then took counsel with Southern friends. See
+<i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 392-393; also Rhodes, History of
+the United States, I, pp. 431-432. Mr. Rhodes is no doubt correct,
+when he says &quot;the committee on territories was Douglas.&quot;</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href="#FNanchor_445_445">[445]</a> Senate Report No. 15, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href="#FNanchor_446_446">[446]</a> The northern boundary was extended to the 49th
+parallel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href="#FNanchor_447_447">[447]</a> The first twenty sections are written on white paper,
+in the handwriting of a copyist. In pencil at the end are the words:
+&quot;Douglas reports Bill &amp; read I &amp; to 2 reading special report Print
+agreed.&quot; The blue paper in Douglas's handwriting covers part of these
+last words. The sheet has been torn in halves, but pasted together
+again and attached by sealing wax to the main draft. The handwriting
+betrays haste.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href="#FNanchor_448_448">[448]</a> <i>Globe,</i>34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1374.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href="#FNanchor_449_449">[449]</a> See his speech of March, 1850, quoted above. In a
+letter to the editor of <i>State Capital Reporter</i> (Concord, N.H.),
+February 16, 1854, Douglas intimated as strongly as he then dared&mdash;the
+bill was still pending,&mdash;that &quot;the sons of New England&quot; in the West
+would exclude slavery from that region which lay in the same latitude
+as New York and Pennsylvania, and for much the same reasons that
+slavery had been abolished! in those States; see also Transactions of
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1900, pp. 48-49.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href="#FNanchor_450_450">[450]</a> Speech before the Illinois Legislature, October 23,
+1849; see Illinois <i>State Register</i>, November 8, 1849.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href="#FNanchor_451_451">[451]</a> The Southern Whigs were ready to support the Dixon
+Amendment, according to Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 335.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href="#FNanchor_452_452">[452]</a> See remarks of Douglas, January 24th, <i>Globe</i>, 33
+Cong., 1 Sess., p. 240.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href="#FNanchor_453_453">[453]</a> Letter of Dixon to Foote, September 30, 1858, in Flint,
+Douglas, pp. 138-141.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href="#FNanchor_454_454">[454]</a> Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href="#FNanchor_455_455">[455]</a> Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in
+the <i>National Quarterly Review</i>, July, 1880.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href="#FNanchor_456_456">[456]</a> Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; also
+Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 93; also Cox, Three Decades of
+Federal Legislation, p. 49.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href="#FNanchor_457_457">[457]</a> <i>Ibid.</i> Dixon's account of his interview with Douglas
+is too melodramatic to be taken literally, but no doubt it reveals
+Douglas's agitation.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href="#FNanchor_458_458">[458]</a> This was Greeley's interpretation, <i>Tribune</i>, June 1,
+1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href="#FNanchor_459_459">[459]</a> Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Dixon, September 27, 1879, in
+Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, pp. 457
+ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href="#FNanchor_460_460">[460]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 221.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href="#FNanchor_461_461">[461]</a> Transactions of the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol.
+II, p. 90.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href="#FNanchor_462_462">[462]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 382.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href="#FNanchor_463_463">[463]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 239-240.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href="#FNanchor_464_464">[464]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, January 24, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href="#FNanchor_465_465">[465]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 282.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href="#FNanchor_466_466">[466]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 281-282.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href="#FNanchor_467_467">[467]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 278-279.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href="#FNanchor_468_468">[468]</a> See remarks of Senator Bell of Tennessee, May 24, 1854,
+in <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 939-940; also see statement
+of Benjamin in <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href="#FNanchor_469_469">[469]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App. pp. 414-415; p. 943.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href="#FNanchor_470_470">[470]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093. This statement by
+Senator Benjamin was corroborated by Douglas and by Hunter of
+Virginia, during the debates, see <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+224. See also the letter of A.H. Stephens, May 9, 1860, in <i>Globe</i>, 36
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 315-316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href="#FNanchor_471_471">[471]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 343-344.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href="#FNanchor_472_472">[472]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 344.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href="#FNanchor_473_473">[473]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 344.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href="#FNanchor_474_474">[474]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 353.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href="#FNanchor_475_475">[475]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, February 13, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href="#FNanchor_476_476">[476]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 232.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href="#FNanchor_477_477">[477]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 279-280.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href="#FNanchor_478_478">[478]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 391.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href="#FNanchor_479_479">[479]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 287-288.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href="#FNanchor_480_480">[480]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 296.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href="#FNanchor_481_481">[481]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 296-297.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href="#FNanchor_482_482">[482]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 297.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href="#FNanchor_483_483">[483]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 298.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href="#FNanchor_484_484">[484]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 298.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href="#FNanchor_485_485">[485]</a> See remarks of Bell; <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App.,
+pp. 414-415; and also later, <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+937.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href="#FNanchor_486_486">[486]</a> See remarks of Atchison, <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href="#FNanchor_487_487">[487]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 298.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href="#FNanchor_488_488">[488]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 302.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href="#FNanchor_489_489">[489]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 325.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href="#FNanchor_490_490">[490]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 332.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href="#FNanchor_491_491">[491]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 332.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href="#FNanchor_492_492">[492]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 337.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href="#FNanchor_493_493">[493]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 338.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href="#FNanchor_494_494">[494]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 338.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href="#FNanchor_495_495">[495]</a> Cutts, Treatise on Constitutional and Party Questions,
+pp. 122-123.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_496_496" id="Footnote_496_496"></a><a href="#FNanchor_496_496">[496]</a> That the President believed with Douglas that the
+benefits of the Act would inure to freedom, is vouched for by
+ex-Senator Clemens of Alabama. See Illinois <i>State Register</i>, April 6,
+1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_497_497" id="Footnote_497_497"></a><a href="#FNanchor_497_497">[497]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 618, 621.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_498_498" id="Footnote_498_498"></a><a href="#FNanchor_498_498">[498]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, App., p. 654.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_499_499" id="Footnote_499_499"></a><a href="#FNanchor_499_499">[499]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, App., pp. 657-661.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_500_500" id="Footnote_500_500"></a><a href="#FNanchor_500_500">[500]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 661.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_501_501" id="Footnote_501_501"></a><a href="#FNanchor_501_501">[501]</a> Speech at Wooster, Ohio, 1859, Philadelphia <i>Press</i>,
+September 26, 1859.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_502_502" id="Footnote_502_502"></a><a href="#FNanchor_502_502">[502]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 496.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_503_503" id="Footnote_503_503"></a><a href="#FNanchor_503_503">[503]</a> Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 98.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_504_504" id="Footnote_504_504"></a><a href="#FNanchor_504_504">[504]</a> &quot;I speak to the people of Chicago on Friday next,
+September 1, on Nebraska. They threaten a mob but I have no fears. All
+will be right.... Come up if you can and bring our friends with you.&quot;
+MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, August 25, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_505_505" id="Footnote_505_505"></a><a href="#FNanchor_505_505">[505]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, p. 640.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_506_506" id="Footnote_506_506"></a><a href="#FNanchor_506_506">[506]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 271-273. Cutts, Constitutional
+and Party Questions, pp. 98-101. New York <i>Times</i>, September 6,
+1854.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>CHAPTER XII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>BLACK REPUBLICANISM</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The passing of the Whig party after its defeat in the election of
+1852, must be counted among the most momentous facts in our political
+history. Whatever were its errors, whatever its shortcomings, it was
+at least a national organization, with a membership that embraced
+anti-slavery Northerners and slave-holding Southerners, Easterners and
+Westerners. As events proved, there was no national organization to
+take its place. One of the two political ties had snapped that had
+held together North and South. The Democratic party alone could lay
+claim to a national organization and membership.</p>
+
+<p>Party has been an important factor in maintaining national unity. The
+dangers to the Union from rapid territorial expansion have not always
+been realized. The attachment of new Western communities to the Union
+has too often been taken as a matter of course. Even when the danger
+of separation was small, the isolation and provincialism of the new
+West was a real menace to national welfare. Social institutions did
+their part in integrating East and West; but the politically
+integrating force was supplied by party. Through their membership in
+national party organizations, the most remote Western pioneers were
+energized to think and act on national issues.<a name="FNanchor_507_507" id="FNanchor_507_507"></a><a href="#Footnote_507_507"><sup>[507]</sup></a> In much the same
+way, the <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>great party organizations retarded the growth of
+sectionalism at the South. The very fact that party ties held long
+after social institutions had been broken asunder, proves their
+superior cohesion and nationalizing power. The inertia of parties
+during the prolonged slavery controversy was an element of strength.
+Because these formal organizations did not lend themselves readily to
+radical policies, they provided a frame-work, within which adjustments
+of differences were effected without danger to the Union. Had
+Abolitionists of the radical type taken possession of the organization
+of either party, can it be doubted that the Union would have been
+imperiled much earlier than it was, and very probably when it could
+not have withstood the shock?</p>
+
+<p>No one who views history calmly will maintain, that it would have been
+well for either the radical or the conservative to have been dominant
+permanently. If the radical were always able to give application to
+his passing, restless humors, society would lose its coherence. If the
+conservative always had his way, civilization would stagnate. It was a
+fortunate circumstance that neither the Whig nor the Democratic party
+was composed wholly either of radicals or conservatives. Party action
+was thus a resultant. If it was neither so radical as the most radical
+could desire, nor so conservative as the ultra-conservative wished, at
+least it safeguarded the Union and secured the political achievements
+of the past. Moreover, the two great party organizations had done much
+to assimilate the foreign elements injected into our population. No
+doubt the politician who cultivated &quot;the Irish vote&quot; or &quot;the German
+vote,&quot; was obeying no higher law than <a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>his own interests; but his
+activities did much to promote that fusion of heterogeneous elements
+which has been one of the most extraordinary phenomena of American
+society. With the disappearance of the Whig party, one of the two
+great agencies in the disciplining and educating of the immigrant was
+lost.</p>
+
+<p>For a time the Native American party seemed likely to take the place
+of the moribund Whig party. Many Whigs whose loyalty had grown cold
+but who would not go over to the enemy, took refuge in the new party.
+But Native Americanism had no enduring strength. Its tenets and its
+methods were in flat contradiction to true American precedents.
+Greeley was right when he said of the new party, &quot;It would seem as
+devoid of the elements of persistence as an anti-cholera or an
+anti-potato-rot party would be.&quot; By its avowed hostility to Catholics
+and foreigners, by its insistence upon America for Americans, and by
+its secrecy, it forfeited all real claims to succeed the Whig party as
+a national organization.</p>
+
+<p>After the downfall of the Whig party, then, the Democratic party stood
+alone as a truly national party, preserving the integrity of its
+national organization and the bulk of its legitimate members. But the
+events of President Pierce's administration threatened to be its
+undoing. If the Kansas-Nebraska bill served to unite outwardly the
+Northern and Southern wings of the party, it served also to
+crystallize those anti-slavery elements which had hitherto been held
+in solution. An anti-Nebraska coalition was the outcome. Out of this
+opposition sprang eventually the Republican party, which was,
+therefore, in its inception, national neither in its organization nor
+in its membership.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>For &quot;Know-Nothingism,&quot; as Native Americanism was derisively called,
+Douglas had exhibited the liveliest antipathy. Shortly after the
+triumph of the Know-Nothings in the municipal elections of
+Philadelphia, he was called upon to give the Independence Day address
+in the historic Independence Square.<a name="FNanchor_508_508" id="FNanchor_508_508"></a><a href="#Footnote_508_508"><sup>[508]</sup></a> With an audacity rarely
+equalled, he seized the occasion to defend the great principle of
+self-government as incorporated in the Nebraska bill, just become law,
+and to beard Know-Nothingism in its den. Under guise of defending
+national institutions and American principles, he turned his oration
+into what was virtually the first campaign speech of the year in
+behalf of Democracy. Never before were the advantages of a party name
+so apparent. Under his skillful touch the cause of popular government,
+democracy, religious and civil liberty, became confounded with the
+cause of Democracy, the only party of the nation which stood opposed
+to &quot;the allied forces of Abolitionism, Whigism, Nativeism, and
+religious intolerance, under whatever name or on whatever field they
+may present themselves.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_509_509" id="FNanchor_509_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_509_509"><sup>[509]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There can be no doubt that Douglas voiced his inmost feeling, when he
+declared that &quot;to proscribe a man in this country on account of his
+birthplace or religious faith is revolting to our sense of justice and
+right.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_510_510" id="FNanchor_510_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510_510"><sup>[510]</sup></a> In his defense of religious toleration he rose to heights
+of real eloquence.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas paid dearly for this assault upon Know-Nothingism. The order
+had organized lodges also in the Northwest, and when Douglas returned
+to his own <a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>constituency after the adjournment of Congress, he found
+the enemy in possession of his own redoubts. With some show of reason,
+he afterward attributed the demonstration against him in Chicago to
+the machinations of the Know-Nothings. His experience with the mob
+left no manner of doubt in his mind that Know-Nothingism, and not
+hostility to his Kansas-Nebraska policy, was responsible for his
+failure to command a hearing.<a name="FNanchor_511_511" id="FNanchor_511_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511_511"><sup>[511]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But Douglas was mistaken, or he deceived himself, when he sought in
+the same fashion to explain away the opposition which he encountered
+as he traveled through the northern counties of the State. Malcontents
+from both parties, but chiefly anti-slavery Whigs, Free-Soilers, and
+Abolitionists, were drawing together in common hostility to the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise. Mass conventions were summoned,
+irrespective of party, in various counties; and they gave no uncertain
+expression to their hatred of slavery and the slave-power. These were
+the counties most largely peopled by the New England immigrants.
+Anti-Nebraska platforms were adopted; and fusion candidates put in
+nomination for State and congressional office. In the central and
+southern counties, the fusion was somewhat less complete; but finally
+an anti-Nebraska State convention was held at Springfield, which
+nominated a candidate for State Treasurer, the only State officer to
+be elected.<a name="FNanchor_512_512" id="FNanchor_512_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_512_512"><sup>[512]</sup></a> For the first time in many years, the overthrow of
+the Democratic party seemed imminent.</p>
+
+<p>However much Douglas may have misjudged the <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>causes for this fusion
+movement at the outset, he was not long blind as to its implications.
+On every hand there were symptoms of disaffection. Personal friends
+turned their backs upon him; lifelong associates refused to follow his
+lead; even the rank and file of his followers seemed infected with the
+prevailing epidemic of distrust. With the instinct of a born leader of
+men, Douglas saw that the salvation of himself and his party lay in
+action. The <i>&eacute;lan</i> of his forces must be excited by the signal to ride
+down the enemy. Sounding the charge, he plunged into the thick of the
+fray. For two months, he raided the country of the enemy in northern
+Illinois, and dashed from point to point in the central counties where
+his loyal friends were hard pressed.<a name="FNanchor_513_513" id="FNanchor_513_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513_513"><sup>[513]</sup></a> It was from first to last a
+tempestuous conflict that exactly suited the impetuous, dashing
+qualities of &quot;the Little Giant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the Sixth Congressional District, Douglas found his friend Harris
+fighting desperately with his back against the wall. His opponent,
+Yates, was a candidate for re-election, with the full support of
+anti-Nebraska men like Trumbull and Lincoln, whom the passage of the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill had again drawn into politics. While the State
+Fair was in progress at Springfield, both candidates strained every
+nerve to win votes. Douglas was summoned to address the goodly body of
+Democratic yeomen, who were keenly alive to the political, as well as
+to the bucolic, opportunities which the capital afforded at this
+interesting season. Douglas spoke to a large gathering in the State
+House on October 3d. Next day the <a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>Fusionists put forward Lincoln to
+answer him; and when Lincoln had spoken for nearly four hours, Douglas
+again took the stand and held his audience for an hour and a half
+longer.<a name="FNanchor_514_514" id="FNanchor_514_514"></a><a href="#Footnote_514_514"><sup>[514]</sup></a> Those were days when the staying powers of speakers were
+equalled only by the patience of their hearers.</p>
+
+<p>Like those earlier encounters, whose details have passed into the haze
+of tradition, this lacks a trustworthy chronicler. It would seem,
+however, as though the dash and daring of Douglas failed to bear down
+the cool, persistent opposition of his antagonist. Douglas should have
+known that the hazards in his course were reared by his own hand.
+Whatever other barriers blocked his way, Nebraska-ism was the most
+formidable; but this he would not concede.</p>
+
+<p>A curious story has connected itself with this chance encounter of the
+rivals. Alarmed at the effectiveness of Lincoln's attack, so runs the
+legend, Douglas begged him not to enter the campaign, promising that
+he likewise would be silent thereafter. Aside from the palpable
+improbability of this &quot;Peoria truce,&quot; it should be noted that Lincoln
+accepted an invitation to speak at Lacon next day, without so much as
+referring to this agreement, while Douglas continued his campaign with
+unremitting energy.<a name="FNanchor_515_515" id="FNanchor_515_515"></a><a href="#Footnote_515_515"><sup>[515]</sup></a> If Douglas exhibited fear of an adversary at
+this time, it is the only instance in his career.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>The outcome of the elections gave the Democrats food for thought. Five
+out of nine congressional districts had chosen anti-Nebraska or Fusion
+candidates; the other four returned Democrats to Congress by reduced
+pluralities.<a name="FNanchor_516_516" id="FNanchor_516_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_516_516"><sup>[516]</sup></a> To be sure, the Democrats had elected their
+candidate for the State Treasury; but this was poor consolation, if
+the legislature, as seemed probable, should pass from their control. A
+successor to Senator Shields would be chosen by this body; and the
+choice of an anti-Nebraska man would be as gall and wormwood to the
+senior senator. In the country at large, such an outcome would surely
+be interpreted as a vote of no confidence. In the light of these
+events, Democrats were somewhat chastened in spirit, in spite of
+apparent demonstrations of joy. Even Douglas felt called upon to
+vindicate his course at the banquet given in his honor in Chicago,
+November 9th. He was forced to admit&mdash;and for him it was an unwonted
+admission&mdash;that &quot;the heavens were partially overcast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the moment there was a disposition to drop Shields in favor of
+some Democrat who was not so closely identified with the Nebraska
+bill. Douglas viewed the situation with undisguised alarm. He urged
+his friends, however, to stick to Shields. &quot;The election of any other
+man,&quot; he wrote truthfully, &quot;would be deemed not only a defeat, but an
+ungrateful desertion of him, when all the others who have voted with
+him have been sustained.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_517_517" id="FNanchor_517_517"></a><a href="#Footnote_517_517"><sup>[517]</sup></a> It was just this fine spirit of loyalty
+that made men his lifelong friends and steadfast followers through
+thick and thin. &quot;Our <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>friends should stand by Shields,&quot; he continued,
+&quot;and throw the responsibility on the Whigs of beating him <i>because he
+was born in Ireland</i>. The Nebraska fight is over, and Know-Nothingism
+has taken its place as the chief issue in the future. If therefore
+Shields shall be beaten it will [be] apparent to the people &amp; to the
+whole country that a gallant soldier, and a faithful public servant
+has been stricken down because of the place of his birth.&quot; This was
+certainly shrewd, and, measured by the tone of American public life,
+not altogether reprehensible, politics. Douglas anticipated that the
+Whigs would nominate Lincoln and &quot;stick to him to the bitter end,&quot;
+while the Free-Soilers and anti-Nebraska Democrats would hold with
+equal persistence to Bissell, in which case either Bissell would
+ultimately get the Whig vote or there would be no election. Sounding
+the trumpet call to battle, Douglas told his friends to nail Shields'
+flag to the mast and never to haul it down. &quot;We are sure to triumph in
+the end on the great issue. Our policy and duty require us to stand
+firm by the issues in the late election, and to make no bargains, no
+alliances, no concessions to any of the <i>allied isms</i>.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>When the legislature organized in January, the Democrats, to their
+indescribable alarm, found the Fusion forces in control of both
+houses. The election was postponed until February. Meantime Douglas
+cautioned his trusty lieutenant in no event to leave Springfield for
+even a day during the session.<a name="FNanchor_518_518" id="FNanchor_518_518"></a><a href="#Footnote_518_518"><sup>[518]</sup></a> On the first ballot for senator,
+Shields received 41 votes; Lincoln 45; Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska
+Democrat, 5; while three Democrats and five Fusionists scattered
+<a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>their votes. On the seventh ballot, Shields fell out of the running,
+his place being taken by Matteson. On the tenth ballot, Lincoln having
+withdrawn, the Whig vote concentrated on Trumbull, who, with the aid
+of his unyielding anti-Nebraska following, received the necessary 51
+votes for an election. This result left many heart-burnings among both
+Whigs and Democrats, for the former felt that Lincoln had been
+unjustly sacrificed and the latter looked upon Trumbull as little
+better than a renegade.<a name="FNanchor_519_519" id="FNanchor_519_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519_519"><sup>[519]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The returns from the elections in other Northern States were equally
+discouraging, from the Democratic point of view. Only seven out of
+forty-two who had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill were re-elected.
+In the next House, the Democrats would be in a minority of
+seventy-five.<a name="FNanchor_520_520" id="FNanchor_520_520"></a><a href="#Footnote_520_520"><sup>[520]</sup></a> The anti-Nebraska leaders were not slow in claiming
+a substantial victory. Indeed, their demonstrations of satisfaction
+were so long and loud, when Congress reassembled for the short
+session, that many Democrats found it difficult to accept defeat
+good-naturedly. Douglas, for one, would not concede defeat, despite
+the face of the returns. Men like Wade of Ohio, who enjoyed chaffing
+their discomfited opponents, took every occasion to taunt the author
+of the bill which had been the undoing of his party. Douglas met their
+gibes by asking whether there was a single, anti-Nebraska candidate
+from the free States who did not receive the Know-Nothing vote. For
+every Nebraska man who had suffered defeat, two anti-Nebraska
+candidates were <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>defeated by the same causes. &quot;The fact is, and the
+gentleman knows it, that in the free States there has been an
+alliance, I will not say whether holy or unholy, at the recent
+elections. In that alliance they had a crucible into which they poured
+Abolitionism, Maine liquor-lawism, and what there was left of Northern
+Whigism, and then the Protestant feeling against the Catholic, and the
+native feeling against the foreigner. All these elements were melted
+down in that crucible, and the result was what was called the Fusion
+party. That crucible ... was in every instance, a Know-Nothing
+Lodge.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_521_521" id="FNanchor_521_521"></a><a href="#Footnote_521_521"><sup>[521]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There was, indeed, enough of confusion in some States to give color to
+such assertions. Taken collectively, however, the elections indicated
+unmistakably a widespread revulsion against the administration of
+President Pierce; and it was folly to contend that the Kansas-Nebraska
+bill had not been the prime cause of popular resentment. Douglas was
+so constituted temperamentally that he both could not, and would not,
+confront the situation fairly and squarely. This want of sensitiveness
+to the force of ethical convictions stirring the masses, is the most
+conspicuous and regrettable aspect of his statecraft. Personally
+Douglas had a high sense of honor and duty; in private affairs he was
+scrupulously honest; and if at times he was shifty in politics, he
+played the game with quite as much fairness as those contemporary
+politicians who boasted of the integrity of their motives. He
+preferred to be frank; he meant to deal justly by all men. Even so, he
+failed to understand the impelling power of those moral ideals which
+border on the <a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>unattainable. For the transcendentalist in politics and
+philanthropy, he had only contempt. The propulsive force of an idea in
+his own mind depended wholly upon its appeal to his practical
+judgment. His was the philosophy of the attainable. Results that were
+approximately just and fair satisfied him. He was not disposed to
+sacrifice immediate advantage to future gain. His Celtic temperament
+made him think rapidly; and what imagination failed to supply, quick
+wit made good.</p>
+
+<p>When, then, under the pressure of conditions for which he was not
+responsible, he yielded to the demand for a repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he failed to foresee that revulsion of moral sentiment
+that swept over the North. It was perfectly clear to his mind, that
+historically the prohibition of slavery by Federal law had had far
+less practical effect than the North believed. He was convinced that
+nearly all, if not all, of the great West was dedicated to freedom by
+a law which transcended any human enactment. Why, then, hold to a mere
+form, when the substance could be otherwise secured? Why should
+Northerner affront Southerner by imperious demands, when the same end
+might be attained by a compromise which would not cost either dear?
+Possibly he was not unwilling to let New Mexico become slave
+Territory, if the greater Northwest should become free by the
+operation of the same principle. Besides, there was the very tangible
+advantage of holding his party together by a sensible agreement, for
+the sake of which each faction yielded something.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas was not blind to the palpable truth that the masses are swayed
+more by sentiment than logic: <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>indeed, he knew well enough how to run
+through the gamut of popular emotions. What did escape him was the
+almost religious depth of the anti-slavery sentiment in that very
+stock from which he himself had sprung. It was not a sentiment that
+could be bargained away. There was much in it of the inexorable
+obstinacy of the Puritan faith. Verging close upon fanaticism at
+times, it swept away considerations of time and place, and overwhelmed
+appeals to expediency. Even where the anti-slavery spirit did not take
+on this extreme form, those whom it possessed were reluctant to yield
+one jot or tittle of the substantial gains which freedom had made.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that with the growing sectionalism, North and South
+would soon have been at odds over the disposition of the greater
+Northwest. Sooner or later, the South must have demanded the repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise, or have sought large concessions elsewhere.
+But it is safe to say that no one except Douglas could have been found
+in 1854, who possessed the requisite parliamentary qualities, the
+personal following, the influence in all sections,&mdash;and withal, the
+audacity, to propose and carry through the policy associated with the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. The responsibility for this measure rested in a
+peculiar sense upon his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the course of this post-election discussion of February 23d,
+that Wade insinuated that mercenary motives were the key to Douglas's
+conduct. &quot;Have the people of Illinois forgotten that injunction of
+more than heavenly wisdom, that 'Where a man's treasure is, there will
+his heart be also'?&quot; To this unwarranted charge, which was current in
+Abolitionist circles, <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>Douglas made a circumstantial denial. &quot;I am not
+the owner of a slave and never have been, nor have I ever received,
+and appropriated to my own use, one dollar earned by slave-labor.&quot; For
+the first time, he spoke of the will of Colonel Martin and of the
+property which he had bequeathed to his daughter and to her children.
+With very genuine emotion, which touched even his enemies, he added,
+&quot;God forbid that I should be understood by anyone as being willing to
+cast from me any responsibility that now does, or has ever attached to
+any member of my family. So long as life shall last&mdash;and I shall
+cherish with religious veneration the memories and virtues of the
+sainted mother of my children&mdash;so long as my heart shall be filled
+with parental solicitude for the happiness of those motherless
+infants, I implore my enemies who so ruthlessly invade the domestic
+sanctuary, to do me the favor to believe, that I have no wish, no
+aspiration, to be considered purer or better than she, who was, or
+they, who are, slaveholders.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_522_522" id="FNanchor_522_522"></a><a href="#Footnote_522_522"><sup>[522]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When the new Congress met in the fall of 1855, the anti-Nebraska men
+drew closer together and gradually assumed the name &quot;Republican.&quot;
+Their first victory was the election of their candidate for the
+Speakership. They were disciplined by astute leaders under the
+pressure of disorders in Kansas. Before the session closed, they
+developed a remarkable degree of cohesion, while the body of their
+supporters in the Northern States assumed alarming proportions. The
+party was not wholly, perhaps not mainly, the product of humanitarian
+sentiment. The adherence of old-line Whig politicians like Seward
+suggests that there <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>was some alloy in the pure gold of Republicanism.
+Such leaders were willing to make political capital out of the
+breakdown of popular sovereignty in Kansas.<a name="FNanchor_523_523" id="FNanchor_523_523"></a><a href="#Footnote_523_523"><sup>[523]</sup></a> They were too shrewd
+to stake the fortune of the nascent party on a bold, constructive
+policy. They preferred to play a waiting game. Events in Kansas came
+to their aid in ways that they could not have anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>While this re-alignment of parties was in progress, the presidential
+year drew on apace. It behooved the Democrats to gather their
+scattered forces. The advantage of organization was theirs; but they
+suffered from desertions. The morale of the party was weakened. To
+check further desertions and to restore confidence, was the aim of the
+party whips. No one had more at stake than Douglas. He was on trial
+with his party. Conscious of his responsibilities, he threw himself
+into the light skirmishing in Congress which always precedes a
+presidential campaign. In this partisan warfare he was clever, but not
+altogether admirable. One could wish that he had been less
+uncharitable and less denunciatory; but political victories are seldom
+won by unaided virtue.</p>
+
+<p>From the outset his anti-Nebraska colleague was the object of his
+bitterest gibes, for Trumbull typified the deserter, who was causing
+such alarm in the ranks of the Democrats. &quot;I understand that my
+colleague has told the Senate,&quot; said Douglas contemptuously, &quot;that he
+comes here as a Democrat. Sir, that fact will be news to the Democracy
+of Illinois. I undertake to assert there is not a Democrat in Illinois
+who will not say that such a statement is a libel upon the <a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a>Democracy
+of that State. When he was elected he received every Abolition vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. He received every Know-Nothing vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. So far as I am advised and believe, he
+received no vote except from persons allied to Abolitionism or
+Know-Nothingism. He came here as the Know-Nothing-Abolition candidate,
+in opposition to the united Democracy of his State, and to the
+Democratic candidate.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_524_524" id="FNanchor_524_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524_524"><sup>[524]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When to desertion was added association with &quot;Black Republicans,&quot;
+Douglas found his vocabulary inadequate to express his scorn. Like
+most Democrats he was sensitive on the subject of party
+nomenclature.<a name="FNanchor_525_525" id="FNanchor_525_525"></a><a href="#Footnote_525_525"><sup>[525]</sup></a> &quot;Republican&quot; was a term which had associations with
+the very father of Democracy, though the party had long since dropped
+the hyphenated title. But this new, so-called Republican party had
+wisely dropped the prefix &quot;national,&quot; suggested Douglas, because &quot;it
+is a purely sectional party, with a platform which cannot cross the
+Ohio river, and a creed which inevitably brings the North and South
+into hostile collision.&quot; In view of the emphasis which their platform
+put upon the negro, Douglas thought that consistency required the
+substitution of the word &quot;Black&quot; for &quot;National.&quot; The Democratic party,
+on the other hand, had no sympathy with those who believed in making
+the negro the social and political equal of the white man. &quot;Our people
+are a white people; our State is a white State; and we mean to
+preserve the race pure, without any mixture with the negro. If you,&quot;
+turning to his Republican opponents, &quot;wish <a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>your blood and that of the
+African mingled in the same channel, we trust that you will keep at a
+respectful distance from us, and not try to force that on us as one of
+your domestic institutions.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_526_526" id="FNanchor_526_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_526_526"><sup>[526]</sup></a> In such wise, Douglas labored to
+befog and discredit the issues for which the new party stood. The
+demagogue in him overmastered the statesman.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas believed himself&mdash;and with good reason&mdash;to be the probable
+nominee of his party in the approaching presidential election. Several
+State conventions had already declared for him. There was no other
+Democrat, save President Pierce, whose name was so intimately
+associated with the policy of the party as expressed in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. Yet, while both were in favor at the South,
+neither Pierce nor Douglas was likely to secure the full party vote at
+the North. This consideration led to a diversion in favor of James
+Buchanan, of Pennsylvania. The peculiar availability of this
+well-known Democrat consisted in his having been on a foreign mission
+when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was under fire. Still, Buchanan was
+reported &quot;sound&quot; on the essential features of this measure. Before the
+national convention met, a well-organized movement was under way to
+secure the nomination of the Pennsylvanian.<a name="FNanchor_527_527" id="FNanchor_527_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527_527"><sup>[527]</sup></a> Equally
+well-organized and even more noisy and demonstrative was the following
+of Douglas, as the delegates began to assemble at Cincinnati during
+the first week in June.</p>
+
+<p>The first ballot in the convention must have been a grievous
+disappointment to Douglas and his friends. <a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>While Buchanan received
+135 votes and Pierce 122, he could muster only 33. Only the Missouri
+and Illinois delegations cast their full vote for him. Of the slave
+States, only Missouri and Kentucky gave him any support. As the
+balloting continued, however, both Buchanan and Douglas gained at the
+expense of Pierce. After the fourteenth ballot, Pierce withdrew, and
+the bulk of his support was turned over to Douglas. Cass, the fourth
+candidate before the convention, had been from the first out of the
+running, his highest vote being only seven. On the sixteenth ballot,
+Buchanan received 168 and Douglas 122. Though Buchanan now had a
+majority of the votes of the convention, he still lacked thirty of the
+two-thirds required for a nomination.<a name="FNanchor_528_528" id="FNanchor_528_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528_528"><sup>[528]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was at this juncture that Douglas telegraphed to his friend
+Richardson, who was chairman of the Illinois delegation and a
+prominent figure in the convention, instructing him to withdraw his
+name. The announcement was received with loud protestations. The
+dispatch was then read: &quot;If the withdrawal of my name will contribute
+to the harmony of our party or the success of our cause, I hope you
+will not hesitate to take the step ... if Mr. Pierce or Mr. Buchanan,
+or any other statesman who is faithful to the great issues involved in
+the contest, shall receive a majority of the convention, I earnestly
+hope that all my friends will unite in insuring him two-thirds, and
+then making <a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>his nomination unanimous. Let no personal considerations
+disturb the harmony or endanger the triumph of our principles.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_529_529" id="FNanchor_529_529"></a><a href="#Footnote_529_529"><sup>[529]</sup></a>
+Very reluctantly the supporters of Douglas obeyed their chief, and on
+the seventeenth ballot, James Buchanan received the unanimous vote of
+the convention. For the second time Douglas lost the nomination of his
+party.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas bore himself admirably. At a mass-meeting in Washington,<a name="FNanchor_530_530" id="FNanchor_530_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_530_530"><sup>[530]</sup></a>
+he made haste to pledge his support to the nominee of the convention.
+His generous words of commendation of Buchanan, as a man possessing
+&quot;wisdom and nerve to enforce a firm and undivided execution, of the
+laws&quot; of the majority of the people of Kansas, were uttered without
+any apparent misgivings. Prophetic they certainly were not. Douglas
+could approve the platform unqualifiedly, for it was a virtual
+indorsement of the principle which he had proclaimed from the
+housetops for the greater part of two years. &quot;The American Democracy,&quot;
+read the main article in the newly adopted resolutions, &quot;recognize and
+adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the
+Territories of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying the only sound and
+safe solution of the slavery question, upon which the great national
+idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined
+conservation of the Union, and non-interference of Congress with
+slavery in the Territories or in the District of Columbia.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_531_531" id="FNanchor_531_531"></a><a href="#Footnote_531_531"><sup>[531]</sup></a>
+Douglas deemed it a cause for <a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>profound rejoicing that the party was
+at last united upon principles which could be avowed everywhere,
+North, South, East, and West. As the only national party in the
+Republic, the Democracy had a great mission to perform, for in his
+opinion &quot;no less than the integrity of the Constitution, the
+preservation and perpetuity of the Union,&quot; depended upon the result of
+this election.<a name="FNanchor_532_532" id="FNanchor_532_532"></a><a href="#Footnote_532_532"><sup>[532]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>No man could have been more magnanimous under defeat and so little
+resentful at a personal slight. His manly conduct received favorable
+comment on all sides.<a name="FNanchor_533_533" id="FNanchor_533_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_533_533"><sup>[533]</sup></a> He was still the foremost figure in the
+Democratic party. To be sure, James Buchanan was the titular leader,
+but he stood upon a platform erected by his rival. His letter of
+acceptance left no doubt in the minds of all readers that he indorsed
+the letter and the spirit of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.<a name="FNanchor_534_534" id="FNanchor_534_534"></a><a href="#Footnote_534_534"><sup>[534]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A fortnight later the Republican national convention met at
+Philadelphia, and with great enthusiasm adopted a platform declaring
+it to be the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories &quot;those
+twin relics <a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a>of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.&quot; Even in this new
+party, availability dictated the choice of a presidential candidate.
+The real leaders of the party were passed over in favor of John C.
+Fr&eacute;mont, whose romantic career was believed to be worth many votes.
+Pitted against Buchanan and Fr&eacute;mont, was Millard Fillmore who had been
+nominated months before by the American party, and who subsequently
+received the indorsement of what was left of the moribund Whig
+party.<a name="FNanchor_535_535" id="FNanchor_535_535"></a><a href="#Footnote_535_535"><sup>[535]</sup></a></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_507_507" id="Footnote_507_507"></a><a href="#FNanchor_507_507">[507]</a> This aspect of party has been treated at greater length
+in an article by the writer entitled &quot;The Nationalizing Influence of
+Party,&quot; <i>Tale Review</i>, November; 1906.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_508_508" id="Footnote_508_508"></a><a href="#FNanchor_508_508">[508]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 264-265.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_509_509" id="Footnote_509_509"></a><a href="#FNanchor_509_509">[509]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 271.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_510_510" id="Footnote_510_510"></a><a href="#FNanchor_510_510">[510]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 269.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_511_511" id="Footnote_511_511"></a><a href="#FNanchor_511_511">[511]</a> Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 98-99.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_512_512" id="Footnote_512_512"></a><a href="#FNanchor_512_512">[512]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 641-643.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_513_513" id="Footnote_513_513"></a><a href="#FNanchor_513_513">[513]</a> See items scattered through the Illinois <i>State
+Register</i> for these exciting weeks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_514_514" id="Footnote_514_514"></a><a href="#FNanchor_514_514">[514]</a> See Illinois State <i>Register</i>, October 6, 1854, and
+subsequent issues.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_515_515" id="Footnote_515_515"></a><a href="#FNanchor_515_515">[515]</a> Nearly every biographer of Lincoln has noted this
+apparent breach of agreement on the part of Douglas, but none has
+questioned the accuracy of the story, though the unimaginative Lamon
+betrays some misgivings, as he records Lincoln's course after the
+&quot;Peoria truce.&quot; See Lamon, Lincoln, p. 358. The statement of Irwin (in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 329) does not seem credible, in the
+light of all the attendant circumstances.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_516_516" id="Footnote_516_516"></a><a href="#FNanchor_516_516">[516]</a> <i>Whig Almanac</i> 1855.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_517_517" id="Footnote_517_517"></a><a href="#FNanchor_517_517">[517]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_518_518" id="Footnote_518_518"></a><a href="#FNanchor_518_518">[518]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_519_519" id="Footnote_519_519"></a><a href="#FNanchor_519_519">[519]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, pp. 689-690;
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 275-276.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_520_520" id="Footnote_520_520"></a><a href="#FNanchor_520_520">[520]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_521_521" id="Footnote_521_521"></a><a href="#FNanchor_521_521">[521]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 216.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_522_522" id="Footnote_522_522"></a><a href="#FNanchor_522_522">[522]</a> Globe, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 330.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_523_523" id="Footnote_523_523"></a><a href="#FNanchor_523_523">[523]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 97-98,
+130, 196.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_524_524" id="Footnote_524_524"></a><a href="#FNanchor_524_524">[524]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 655.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_525_525" id="Footnote_525_525"></a><a href="#FNanchor_525_525">[525]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, App., p. 391.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_526_526" id="Footnote_526_526"></a><a href="#FNanchor_526_526">[526]</a> <i>Globe,</i>34 Cong., 1 Sess., App. p. 392.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_527_527" id="Footnote_527_527"></a><a href="#FNanchor_527_527">[527]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 169-171.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_528_528" id="Footnote_528_528"></a><a href="#FNanchor_528_528">[528]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 265. Douglas
+received 73 votes from the slave States and Buchanan 47; Buchanan
+received 28 votes in New England, Douglas 13; Buchanan received 41
+votes from the Northwest, Douglas 19. The loss of Buchanan in the
+South was more than made good by his votes from the Middle Atlantic
+States.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_529_529" id="Footnote_529_529"></a><a href="#FNanchor_529_529">[529]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 448-449; Proceedings of the
+National Democratic Convention, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_530_530" id="Footnote_530_530"></a><a href="#FNanchor_530_530">[530]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, June 7, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_531_531" id="Footnote_531_531"></a><a href="#FNanchor_531_531">[531]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 267.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_532_532" id="Footnote_532_532"></a><a href="#FNanchor_532_532">[532]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, June 7, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_533_533" id="Footnote_533_533"></a><a href="#FNanchor_533_533">[533]</a> Correspondent to Cincinnati <i>Enquirer</i>, June 12, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_534_534" id="Footnote_534_534"></a><a href="#FNanchor_534_534">[534]</a> The letter read, &quot;This legislation is founded upon
+principles as ancient as free government itself, and in accordance
+with them has simply declared that the people of a Territory like
+those of a State, shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall or
+shall not exist within their limits. The Kansas-Nebraska Act does no
+more than give the force of law to this elementary principle of
+self-government, declaring it to be 'the true intent and meaning of
+this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to
+exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
+to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
+subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' How vain and
+illusory would any other principle prove in practice in regard to the
+Territories,&quot; etc. Cincinnati <i>Enquirer</i>, June 22, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_535_535" id="Footnote_535_535"></a><a href="#FNanchor_535_535">[535]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 269-274.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>CHAPTER XIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE TESTING OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill doubtless anticipated a gradual
+and natural occupation of the new Territories by settlers like those
+home-seekers who had taken up government lands in Iowa and other
+States of the Northwest. In the course of time, it was to be expected,
+such communities would form their own social and political
+institutions, and so determine whether they would permit or forbid
+slave-labor. By that rapid, and yet on the whole strangely
+conservative, American process the people of the Territories would
+become politically self-conscious and ready for statehood. Not all at
+once, but gradually, a politically self-sufficient entity would come
+into being. Such had been the history of American colonization; it
+seemed the part of wise statesmanship to follow the trend of that
+history.</p>
+
+<p>Theoretically popular sovereignty, as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act, was not an advance over the doctrine of Cass and Dickinson. It
+professed to be the same which had governed Congress in organizing
+Utah and New Mexico. Nevertheless, popular sovereignty had an
+artificial quality which squatter sovereignty lacked. The relation
+between Congress and the people of the Territories, in the matter of
+slavery, was now to be determined not so much by actual conditions as
+by an abstract principle. Federal policy was indoctrinated.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>There was, too, this vital difference between squatter sovereignty in
+Utah and New Mexico and popular sovereignty in Nebraska and Kansas:
+the former were at least partially inhabited and enjoyed some degree
+of social and political order; the latter were practically
+uninhabited. It was one thing to grant control over all domestic
+concerns to a population <i>in esse</i>, and another and quite different
+thing to grant control to a people <i>in posse</i>. In the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act hypothetical communities were endowed with the capacity of
+self-government, and told to decide for themselves a question which
+would become a burning issue the very moment that the first settlers
+set foot in the Territories. Congress attempted thus to solve an
+equation without a single known quantity.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, slavery was no longer a matter of local concern. Doubtless
+it was once so regarded; but the time had passed when the conscience
+of the North would acquiesce in a <i>laissez faire</i> policy. By force of
+circumstances slavery had become a national issue. Ardent haters of
+the institution were not willing that its extension or restriction
+should be left to a fraction of the nation, artificially organized as
+a Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act prejudiced the minds of many
+against the doctrine, however sound in theory it may have seemed, by
+unsettling what the North regarded as its vested right in the free
+territory north of the line of the Missouri Compromise. The Act made
+the political atmosphere electric. The conditions for obtaining a
+calm, dispassionate judgment on the domestic concern of chief
+interest, were altogether lacking.</p>
+
+<p>It was everywhere conceded that Nebraska would <a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a>be a free Territory.
+The eyes of the nation were focused upon Kansas, which was from the
+first debatable ground. A rush of settlers from the Northwest joined
+by pioneers from Kentucky and Missouri followed the opening up of the
+new lands. As Douglas had foretold, the tide of immigration held back
+by Indian treaties now poured in. The characteristic features of
+American colonization seemed about to repeat themselves. So far the
+movement of population was for the most part spontaneous. Land-hunger,
+not the political destiny of the West, drove men to locate their
+claims on the Kansas and the Missouri. By midsummer colonists of a
+somewhat different stripe appeared. Sent out under the auspices of the
+Emigrant Aid Company, they were to win Kansas for freedom at the same
+time that they subdued the wilderness. It was a species of assisted
+emigration which was new in the history of American colonization,
+outside the annals of missionary effort. The chief promoter of this
+enterprise was a thrifty, Massachusetts Yankee, who saw no reason why
+crusading and business should not go hand in hand. Kansas might be
+wrested from the slave-power at the same time that returns on invested
+funds were secured.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of these developments upon the aggressive pro-slavery
+people of Missouri is not easy to describe. Hitherto they had assumed
+that Kansas would become a slave Territory in the natural order of
+events. This was the prevailing Southern opinion. At once the people
+of western Missouri were put upon the defensive. Blue lodges were
+formed for the purpose of carrying slavery into Kansas. Appeals were
+circulated in the slave-holding States for colonists and <a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>funds.
+Passions were inflamed by rumors which grew as they stalked abroad.
+The peaceful occupation of Kansas was at an end. Popular sovereignty
+was to be tested under abnormal conditions.</p>
+
+<p>When the election of territorial delegates to Congress occurred, in
+the late fall, a fatal defect in the organic law was disclosed, to
+which many of the untoward incidents of succeeding months may be
+ascribed. The territorial act conferred the right of voting at the
+first elections upon all free, white, male inhabitants, twenty-one
+years of age and actually resident in the Territory.<a name="FNanchor_536_536" id="FNanchor_536_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_536_536"><sup>[536]</sup></a> Here was an
+unfortunate ambiguity. What was actual residence? Every other act
+organizing a territorial government was definite on this point,
+permitting only those to vote who were living in the proposed
+Territory, at the time of the passage of the act. The omission in the
+case of Kansas and Nebraska is easily accounted for. Neither had legal
+residents when the act was passed. Indeed, this defect bears witness
+to the fact that Congress was legislating, not for actual, but for
+hypothetical communities. The consequences were far-reaching, for at
+the very first election, it was charged that frauds were practiced by
+bands of Missourians, who had crossed the border only to aid the
+pro-slavery cause. Not much was made of these charges, as no
+particular interest attached to the election.</p>
+
+<p>Far different was the election of members of the territorial
+legislature in the following spring. On all hands it was agreed that
+this legislature would determine whether Kansas should be slave or
+free soil. It was regrettable that Governor Reeder postponed <a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>the
+taking of the census until February, since by mid-winter many
+settlers, who had staked their claims, returned home for the cold
+season, intending to return with their families in the early spring.
+This again was a characteristic feature of frontier history.<a name="FNanchor_537_537" id="FNanchor_537_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_537_537"><sup>[537]</sup></a> In
+March, the governor issued his proclamation of election, giving only
+three weeks' notice. Of those who had returned home, only residents of
+Missouri and Iowa were able to participate in the election of March
+30th, by hastily recrossing into Kansas. Governor Reeder did his best
+to guard against fraud. In his instructions to the judges of election,
+he warned them that a voter must be &quot;an actual resident&quot;; that is,
+&quot;must have commenced an active inhabitancy, which he actually intends
+to continue permanently, and must have made the Territory his dwelling
+place to the exclusion of any other home.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_538_538" id="FNanchor_538_538"></a><a href="#Footnote_538_538"><sup>[538]</sup></a> Still, it was not to
+be expected that <i>bona fide</i> residents could be easily ascertained in
+communities which had sprung up like mushrooms. A hastily constructed
+shack served all the purposes of the would-be voter; and, in last
+analysis, judges of elections had to rest content with declarations of
+intentions. Those who crossed into Kansas after the governor's
+proclamation and endeavored to continue actual inhabitancy, were with
+difficulty distinguished from those who now crossed for the first
+time, under a similar pretext. As Douglas subsequently contended with
+much force, the number of votes cast in excess of the census returns
+did not in itself prove wholesale fraud.<a name="FNanchor_539_539" id="FNanchor_539_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539_539"><sup>[539]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>Under such liability to deception and misjudgment, the territorial
+authorities held the election which was likely to determine the status
+of Kansas with respect to slavery. Both parties were playing for great
+stakes; passion and violence were the almost inevitable outcome. Both
+parties contained desperadoes, who invariably come to the surface in
+the general mixing which occurs on the frontier. Both parties committed
+frauds at the polls. But the most serious gravamina have been laid at
+the door of those Blue Lodges of Missouri which deliberately sought to
+secure the election of pro-slavery candidates by fair means or foul.
+The people of western Missouri had come to believe that the fate of
+slavery in their own Commonwealth hinged upon the future of Kansas. It
+was commonly believed that after Kansas, Missouri would be
+abolitionized. It was, therefore, with the fierce, unreasoning energy
+of defenders of their own institutions, that Blue Lodges organized
+their crusade for Kansas.<a name="FNanchor_540_540" id="FNanchor_540_540"></a><a href="#Footnote_540_540"><sup>[540]</sup></a> On election day armed bands of
+Missourians crossed into Kansas and polled a heavy vote for the
+pro-slavery candidates, in the teeth of indignant remonstrances.<a name="FNanchor_541_541" id="FNanchor_541_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_541_541"><sup>[541]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The further history of popular sovereignty in Kansas must be lightly
+touched upon, for it is the reflex action in the halls of Congress
+that interests the student of Douglas's career. Twenty-eight of the
+thirty-nine members of the first territorial legislature were men of
+pronounced pro-slavery views; eleven were anti-slavery candidates. In
+seven districts, where protests had been filed, the governor ordered
+new elections. Three of those first elected were returned, six were
+<a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>new men of anti-slavery proclivities. But when the legislature met,
+these new elections were set aside and I the first elections were
+declared valid.<a name="FNanchor_542_542" id="FNanchor_542_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542_542"><sup>[542]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In complete control of the legislature, the pro-slavery party
+proceeded to write slavery into the law of the Territory. In their
+eagerness to establish slavery permanently, these legislative Hotspurs
+quite overshot the mark, creating offenses and affixing penalties of
+doubtful constitutionality.<a name="FNanchor_543_543" id="FNanchor_543_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543_543"><sup>[543]</sup></a> Meanwhile the census of February
+reported but one hundred ninety-two slaves in a total population of
+eight thousand six hundred.<a name="FNanchor_544_544" id="FNanchor_544_544"></a><a href="#Footnote_544_544"><sup>[544]</sup></a> Those who had migrated from the
+South, were not as a rule of the slave-holding class. Those who
+possessed slaves shrank from risking their property in Kansas, until
+its future were settled.<a name="FNanchor_545_545" id="FNanchor_545_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545_545"><sup>[545]</sup></a> Eventually, the climate was to prove an
+even greater obstacle to the transplantation of the slave-labor system
+into Kansas.</p>
+
+<p>Foiled in their hope of winning the territorial legislature, the
+free-State settlers in Kansas resolved upon a hazardous course.
+Believing the legislature an illegal body, they called a convention to
+draft a constitution with which they proposed to apply for admission
+to the Union as a free State. Robinson, the leader of the free-State
+party, was wise in such matters by reason of his experience in
+California. Reeder, who had been displaced as governor and had gone
+over to the opposition, lent his aid to the project; and
+ex-Congressman Lane, formerly of Indiana, gave liberally of his
+vehement energy to the cause. After successive <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>conventions in which
+the various free-State elements were worked into a fairly consistent
+mixture, the Topeka convention launched a constitution and a
+free-State government. Unofficially the supporters of the new
+government took measures for its defense. In the following spring,
+Governor Robinson sent his first message to the State legislature in
+session at Topeka; and Reeder and Lane were chosen senators for the
+inchoate Commonwealth.<a name="FNanchor_546_546" id="FNanchor_546_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_546_546"><sup>[546]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Governor Shannon had succeeded Reeder as executive of the
+territorial government at Shawnee Mission. The aspect of affairs was
+ominous. Popular sovereignty had ended in a dangerous dualism. Two
+governments confronted each other in bitter hostility. There were
+untamed individuals in either camp, who were not averse to a decision
+by wager of battle.<a name="FNanchor_547_547" id="FNanchor_547_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_547_547"><sup>[547]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Such was the situation in Kansas, when Douglas reached Washington in
+February, after a protracted illness.<a name="FNanchor_548_548" id="FNanchor_548_548"></a><a href="#Footnote_548_548"><sup>[548]</sup></a> The President had already
+discussed the Kansas imbroglio in a special message; but the
+Democratic majority in the Senate showed some reluctance to follow the
+lead of the administration. From the Democrats in the House not much
+could be expected, because of the strength of the Republicans. The
+party awaited its leader. Upon his appearance, all matters relating to
+Kansas were referred to the Committee on Territories. The situation
+called for unusual qualities of leadership. How would the author of
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act face the palpable breakdown of his policy?</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>With his customary dispatch, Douglas reported on the 12th of
+March.<a name="FNanchor_549_549" id="FNanchor_549_549"></a><a href="#Footnote_549_549"><sup>[549]</sup></a> The majority report consumed two hours in the reading;
+Senator Collamer stated the position of the minority in half the
+time.<a name="FNanchor_550_550" id="FNanchor_550_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_550_550"><sup>[550]</sup></a> Evidently the chairman was aware where the burden of proof
+lay. Douglas took substantially the same ground as that taken by the
+President in his special message, but he discussed the issues boldly
+in his own vigorous way. No one doubted that he had reached his
+conclusions independently.</p>
+
+<p>The report began with a constitutional argument in defense of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act. As a contribution to the development of the
+doctrine of popular sovereignty, the opening paragraphs deserve more
+than passing notice. The distinct advance in Douglas's thought
+consisted in this: that he explicitly refused to derive the power to
+organize Territories from that provision of the Constitution which
+gave Congress &quot;power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to
+the United States.&quot; The word &quot;territory&quot; here was used in its
+geographical sense to designate the public domain, not to indicate a
+political community. Rather was the power to be derived from the
+authority of Congress to adopt necessary and proper means to admit new
+States into the Union. But beyond the necessary and proper
+organization of a territorial government with reference to ultimate
+statehood, Congress might not go. Clearly, then, Congress might not
+impose conditions and restrictions upon a Territory which would
+prevent its entering the Union on an equality <a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>with the other States.
+From the formation of the Union, each State had been left free to
+decide the question of slavery for itself. Congress, therefore, might
+not decide the question for prospective States. Recognizing this, the
+framers of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had relegated the discussion of the
+slavery question to the people, who were to form a territorial
+government under cover of the organic act.<a name="FNanchor_551_551" id="FNanchor_551_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551_551"><sup>[551]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This was an ingenious argument. It was in accord with the utterances
+of some of the weightiest intellects in our constitutional history.
+But it was not in accord with precedent. There was hardly a
+territorial act that had emerged from Douglas's committee room, which
+had not imposed restrictions not binding on the older Commonwealths.</p>
+
+<p>Having given thus a constitutional sanction to the principle of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, the report unhesitatingly denounced that &quot;vast
+moneyed corporation,&quot; created for the purpose of controlling the
+domestic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen
+hundred miles away.<a name="FNanchor_552_552" id="FNanchor_552_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_552_552"><sup>[552]</sup></a> This was as flagrant an act of intervention
+as though France or England had interfered for a similar purpose in
+Cuba, for &quot;in respect to everything which affects its domestic policy
+and internal concerns, each State stands in the relation of a foreign
+power to every other State.&quot; The obvious retort to this extraordinary
+assertion was, that Kansas was only a Territory, and not a State.
+Douglas then made this &quot;mammoth moneyed corporation&quot; the scapegoat for
+all that had happened in Kansas. The Missouri Blue Lodges were
+defensive organizations, called <a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>into existence by the fear that the
+&quot;abolitionizing&quot; of Kansas was the prelude to a warfare upon slavery
+in Missouri. The violence and bloodshed in Kansas were &quot;the natural
+and inevitable consequences of such extraordinary systems of
+emigration.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_553_553" id="FNanchor_553_553"></a><a href="#Footnote_553_553"><sup>[553]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Such <i>ex post facto</i> assertions did not mend matters in Kansas,
+however much they may have relieved the author of the report. It
+remained to deal with the existing situation. The report took the
+ground that the legislature of Kansas was a legal body and had been so
+recognized by Governor Reeder. Neither the alleged irregularity of the
+elections, nor other objections, could diminish its legislative
+authority. Pro-tests against the election returns had been filed in
+only seven out of eighteen districts. Ten out of thirteen councilmen,
+and seventeen out of twenty-six representatives, held their seats by
+virtue of the governor's certificate. Even if it were assumed that the
+second elections in the seven districts were wrongly invalidated by
+the legislature, its action was still the action of a lawful
+legislature, possessing in either house a quorum of duly certificated
+members. This was a lawyer's plea. Technically it was unanswerable.</p>
+
+<p>Having taken this position, Douglas very properly refused to pass
+judgment on the laws of the legislature. By the very terms of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, Congress had confided the power to enact local
+laws to the people of the Territories. If the validity of these laws
+should be doubted, it was for the courts of justice and not for
+Congress to decide the question.<a name="FNanchor_554_554" id="FNanchor_554_554"></a><a href="#Footnote_554_554"><sup>[554]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Throughout the report, the question was not once <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>raised, whether the
+legislature really reflected the sentiment of a majority of the
+settlers of Kansas. Douglas assumed that it was truly representative.
+This attitude is not surprising, when one recalls his predilections
+and the conflict of evidence on essential points in the controversy.
+Nevertheless, this attitude was unfortunate, for it made him unfair
+toward the free-State settlers, with whom by temper and training he
+had far more in common than with the Missouri emigrants. Could he have
+cut himself loose from his bias, he would have recognized the
+free-State men as the really trustworthy builders of a Commonwealth.
+But having taken his stand on the legality of the territorial
+legislature, he persisted in regarding the free-State movement as a
+seditious combination to subvert the territorial government
+established by Congress. To the free-State men he would not accord any
+inherent, sovereign right to annul the laws and resist the authority
+of the territorial government.<a name="FNanchor_555_555" id="FNanchor_555_555"></a><a href="#Footnote_555_555"><sup>[555]</sup></a> The right of self-government was
+derived only from the Constitution through the organic act passed by
+Congress. And then he used that expression which was used with telling
+effect against the theory of popular sovereignty: &quot;The sovereignty of
+a Territory remains in abeyance, suspended in the United States, in
+trust for the people, until they shall be admitted into the Union as a
+State.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_556_556" id="FNanchor_556_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556_556"><sup>[556]</sup></a> If this was true, then popular sovereignty after all
+meant nothing more than local self-government, the measure of which
+was to be determined by Congress. If Congress left slavery to local
+determination, it was only for expediency's sake, and not by reason of
+any constitutional obligation.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>Douglas found a vindication of his Kansas-Nebraska Act in the peaceful
+history of Nebraska, &quot;to which the emigrant aid societies did not
+extend their operations, and into which the stream of emigration was
+permitted to flow in its usual and natural channels.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_557_557" id="FNanchor_557_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_557_557"><sup>[557]</sup></a> He fixed
+the ultimate responsibility for the disorders in Kansas upon those who
+opposed the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and who, &quot;failing to
+accomplish their purpose in the halls of Congress, and under the
+authority of the Constitution, immediately resorted in their
+respective States to unusual and extraordinary means to control the
+political destinies and shape the domestic institutions of Kansas, in
+defiance of the wishes and regardless of the rights of the people of
+that Territory as guaranteed by their organic law.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_558_558" id="FNanchor_558_558"></a><a href="#Footnote_558_558"><sup>[558]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A practical recommendation accompanied the report. It was proposed to
+authorize the territorial legislature to provide for a constitutional
+convention to frame a State constitution, as soon as a census should
+indicate that there were ninety-three thousand four hundred and twenty
+inhabitants.<a name="FNanchor_559_559" id="FNanchor_559_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559_559"><sup>[559]</sup></a> This bill was in substantial accord with the
+President's recommendations.</p>
+
+<p>The minority report was equally positive as to the cause of the
+trouble in Kansas and the proper remedy. &quot;Repeal the act of 1854,
+organize Kansas anew as a free Territory and all will be put right.&quot;
+But if Congress was bent on continuing the experiment, then the
+Territory must be reorganized with proper safeguards against illegal
+voting. The only alternative was to admit the Territory as a State
+with its free constitution.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>The issue could not have been more sharply drawn. Popular sovereignty
+as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was put upon the defensive.
+Republican senators made haste to press their advantage. Sumner
+declared that the true issue was smothered in the majority report, but
+stood forth as a pillar of fire in the report of the minority.
+Trumbull forced the attack, while Douglas was absent, without waiting
+for the printing of the reports. It needed only this apparent
+discourtesy to bring Douglas into the arena. An unseemly wrangle
+between the Illinois senators followed, in the course of which Douglas
+challenged his colleague to resign and stand with him for re-election
+before the next session of the legislature.<a name="FNanchor_560_560" id="FNanchor_560_560"></a><a href="#Footnote_560_560"><sup>[560]</sup></a> Trumbull wisely
+declined to accept the risk.</p>
+
+<p>On the 20th of March, Douglas addressed the Senate in reply to
+Trumbull.<a name="FNanchor_561_561" id="FNanchor_561_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_561_561"><sup>[561]</sup></a> Nothing that he said shed any new light on the
+controversy. He had not changed his angle of vision. He had only the
+old arguments with which to combat the assertion that &quot;Kansas had been
+conquered and a legislature imposed by violence.&quot; But the speech
+differed from the report, just as living speech must differ from the
+printed page. Every assertion was pointed by his vigorous intonations;
+every argument was accentuated by his forceful personality. The report
+was a lawyer's brief; the speech was the flexible utterance of an
+accomplished debater, bent upon a personal as well as an argumentative
+victory.</p>
+
+<p>Even hostile critics were forced to yield to a certain admiration for
+&quot;the Little Giant.&quot; The author of <i>Uncle Tom's Cabin</i> watched him from
+her seat in the <a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a>Senate gallery, with intense interest; and though
+writing for readers, who like herself hated the man for his supposed
+servility to the South, she said with unwonted objectivity, &quot;This
+Douglas is the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, and thick-set,
+every inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has a good head
+and face, thick black hair, heavy black brows and a keen eye. His
+figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the animation which
+constantly pervades it; as it is, it rather gives poignancy to his
+peculiar appearance; he has a small, handsome hand, moreover, and a
+graceful as well as forcible mode of using it.... He has two
+requisites of a debater&mdash;a melodious voice and a clear, sharply
+defined enunciation.... His forte in debating is his power of
+mystifying the point. With the most off-hand assured airs in the
+world, and a certain appearance of honest superiority, like one who
+has a regard for you and wishes to set you right on one or two little
+matters, he proceeds to set up some point which is <i>not</i> that in
+question, but only a family connection of it, and this point he
+attacks with the very best of logic and language; he charges upon it
+horse and foot, runs it down, tramples it in the dust, and then turns
+upon you with&mdash;'Sir, there is your argument! Did not I tell you so?
+You see it is all stuff;' and if you have allowed yourself to be so
+dazzled by his quickness as to forget that the routed point is not,
+after all, the one in question, you suppose all is over with it.
+Moreover, he contrives to mingle up so many stinging allusions to so
+many piquant personalities that by the time he has done his
+mystification a dozen others are ready and burning to spring <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>on their
+feet to repel some direct or indirect attack, all equally wide of the
+point.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_562_562" id="FNanchor_562_562"></a><a href="#Footnote_562_562"><sup>[562]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas paid dearly for some of these personal shots. He had never
+forgiven Sumner for his share in &quot;the Appeal of the Independent
+Democrats.&quot; He lost no opportunity to attribute unworthy motives to
+this man, whose radical views on slavery he never could comprehend.
+More than once he insinuated that the Senator from Massachusetts and
+other Black Republicans were fabricating testimony relating to Kansas
+for political purposes. When Sumner, many weeks later, rose to address
+the Senate on &quot;the Crime against Kansas,&quot; he labored under the double
+weight of personal wrongs and the wrongs of a people. The veteran Cass
+pronounced his speech &quot;the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever
+grated on the ears of the members of this high body.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_563_563" id="FNanchor_563_563"></a><a href="#Footnote_563_563"><sup>[563]</sup></a> Even
+Sumner's friends listened to him with surprise and regret. Of Douglas
+he had this to say:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As the Senator from South Carolina is the Don Quixote, the Senator
+from Illinois is the squire of slavery, its very Sancho Panza, ready
+to do all its humiliating offices. This Senator in his labored
+address, vindicating his labored report&mdash;piling one mass of elaborate
+error upon another mass&mdash;constrained himself, as you will remember, to
+unfamiliar decencies of speech.... I will not stop to repel the
+imputations which he cast upon myself.... Standing on this floor, the
+Senator issued his rescript, requiring submission to the Usurped Power
+of Kansas; and this was accompanied by a manner&mdash;all his own&mdash;such as
+befits the <a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>tyrannical threat.... He is bold. He shrinks from nothing.
+Like Danton, he may cry, <i>'l'audace! l'audace! tonjours l'audace!'</i>
+but even his audacity cannot compass this work. The Senator copies the
+British officer, who, with boastful swagger, said that with the hilt
+of his sword he would cram the 'stamps' down the throats of the
+American people, and he will meet a similar failure.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_564_564" id="FNanchor_564_564"></a><a href="#Footnote_564_564"><sup>[564]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The retort of Douglas was not calculated to turn away wrath. He called
+attention to the fact that these gross insults were not uttered in the
+heat of indignation, but &quot;conned over, written with cool, deliberate
+malignity, repeated from night to night in order to catch the
+appropriate grace.&quot; He ridiculed the excessive self-esteem of Sumner
+in words that moved the Senate to laughter; and then completed his
+vindictive assault by charging Sumner with perfidy. Had he not sworn
+to obey the Constitution, and then, forsooth, refused to support the
+enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law?<a name="FNanchor_565_565" id="FNanchor_565_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_565_565"><sup>[565]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Sumner replied in a passion, &quot;Let the Senator remember hereafter that
+the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not the proper emblems of senatorial
+debate. Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and the
+ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body.... No person
+with the upright form of a man can be allowed, without violation of
+all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of
+offensive personality. Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at
+least, on this floor. The noisome, squat, and nameless animal, to
+which I refer, is not a proper model for an American Senator. Will the
+Senator from Illinois <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>take notice?&quot; And upon Douglas's unworthy
+retort that he certainly would not imitate the Senator in that
+capacity, Stunner said insultingly, &quot;Mr. President, again the Senator
+has switched his tongue, and again he fills the Senate with its
+offensive odor.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_566_566" id="FNanchor_566_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_566_566"><sup>[566]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Two days later Brooks made his assault on Sumner in the Senate
+chamber. Sumner's recollection was, that on recovering consciousness,
+he recognized among those about him, but offering no assistance,
+Senators Douglas and Toombs, and between them, his assailant.<a name="FNanchor_567_567" id="FNanchor_567_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_567_567"><sup>[567]</sup></a> It
+was easy for ill-disposed persons to draw unfortunate inferences from
+this sick-bed testimony. Douglas felt that an explanation was expected
+from him. In a frank, explicit statement he told his colleagues that
+he was in the reception room of the Senate when the assault occurred.
+Hearing what was happening, he rose immediately to his feet to enter
+the chamber and put an end to the affray. But, on second thought, he
+realized that his motives would be misconstrued if he entered the
+hall. When the affair was over, he went in with the crowd. He was not
+near Brooks at any time, and he was not with Senator Toombs, except
+perhaps as he passed him on leaving the chamber. He did not know that
+any attack upon Mr. Sumner was purposed &quot;then or at any other time,
+here or at any other place.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_568_568" id="FNanchor_568_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_568_568"><sup>[568]</sup></a> Still, it is to be regretted that
+Douglas did not act on his first, manly instincts and do all that lay
+in his power to end this brutal assault, regardless of possible
+misconstructions.</p>
+
+<p>Disgraceful as these scenes in Congress were, they <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>were less ominous
+than events which were passing in Kansas. Clashes between pro-slavery
+and free-State settlers had all but resulted in civil war in the
+preceding fall. An unusually severe winter had followed, which not
+only cooled the passions of all for a while, but convinced many a
+slave-holder of the futility of introducing African slaves into a
+climate, where on occasion the mercury would freeze in the
+thermometer. In the spring hostilities were resumed. Under cover of
+executing certain writs in Lawrence, Sheriff Jones and a posse of
+ruffians took revenge upon that stronghold of the Emigrant Aid
+Society, by destroying the newspaper offices, burning some public
+buildings, and pillaging the town. Three days after the sack of
+Lawrence, and just two days after the assault upon Sumner in the
+Senate, John Brown and his sons executed the decree of Almighty God,
+by slaying in cold blood five pro-slavery settlers on the
+Pottawatomie. Civil war had begun in Kansas.<a name="FNanchor_569_569" id="FNanchor_569_569"></a><a href="#Footnote_569_569"><sup>[569]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>If remedial measures for Kansas were needed at the beginning of
+Congress, much more were they needed now. The bill reported by Douglas
+for the eventual admission of Kansas had commended itself neither to
+the leaders, nor to the rank and file, of the party. There was a
+general disposition to await the outcome of the national party
+conventions, before legislating for Kansas. Douglas made repeated
+efforts to expedite his bill, but his failure to secure the Democratic
+nomination seemed to weaken his leadership. Pressure from without
+finally spurred the Democratic members of Congress to action. The
+enthusiasm of the Republicans in convention and their confident
+expectation of <a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a>carrying many States at the North, warned the
+Democrats that they must make some effort to allay the disturbances in
+Kansas. The initiative was taken by Senator Toombs, who drafted a bill
+conceding far more to Northern sentiment than any yet proposed. It
+provided that, after a census had been taken, delegates to a
+constitutional convention should be chosen on the date of the
+presidential election in November. Five competent persons, appointed
+by the President with the consent of the Senate, were to supervise the
+census and the subsequent registration of voters. The convention thus
+chosen was to assemble in December to frame a State constitution and
+government.<a name="FNanchor_570_570" id="FNanchor_570_570"></a><a href="#Footnote_570_570"><sup>[570]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Toombs bill, with several others, and with numerous amendments,
+was referred to the Committee on Territories. Frequent conferences
+followed at Douglas's residence, in which the recognized leaders of
+the party participated.<a name="FNanchor_571_571" id="FNanchor_571_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_571_571"><sup>[571]</sup></a> It was decided to support the Toombs bill
+in a slightly amended form and to make a party measure of it.<a name="FNanchor_572_572" id="FNanchor_572_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_572_572"><sup>[572]</sup></a>
+Prudence warned against attempting to elect Buchanan on a policy of
+merely negative resistance to the Topeka movement.<a name="FNanchor_573_573" id="FNanchor_573_573"></a><a href="#Footnote_573_573"><sup>[573]</sup></a> The Republican
+members of Congress were to be forced to make a show of hands on a
+measure which promised substantial relief to the people of Kansas.</p>
+
+<p>In his report of June 30th, Douglas discussed the various measures
+that had been proposed by Whigs and Republicans, but found the Toombs
+bill best adapted to &quot;insure a fair and impartial decision of the
+questions at issue in Kansas, in accordance with the <a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>wishes of the
+<i>bona fide</i> inhabitants.&quot; A single paragraph from this report ought to
+have convinced those who subsequently doubted the sincerity of
+Douglas's course, that he was partner to no plots against the free
+expression of public opinion in the Territory. &quot;In the opinion of your
+committee, whenever a constitution shall be formed in any Territory,
+preparatory to its admission into the Union as a State, justice, the
+genius of our institutions, the whole theory of our republican system
+imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall be fairly
+expressed, and their will embodied in that fundamental law, without
+fraud or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or unlawful
+influence, and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by
+the Constitution of the United States.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_574_574" id="FNanchor_574_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_574_574"><sup>[574]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Toombs bill caused Republicans grave misgivings, even while they
+conceded its ostensible liberality. Could an administration that had
+condoned the frauds already practiced in Kansas be trusted to appoint
+disinterested commissioners? Would a census of the present population
+give a majority in the proposed convention to the free-State party in
+Kansas? Everyone knew that many free-State people had been driven away
+by the disorders. Douglas endeavored to reassure his opponents on
+these points; but his words carried no weight on the other side of the
+chamber. No better evidence of his good faith in the matter, however,
+could have been asked than he offered, by an amendment which extended
+the right of voting at the elections to all who had been <i>bona fide</i>
+residents and voters, but who had absented themselves from the
+<a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>Territory, provided they should return before October 1st.<a name="FNanchor_575_575" id="FNanchor_575_575"></a><a href="#Footnote_575_575"><sup>[575]</sup></a> If,
+as Republicans asserted, many more free-State settlers than
+pro-slavery squatters had been driven out, then here was a fair
+concession. But what they wanted was not merely an equal chance for
+freedom in Kansas, but precedence. To this end they were ready even to
+admit Kansas under the Topeka constitution, which, by the most
+favorable construction, was the work of a faction.<a name="FNanchor_576_576" id="FNanchor_576_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_576_576"><sup>[576]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was afterwards alleged that Douglas had wittingly suppressed a
+clause in the original Toombs bill, which provided for a submission of
+the constitution to a popular vote. The circumstances were such as to
+make the charge plausible, and Douglas, in his endeavor to clear
+himself, made hasty and unqualified statements which were manifestly
+incorrect. In his own bill for the admission of Kansas, Douglas
+referred explicitly to &quot;the election for the adoption of the
+Constitution.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_577_577" id="FNanchor_577_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_577_577"><sup>[577]</sup></a> The wording of the clause indicates that he
+regarded the popular ratification of the constitution to be a matter
+of course. The original Toombs bill had also referred explicitly to a
+ratification of the constitution by the people;<a name="FNanchor_578_578" id="FNanchor_578_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_578_578"><sup>[578]</sup></a> but when it was
+reported from Douglas's committee in an amended form, it had been
+stripped of this provision. Trumbull noted at the time that this
+amended bill made no provision for the submission of the constitution
+to the vote of the people and deplored the omission, though he
+supposed, as did most men, that such a ratification would be
+necessary.<a name="FNanchor_579_579" id="FNanchor_579_579"></a><a href="#Footnote_579_579"><sup>[579]</sup></a> <a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>Subsequently he accused Douglas not only of having
+intentionally omitted the referendum clause, but of having prevented a
+popular vote, by adding the clause, &quot;and until the complete execution
+of this Act, no other election shall be held in said Territory.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_580_580" id="FNanchor_580_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_580_580"><sup>[580]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas cleared himself from the latter charge, by pointing out that
+this clause had been struck out upon his own motion, and replaced by
+the clause which read, &quot;all other elections in said Territory are
+hereby postponed until such time as said convention shall
+appoint.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_581_581" id="FNanchor_581_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_581_581"><sup>[581]</sup></a> As to the other charge, Douglas said in 1857, that he
+knew the Toombs bill was silent on the matter of submission, but he
+took the fair construction to be that powers not delegated were
+reserved, and that of course the constitution would be submitted to
+the people. &quot;That I was a party, either by private conferences at my
+house or otherwise, to a plan to force a constitution on the people of
+Kansas without submission, is not true.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_582_582" id="FNanchor_582_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_582_582"><sup>[582]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Still, there was the ugly fact that the Toombs bill had gone to his
+committee with the clause, and had emerged shorn of it. Toombs himself
+threw some light on the matter by stating that the clause had been
+stricken out because there was no provision for a second election, and
+therefore no proper safeguards for such a popular vote.<a name="FNanchor_583_583" id="FNanchor_583_583"></a><a href="#Footnote_583_583"><sup>[583]</sup></a> The
+probability is that Douglas, and in fact most men, deemed it
+sufficient at that time to provide a fair opportunity for the
+<a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>election of a convention.<a name="FNanchor_584_584" id="FNanchor_584_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_584_584"><sup>[584]</sup></a> When Trumbull preferred his charges in
+detail in the campaign of 1858, Douglas at first flatly denied that
+there was a submission clause in the original Toombs bill. Both
+Trumbull and Lincoln then convicted Douglas of error, and thus put him
+in the light of one who had committed an offense and had sought to
+save himself by prevaricating.</p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_585_585" id="FNanchor_585_585"></a><a href="#Footnote_585_585"><sup>[585]</sup></a> Douglas charged the Republicans with the deliberate wish
+and intent to keep the Kansas issue alive. &quot;All these gentlemen want,&quot;
+he declared, &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_586_586" id="FNanchor_586_586"></a><a href="#Footnote_586_586"><sup>[586]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bleeding Kansas&quot; 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 <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>held to be campaign material of the first order.
+Douglas himself paid for one-third of these out of his own
+pocket.<a name="FNanchor_587_587" id="FNanchor_587_587"></a><a href="#Footnote_587_587"><sup>[587]</sup></a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_588_588" id="FNanchor_588_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_588_588"><sup>[588]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_589_589" id="FNanchor_589_589"></a><a href="#Footnote_589_589"><sup>[589]</sup></a> 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. &quot;Would
+it not be well,&quot; wrote Douglas to James W. Sheahan, who had come from
+Washington to edit the Chicago <i>Times</i>, &quot;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 <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_590_590" id="FNanchor_590_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_590_590"><sup>[590]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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 Fr&eacute;mont and Fillmore.<a name="FNanchor_591_591" id="FNanchor_591_591"></a><a href="#Footnote_591_591"><sup>[591]</sup></a> The political
+complexion of Illinois had changed. It behooved the senior senator to
+take notice.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_536_536" id="Footnote_536_536"></a><a href="#FNanchor_536_536">[536]</a> Section 23, United States Statutes at Large, X, p.
+285.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_537_537" id="Footnote_537_537"></a><a href="#FNanchor_537_537">[537]</a> See remarks of Douglas, <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., pp. 360-361.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_538_538" id="Footnote_538_538"></a><a href="#FNanchor_538_538">[538]</a> Howard Report, pp. 108-109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_539_539" id="Footnote_539_539"></a><a href="#FNanchor_539_539">[539]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 360-361.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_540_540" id="Footnote_540_540"></a><a href="#FNanchor_540_540">[540]</a> Spring, Kansas, pp. 39-41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_541_541" id="Footnote_541_541"></a><a href="#FNanchor_541_541">[541]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 43-49; Rhodes, History of the United
+States, II, pp. 81-82.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_542_542" id="Footnote_542_542"></a><a href="#FNanchor_542_542">[542]</a> Spring, Kansas, pp. 53-56.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_543_543" id="Footnote_543_543"></a><a href="#FNanchor_543_543">[543]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 99.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_544_544" id="Footnote_544_544"></a><a href="#FNanchor_544_544">[544]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 100.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_545_545" id="Footnote_545_545"></a><a href="#FNanchor_545_545">[545]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 101.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_546_546" id="Footnote_546_546"></a><a href="#FNanchor_546_546">[546]</a> Spring, Kansas, Chapter V; Rhodes, II, pp. 102-103.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_547_547" id="Footnote_547_547"></a><a href="#FNanchor_547_547">[547]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 103.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_548_548" id="Footnote_548_548"></a><a href="#FNanchor_548_548">[548]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 286.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_549_549" id="Footnote_549_549"></a><a href="#FNanchor_549_549">[549]</a> Senate Reports, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_550_550" id="Footnote_550_550"></a><a href="#FNanchor_550_550">[550]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 639.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_551_551" id="Footnote_551_551"></a><a href="#FNanchor_551_551">[551]</a> Senate Report, No. 34, p. 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_552_552" id="Footnote_552_552"></a><a href="#FNanchor_552_552">[552]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 7.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_553_553" id="Footnote_553_553"></a><a href="#FNanchor_553_553">[553]</a> Senate Report, No. 34, pp. 7-9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_554_554" id="Footnote_554_554"></a><a href="#FNanchor_554_554">[554]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 23.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_555_555" id="Footnote_555_555"></a><a href="#FNanchor_555_555">[555]</a> Senate Report, No. 34, p. 34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_556_556" id="Footnote_556_556"></a><a href="#FNanchor_556_556">[556]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_557_557" id="Footnote_557_557"></a><a href="#FNanchor_557_557">[557]</a> Senate Report, No. 34, p. 40.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_558_558" id="Footnote_558_558"></a><a href="#FNanchor_558_558">[558]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 39-40.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_559_559" id="Footnote_559_559"></a><a href="#FNanchor_559_559">[559]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 693.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_560_560" id="Footnote_560_560"></a><a href="#FNanchor_560_560">[560]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 657.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_561_561" id="Footnote_561_561"></a><a href="#FNanchor_561_561">[561]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, App., pp. 280 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_562_562" id="Footnote_562_562"></a><a href="#FNanchor_562_562">[562]</a> New York <i>Independent</i>, May 1, 1856; quoted by Rhodes
+II, p. 128.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_563_563" id="Footnote_563_563"></a><a href="#FNanchor_563_563">[563]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App. p. 544.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_564_564" id="Footnote_564_564"></a><a href="#FNanchor_564_564">[564]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 531.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_565_565" id="Footnote_565_565"></a><a href="#FNanchor_565_565">[565]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 545.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_566_566" id="Footnote_566_566"></a><a href="#FNanchor_566_566">[566]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 547.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_567_567" id="Footnote_567_567"></a><a href="#FNanchor_567_567">[567]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 148.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_568_568" id="Footnote_568_568"></a><a href="#FNanchor_568_568">[568]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1305.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_569_569" id="Footnote_569_569"></a><a href="#FNanchor_569_569">[569]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 103-106;
+154-166.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_570_570" id="Footnote_570_570"></a><a href="#FNanchor_570_570">[570]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1439.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_571_571" id="Footnote_571_571"></a><a href="#FNanchor_571_571">[571]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_572_572" id="Footnote_572_572"></a><a href="#FNanchor_572_572">[572]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 119.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_573_573" id="Footnote_573_573"></a><a href="#FNanchor_573_573">[573]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 119.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_574_574" id="Footnote_574_574"></a><a href="#FNanchor_574_574">[574]</a> Senate Report, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., No. 198.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_575_575" id="Footnote_575_575"></a><a href="#FNanchor_575_575">[575]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 795.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_576_576" id="Footnote_576_576"></a><a href="#FNanchor_576_576">[576]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 194-195.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_577_577" id="Footnote_577_577"></a><a href="#FNanchor_577_577">[577]</a> Senate Bill, No. 172, Section 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_578_578" id="Footnote_578_578"></a><a href="#FNanchor_578_578">[578]</a> Senate Bill, No. 356, Section 13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_579_579" id="Footnote_579_579"></a><a href="#FNanchor_579_579">[579]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 779.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_580_580" id="Footnote_580_580"></a><a href="#FNanchor_580_580">[580]</a> Speech at Alton, Illinois, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_581_581" id="Footnote_581_581"></a><a href="#FNanchor_581_581">[581]</a> Political Debates between Lincoln and Douglas, pp. 161
+ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_582_582" id="Footnote_582_582"></a><a href="#FNanchor_582_582">[582]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_583_583" id="Footnote_583_583"></a><a href="#FNanchor_583_583">[583]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 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.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_584_584" id="Footnote_584_584"></a><a href="#FNanchor_584_584">[584]</a> The submission of State constitutions to a popular vote
+had not then become a general practice.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_585_585" id="Footnote_585_585"></a><a href="#FNanchor_585_585">[585]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 195.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_586_586" id="Footnote_586_586"></a><a href="#FNanchor_586_586">[586]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 844.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_587_587" id="Footnote_587_587"></a><a href="#FNanchor_587_587">[587]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_588_588" id="Footnote_588_588"></a><a href="#FNanchor_588_588">[588]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 443.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_589_589" id="Footnote_589_589"></a><a href="#FNanchor_589_589">[589]</a> Davidson and Stuv&eacute;, History of Illinois, p. 650.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_590_590" id="Footnote_590_590"></a><a href="#FNanchor_590_590">[590]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to Sheahan, October 6, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_591_591" id="Footnote_591_591"></a><a href="#FNanchor_591_591">[591]</a> <i>Tribune Almanac</i>, 1857. The vote was as follows:</p>
+
+<div style="margin-left: 3em;">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="25%" summary="footnote table">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="70%" class="tdl">Buchanan</td>
+  <td width="30%" class="tdr">105,348</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Fr&eacute;mont</td>
+  <td class="tdr">96,189</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl">Fillmore</td>
+  <td class="tdr">37,444</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="BOOK_III" id="BOOK_III"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h2><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>BOOK III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h2>
+<h3>THE IMPENDING CRISIS <a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a></h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a>CHAPTER XIV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE PERSONAL EQUATION</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>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 <a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>future gains, he also deeded ten acres of his valuable
+&quot;Grove Property&quot; to the trustees of Chicago University.<a name="FNanchor_592_592" id="FNanchor_592_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_592_592"><sup>[592]</sup></a> 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 &quot;to
+avoid public suspicion of private interest in his political
+conduct.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_593_593" id="FNanchor_593_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_593_593"><sup>[593]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_594_594" id="FNanchor_594_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_594_594"><sup>[594]</sup></a> He became a member of the board of regents
+and retained the office until his death.</p>
+
+<p>With his New England training Douglas believed profoundly in the
+dignity of labor; not even his Southern associations lessened his
+genuine admiration for <a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>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 &quot;a crime to
+think in opposition to the consecrated errors of olden times.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_595_595" id="FNanchor_595_595"></a><a href="#Footnote_595_595"><sup>[595]</sup></a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_596_596" id="FNanchor_596_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_596_596"><sup>[596]</sup></a> Southern statesmen thought this the best &quot;bid&quot; 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 <a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>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.<a name="FNanchor_597_597" id="FNanchor_597_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_597_597"><sup>[597]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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. &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_598_598" id="FNanchor_598_598"></a><a href="#Footnote_598_598"><sup>[598]</sup></a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_599_599" id="FNanchor_599_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_599_599"><sup>[599]</sup></a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>As the representative of a constituency which was <a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>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.<a name="FNanchor_600_600" id="FNanchor_600_600"></a><a href="#Footnote_600_600"><sup>[600]</sup></a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_601_601" id="FNanchor_601_601"></a><a href="#Footnote_601_601"><sup>[601]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_602_602" id="FNanchor_602_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_602_602"><sup>[602]</sup></a> He believed that the whole question
+would be thoroughly aired in the session just begun.<a name="FNanchor_603_603" id="FNanchor_603_603"></a><a href="#Footnote_603_603"><sup>[603]</sup></a> Instead of
+making internal improvements a matter of politics, and of wasteful
+jobbery, he would take <a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.
+&quot;I have learned enough about the tariff,&quot; said he with a sly thrust at
+his colleagues, who prided themselves on their wisdom, &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_604_604" id="FNanchor_604_604"></a><a href="#Footnote_604_604"><sup>[604]</sup></a> Still, he grasped an elementary principle that had escaped
+many a protectionist, that &quot;a tariff involves two conflicting
+principles which are eternally at war with each other. <a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_605_605" id="FNanchor_605_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_605_605"><sup>[605]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was wiser, too, than the children of light, when he insisted
+that works of art should be admitted free of duty. &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_606_606" id="FNanchor_606_606"></a><a href="#Footnote_606_606"><sup>[606]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_607_607" id="FNanchor_607_607"></a><a href="#Footnote_607_607"><sup>[607]</sup></a> Yet the unimaginative Douglas anticipated the
+era of a&euml;rial navigation now just dawning. On one occasion, he <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a>urged
+upon the Senate a memorial from an a&euml;ronaut, 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.<a name="FNanchor_608_608" id="FNanchor_608_608"></a><a href="#Footnote_608_608"><sup>[608]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While Douglas was thus steadily growing into complete accord with the
+New England elements in his section&mdash;save on one vital point,&mdash;he fell
+captive to the beauty and grace of one whose associations were with
+men and women south of Mason and Dixon's line. Ad&egrave;le 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,&mdash;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 &quot;beautiful as a pearl;&quot; to men she
+seemed &quot;a most lovely and queenly apparition.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_609_609" id="FNanchor_609_609"></a><a href="#Footnote_609_609"><sup>[609]</sup></a> Both men and women
+found her sunny-tempered, generous, warm-hearted, and sincere. What
+could there have been in the serious-minded, dark-visaged &quot;Little
+Giant&quot; to win the hand of this mistress of many hearts? Perhaps she
+saw &quot;Othello's visage in his mind&quot;; perhaps she yielded to the
+imperious will which would accept no refusal; at all events, Ad&egrave;le
+Cutts chose this plain little man of <a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a>middle-age in preference to men
+of wealth and title.<a name="FNanchor_610_610" id="FNanchor_610_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_610_610"><sup>[610]</sup></a> It proved to be in every respect a happy
+marriage.<a name="FNanchor_611_611" id="FNanchor_611_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_611_611"><sup>[611]</sup></a> 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.<a name="FNanchor_612_612" id="FNanchor_612_612"></a><a href="#Footnote_612_612"><sup>[612]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Across this picture of domestic felicity, there fell but a single,
+fugitive shadow. Ad&egrave;le 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.<a name="FNanchor_613_613" id="FNanchor_613_613"></a><a href="#Footnote_613_613"><sup>[613]</sup></a> Much of his relentless criticism of Native Americanism
+can be traced to his abhorrence of religious intolerance in any form.</p>
+
+<p>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,
+<a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a>because of defeated ambition. But now yielding to the warmth of tender
+domesticity, the true nature of the man asserted itself.<a name="FNanchor_614_614" id="FNanchor_614_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_614_614"><sup>[614]</sup></a> He grew,
+perhaps not less ambitious, but more sensible of the obligations which
+leadership imposed.</p>
+
+<p>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.<a name="FNanchor_615_615" id="FNanchor_615_615"></a><a href="#Footnote_615_615"><sup>[615]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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 <a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>that it was an inestimable boon to be
+permitted to labor with him &quot;for the cause.&quot; 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.<a name="FNanchor_616_616" id="FNanchor_616_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_616_616"><sup>[616]</sup></a> 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, &quot;I count very much on your help in this
+election.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_617_617" id="FNanchor_617_617"></a><a href="#Footnote_617_617"><sup>[617]</sup></a> If this was the art of a politician, it was art
+reduced to artlessness.</p>
+
+<p>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. &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_618_618" id="FNanchor_618_618"></a><a href="#Footnote_618_618"><sup>[618]</sup></a> 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.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a>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 <i>Tribune</i> had
+attacked Douglas savagely, a mutual acquaintance asked Douglas if he
+objected to meeting the redoubtable Greeley. &quot;Not at all,&quot; was the
+good-natured reply, &quot;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.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_619_619" id="FNanchor_619_619"></a><a href="#Footnote_619_619"><sup>[619]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>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 <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>preparation and with only a few pencilled notes at hand.
+Truly Nature had been lavish in her gifts to him.</p>
+
+<p>To nine-tenths of his devoted followers, he was still &quot;Judge&quot; Douglas.
+It was odd that the title, so quickly earned and so briefly worn,
+should have stuck so persistently to him. In legal attainments he fell
+far short of many of his colleagues in the Senate. Had he but chosen
+to apply himself, he might have been a conspicuous leader of the
+American bar; but law was ever to him the servant of politics, and he
+never cared to make the servant greater than his lord. That he would
+have developed judicial qualities, may well be doubted; advocate he
+was and advocate he remained, to the end of his days. So it was that
+when a legal question arose, with far-reaching implications for
+American politics, the lawyer and politician, rather than the judge,
+laid hold upon the points of political significance.</p>
+
+<p>The inauguration of James Buchanan and the Dred Scott decision of the
+Supreme Court, two days later, marked a turning point in the career of
+Judge Douglas. Of this he was of course unaware. He accepted the
+advent of his successful rival with composure, and the opinion of the
+Court, with comparative indifference. In a speech before the Grand
+Jury of the United States District Court at Springfield, three months
+later, he referred publicly for the first time to the Dred Scott case.
+Senator, and not Judge, Douglas was much in evidence. He swallowed the
+opinion of the majority of the court without wincing&mdash;the <i>obiter
+dictum</i> and all. Nay, more, he praised the Court for passing, like
+honest and conscientious judges, from the technicalities of the case
+to the real merits of the questions involved. The material,
+controlling points of the case <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>were: first, that a negro descended
+from slave parents could not be a citizen of the United States;
+second, that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and void
+from the beginning, and thus could not extinguish a master's right to
+his slave in any Territory. &quot;While the right continues in full force
+under ... the Constitution,&quot; he added, &quot;and cannot be divested or
+alienated by an act of Congress, it necessarily remains a barren and
+worthless right, unless sustained, protected, and enforced by
+appropriate police regulations and local legislation, prescribing
+adequate remedies for its violation. These regulations and remedies
+must necessarily depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the
+people of the Territory, as they can only be prescribed by the local
+legislatures.&quot; Hence the triumphant conclusion that &quot;the great
+principle of popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and
+firmly established by the authority of this decision.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_620_620" id="FNanchor_620_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_620_620"><sup>[620]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>There were acute legal minds who thought that they detected a false
+note in this paean. Was this a necessary implication from the Dred
+Scott decision? Was it the intention of the Court to leave the
+principle of popular sovereignty standing upright? Was not the
+decision rather fatal to the great doctrine&mdash;the shibboleth of the
+Democratic party?</p>
+
+<p>On this occasion Douglas had nothing to add to his exposition of the
+Dred Scott case, further than to point out the happy escape of white
+supremacy from African equality. And here he struck the note which put
+him out of accord with those Northern constituents with whom he was
+otherwise in complete harmony. &quot;When <a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a>you confer upon the African race
+the privileges of citizenship, and put them on an equality with white
+men at the polls, in the jury box, on the bench, in the Executive
+chair, and in the councils of the nation, upon what principle will you
+deny their equality at the festive board and in the domestic circle?&quot;
+In the following year, he received his answer in the homely words of
+Abraham Lincoln: &quot;I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife.&quot;</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_592_592" id="Footnote_592_592"></a><a href="#FNanchor_592_592">[592]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 442-443; Iglehart, History of the
+Douglas Estate in Chicago.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_593_593" id="Footnote_593_593"></a><a href="#FNanchor_593_593">[593]</a> Letter in Chicago <i>Times</i>, August 30, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_594_594" id="Footnote_594_594"></a><a href="#FNanchor_594_594">[594]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 749-750.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_595_595" id="Footnote_595_595"></a><a href="#FNanchor_595_595">[595]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 870.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_596_596" id="Footnote_596_596"></a><a href="#FNanchor_596_596">[596]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 75.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_597_597" id="Footnote_597_597"></a><a href="#FNanchor_597_597">[597]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 266.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_598_598" id="Footnote_598_598"></a><a href="#FNanchor_598_598">[598]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 350-351.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_599_599" id="Footnote_599_599"></a><a href="#FNanchor_599_599">[599]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 769.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_600_600" id="Footnote_600_600"></a><a href="#FNanchor_600_600">[600]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 951.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_601_601" id="Footnote_601_601"></a><a href="#FNanchor_601_601">[601]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 952.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_602_602" id="Footnote_602_602"></a><a href="#FNanchor_602_602">[602]</a> Letter to Governor Matteson, January 2, 1854, in
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 358 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_603_603" id="Footnote_603_603"></a><a href="#FNanchor_603_603">[603]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, November 11,
+1853.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_604_604" id="Footnote_604_604"></a><a href="#FNanchor_604_604">[604]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_605_605" id="Footnote_605_605"></a><a href="#FNanchor_605_605">[605]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_606_606" id="Footnote_606_606"></a><a href="#FNanchor_606_606">[606]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1050.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_607_607" id="Footnote_607_607"></a><a href="#FNanchor_607_607">[607]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i>, January 27, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_608_608" id="Footnote_608_608"></a><a href="#FNanchor_608_608">[608]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 132.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_609_609" id="Footnote_609_609"></a><a href="#FNanchor_609_609">[609]</a> Mrs. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, p. 68;
+Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_610_610" id="Footnote_610_610"></a><a href="#FNanchor_610_610">[610]</a> Letter of Mrs. Lippincott (&quot;Grace Greenwood&quot;) to the
+writer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_611_611" id="Footnote_611_611"></a><a href="#FNanchor_611_611">[611]</a> Conversation with Stephen A. Douglas, Esq., of
+Chicago.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_612_612" id="Footnote_612_612"></a><a href="#FNanchor_612_612">[612]</a> The marriage took place November 20, 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_613_613" id="Footnote_613_613"></a><a href="#FNanchor_613_613">[613]</a> See Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, June 8, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_614_614" id="Footnote_614_614"></a><a href="#FNanchor_614_614">[614]</a> Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago to the writer;
+also letter of Mrs. Lippincott to the writer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_615_615" id="Footnote_615_615"></a><a href="#FNanchor_615_615">[615]</a> See Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, November 17, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_616_616" id="Footnote_616_616"></a><a href="#FNanchor_616_616">[616]</a> For a copy of this letter, I am indebted to J.H.
+Roberts, Esq., of Chicago.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_617_617" id="Footnote_617_617"></a><a href="#FNanchor_617_617">[617]</a> Conversation with Henry Greenbaum, Esq., of Chicago.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_618_618" id="Footnote_618_618"></a><a href="#FNanchor_618_618">[618]</a> Major G.M. McConnell in the Transactions of the
+Illinois Historical Society, 1900; see also Forney, Anecdotes of
+Public Men, I, p. 147.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_619_619" id="Footnote_619_619"></a><a href="#FNanchor_619_619">[619]</a> Schuyler Colfax in the South Bend <i>Register,</i> June,
+1861; Forney in his Eulogy, 1861; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 359.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_620_620" id="Footnote_620_620"></a><a href="#FNanchor_620_620">[620]</a> The New York <i>Times</i>, June 23, 1857, published this
+speech of June 12th, in full.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>CHAPTER XV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Had anyone prophesied at the close of the year 1856, that within a
+twelvemonth Douglas would be denounced as a traitor to Democracy, he
+would have been thought mad. That Douglas of all men should break with
+his party under any circumstances was almost unthinkable. His whole
+public career had been inseparably connected with his party. To be
+sure, he had never gone so far as to say &quot;my party right or wrong&quot;;
+but that was because he had never felt obliged to make a moral choice.
+He was always convinced that his party was right. Within the
+circumference of party, he had always found ample freedom of movement.
+He had never lacked the courage of his convictions, but hitherto his
+convictions had never collided with the dominant opinion of Democracy.
+He undoubtedly believed profoundly in the mission of his party, as an
+organization standing above all for popular government and the
+preservation of the Union. No ordinary circumstances would justify him
+in weakening the influence or impairing the organization of the
+Democratic party. Paradoxical as it may seem, his partisanship was
+dictated by a profound patriotism. He believed the maintenance of the
+Union to be dependent upon the integrity of his party. So thinking and
+feeling he entered upon the most memorable controversy of his career.</p>
+
+<p>When President Buchanan asked Robert J. Walker <a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a>of Mississippi to
+become governor of Kansas, the choice met with the hearty approval of
+Douglas. Not all the President's appointments had been acceptable to
+the Senator from Illinois. But here was one that he could indorse
+unreservedly. He used all his influence to persuade Walker to accept
+the uncoveted mission. With great reluctance Walker consented, but
+only upon the most explicit understanding with the administration as
+to the policy to be followed in Kansas. It was well understood on both
+sides that a true construction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act required the
+submission to popular vote of any constitution which the prospective
+convention might adopt. This was emphatically the view of Douglas,
+whom Governor Walker took pains to consult on his way through
+Chicago.<a name="FNanchor_621_621" id="FNanchor_621_621"></a><a href="#Footnote_621_621"><sup>[621]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The call for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention
+had already been issued, when Walker reached Kansas. The free-State
+people were incensed because the appointment of delegates had been
+made on the basis of a defective census and registration; and even the
+assurance of the governor, in his inaugural, that the constitution
+would be submitted to a popular vote, failed to overcome their
+distrust. They therefore took no part in the election of delegates.
+This course was unfortunate, for it gave the control of the convention
+wholly into the hands of the pro-slavery party, with consequences that
+were far-reaching for Kansas and the nation.<a name="FNanchor_622_622" id="FNanchor_622_622"></a><a href="#Footnote_622_622"><sup>[622]</sup></a> But by October the
+<a name="Page_326" id="Page_326"></a>free-State party had abandoned its policy of abstention from
+territorial politics, so far as to participate in the election of a
+new territorial legislature. The result was a decisive free-State
+victory. The next legislature would have an ample majority of
+free-State men in both chambers. It was with the discomfiting
+knowledge, then, that they represented only a minority of the
+community that the delegates of the constitutional convention began
+their labors.<a name="FNanchor_623_623" id="FNanchor_623_623"></a><a href="#Footnote_623_623"><sup>[623]</sup></a> It was clear to the dullest intelligence that any
+pro-slavery constitution would be voted down, if it were submitted
+fairly to the people of Kansas. Gloom settled down upon the hopes of
+the pro-slavery party.</p>
+
+<p>When the document which embodied the labors of the convention was made
+public, the free-State party awoke from its late complacence to find
+itself tricked by a desperate game. The constitution was not to be
+submitted to a full and fair vote; but only the article relating to
+slavery. The people of Kansas were to vote for the &quot;Constitution with
+slavery&quot; or for the &quot;Constitution with no slavery.&quot; By either
+alternative the constitution would be adopted. But should the
+constitution with no slavery be ratified, a clause of the schedule
+still guaranteed &quot;the right of property in slaves now in this
+Territory.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_624_624" id="FNanchor_624_624"></a><a href="#Footnote_624_624"><sup>[624]</sup></a> The choice offered to an opponent of slavery in
+Kansas was between a constitution sanctioning and safeguarding all
+forms of slave property,<a name="FNanchor_625_625" id="FNanchor_625_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_625_625"><sup>[625]</sup></a> and a constitution which guaranteed the
+full possession of slaves then in the Territory, <a name="Page_327" id="Page_327"></a>with no assurances
+as to the status of the natural increase of these slaves. Viewed in
+the most charitable light, this was a gambler's device for securing
+the stakes by hook or crook. Still further to guard existing property
+rights in slaves, it was provided that if the constitution should be
+amended after 1864, no alteration should be made to affect &quot;the rights
+of property in the ownership of slaves.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_626_626" id="FNanchor_626_626"></a><a href="#Footnote_626_626"><sup>[626]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The news from Lecompton stirred Douglas profoundly. In a peculiar
+sense he stood sponsor for justice to bleeding Kansas, not only
+because he had advocated in abstract terms the perfect freedom of the
+people to form their domestic institutions in their own way, but
+because he had become personally responsible for the conduct of the
+leader of the Lecompton party. John Calhoun, president of the
+convention, had been appointed surveyor general of the Territory upon
+his recommendation. Governor Walker had retained Calhoun in that
+office because of Douglas's assurance that Calhoun would support the
+policy of submission.<a name="FNanchor_627_627" id="FNanchor_627_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_627_627"><sup>[627]</sup></a> Moreover, Governor Walker had gone to his
+post with the assurance that the leaders of the administration would
+support this course.</p>
+
+<p>Was it likely that the pro-slavery party in Kansas would take this
+desperate course, without assurance of some sort from Washington?
+There were persistent rumors that President Buchanan approved the
+Lecompton constitution,<a name="FNanchor_628_628" id="FNanchor_628_628"></a><a href="#Footnote_628_628"><sup>[628]</sup></a> but Douglas was loth to give credence to
+them. The press of Illinois and of the Northwest voiced public
+sentiment in condemning the <a name="Page_328" id="Page_328"></a>work of the Lecomptonites.<a name="FNanchor_629_629" id="FNanchor_629_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_629_629"><sup>[629]</sup></a> Douglas
+was soon on his way to Washington, determined to know the President's
+mind; his own was made up.</p>
+
+<p>The interview between President Buchanan and Douglas, as recounted by
+the latter, takes on a dramatic aspect.<a name="FNanchor_630_630" id="FNanchor_630_630"></a><a href="#Footnote_630_630"><sup>[630]</sup></a> Douglas found his worst
+fears realized. The President was clearly under the influence of an
+aggressive group of Southern statesmen, who were bent upon making
+Kansas a slave State under the Lecompton constitution. Laboring under
+intense feeling, Douglas then threw down the gauntlet: he would oppose
+the policy of the administration publicly to the bitter end. &quot;Mr.
+Douglas,&quot; said the President rising to his feet excitedly, &quot;I desire
+you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed from an
+administration of his own choice without being crushed. Beware of the
+fate of Tallmadge and Rives.&quot; &quot;Mr. President&quot; rejoined Douglas also
+rising, &quot;I wish you to remember that General Jackson is dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago <i>Times</i>, reporting the interview, intimated that there had
+been a want of agreement, but no lack of courtesy or regard on either
+side. Douglas was not yet ready to issue an ultimatum. The situation
+might be remedied. On the night following this memorable encounter,
+Douglas was serenaded by friends and responded with a brief speech,
+but he did not allude to the Kansas question.<a name="FNanchor_631_631" id="FNanchor_631_631"></a><a href="#Footnote_631_631"><sup>[631]</sup></a> It was generally
+expected that he would show his hand on Monday, the opening day of
+Congress. The President's message <a name="Page_329" id="Page_329"></a>did not reach Congress, however,
+until Tuesday. Immediately upon its reading, Douglas offered the usual
+motion to print the message, adding, as he took his seat, that he
+totally dissented from &quot;that portion of the message which may fairly
+be construed as approving of the proceedings of the Lecompton
+convention.&quot; At an early date he would state the reasons for his
+dissent.<a name="FNanchor_632_632" id="FNanchor_632_632"></a><a href="#Footnote_632_632"><sup>[632]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the following day, December 9th, Douglas took the irrevocable step.
+For three hours he held the Senate and the audience in the galleries
+in rapt attention, while with more than his wonted gravity and
+earnestness he denounced the Lecompton constitution.<a name="FNanchor_633_633" id="FNanchor_633_633"></a><a href="#Footnote_633_633"><sup>[633]</sup></a> He began
+with a conciliatory reference to the President's message. He was happy
+to find, after a more careful examination, that the President had
+refrained from making any recommendation as to the course which
+Congress should pursue with regard to the constitution. And so, he
+added adroitly, the Kansas question is not to be treated as an
+administration measure. He shared the disappointment of the President
+that the constitution had not been submitted fully and freely to the
+people of Kansas; but the President, he conceived, had made a
+fundamental error in supposing that the Nebraska Act provided for the
+disposition of the slavery question apart from other local matters.
+The direct opposite was true. The main object of the Act was to remove
+an odious restriction by which the people had been prevented from
+deciding the slavery question for themselves, like all other local and
+domestic concerns. If the <a name="Page_330" id="Page_330"></a>President was right in thinking that by the
+terms of the Nebraska bill the slavery question must be submitted to
+the people, then every other clause of the constitution should be
+submitted to them. To do less would be to reduce popular sovereignty
+to a farce.</p>
+
+<p>But Douglas could not maintain this conciliatory attitude. His sense
+of justice was too deeply outraged. He recalled facts which every
+well-informed person knew. &quot;I know that men, high in authority and in
+the confidence of the territorial and National Government, canvassed
+every part of Kansas during the election of delegates, and each one of
+them pledged himself to the people that no snap judgment was to be
+taken. Up to the time of the meeting of the convention, in October
+last, the pretense was kept up, the profession was openly made, and
+believed by me, and I thought believed by them, that the convention
+intended to submit a constitution to the people, and not to attempt to
+put a government in operation without such submission.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_634_634" id="FNanchor_634_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_634_634"><sup>[634]</sup></a> How was
+this pledge redeemed? All men, forsooth, must vote for the
+constitution, whether they like it or not, in order to be permitted to
+vote for or against slavery! This would be like an election under the
+First Consul, when, so his enemies averred, Napoleon addressed his
+troops with the words: &quot;Now, my soldiers, you are to go to the
+election and vote freely just as you please. If you vote for Napoleon,
+all is well; vote against him, and you are to be instantly shot.&quot; That
+was a fair election! &quot;This election,&quot; said Douglas with bitter irony,
+&quot;is to be <i>equally fair!</i> All men in favor of the constitution may
+vote for it&mdash;all men against it shall not vote at <a name="Page_331" id="Page_331"></a>all! Why not let
+them vote against it? I have asked a very large number of the
+gentlemen who framed the constitution ... and I have received the same
+answer from every one of them.... They say if they allowed a negative
+vote the constitution would have been voted down by an overwhelming
+majority, and hence the fellows shall not be allowed to vote at all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you force it on them against their will,&quot; he demanded, &quot;simply
+because they would have voted it down if you had consulted them? If
+you will, are you going to force it upon them under the plea of
+leaving them perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+institutions in their own way? Is that the mode in which I am called
+upon to carry out the principle of self-government and popular
+sovereignty in the Territories?&quot; It is no answer, he argued, that the
+constitution is unobjectionable. &quot;You have no right to force an
+unexceptionable constitution on a people.&quot; The pro-slavery clause was
+not the offense in the constitution, to his mind. &quot;If Kansas wants a
+slave-State constitution she has a right to it, if she wants a
+free-State constitution she has a right to it. It is none of my
+business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether
+it is voted up or down.&quot; The whole affair looked to him &quot;like a system
+of trickery and jugglery to defeat the fair expression of the will of
+the people.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_635_635" id="FNanchor_635_635"></a><a href="#Footnote_635_635"><sup>[635]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The vehemence of his utterance had now carried Douglas perhaps farther
+than he had meant to go.<a name="FNanchor_636_636" id="FNanchor_636_636"></a><a href="#Footnote_636_636"><sup>[636]</sup></a> <a name="Page_332" id="Page_332"></a>He paused to plead for a fair policy
+which would redeem party pledges:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="noin">&quot;Ignore Lecompton, ignore Topeka; treat both those party
+     movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill&mdash;the one
+     that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have
+     a fair election&mdash;and you will have peace in the Democratic
+     party, and peace throughout the country, in ninety days. The
+     people want a fair vote. They never will be satisfied
+     without it. They never should be satisfied without a fair
+     vote on their Constitution....</p>
+
+<p class="noin">     &quot;Frame any other bill that secures a fair, honest vote, to
+     men of all parties, and carries out the pledge that the
+     people shall be left free to decide on their domestic
+     institutions for themselves, and I will go with you with
+     pleasure, and with all the energy I may possess. But if this
+     Constitution is to be forced down our throats, in violation
+     of the fundamental principle of free government, under a
+     mode of submission that is a mockery and insult, I will
+     resist it to the last. I have no fear of any party
+     associations being severed. I should regret any social or
+     political estrangement, even temporarily; but if it must be,
+     if I can not act with you and preserve my faith and my
+     honor, I will stand on the great principle of popular
+     sovereignty, which declares the right of all people to be
+     left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+     institutions in their own way. I will follow that principle
+     wherever its logical consequences may take me, and I will
+     endeavor to defend it against assault from any and all
+     quarters. No mortal man shall be responsible for my action
+     but myself. By my action I will compromit no man.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_637_637" id="FNanchor_637_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_637_637"><sup>[637]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>The speech made a profound impression. No one could mistake its
+import. The correspondent of the New York <i>Tribune</i> was right in
+thinking that it &quot;marked an important era in our political
+history.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_638_638" id="FNanchor_638_638"></a><a href="#Footnote_638_638"><sup>[638]</sup></a> Douglas had broken with the dominant pro-slavery
+faction of his party. How far he would carry his party with him,
+remained to be seen. But that a battle royal was imminent, was
+believed on all sides. &quot;The struggle of Douglas with the slave-power
+will be a magnificent spectacle to witness,&quot; wrote one who had
+hitherto <a name="Page_333" id="Page_333"></a>evinced little admiration for the author of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.<a name="FNanchor_639_639" id="FNanchor_639_639"></a><a href="#Footnote_639_639"><sup>[639]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas kept himself well in hand throughout his speech. His manner
+was at times defiant, but his language was restrained. At no time did
+he disclose the pain which his rupture with the administration cost
+him, except in his closing words. What he had to expect from the
+friends of the administration was immediately manifest. Senator Bigler
+of Pennsylvania sprang to the defense of the President. In an
+irritating tone he intimated that Douglas himself had changed his
+position on the question of submission, alluding to certain private
+conferences at Douglas's house; but as though bound by a pledge of
+secrecy, Bigler refrained from making the charge in so many words.
+Douglas, thoroughly aroused, at once absolved, him from any pledges,
+and demanded to know when they had agreed not to submit the
+constitution to the people. The reply of Bigler was still allusive and
+evasive. &quot;Does he mean to say,&quot; insisted Douglas excitedly, &quot;that I
+ever was, privately or publicly, in my own house or any other, in
+favor of a constitution without its being submitted to the people?&quot; &quot;I
+have made no such allegation,&quot; was the reply. &quot;You have allowed it to
+be inferred,&quot; exclaimed Douglas in exasperated tones.<a name="FNanchor_640_640" id="FNanchor_640_640"></a><a href="#Footnote_640_640"><sup>[640]</sup></a> And then
+Green reminded him, that in his famous report of January 4, 1854, he
+had proposed to leave the slavery question to the decision of the
+people &quot;by their appropriate representatives chosen by them for that
+purpose,&quot; with no suggestion <a name="Page_334" id="Page_334"></a>of a second, popular vote. Truly, his
+most insidious foes were now those of his own political household.</p>
+
+<p>Anti-slavery men welcomed this revolt of Douglas without crediting him
+with any but self-seeking motives. They could not bring themselves to
+believe other than ill of the man who had advocated the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise. Republicans accepted his aid in their struggle
+against the Lecompton fraud, but for the most part continued to regard
+him with distrust. Indeed, Douglas made no effort to placate them. He
+professed to care nothing for the cause of the slave which was nearest
+their hearts. Hostile critics, then, were quick to point out the
+probable motives from which he acted. His senatorial term was drawing
+to a close. He was of course desirous of a re-election. But his
+nominee for governor had been defeated at the last election, and the
+State had been only with difficulty carried for the national
+candidates of the party. The lesson was plain: the people of Illinois
+did not approve the Kansas policy of Senator Douglas. Hence the
+weathercock obeyed the wind.</p>
+
+<p>In all this there was a modicum of truth. Douglas would not have been
+the power that he was, had he not kept in touch with his constituency.
+But a sense of honor, a desire for consistency, and an abiding faith
+in the justice of his great principle, impelled him in the same
+direction. These were thoroughly honorable motives, even if he
+professed an indifference as to the fate of the negro. He had pledged
+his word of honor to his constituents that the people of Kansas should
+have a fair chance to pronounce upon their constitution. Nothing short
+of this would have been consistent with popular sovereignty as he had
+expounded it again <a name="Page_335" id="Page_335"></a>and again. And Douglas was personally a man of
+honor. Yet when all has been said, one cannot but regret that the
+sense of fair play, which was strong in him, did not assert itself in
+the early stages of the Kansas conflict and smother that lawyer's
+instinct to defend, a client by the technicalities of the law. Could
+he only have sought absolute justice for the people of Kansas in the
+winter of 1856, the purity of his motives would not have been
+questioned in the winter of 1858.</p>
+
+<p>Even those colleagues of Douglas who doubted his motives, could not
+but admire his courage. It did, indeed, require something more than
+audacity to head a revolt against the administration. No man knew
+better the thorny road that he must now travel. No man loved his party
+more. No man knew better the hazard to the Union that must follow a
+rupture in the Democratic party. But if Douglas nursed the hope that
+Democratic senators would follow his lead, he was sadly disappointed.
+Three only came to his support&mdash;Broderick of California, Pugh of Ohio,
+and Stuart of Michigan,&mdash;while the lists of the administration were
+full. Green, Bigler, Fitch, in turn were set upon him.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas bitterly resented any attempt to read him out of the party by
+making the Lecompton constitution the touchstone of genuine Democracy;
+yet each day made it clearer that the administration had just that end
+in view. Douglas complained of a tyranny not consistent with free
+Democratic action. One might differ with the President on every
+subject but Kansas, without incurring suspicion. Every pensioned
+letter writer, he complained, had been intimating for the last two
+weeks that he had deserted the Democratic party <a name="Page_336" id="Page_336"></a>and gone over to the
+Black Republicans. He demanded to know who authorized these
+tales.<a name="FNanchor_641_641" id="FNanchor_641_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_641_641"><sup>[641]</sup></a> Senator Fitch warned him solemnly that the Democratic
+party was the only political link in the chain which now bound the
+States together. &quot;None ... will hold that man guiltless, who abandons
+it upon a question having in it so little of practical importance ...
+and by seeking its destruction, thereby admits his not unwillingness
+that a similar fate should be visited on the Union, perhaps, to
+subserve his selfish purpose.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_642_642" id="FNanchor_642_642"></a><a href="#Footnote_642_642"><sup>[642]</sup></a> These attacks roused Douglas to
+vehement defiance. More emphatically than ever, he declared the
+Lecompton constitution &quot;a trick, a fraud upon the rights of the
+people.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If Douglas misjudged the temper of his colleagues, he at least gauged
+correctly the drift of public sentiment in Illinois and the Northwest.
+Of fifty-six Democratic newspapers in Illinois, but one ventured to
+condone the Lecompton fraud.<a name="FNanchor_643_643" id="FNanchor_643_643"></a><a href="#Footnote_643_643"><sup>[643]</sup></a> Mass meetings in various cities of
+the Northwest expressed confidence in the course of Senator Douglas.</p>
+
+<p>He now occupied a unique position at the capital. Visitors were quite
+as eager to see the man who had headed the revolt as to greet the
+chief executive.<a name="FNanchor_644_644" id="FNanchor_644_644"></a><a href="#Footnote_644_644"><sup>[644]</sup></a> His residence, where Mrs. Douglas dispensed a
+gracious hospitality, was fairly besieged with callers.<a name="FNanchor_645_645" id="FNanchor_645_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_645_645"><sup>[645]</sup></a>
+Washington society was never gayer than during this memorable
+winter.<a name="FNanchor_646_646" id="FNanchor_646_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_646_646"><sup>[646]</sup></a> None entertained more lavishly than Senator and Mrs.
+Douglas. Whatever <a name="Page_337" id="Page_337"></a>unpopularity he incurred at the Capitol, she more
+than offset by her charming and gracious personality. Acknowledged as
+the reigning queen of the circle in which she moved, Mrs. Douglas
+displayed a social initiative that seconded admirably the independent,
+self-reliant attitude of her husband. When Ad&egrave;le Cutts Douglas chose
+to close the shutters of her house at noon, and hold a reception by
+artificial light every Saturday afternoon, society followed her lead.
+There were no more brilliant affairs in Washington than these
+afternoon receptions and hops at the Douglas residence in Minnesota
+Block.<a name="FNanchor_647_647" id="FNanchor_647_647"></a><a href="#Footnote_647_647"><sup>[647]</sup></a> In contrast to these functions dominated by a thoroughly
+charming personality, the formal precision of the receptions at the
+White House was somewhat chilling and forbidding. President Buchanan,
+bachelor, with his handsome but somewhat self-contained niece, was not
+equal to this social rivalry.<a name="FNanchor_648_648" id="FNanchor_648_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_648_648"><sup>[648]</sup></a> Moreover, the cares of office
+permitted the perplexed, wearied, and timid executive no respite day
+or night.</p>
+
+<p>Events in Kansas gave heart to those who were fighting Lecomptonism.
+At the election appointed by the convention, the &quot;constitution with
+slavery&quot; was adopted by a large majority, the free-State people
+refusing to vote; but the legislature, now in the control of the
+free-State party, had already provided for a fair vote on the whole
+constitution. On this second vote the majority was overwhelmingly
+against the constitution. Information from various sources
+corroborated the deductions which unprejudiced observers drew from the
+voting. It was as clear as day that the <a name="Page_338" id="Page_338"></a>people of Kansas did not
+regard the Lecompton constitution as a fair expression of their
+will.<a name="FNanchor_649_649" id="FNanchor_649_649"></a><a href="#Footnote_649_649"><sup>[649]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Ignoring the light which made the path of duty plain, President
+Buchanan sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress with a message
+recommending the admission of Kansas.<a name="FNanchor_650_650" id="FNanchor_650_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_650_650"><sup>[650]</sup></a> To his mind, the Lecompton
+convention was legally constituted and had exercised its powers
+faithfully. The organic act did not bind the convention to submit to
+the people more than the question of slavery. Meantime the Supreme
+Court had handed down its famous decision in the Dred Scott case.
+Fortified by this dictum, the President told Congress that slavery
+existed in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the United States.
+&quot;Kansas is, at this moment, as much a slave State as Georgia or South
+Carolina&quot;! Slavery, then, could be prohibited only by constitutional
+provision; and those who desired to do away with slavery would most
+speedily compass their ends, if they admitted Kansas at once under
+this constitution.</p>
+
+<p>The President's message with the Lecompton constitution was referred
+to the Committee on Territories and gave rise to three reports:
+Senator Green of Missouri presented the majority report, recommending
+the admission of Kansas under this constitution; Senators Collamer and
+Wade united on a minority report, leaving Douglas to draft another
+expressing his dissent on other grounds.<a name="FNanchor_651_651" id="FNanchor_651_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_651_651"><sup>[651]</sup></a> Taken all in all, this
+must be regarded as the most satisfactory and convincing of all
+Douglas's committee reports. It is strong <a name="Page_339" id="Page_339"></a>because it is permeated by
+a desire for justice, and reinforced at every point by a consummate
+marshalling of evidence. Barely in his career had his conspicuous
+qualities as a special pleader been put so unreservedly at the service
+of simple justice. He planted himself firmly, at the outset, upon the
+incontrovertible fact that there was no satisfactory evidence that the
+Lecompton constitution was the act and deed of the people of
+Kansas.<a name="FNanchor_652_652" id="FNanchor_652_652"></a><a href="#Footnote_652_652"><sup>[652]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It had been argued that, because the Lecompton convention had been
+duly constituted, with full power to ordain a constitution and
+establish a government, consequently the proceedings of the convention
+must be presumed to embody the popular will. Douglas immediately
+challenged this assumption. The convention had no more power than the
+territorial legislature could confer. By no fair construction of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act could it be assumed that the people of the
+Territory were authorized, &quot;at their own will and pleasure, to resolve
+themselves into a sovereign power, and to abrogate and annul the
+organic act and territorial government established by Congress, and to
+ordain a constitution and State government upon their ruins, without
+the consent of Congress.&quot; Surely, then, a convention which the
+territorial legislature called into being could not abrogate or impair
+the authority of that territorial government established by Congress.
+Hence, he concluded, the Lecompton constitution, formed without the
+consent of Congress, must be considered as a memorial or petition,
+which Congress may accept or reject. The convention was the creature
+of the territorial legislature. &quot;Such being the case, <a name="Page_340" id="Page_340"></a>whenever the
+legislature ascertained that the convention whose existence depended
+upon its will, had devised a scheme to force a constitution upon the
+people without their consent, and without any authority from Congress,
+... it became their imperative duty to interpose and exert the
+authority conferred upon them by Congress in the organic act, and
+arrest and prevent the consummation of the scheme before it had gone
+into operation.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_653_653" id="FNanchor_653_653"></a><a href="#Footnote_653_653"><sup>[653]</sup></a> This was an unanswerable argument.</p>
+
+<p>In the prolonged debate upon the admission of Kansas, Douglas took
+part only as some taunt or challenge brought him to his feet. While
+the bill for the admission of Minnesota, also reported by the
+Committee on Territories, was under fire, Senator Brown of Mississippi
+elicited from Douglas the significant concession, that he did not deem
+an enabling act absolutely essential, so long as the constitution
+clearly embodied the will of the people. Neither did he think a
+submission of the constitution always essential; it was, however, a
+fair way of ascertaining the popular will, when that will was
+disputed.&quot; Satisfy me that the constitution adopted by the people of
+Minnesota is their will, and I am prepared to adopt it. Satisfy me
+that the constitution adopted, or said to be adopted, by the people of
+Kansas, is their will, and I am prepared to take it.... I will never
+apply one rule to a free State and another to a slave-holding
+State.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_654_654" id="FNanchor_654_654"></a><a href="#Footnote_654_654"><sup>[654]</sup></a> Nevertheless, even his Democratic colleagues continued to
+believe that slavery had something to do with his opposition. In the
+classic phraseology of Toombs, &quot;there was a 'nigger' in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341"></a>The opposition of Douglas began to cause no little uneasiness. Brown
+paid tribute to his influence, when he declared that if the Senator
+from Illinois had stood with the administration, &quot;there would not have
+been a ripple on the surface.&quot; &quot;Sir, the Senator from Illinois gives
+life, he gives vitality, he gives energy, he lends the aid of his
+mighty genius and his powerful will to the Opposition on this
+question.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_655_655" id="FNanchor_655_655"></a><a href="#Footnote_655_655"><sup>[655]</sup></a> But Douglas paid a fearful price for this power. Every
+possible ounce of pressure was brought to bear upon him. The party
+press was set upon him. His friends were turned out of office. The
+whole executive patronage was wielded mercilessly against his
+political following. The Washington <i>Union</i> held him up to execration
+as a traitor, renegade, and deserter.<a name="FNanchor_656_656" id="FNanchor_656_656"></a><a href="#Footnote_656_656"><sup>[656]</sup></a> &quot;We cannot affect
+indifference at the treachery of Senator Douglas,&quot; said a Richmond
+paper. &quot;He was a politician of considerable promise. Association with
+Southern gentlemen had smoothed down the rugged vulgarities of his
+early education, and he had come to be quite a decent and well-behaved
+person.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_657_657" id="FNanchor_657_657"></a><a href="#Footnote_657_657"><sup>[657]</sup></a> To political denunciation was now to be added the sting
+of mean and contemptible personalities.</p>
+
+<p>Small wonder that even the vigorous health of &quot;the Little Giant&quot;
+succumbed to these assaults. For a fortnight he was confined to his
+bed, rising only by sheer force of will to make a final plea for
+sanity, before his party took its suicidal plunge. He spoke on the 22d
+of March under exceptional conditions. In the expectation that he
+would speak in the forenoon, people <a name="Page_342" id="Page_342"></a>thronged the galleries at an
+early hour, and refused to give up their seats, even when it was
+announced that the Senator from Illinois would not address the Senate
+until seven o 'clock in the evening. When the hour came, crowds still
+held possession of the galleries, so that not even standing room was
+available. The door-keepers wrestled in vain with an impatient throng
+without, until by motion of Senator Gwin, ladies were admitted to the
+floor of the chamber. Even then, Douglas was obliged to pause several
+times, for the confusion around the doors to subside.<a name="FNanchor_658_658" id="FNanchor_658_658"></a><a href="#Footnote_658_658"><sup>[658]</sup></a> He spoke
+with manifest difficulty, but he was more defiant than ever. His
+speech was at once a protest and a personal vindication. Denial of the
+right of the administration to force the Lecompton constitution upon
+the people of Kansas, went hand in hand with a defense of his own
+Democracy. Sentences culled here and there suggest not unfairly the
+stinging rebukes and defiant challenges that accentuated the none too
+coherent course of his speech:</p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="noin">&quot;I am told that this Lecompton constitution is a party test,
+     a party measure; that no man is a Democrat who does not
+     sanction it ... Sir, who made it a party test? Who made it a
+     party measure?... Who has interpolated this Lecompton
+     constitution into the party platform?... Oh! but we are told
+     it is an Administration measure. Because it is an
+     Administration measure, does it therefore follow that it is
+     a party measure?&quot; ... &quot;I do not recognize the right of the
+     President or his Cabinet ... to tell me my duty in the
+     Senate Chamber.&quot; &quot;Am I to be told that I must obey the
+     Executive and betray my State, or else be branded as a
+     traitor to the party, and hunted down by all the newspapers
+     that share the patronage of the government, and every man
+     who holds a petty office in any part of my State to have the
+     question put to him, 'Are you Douglas's enemy? if not, your
+     head comes off.' <a name="Page_343" id="Page_343"></a>I intend to perform my duty in
+     accordance with my own convictions. Neither the frowns of
+     power nor the influence of patronage will change my action,
+     or drive me from my principles. I stand firmly, immovably
+     upon those great principles of self-government and state
+     sovereignty upon which the campaign was fought and the
+     election won.... If, standing firmly by my principles, I
+     shall be driven into private life, it is a fate that has no
+     terrors for me. I prefer private life, preserving my own
+     self-respect and manhood, to abject and servile submission
+     to executive will. If the alternative be private life or
+     servile obedience to executive will, I am prepared to
+     retire. Official position has no charms for me when deprived
+     of that freedom of thought and action which becomes a
+     gentleman and a senator.'&quot;<a name="FNanchor_659_659" id="FNanchor_659_659"></a><a href="#Footnote_659_659"><sup>[659]</sup></a></p></blockquote>
+
+<p>On the following day, the Senate passed the bill for the admission of
+Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, having rejected the amendment
+of Crittenden to submit that constitution to a vote of the people of
+Kansas. A similar amendment, however, was carried in the House. As
+neither chamber would recede from its position, a conference committee
+was appointed to break the deadlock.<a name="FNanchor_660_660" id="FNanchor_660_660"></a><a href="#Footnote_660_660"><sup>[660]</sup></a> It was from this committee,
+controlled by Lecomptonites, that the famous English bill emanated.
+Stated briefly, the substance of this compromise measure&mdash;for such it
+was intended to be&mdash;was as follows: Congress was to offer to Kansas a
+conditional grant of public lands; if this land ordinance should be
+accepted by a popular vote, Kansas was to be admitted to the Union
+with the Lecompton constitution by proclamation of the President; if
+it should be rejected, Kansas was not to be admitted until the
+Territory had a population equal to the unit of representation
+required for the House of Representatives.</p>
+
+<p>Taken all in all, the bill was as great a concession as <a name="Page_344" id="Page_344"></a>could be
+expected from the administration. Not all were willing to say that the
+bill provided for a vote on the constitution, but Northern adherents
+could point to the vote on the land ordinance as an indirect vote upon
+the constitution. It is not quite true to say that the land grant was
+a bribe to the voters of Kansas. As a matter of fact, the amount of
+land granted was only equal to that usually offered to the
+Territories, and it was considerably less than the area specified in
+the Lecompton constitution. Moreover, even if the land ordinance were
+defeated in order to reject the constitution, the Territory was pretty
+sure to secure as large a grant at some future time. It was rather in
+the alternative held out, that the English bill was unsatisfactory to
+those who loved fair play. Still, under the bill, the people of
+Kansas, by an act of self-denial, could defeat the Lecompton
+constitution. To that extent, the supporters of the administration
+yielded to the importunities of the champion of popular sovereignty.</p>
+
+<p>Under these circumstances it would not be strange if Douglas
+&quot;wavered.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_661_661" id="FNanchor_661_661"></a><a href="#Footnote_661_661"><sup>[661]</sup></a> Here was an opportunity to close the rift between
+himself and the administration, to heal party dissensions, perhaps to
+save the integrity of the Democratic party and the Union. And the
+price which he would have to pay was small. He could assume, plausibly
+enough,&mdash;as he had done many times before in his career,&mdash;that the
+bill granted all that he had ever asked. He was morally sure that the
+people of Kansas would reject the land grant to rid themselves of the
+Lecompton fraud. Why hesitate <a name="Page_345" id="Page_345"></a>then as to means, when the desired end
+was in clear view?</p>
+
+<p>Douglas found himself subjected to a new pressure, harder even to
+resist than any he had yet felt. Some of his staunch supporters in the
+anti-Lecompton struggle went over to the administration, covering
+their retreat by just such excuses as have been suggested. Was he
+wiser and more conscientious than they? A refusal to accept the
+proffered olive branch now meant,&mdash;he knew it well,&mdash;the
+irreconcilable enmity of the Buchanan faction. And he was not asked to
+recant, but only to accept what he had always deemed the very essence
+of statesmanship, a compromise. His Republican allies promptly evinced
+their distrust. They fully expected him to join his former associates.
+From them he could expect no sympathy in such a dilemma.<a name="FNanchor_662_662" id="FNanchor_662_662"></a><a href="#Footnote_662_662"><sup>[662]</sup></a> His
+political ambitions, no doubt, added to his perplexity. They were
+bound up in the fate of the party, the integrity of which was now
+menaced by his revolt. On the other hand, he was fully conscious that
+his Illinois constituency approved of his opposition to Lecomptonism
+and would regard a retreat across this improvised political bridge as
+both inglorious and treacherous. Agitated by conflicting emotions,
+Douglas made a decision which probably cost him more anguish than any
+he ever made; and when all has been said to the contrary, love of fair
+play would seem to have been his governing motive.<a name="FNanchor_663_663" id="FNanchor_663_663"></a><a href="#Footnote_663_663"><sup>[663]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When Douglas rose to address the Senate on the English bill, April
+29th, he betrayed some of the <a name="Page_346" id="Page_346"></a>emotion under which he had made his
+decision. He confessed an &quot;anxious desire&quot; to find such provisions as
+would permit him to support the bill; but he was painfully forced to
+declare that he could not find the principle for which he had
+contended, fairly carried out. He was unable to reconcile popular
+sovereignty with the proposed intervention of Congress in the English
+bill. &quot;It is intervention with inducements to control the result. It
+is intervention with a bounty on the one side and a penalty on the
+other.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_664_664" id="FNanchor_664_664"></a><a href="#Footnote_664_664"><sup>[664]</sup></a> He frankly admitted that he did not believe there was
+enough in the bounty nor enough in the penalty to influence materially
+the vote of the people of Kansas; but it involved &quot;the principle of
+freedom of election and&mdash;the great principle of self-government upon
+which our institutions rest.&quot; And upon this principle he took his
+stand. &quot;With all the anxiety that I have had,&quot; said he with deep
+feeling, &quot;to be able to arrive at a conclusion in harmony with the
+overwhelming majority of my political friends in Congress, I could not
+bring my judgment or conscience to the conclusion that this was a
+fair, impartial, and equal application of the principle.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_665_665" id="FNanchor_665_665"></a><a href="#Footnote_665_665"><sup>[665]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As though to make reconciliation with the administration impossible,
+Douglas went on to express his distrust of the provision of the bill
+for a board of supervisors of elections. Instead of a board of four,
+two of whom should represent the Territory and two the Federal
+government, as the Crittenden bill had provided, five were to
+constitute the board, of whom three were to be United States
+officials. &quot;Does not this change,&quot; asked Douglas significantly, &quot;give
+<a name="Page_347" id="Page_347"></a>ground for apprehension that you may have the Oxford, the Shawnee, and
+the Delaware Crossing and Kickapoo frauds re-enacted at this
+election?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_666_666" id="FNanchor_666_666"></a><a href="#Footnote_666_666"><sup>[666]</sup></a> The most suspicions Republican could hardly have dealt
+an unkinder thrust.</p>
+
+<p>There could be no manner of doubt as to the outcome of the English
+bill in the Senate. Douglas, Stuart, and Broderick were the only
+Democrats to oppose its passage, Pugh having joined the majority. The
+bill passed the House also, nine of Douglas's associates in the
+anti-Lecompton fight going over to the administration.<a name="FNanchor_667_667" id="FNanchor_667_667"></a><a href="#Footnote_667_667"><sup>[667]</sup></a> Douglas
+accepted this defection with philosophic equanimity, indulging in no
+vindictive feelings.<a name="FNanchor_668_668" id="FNanchor_668_668"></a><a href="#Footnote_668_668"><sup>[668]</sup></a> Had he not himself felt misgivings as to his
+own course?</p>
+
+<p>By midsummer the people of Kansas had recorded nearly ten thousand
+votes against the land ordinance and the Lecompton constitution. The
+administration had failed to make Kansas a slave State. Yet the
+Supreme Court had countenanced the view that Kansas was legally a
+slave Territory. What, then, became of the great fundamental principle
+of popular sovereignty? This was the question which Douglas was now
+called upon to answer.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_621_621" id="Footnote_621_621"></a><a href="#FNanchor_621_621">[621]</a> Report of the Covode Committee, pp. 105-106; Cutts,
+Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 111; Speech of Douglas at
+Milwaukee, Wis., October 14, 1860, Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, October
+17, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_622_622" id="Footnote_622_622"></a><a href="#FNanchor_622_622">[622]</a> Spring, Kansas, p. 213; Rhodes, History of the United
+States, II, p. 274.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_623_623" id="Footnote_623_623"></a><a href="#FNanchor_623_623">[623]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 277-278.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_624_624" id="Footnote_624_624"></a><a href="#FNanchor_624_624">[624]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 278-279; Spring, Kansas, p. 223.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_625_625" id="Footnote_625_625"></a><a href="#FNanchor_625_625">[625]</a> See Article VII, of the Kansas constitution, Senate
+Reports, No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_626_626" id="Footnote_626_626"></a><a href="#FNanchor_626_626">[626]</a> Schedule Section 14.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_627_627" id="Footnote_627_627"></a><a href="#FNanchor_627_627">[627]</a> Covode Report, p. 111.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_628_628" id="Footnote_628_628"></a><a href="#FNanchor_628_628">[628]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i>, November 19, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_629_629" id="Footnote_629_629"></a><a href="#FNanchor_629_629">[629]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i>, November 20 and 21, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_630_630" id="Footnote_630_630"></a><a href="#FNanchor_630_630">[630]</a> Speech at Milwaukee, October 14, 1860, Chicago <i>Times
+and Herald</i>, October 17, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_631_631" id="Footnote_631_631"></a><a href="#FNanchor_631_631">[631]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, December 3, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_632_632" id="Footnote_632_632"></a><a href="#FNanchor_632_632">[632]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_633_633" id="Footnote_633_633"></a><a href="#FNanchor_633_633">[633]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i>, December 19, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_634_634" id="Footnote_634_634"></a><a href="#FNanchor_634_634">[634]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 17.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_635_635" id="Footnote_635_635"></a><a href="#FNanchor_635_635">[635]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 17-18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_636_636" id="Footnote_636_636"></a><a href="#FNanchor_636_636">[636]</a> &quot;I spoke rapidly, without preparation,&quot; he afterward
+said. <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 47.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_637_637" id="Footnote_637_637"></a><a href="#FNanchor_637_637">[637]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_638_638" id="Footnote_638_638"></a><a href="#FNanchor_638_638">[638]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, December 9, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_639_639" id="Footnote_639_639"></a><a href="#FNanchor_639_639">[639]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, December 10, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_640_640" id="Footnote_640_640"></a><a href="#FNanchor_640_640">[640]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 21-22.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_641_641" id="Footnote_641_641"></a><a href="#FNanchor_641_641">[641]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 5 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_642_642" id="Footnote_642_642"></a><a href="#FNanchor_642_642">[642]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 137.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_643_643" id="Footnote_643_643"></a><a href="#FNanchor_643_643">[643]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i>, December 24, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_644_644" id="Footnote_644_644"></a><a href="#FNanchor_644_644">[644]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, December 23, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_645_645" id="Footnote_645_645"></a><a href="#FNanchor_645_645">[645]</a> Correspondent to Cleveland <i>Plaindealer</i>, quoted in
+Chicago <i>Times</i>, January 29, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_646_646" id="Footnote_646_646"></a><a href="#FNanchor_646_646">[646]</a> Mrs. Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Pierce, MS. Letter, April
+4, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_647_647" id="Footnote_647_647"></a><a href="#FNanchor_647_647">[647]</a> Mrs. Roger Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, pp.
+69-70.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_648_648" id="Footnote_648_648"></a><a href="#FNanchor_648_648">[648]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, Chapter 4.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_649_649" id="Footnote_649_649"></a><a href="#FNanchor_649_649">[649]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 289.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_650_650" id="Footnote_650_650"></a><a href="#FNanchor_650_650">[650]</a> Message of February 2, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_651_651" id="Footnote_651_651"></a><a href="#FNanchor_651_651">[651]</a> Senate Report No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., February 18,
+1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_652_652" id="Footnote_652_652"></a><a href="#FNanchor_652_652">[652]</a> Minority Report, p. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_653_653" id="Footnote_653_653"></a><a href="#FNanchor_653_653">[653]</a> Minority Report, p. 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_654_654" id="Footnote_654_654"></a><a href="#FNanchor_654_654">[654]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 502.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_655_655" id="Footnote_655_655"></a><a href="#FNanchor_655_655">[655]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 572-573.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_656_656" id="Footnote_656_656"></a><a href="#FNanchor_656_656">[656]</a> Washington <i>Union</i>, February 26, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_657_657" id="Footnote_657_657"></a><a href="#FNanchor_657_657">[657]</a> Richmond <i>South</i>, quoted in Chicago <i>Times</i>, December
+18, 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_658_658" id="Footnote_658_658"></a><a href="#FNanchor_658_658">[658]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 328; <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., pp. 193-194.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_659_659" id="Footnote_659_659"></a><a href="#FNanchor_659_659">[659]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 194-201,
+<i>passim.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_660_660" id="Footnote_660_660"></a><a href="#FNanchor_660_660">[660]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 297-299.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_661_661" id="Footnote_661_661"></a><a href="#FNanchor_661_661">[661]</a> Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 563.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_662_662" id="Footnote_662_662"></a><a href="#FNanchor_662_662">[662]</a> Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, pp.
+566-567.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_663_663" id="Footnote_663_663"></a><a href="#FNanchor_663_663">[663]</a> This cannot, of course, be demonstrated, but it accords
+with his subsequent conduct.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_664_664" id="Footnote_664_664"></a><a href="#FNanchor_664_664">[664]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1869.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_665_665" id="Footnote_665_665"></a><a href="#FNanchor_665_665">[665]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1870.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_666_666" id="Footnote_666_666"></a><a href="#FNanchor_666_666">[666]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1870.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_667_667" id="Footnote_667_667"></a><a href="#FNanchor_667_667">[667]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 300.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_668_668" id="Footnote_668_668"></a><a href="#FNanchor_668_668">[668]</a> Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, p. 58.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348"></a>CHAPTER XVI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE JOINT DEBATES WITH LINCOLN</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>National politics made strange bed-fellows in the winter of 1857-8.
+Douglas consorting with Republicans and flouting the administration,
+was a rare spectacle. There was a moment in this odd alliance when it
+seemed likely to become more than a temporary fusion of interests. The
+need of concerted action brought about frequent conferences, in which
+the distrust of men like Wilson and Colfax was, in a measure,
+dispelled by the engaging frankness of their quondam opponent.<a name="FNanchor_669_669" id="FNanchor_669_669"></a><a href="#Footnote_669_669"><sup>[669]</sup></a>
+Douglas intimated that in all probability he could not act with his
+party in future.<a name="FNanchor_670_670" id="FNanchor_670_670"></a><a href="#Footnote_670_670"><sup>[670]</sup></a> He assured Wilson that he was in the fight to
+stay&mdash;in his own words, &quot;he had checked his baggage and taken a
+through ticket.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_671_671" id="FNanchor_671_671"></a><a href="#Footnote_671_671"><sup>[671]</sup></a> There was an odd disposition, too, on the part
+of some Republicans to indorse popular sovereignty, now that it seemed
+likely to exclude slavery from the Territories.<a name="FNanchor_672_672" id="FNanchor_672_672"></a><a href="#Footnote_672_672"><sup>[672]</sup></a> There was even a
+rumor afloat that the editor of the New York <i>Tribune</i> favored Douglas
+for the presidency.<a name="FNanchor_673_673" id="FNanchor_673_673"></a><a href="#Footnote_673_673"><sup>[673]</sup></a> On at least two occasions, Greeley was in
+conference with Senator Douglas at the latter's residence. To the
+gossiping public this was evidence enough that the rumor was correct.
+And it may well be that Douglas dallied with the hope that a great
+<a name="Page_349" id="Page_349"></a>Constitutional Union party might be formed.<a name="FNanchor_674_674" id="FNanchor_674_674"></a><a href="#Footnote_674_674"><sup>[674]</sup></a> But he could hardly
+have received much encouragement from the Republicans, with whom he
+was consorting, for so far from losing their political identity, they
+calculated upon bringing him eventually within the Republican
+fold.<a name="FNanchor_675_675" id="FNanchor_675_675"></a><a href="#Footnote_675_675"><sup>[675]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>A Constitutional Union party, embracing Northern and Southern
+Unionists of Whig or Democratic antecedents, might have supplied the
+gap left by the old Whig party. That such a party would have exercised
+a profound nationalizing influence can scarcely be doubted. Events
+might have put Douglas at the head of such a party. But, in truth,
+such an outcome of the political chaos which then reigned, was a
+remote possibility.</p>
+
+<p>The matter of immediate concern to Douglas was the probable attitude
+of his allies toward his re-election to the Senate. There was a wide
+divergence among Republican leaders; but active politicians like
+Greeley and Wilson, who were not above fighting the devil with his own
+weapons, counselled their Illinois brethren not to oppose his
+return.<a name="FNanchor_676_676" id="FNanchor_676_676"></a><a href="#Footnote_676_676"><sup>[676]</sup></a> There was no surer way to disrupt the Democratic party.
+In spite of these admonitions, the Republicans of Illinois were bent
+upon defeating Douglas. He had been too uncompromising and bitter an
+opponent of Trumbull and other &quot;Black Republicans&quot; to win their
+confidence by a few months of conflict against Lecomptonism. &quot;I see
+his tracks all over our State,&quot; wrote the editor of the Chicago
+<i>Tribune</i>, &quot;they point only in one direction; not a single toe is
+turned toward the Republican <a name="Page_350" id="Page_350"></a>camp. Watch him, use him, but do not
+trust him&mdash;not an inch.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_677_677" id="FNanchor_677_677"></a><a href="#Footnote_677_677"><sup>[677]</sup></a> Moreover, a little coterie of
+Springfield politicians had a candidate of their own for United States
+senator in the person of Abraham Lincoln.<a name="FNanchor_678_678" id="FNanchor_678_678"></a><a href="#Footnote_678_678"><sup>[678]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The action of the Democratic State convention in April closed the door
+to any reconciliation with the Buchanan administration. Douglas
+received an unqualified indorsement. The Cincinnati platform was
+declared to be &quot;the only authoritative exposition of Democratic
+doctrine.&quot; No power on earth except a similar national convention had
+a right &quot;to change or interpolate that platform, or to prescribe new
+or different tests.&quot; By sound party doctrine the Lecompton
+constitution ought to be &quot;submitted to the direct vote of the actual
+inhabitants of Kansas at a fair election.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_679_679" id="FNanchor_679_679"></a><a href="#Footnote_679_679"><sup>[679]</sup></a> Could any words have
+been more explicit? The administration responded by a merciless
+proscription of Douglas office-holders and by unremitting efforts to
+create an opposition ticket. Under pressure from Washington,
+conventions were held to nominate candidates for the various State
+offices, with the undisguised purpose of dividing the Democratic vote
+for senator.<a name="FNanchor_680_680" id="FNanchor_680_680"></a><a href="#Footnote_680_680"><sup>[680]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 16th of June, the Republicans of Illinois threw advice to the
+winds and adopted the unusual course of naming Lincoln as &quot;the first
+and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States
+Senate.&quot; It was an act of immense political significance. Not only did
+it put in jeopardy the political life of Douglas, but it ended for all
+time to come any <a name="Page_351" id="Page_351"></a>coalition between his following and the Republican
+party.</p>
+
+<p>The subsequent fame of Lincoln has irradiated every phase of his early
+career. To his contemporaries in the year 1858, he was a lawyer of
+recognized ability, an astute politician, and a frank aspirant for
+national honors. Those who imagine him to have been an unambitious
+soul, upon whom honors were thrust, fail to understand the Lincoln
+whom Herndon, his partner, knew. Lincoln was a seasoned politician. He
+had been identified with the old Whig organization; he had repeatedly
+represented the Springfield district in the State legislature; and he
+had served one term without distinction in Congress. Upon the passage
+of the Kansas-Nebraska Act he had taken an active part in fusing the
+opposing elements into the Republican party. His services to the new
+party made him a candidate for the senatorship in 1855, and received
+recognition in the national Republican convention of 1856, when he was
+second on the list of those for whom the convention balloted for
+Vice-president. He was not unknown to Republicans of the Northwest,
+though he was not in any sense a national figure. Few men had a keener
+insight into political conditions in Illinois. None knew better the
+ins and outs of political campaigning in Illinois.</p>
+
+<p>Withal, Lincoln was rated as a man of integrity. He had strong
+convictions and the courage of his convictions. His generous instincts
+made him hate slavery, while his antecedents prevented him from loving
+the negro. His anti-slavery sentiments were held strongly in check by
+his sound sense of justice. He had the temperament of a humanitarian
+with the intellect of <a name="Page_352" id="Page_352"></a>a lawyer. While not combative by nature, he
+possessed the characteristic American trait of measuring himself by
+the attainments of others. He was solicitous to match himself with
+other men so as to prove himself at least their peer. Possessed of a
+cause that enlisted the service of his heart as well as his head,
+Lincoln was a strong advocate at the bar and a formidable opponent on
+the stump. Douglas bore true witness to Lincoln's powers when he said,
+on hearing of his nomination, &quot;I shall have my hands full. He is the
+strong man of his party&mdash;full of wit, facts, dates&mdash;and the best stump
+speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West. He is as
+honest as he is shrewd; and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly
+won.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_681_681" id="FNanchor_681_681"></a><a href="#Footnote_681_681"><sup>[681]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The nomination of Lincoln was so little a matter of surprise to him
+and his friends, that at the close of the convention he was able to
+address the delegates in a carefully prepared speech. Wishing to sound
+a dominant note for the campaign, he began with these memorable words:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we
+could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into
+the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object,
+and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under
+the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased,
+but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until
+a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against
+itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
+permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
+dissolved&mdash;I do not expect <a name="Page_353" id="Page_353"></a>the house to fall&mdash;but I do expect it will
+cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
+Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it,
+and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is
+in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it
+forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as
+well as new&mdash;North as well as South.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_682_682" id="FNanchor_682_682"></a><a href="#Footnote_682_682"><sup>[682]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>All evidence, continued Lincoln, pointed to a design to make slavery
+national. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, the popular indorsement of
+Buchanan, and the Dred Scott decision, were so many parts of a plot.
+Only one part was lacking; <i>viz.</i> another decision declaring it
+unconstitutional for a State to exclude slavery. Then the fabric would
+be complete for which Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James had each
+wrought his separate piece with artful cunning. It was impossible not
+to believe that these Democratic leaders had labored in concert. To
+those who had urged that Douglas should be supported, Lincoln had only
+this to say: Douglas could not oppose the advance of slavery, for he
+did not care whether slavery was voted up or down. His avowed purpose
+was to make the people care nothing about slavery. The Republican
+cause must not be intrusted to its adventitious allies, but to its
+undoubted friends.</p>
+
+<p>A welcome that was truly royal awaited Douglas in Chicago. On his way
+thither, he was met by a delegation which took him a willing captive
+and conducted him on a special train to his destination. Along the
+route there was every sign of popular enthusiasm. He entered the city
+amid the booming of cannon; he <a name="Page_354" id="Page_354"></a>was conveyed to his hotel in a
+carriage drawn by six horses, under military escort; banners with
+flattering inscriptions fluttered above his head; from balconies and
+windows he heard the shouts of thousands.<a name="FNanchor_683_683" id="FNanchor_683_683"></a><a href="#Footnote_683_683"><sup>[683]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Even more flattering if possible was the immense crowd that thronged
+around the Tremont House in the early evening to hear his promised
+speech. Not only the area in front of the hotel, but the adjoining
+streets were crowded. Illuminations and fireworks cast a lurid light
+on the faces which were upturned to greet the &quot;Defender of Popular
+Sovereignty,&quot; as he appeared upon the balcony. A man of far less
+vanity would have been moved by the scene. Just behind the speaker but
+within the house, Lincoln was an attentive listener.<a name="FNanchor_684_684" id="FNanchor_684_684"></a><a href="#Footnote_684_684"><sup>[684]</sup></a> The presence
+of his rival put Douglas on his mettle. He took in good part a rather
+discourteous interruption by Lincoln, and referred to him in generous
+terms, as &quot;a kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen,
+and an honorable opponent.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_685_685" id="FNanchor_685_685"></a><a href="#Footnote_685_685"><sup>[685]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The address was in a somewhat egotistical vein&mdash;pardonably egotistical,
+considering the extraordinary circumstances. Douglas could not refrain
+from referring to his career since he had confronted that excited crowd
+in Chicago eight years before, in defense of the compromise measures.
+To his mind the events of those eight years had amply vindicated the
+great principle of popular sovereignty. Knowing that he was in a
+Republican stronghold, he dwelt with particular complacency upon the
+manful way in which the Republican party had come to the support of
+that principle, <a name="Page_355" id="Page_355"></a>in the recent anti-Lecompton fight. It was this
+fundamental right of self-government that he had championed through
+good and ill report, all these years. It was this, and this alone,
+which had governed his action in regard to the Lecompton fraud. It was
+not because the Lecompton constitution was a slave constitution, but
+because it was not the act and deed of the people of Kansas that he had
+condemned it. &quot;Whenever,&quot; said he, &quot;you put a limitation upon the right
+of a people to decide what laws they want, you have destroyed the
+fundamental principle of self-government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With Lincoln's house-divided-against-itself proposition, he took issue
+unqualifiedly. &quot;Mr. Lincoln asserts, as a fundamental principle of
+this government, that there must be uniformity in the local laws and
+domestic institutions of each and all the States of the Union, and he
+therefore invites all the non-slaveholding States to band together,
+organize as one body, and make war upon slavery in Kentucky, upon
+slavery in Virginia, upon slavery in the Carolinas, upon slavery in
+all of the slave-holding States in this Union, and to persevere in
+that war until it shall be exterminated. He then notifies the
+slave-holding States to stand together as a unit and make an
+aggressive war upon the free States of this Union with a view of
+establishing slavery in them all; of forcing it upon Illinois, of
+forcing it upon New York, upon New England, and upon every other free
+State, and that they shall keep up the warfare until it has been
+formally established in them all. In other words, Mr. Lincoln
+advocates boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the North
+against the South, of the free States against the slave <a name="Page_356" id="Page_356"></a>States&mdash;a war
+of extermination&mdash;to be continued relentlessly until the one or the
+other shall be subdued, and all the States shall either become free or
+become slave.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_686_686" id="FNanchor_686_686"></a><a href="#Footnote_686_686"><sup>[686]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But such uniformity in local institutions would be possible only by
+blotting out State Sovereignty, by merging all the States in one
+consolidated empire, and by vesting Congress with plenary power to
+make all the police regulations, domestic and local laws, uniform
+throughout the Republic. The framers of our government knew well
+enough that differences in soil, in products, and in interests,
+required different local and domestic regulations in each locality;
+and they organized the Federal government on this fundamental
+assumption.<a name="FNanchor_687_687" id="FNanchor_687_687"></a><a href="#Footnote_687_687"><sup>[687]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With Lincoln's other proposition Douglas also took issue. He refused
+to enter upon any crusade against the Supreme Court. &quot;I do not choose,
+therefore, to go into any argument with Mr. Lincoln in reviewing the
+various decisions which the Supreme Court has made, either upon the
+Dred Scott case, or any other. I have no idea of appealing from the
+decision of the Supreme Court upon a constitutional question to the
+decision of a tumultuous town meeting.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_688_688" id="FNanchor_688_688"></a><a href="#Footnote_688_688"><sup>[688]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Neither could Douglas agree with his opponent in objecting to the
+decision of the Supreme Court because it deprived the negro of the
+rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship, which pertained
+only to the white race. Our government was founded on a white basis.
+&quot;It was made by the white man, for the benefit of the white man, to be
+administered by white men.&quot; To be sure, a negro, an Indian, or any
+other <a name="Page_357" id="Page_357"></a>man of inferior race should be permitted to enjoy all the
+rights, privileges, and immunities consistent with the safety of
+society; but each State should decide for itself the nature and extent
+of these rights.</p>
+
+<p>On the next evening, Republican Chicago greeted its protagonist with
+much the same demonstrations, as he took his place on the balcony from
+which Douglas had spoken. Lincoln found the flaw in Douglas's armor at
+the outset. &quot;Popular sovereignty! Everlasting popular sovereignty!
+What is popular sovereignty&quot;? How could there be such a thing in the
+original sense, now that the Supreme Court had decided that the people
+in their territorial status might not prohibit slavery? And as for the
+right of the people to frame a constitution, who had ever disputed
+that right? But Lincoln, evidently troubled by Douglas's vehement
+deductions from the house-divided-against-itself proposition, soon
+fell back upon the defensive, where he was at a great disadvantage. He
+was forced to explain that he did not favor a war by the North upon
+the South for the extinction of slavery; nor a war by the South upon
+the North for the nationalization of slavery. &quot;I only said what I
+expected would take place. I made a prediction only,&mdash;it may have been
+a foolish one, perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery
+should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now,
+however.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_689_689" id="FNanchor_689_689"></a><a href="#Footnote_689_689"><sup>[689]</sup></a> He <i>believed</i> that slavery had endured, because until
+the Nebraska Act the public mind had rested in the conviction that
+slavery would ultimately disappear. In affirming that the opponents of
+slavery would arrest its further extension, he only meant to say that
+they <a name="Page_358" id="Page_358"></a>would put it where the fathers originally placed it. He was not
+in favor of interfering with slavery where it existed in the States.
+As to the charge that he was inviting people to resist the Dred Scott
+decision, Lincoln responded rather weakly&mdash;again laying himself open
+to attack&mdash;&quot;We mean to do what we can to have the court decide the
+other way.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_690_690" id="FNanchor_690_690"></a><a href="#Footnote_690_690"><sup>[690]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Lincoln also betrayed his fear lest Douglas should draw Republican
+votes. Knowing the strong anti-slavery sentiment of the region, he
+asked when Douglas had shown anything but indifference on the subject
+of slavery. Away with this quibbling about inferior races! &quot;Let us
+discard all these things and unite as one people throughout this land,
+until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created
+equal.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_691_691" id="FNanchor_691_691"></a><a href="#Footnote_691_691"><sup>[691]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>From Chicago Douglas journeyed like a conquering hero to Bloomington.
+At every station crowds gathered to see his gaily decorated train and
+to catch a glimpse of the famous senator. A platform car bearing a
+twelve-pound gun was attached to the train and everywhere &quot;popular
+sovereignty,&quot; as the cannon was dubbed, heralded his arrival.<a name="FNanchor_692_692" id="FNanchor_692_692"></a><a href="#Footnote_692_692"><sup>[692]</sup></a> On
+the evening of July 16th he addressed a large gathering in the open
+air; and again he had among his auditors, Abraham Lincoln, who was hot
+upon his trail.<a name="FNanchor_693_693" id="FNanchor_693_693"></a><a href="#Footnote_693_693"><sup>[693]</sup></a> The county and district in which Bloomington was
+situated had once been strongly Whig; but was now as strongly
+Republican. With the local conditions in mind, Douglas made an artful
+plea for support. He gratefully <a name="Page_359" id="Page_359"></a>acknowledged the aid of the
+Republicans in the recent anti-Lecompton fight, and of that worthy
+successor of the immortal Clay, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. After
+all, was it not a common principle for which they had been contending?
+&quot;My friends,&quot; said Douglas with engaging ingenuousness, &quot;when I am
+battling for a great principle, I want aid and support from whatever
+quarter I can get it.&quot; Pity, then, that Republican politicians, in
+order to defeat him, should form an alliance with Lecompton men and
+thus betray the cause!<a name="FNanchor_694_694" id="FNanchor_694_694"></a><a href="#Footnote_694_694"><sup>[694]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas called attention to Lincoln's explanation of his
+house-divided-against-itself argument. It still seemed to him to
+invite a war of sections. Mr. Lincoln had said that he had no wish to
+see the people <i>enter into</i> the Southern States and interfere with
+slavery: for his part, he was equally opposed to a sectional agitation
+to control the institutions of other States.<a name="FNanchor_695_695" id="FNanchor_695_695"></a><a href="#Footnote_695_695"><sup>[695]</sup></a> Again, Mr. Lincoln
+had said that he proposed, so far as in him lay, to secure a reversal
+of the Dred Scott decision. How, asked Douglas, will he accomplish
+this? There can be but one way: elect a Republican President who will
+pack the bench with Republican justices. Would a court so constituted
+command respect?<a name="FNanchor_696_696" id="FNanchor_696_696"></a><a href="#Footnote_696_696"><sup>[696]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As to the effect of the Dred Scott decision upon slavery in the
+Territories, Douglas had only this to say: &quot;With or without that
+decision, slavery will go just where the people want it, and not one
+inch further.&quot; &quot;Hence, if the people of a Territory want slavery, they
+will encourage it by passing affirmatory laws, and the necessary
+police regulations, patrol laws, and slave code; if they do not want
+it they will withhold <a name="Page_360" id="Page_360"></a>that legislation, and by withholding it slavery
+is as dead as if it was prohibited by a constitutional prohibition,
+especially if, in addition, their legislation is unfriendly, as it
+would be if they were opposed to it. They could pass such local laws
+and police regulations as would drive slavery out in one day, or one
+hour, if they were opposed to it, and therefore, so far as the
+question of slavery in the Territories is concerned, so far as the
+principle of popular sovereignty is concerned, in its practical
+operation, it matters not how the Dred Scott case may be decided with
+reference to the Territories.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_697_697" id="FNanchor_697_697"></a><a href="#Footnote_697_697"><sup>[697]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The closing words of the speech approached dangerously near to bathos.
+Douglas pictured himself standing beside the deathbed of Clay and
+pledging his life to the advocacy of the great principle expressed in
+the compromise measures of 1850, and later in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
+Strangely enough he had given the same pledge to &quot;the god-like
+Webster.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_698_698" id="FNanchor_698_698"></a><a href="#Footnote_698_698"><sup>[698]</sup></a> This filial reverence for Clay and Webster, whom
+Douglas had fought with all the weapons of partisan warfare, must have
+puzzled those Whigs in his audience who were guileless enough to
+accept such statements at their face value.</p>
+
+<p>Devoted partisans accompanied Douglas to Springfield, on the following
+day. In spite of the frequent downpours of rain and the sultry
+atmosphere, their enthusiasm never once flagged. On board the same
+train, surrounded by good-natured enemies, was Lincoln, who was also
+to speak at the capital.<a name="FNanchor_699_699" id="FNanchor_699_699"></a><a href="#Footnote_699_699"><sup>[699]</sup></a> Douglas again found a crowd awaiting
+him. He had much the <a name="Page_361" id="Page_361"></a>same things to say. Perhaps his arraignment of
+Lincoln's policy was somewhat more severe, but he turned the edges of
+his thrusts by a courteous reference to his opponent, &quot;with whom he
+anticipated no personal collision.&quot; For the first time he alluded to
+Lincoln's charge of conspiracy, but only to remark casually, &quot;If Mr.
+Lincoln deems me a conspirator of that kind, all I have to say is that
+I do not think so badly of the President of the United States, and the
+Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial tribunal on
+earth, as to believe that they were capable in their actions and
+decision of entering into political intrigues for partisan
+purposes.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_700_700" id="FNanchor_700_700"></a><a href="#Footnote_700_700"><sup>[700]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime Lincoln, addressing a Republican audience, was relating his
+recent experiences in the enemy's camp. Believing that he had
+discovered the line of attack, he sought to fortify his position. He
+did not contemplate the abolition of State legislatures, nor any such
+radical policy, any more than the fathers of the Republic did, when
+they sought to check the spread of slavery by prohibiting it in the
+Territories.<a name="FNanchor_701_701" id="FNanchor_701_701"></a><a href="#Footnote_701_701"><sup>[701]</sup></a> He did not propose to resist the Dred Scott decision
+except as a rule of political action.<a name="FNanchor_702_702" id="FNanchor_702_702"></a><a href="#Footnote_702_702"><sup>[702]</sup></a> Here in Sangamon County, he
+was somewhat less insistent upon negro equality. The negro was not the
+equal of the white man in all respects, to be sure; &quot;still, in the
+right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned,
+he is the equal of every other man, white or black.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_703_703" id="FNanchor_703_703"></a><a href="#Footnote_703_703"><sup>[703]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As matters stood, Douglas had the advantage of Lincoln, since with his
+national prominence and his <a name="Page_362" id="Page_362"></a>great popularity, he was always sure of
+an audience, and could reply as he chose to the attacks of his
+antagonist. Lincoln felt that he must come to close terms with Douglas
+and extort from him admissions which would discredit him with
+Republicans. With this end in view, Lincoln suggested that they
+&quot;divide time, and address the same audiences the present
+canvass.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_704_704" id="FNanchor_704_704"></a><a href="#Footnote_704_704"><sup>[704]</sup></a> It was obviously to Douglas's interest to continue the
+campaign as he had begun. He had already mapped out an extensive
+itinerary. He therefore replied that he could not agree to such an
+arrangement, owing to appointments already made and to the possibility
+of a third candidate with whom Lincoln might make common cause. He
+intimated, rather unfairly, that Lincoln had purposely waited until he
+was already bound by his appointments. However, he would accede to the
+proposal so far as to meet Lincoln in a joint discussion in each
+congressional district except the second and sixth, in which both had
+already spoken.<a name="FNanchor_705_705" id="FNanchor_705_705"></a><a href="#Footnote_705_705"><sup>[705]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was not such a letter as one would expect from a generous opponent.
+But politics was no pastime to the writer. He was sparring now in
+deadly earnest, for every advantage. Not unnaturally Lincoln resented
+the imputation of unfairness; but he agreed to the proposal of seven
+joint debates. Douglas then named the times and places; and Lincoln
+agreed to the terms, rather grudgingly, for he would have but three
+openings and closings to Douglas's four.<a name="FNanchor_706_706" id="FNanchor_706_706"></a><a href="#Footnote_706_706"><sup>[706]</sup></a> Still, as he had
+followed Douglas in Chicago, he had no reason to complain.</p>
+
+<p>The next three months may be regarded as a prolonged debate,
+accentuated by the seven joint <a name="Page_363" id="Page_363"></a>discussions. The rival candidates
+traversed much the same territory, and addressed much the same
+audiences on successive days. At times, chance made them
+fellow-passengers on the same train or steamboat. Douglas had already
+begun his itinerary, when Lincoln's last note reached him in Piatt
+County.<a name="FNanchor_707_707" id="FNanchor_707_707"></a><a href="#Footnote_707_707"><sup>[707]</sup></a> He had just spoken at Clinton, in De Witt County, and
+again he had found Lincoln in the audience.</p>
+
+<p>No general ever planned a military campaign with greater regard to the
+topography of the enemy's country, than Douglas plotted his campaign
+in central Illinois. For it was in the central counties that the
+election was to be won or lost. The Republican strength lay in the
+upper, northern third of the State; the Democratic strength, in the
+southern third. The doubtful area lay between Ottawa on the north and
+Belleville on the south; Oquawka on the northwest and Paris on the
+east. Only twice did Douglas make any extended tour outside this area:
+once to meet his appointment with Lincoln at Freeport; and once to
+engage in the third joint debate at Jonesboro.</p>
+
+<p>The first week in August found Douglas speaking at various points
+along the Illinois River to enthusiastic crowds. Lincoln followed
+closely after, bent upon weakening the force of his opponent's
+arguments by lodging an immediate demurrer against them. On the whole,
+Douglas drew the larger crowds; but it was observed that Lincoln's
+audiences increased as he proceeded northward. Ottawa was the
+objective point for both travelers, for there was to be held the first
+joint debate on August 21st.</p>
+
+<p>An enormous crowd awaited them. From sunrise <a name="Page_364" id="Page_364"></a>to mid-day men, women,
+and children had poured into town, in every sort of conveyance. It was
+a typical midsummer day in Illinois. The prairie roads were thoroughly
+baked by the sun, and the dust rose, like a fine powder, from beneath
+the feet of horses and pedestrians, enveloping all in blinding clouds.
+A train of seventeen cars had brought ardent supporters of Douglas
+from Chicago. The town was gaily decked; the booming of cannon
+resounded across the prairie; bands of music added to the excitement
+of the occasion. The speakers were escorted to the public square by
+two huge processions. So eager was the crowd that it was with much
+difficulty, and no little delay, that Lincoln and Douglas, the
+committee men, and the reporters, were landed on the platform.<a name="FNanchor_708_708" id="FNanchor_708_708"></a><a href="#Footnote_708_708"><sup>[708]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>For the first time in the campaign, the rival candidates were placed
+side by side. The crowd instinctively took its measure of the two men.
+They presented a striking contrast:<a name="FNanchor_709_709" id="FNanchor_709_709"></a><a href="#Footnote_709_709"><sup>[709]</sup></a> Lincoln, tall, angular, and
+long of limb; Douglas, short, almost dwarfed by comparison,
+broad-shouldered and thick-chested. Lincoln was clad in a frock coat
+of rusty black, which was evidently not made for his lank, ungainly
+body. His sleeves did not reach his wrists by several inches, and his
+trousers failed to conceal his huge feet. His long, sinewy neck
+emerged from a white collar, drawn over a black tie. Altogether, his
+appearance bordered upon the grotesque, and would have provoked mirth
+in any other than an Illinois audience, which knew and <a name="Page_365" id="Page_365"></a>respected the
+man too well to mark his costume. Douglas, on the contrary, presented
+a well-groomed figure. He wore a well-fitting suit of broadcloth; his
+linen was immaculate; and altogether he had the appearance of a man of
+the world whom fortune had favored.</p>
+
+<p>The eyes of the crowd, however, sought rather the faces of the rival
+candidates. Lincoln looked down upon them with eyes in which there was
+an expression of sadness, not to say melancholy, until he lost himself
+in the passion of his utterance. There was not a regular feature in
+his face. The deep furrows that seamed his countenance bore
+unmistakable witness to a boyhood of grim poverty and grinding toil.
+Douglas surveyed the crowd from beneath his shaggy brows, with bold,
+penetrating gaze. Every feature of his face bespoke power. The
+deep-set eyes; the dark, almost sinister, line between them; the mouth
+with its tightly-drawn lips; the deep lines on his somewhat puffy
+cheeks&mdash;all gave the impression of a masterful nature, accustomed to
+bear down opposition. As men observed his massive brow with its mane
+of abundant, dark hair; his strong neck; his short, compact body; they
+instinctively felt that here was a personality not lightly to be
+encountered. He was &quot;the very embodiment of force, combativeness, and
+staying power.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_710_710" id="FNanchor_710_710"></a><a href="#Footnote_710_710"><sup>[710]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When Douglas, by agreement, opened the debate, he was fully conscious
+that he was addressing an audience which was in the main hostile to
+him. With the instinct of a born stump speaker, he sought first to
+find common ground with his hearers. Appealing to the history of
+parties, he pointed out the practical <a name="Page_366" id="Page_366"></a>agreement of both Whig and
+Democratic parties on the slavery question down to 1854. It was when,
+in accordance with the Compromise of 1850, he brought in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, that Lincoln and Trumbull entered into an
+agreement to dissolve the old parties in Illinois and to form an
+Abolition party under the pseudonym &quot;Republican.&quot; The terms of the
+alliance were that Lincoln should have Senator Shields' place in the
+Senate, and that Trumbull should have Douglas's, when his term should
+expire.<a name="FNanchor_711_711" id="FNanchor_711_711"></a><a href="#Footnote_711_711"><sup>[711]</sup></a> History, thus interpreted, made not Douglas, but his
+opponent, the real agitator in State politics.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas then read from the first platform of the Black Republicans.
+&quot;My object in reading these resolutions,&quot; he said, &quot;was to put the
+question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will
+stand by each article in that creed and carry it out. I desire to know
+whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the
+unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. I desire him to answer
+whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the
+admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people
+want them. I want to know whether he stands pledged against the
+admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as
+the people of that State may see fit to make. I want to know whether
+he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District
+of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the
+prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. I desire
+to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the
+Territories of the United States, <a name="Page_367" id="Page_367"></a>North as well as South of the
+Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to answer whether he is opposed
+to the acquisition of any more territory, unless slavery is prohibited
+therein.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_712_712" id="FNanchor_712_712"></a><a href="#Footnote_712_712"><sup>[712]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In all this there was a rude vehemence and coarse insinuation that was
+regrettable; yet Douglas sought to soften the asperity of his manner,
+by adding that he did not mean to be disrespectful or unkind to Mr.
+Lincoln. He had known Mr. Lincoln for twenty-five years. While he was
+a school-teacher, Lincoln was a flourishing grocery-keeper. Lincoln
+was always more successful in business; Lincoln always did well
+whatever he undertook; Lincoln could beat any of the boys wrestling or
+running a foot-race; Lincoln could ruin more liquor than all the boys
+of the town together. When in Congress, Lincoln had distinguished
+himself by his opposition to the Mexican War, taking the side of the
+enemy against his own country.<a name="FNanchor_713_713" id="FNanchor_713_713"></a><a href="#Footnote_713_713"><sup>[713]</sup></a> If this disparagement of an
+opponent seems mean and ungenerous, let it be remembered that in the
+rough give-and-take of Illinois politics, hard hitting was to be
+expected. Lincoln had invited counter-blows by first charging Douglas
+with conspiracy. No mere reading of cold print can convey the virile
+energy with which Douglas spoke. The facial expression, the animated
+gesture, the toss of the head, and the stamp of the foot, the full,
+resonant voice&mdash;all are wanting.</p>
+
+<p>To a man of Lincoln's temperament, this vigorous invective was
+indescribably irritating. Rather unwisely he betrayed his vexation in
+his first words. His manner was constrained. He seemed awkward and ill
+at ease, but as he warmed to his task, his face became <a name="Page_368" id="Page_368"></a>more animated,
+he recovered the use of his arms, and he pointed his remarks with
+forceful gestures. His voice, never pleasant, rose to a shrill treble
+in moments of excitement. After the familiar manner of Western
+speakers of that day, he was wont to bend his knees and then rise to
+his full height with a jerk, to enforce some point.<a name="FNanchor_714_714" id="FNanchor_714_714"></a><a href="#Footnote_714_714"><sup>[714]</sup></a> Yet with all
+his ungraceful mannerisms, Lincoln held his hearers, impressing most
+men with a sense of the honesty of his convictions.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of replying categorically to Douglas's questions, Lincoln read
+a long extract from a speech which he had made in 1854, to show his
+attitude then toward the Fugitive Slave Act. He denied that he had had
+anything to do with the resolutions which had been read. He believed
+that he was not even in Springfield at the time when they were
+adopted.<a name="FNanchor_715_715" id="FNanchor_715_715"></a><a href="#Footnote_715_715"><sup>[715]</sup></a> As for the charge that he favored the social and
+political equality of the black and white races, he said, &quot;Anything
+that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality
+with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words,
+by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse.... I
+have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the
+white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the
+two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living
+together upon the footing of perfect equality ... notwithstanding all
+this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to
+all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
+Independence,&mdash;the <a name="Page_369" id="Page_369"></a>right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_716_716" id="FNanchor_716_716"></a><a href="#Footnote_716_716"><sup>[716]</sup></a> Slavery had always been, and would always be, &quot;an
+apple of discord and an element of division in the house.&quot; He
+disclaimed all intention of making war upon Southern institutions, yet
+he was still firm in the belief that the public mind would not be easy
+until slavery was put where the fathers left it. He reminded his
+hearers that Douglas had said nothing to clear himself from the
+suspicion of having been party to a conspiracy to nationalize slavery.
+Judge Douglas was not always so ready as now to yield obedience to
+judicial decisions, as anyone might see who chose to inquire how he
+earned his title.<a name="FNanchor_717_717" id="FNanchor_717_717"></a><a href="#Footnote_717_717"><sup>[717]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In his reply, Douglas endeavored to refresh Lincoln's memory in
+respect to the resolutions. They were adopted while he was in
+Springfield, for it was the season of the State Fair, when both had
+spoken at the Capitol. He had not charged Mr. Lincoln with having
+helped to frame these resolutions, but with having been a responsible
+leader of the party which had adopted them as its platform. Was Mr.
+Lincoln trying to dodge the questions? Douglas refused to allow
+himself to be put upon the defensive in the matter of the alleged
+conspiracy, since Lincoln had acknowledged that he did not know it to
+be true. He would brand it as a lie and let Lincoln prove it if he
+could.<a name="FNanchor_718_718" id="FNanchor_718_718"></a><a href="#Footnote_718_718"><sup>[718]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At the conclusion of the debate, two young farmers, in their exuberant
+enthusiasm, rushed forward, seized Lincoln in spite of his
+remonstrances, and carried him off upon their stalwart shoulders. &quot;It
+was really a <a name="Page_370" id="Page_370"></a>ludicrous sight,&quot; writes an eye-witness,<a name="FNanchor_719_719" id="FNanchor_719_719"></a><a href="#Footnote_719_719"><sup>[719]</sup></a> &quot;to see
+the grotesque figure holding frantically to the heads of his
+supporters, with his legs dangling from their shoulders, and his
+pantaloons pulled up so as to expose his underwear almost to his
+knees.&quot; Douglas was not slow in using this incident to the
+discomfiture of his opponent. &quot;Why,&quot; he said at Joliet, &quot;the very
+notice that I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in
+his knees so that he had to be carried from the platform. He laid up
+seven days, and in the meantime held a consultation with his political
+physicians,&quot;<a name="FNanchor_720_720" id="FNanchor_720_720"></a><a href="#Footnote_720_720"><sup>[720]</sup></a> etc. Strangely enough, Lincoln with all his sense of
+humor took this badinage seriously, and accused Douglas of telling a
+falsehood.<a name="FNanchor_721_721" id="FNanchor_721_721"></a><a href="#Footnote_721_721"><sup>[721]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The impression prevailed that Douglas had cornered Lincoln by his
+adroit use of the Springfield resolutions of 1854. Within a week,
+however, an editorial in the Chicago <i>Press and Tribune</i> reversed the
+popular verdict, by pronouncing the resolutions a forgery. The
+Republicans were jubilant. &quot;The Little Dodger&quot; had cornered himself.
+The Democrats were chagrined. Douglas was thoroughly nonplussed. He
+had written to Lanphier for precise information regarding these
+resolutions, and he had placed implicit confidence in the reply of his
+friend. It now transpired that they were the work of a local
+convention in Kane County.<a name="FNanchor_722_722" id="FNanchor_722_722"></a><a href="#Footnote_722_722"><sup>[722]</sup></a> Could any blunder have been more
+unfortunate?</p>
+
+<p>When the contestants met at Freeport, far in the <a name="Page_371" id="Page_371"></a>solid Republican
+counties of the North, Lincoln was ready with his answers to the
+questions propounded by Douglas at Ottawa. In most respects Lincoln
+was clear and explicit. While not giving an unqualified approval of
+the Fugitive Slave Law, he was not in favor of its repeal; while
+believing that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the
+District of Columbia, he favored abolition only on condition that it
+should be gradual, acceptable to a majority of the voters of the
+District, and compensatory to unwilling owners; he would favor the
+abolition of the slave-trade between the States only upon similar
+conservative principles; he believed it, however, to be the right and
+duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; he was
+not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory, provided that it
+would not aggravate the slavery question. The really crucial
+questions, Lincoln did not face so unequivocally. Was he opposed to
+the admission of more slave States? Would he oppose the admission of a
+new State with such a constitution as the people of that State should
+see fit to make?</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln answered hesitatingly: &quot;In regard to the other question, of
+whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
+the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly
+sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that
+question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never
+be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add, that
+if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the territorial
+existence of any one given Territory, and then the people shall,
+having a fair chance and a clear field, <a name="Page_372" id="Page_372"></a>when they come to adopt the
+Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave
+Constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution
+among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit
+them into the Union.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_723_723" id="FNanchor_723_723"></a><a href="#Footnote_723_723"><sup>[723]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was now Lincoln's turn to catechise his opponent. He had prepared
+four questions, the second of which caused his friends some
+misgivings.<a name="FNanchor_724_724" id="FNanchor_724_724"></a><a href="#Footnote_724_724"><sup>[724]</sup></a> It read: &quot;Can the people of a United States
+Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the
+United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation
+of a State Constitution?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln knew well enough that Douglas held to the power of the people
+practically to exclude slavery, regardless of the decision of the
+Supreme Court; Douglas had said as much in his hearing at Bloomington.
+What he desired to extort from Douglas was his opinion of the legality
+of such action in view of the Dred Scott decision. Should Douglas
+answer in the negative, popular sovereignty would become an empty
+phrase; should he answer in the affirmative, he would put himself, so
+Lincoln calculated, at variance with Southern Democrats, who claimed
+that the people of a Territory were now inhibited from any such power
+over slave property. In the latter event, Lincoln proposed to give
+such publicity to Douglas's reply as to make any future evasion or
+retraction impossible.<a name="FNanchor_725_725" id="FNanchor_725_725"></a><a href="#Footnote_725_725"><sup>[725]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas faced the critical question without the slightest hesitation.
+&quot;It matters not what way the <a name="Page_373" id="Page_373"></a>Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to
+the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a
+Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to
+introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery
+cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by
+local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
+established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to
+slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by
+unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
+their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
+will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
+Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
+people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
+complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer
+satisfactory on that point&quot;<a name="FNanchor_726_726" id="FNanchor_726_726"></a><a href="#Footnote_726_726"><sup>[726]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The other three questions involved less risk for the advocate of
+popular sovereignty. He would vote to admit Kansas without the
+requisite population for representation in Congress, if the people
+should frame an unobjectionable constitution. He would prefer a
+general rule on this point, but since Congress had decided that Kansas
+had enough people to form a slave State, she surely had enough to
+constitute a free State. He scouted the imputation in the third
+question, that the Supreme Court could so far violate the Constitution
+as to decide that a State could not exclude slavery from its own
+limits. He would always vote for the acquisition of new territory,
+when it was needed, irrespective of the question of slavery.<a name="FNanchor_727_727" id="FNanchor_727_727"></a><a href="#Footnote_727_727"><sup>[727]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374"></a>Smarting under Lincoln's animadversions respecting the Springfield
+resolutions, Douglas explained his error by quoting from a copy of the
+Illinois <i>State Register</i>, which had printed the resolutions as the
+work of the convention at the capital. He gave notice that he would
+investigate the matter, &quot;when he got down to Springfield.&quot; At all
+events there was ample proof that the resolutions were a faithful
+exposition of Republican doctrine in the year 1854. Douglas then read
+similar resolutions adopted by a convention in Rockford County. One
+Turner, who was acting as one of the moderators, interrupted him at
+this point, to say that he had drawn those very resolutions and that
+they were the Republican creed exactly. &quot;And yet,&quot; exclaimed Douglas
+triumphantly, &quot;and yet Lincoln denies that he stands on them. Mr.
+Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican party is the
+admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln declares that
+he would not like to be placed in a position where he would have to
+vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln is, that I do not
+think there is much danger of his being placed in such a position....
+I propose, out of mere kindness, to relieve him from any such
+necessity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_728_728" id="FNanchor_728_728"></a><a href="#Footnote_728_728"><sup>[728]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As he continued, Douglas grew offensively denunciatory. His opponents
+were invariably Black Republicans; Lincoln was the ally of rank
+Abolitionists like Giddings and Fred Douglass; of course those who
+believed in political and social equality for blacks and whites would
+vote for Lincoln. Lincoln had found fault with the resolutions because
+they were not adopted on the right spot. Lincoln and his friends were
+great <a name="Page_375" id="Page_375"></a>on &quot;spots.&quot; Lincoln had opposed the Mexican War because
+American blood was not shed on American soil in the right spot.
+Trumbull and Lincoln were like two decoy ducks which lead the flock
+astray. Ambition, personal ambition, had led to the formation of the
+Black Republican party. Lincoln and his friends were now only trying
+to secure what Trumbull had cheated them out of in 1855, when the
+senatorship fell to Trumbull. Under this savage attack the crowd grew
+restive. As Douglas repeated the epithet &quot;Black&quot; Republican, he was
+interrupted by indignant cries of &quot;White,&quot; &quot;White.&quot; But Douglas
+shouted back defiantly, &quot;I wish to remind you that while Mr. Lincoln
+was speaking there was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to
+interrupt him,&quot; and browbeat his hearers into quiet again.<a name="FNanchor_729_729" id="FNanchor_729_729"></a><a href="#Footnote_729_729"><sup>[729]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Realizing, perhaps, the immense difficulty of exposing the fallacy of
+Douglas's reply to his questions, in the few moments at his disposal,
+Lincoln did not refer to the crucial point. He contented himself with
+a defense of his own consistency. His best friends were dispirited,
+when the half-hour ended. They could not shake off the impression that
+Douglas had saved himself from defeat by his adroit answers to
+Lincoln's interrogatories.<a name="FNanchor_730_730" id="FNanchor_730_730"></a><a href="#Footnote_730_730"><sup>[730]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The next joint debate occurred nearly three weeks later down in Egypt.
+By slow stages, speaking incessantly at all sorts of meetings, Douglas
+and Lincoln made their several ways through the doubtful central
+counties to Jonesboro in Union County. This was the enemy's country
+for Lincoln; and by reason of the <a name="Page_376" id="Page_376"></a>activities of United States Marshal
+Dougherty, a Buchanan appointee, the county was scarcely less hostile
+to Douglas. The meeting was poorly attended. Those who listened to the
+speakers were chary of applause and appeared politically
+apathetic.<a name="FNanchor_731_731" id="FNanchor_731_731"></a><a href="#Footnote_731_731"><sup>[731]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas opened the debate by a wild, unguarded appeal to partisan
+prejudices. Knowing his hearers, he was personally vindictive in his
+references to Black Republicans in general and to Lincoln in
+particular. He reiterated his stock arguments, giving new vehemence to
+his charge of corrupt bargain between Trumbull and Lincoln by quoting
+Matheny, a Republican and &quot;Mr. Lincoln's especial and confidential
+friend for the last twenty years.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_732_732" id="FNanchor_732_732"></a><a href="#Footnote_732_732"><sup>[732]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Lincoln begged leave to doubt the authenticity of this new evidence,
+in view of the little episode at Ottawa, concerning the Springfield
+resolutions. At all events the whole story was untrue, and he had
+already declared it to be such.<a name="FNanchor_733_733" id="FNanchor_733_733"></a><a href="#Footnote_733_733"><sup>[733]</sup></a> Why should Douglas persist in
+misrepresenting him? Brushing aside these lesser matters, however,
+Lincoln addressed himself to what had now come to be known as
+Douglas's Freeport doctrine. &quot;I hold,&quot; said he, &quot;that the proposition
+that slavery cannot enter a new country without police regulations is
+historically false.... There is enough vigor in slavery to plant
+itself in a new country even against unfriendly legislation. It takes
+not only law but the enforcement of law to keep it out.&quot; Moreover, the
+decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case had created
+constitutional obligations. Now that the right of property in slaves
+was affirmed by the Constitution, according to the Court, how could a
+<a name="Page_377" id="Page_377"></a>member of a territorial legislature, who had taken the oath to
+support the Constitution, refuse to give his vote for laws necessary
+to establish slave property? And how could a member of Congress keep
+his oath and withhold the necessary protection to slave property in
+the Territories?<a name="FNanchor_734_734" id="FNanchor_734_734"></a><a href="#Footnote_734_734"><sup>[734]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Of course Lincoln was well aware that Douglas held that the Court had
+decided only the question of jurisdiction in the Dred Scott case; and
+that all else was a mere <i>obiter dictum</i>. Nevertheless, &quot;the Court did
+pass its opinion.... If they did not decide, they showed what they
+were ready to decide whenever the matter was before them. They used
+language to this effect: That inasmuch as Congress itself could not
+exercise such a power [<i>i.e.</i>, pass a law prohibiting slavery in the
+Territories], it followed as a matter of course that it could not
+authorize a Territorial Government to exercise it; for the Territorial
+Legislature can do no more than Congress could do.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_735_735" id="FNanchor_735_735"></a><a href="#Footnote_735_735"><sup>[735]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The only answer of Douglas to this trenchant analysis was a reiterated
+assertion: &quot;I assert that under the Dred Scott decision [taking
+Lincoln's view of that decision] you cannot maintain slavery a day in
+a Territory where there is an unwilling people and unfriendly
+legislation. If the people are opposed to it, our right is a barren,
+worthless, useless right; and if they are for it, they will support
+and encourage it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_736_736" id="FNanchor_736_736"></a><a href="#Footnote_736_736"><sup>[736]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas made much of Lincoln's evident unwillingness to commit himself
+on the question of admitting more slave States. In various ways he
+sought to trip his adversary, believing that Lincoln had pledged
+himself to his Abolitionist allies in 1855 to vote against the
+<a name="Page_378" id="Page_378"></a>admission of more slave States, if he should be elected senator. &quot;Let
+me tell Mr. Lincoln that his party in the northern part of the State
+hold to that Abolition platform [no more slave States], and if they do
+not in the South and in the center, they present the extraordinary
+spectacle of a house-divided-against-itself.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_737_737" id="FNanchor_737_737"></a><a href="#Footnote_737_737"><sup>[737]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas turned the edge of Lincoln's thrust at the duties of
+legislators under the Dred Scott decision by saying, &quot;Well, if you are
+not going to resist the decision, if you obey it, and do not intend to
+array mob law against the constituted authorities, then, according to
+your own statement, you will be a perjured man if you do not vote to
+establish slavery in these Territories.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_738_738" id="FNanchor_738_738"></a><a href="#Footnote_738_738"><sup>[738]</sup></a> And it did not save
+Lincoln from the horns of this uncomfortable dilemma to repeat that he
+did not accept the Dred Scott decision as a rule for political action,
+for he had just emphasized the moral obligation of obeying the law of
+the Constitution.</p>
+
+<p>From the darkness of Egypt, Douglas and Lincoln journeyed northward
+toward Charleston in Coles County, where the fourth debate was to be
+held. Both paused <i>en route</i> to visit the State Fair, then in full
+blast at Centralia. Curious crowds followed them around the fair
+grounds, deeming the rival candidates quite as worthy of close
+scrutiny as the other exhibits.<a name="FNanchor_739_739" id="FNanchor_739_739"></a><a href="#Footnote_739_739"><sup>[739]</sup></a> <a name="Page_379" id="Page_379"></a>Ten miles from Charleston, they
+left the train to be escorted by rival processions along the dusty
+highway to their destination. From all the country-side people had
+come to town to cheer on their respective champions.<a name="FNanchor_740_740" id="FNanchor_740_740"></a><a href="#Footnote_740_740"><sup>[740]</sup></a> This
+twenty-fifth district, comprising Coles and Moultrie counties, had
+been carried by the Democrats in 1856, but was now regarded as
+doubtful. The uncertainty added piquancy to the debate.</p>
+
+<p>It was Lincoln's turn to open the joust. At the outset he tried to
+allay misapprehensions regarding his attitude toward negro equality.
+&quot;I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the
+white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold
+office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in
+addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the
+white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two
+races living together on terms of social and political equality. And
+inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
+must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any
+other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
+white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because
+the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be
+denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My
+understanding is that I can just let her alone.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_741_741" id="FNanchor_741_741"></a><a href="#Footnote_741_741"><sup>[741]</sup></a> This was by far
+the most explicit statement that he had yet made on the hazardous
+subject.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380"></a>Lincoln then turned upon his opponent, with more aggressiveness than,
+he had hitherto exhibited, to drive home the charge which Trumbull had
+made earlier in the campaign. Prompted by Trumbull, probably, Lincoln
+reviewed the shadowy history of the Toombs bill and Douglas's still
+more enigmatical connection with it. The substance of the indictment
+was, that Douglas had suppressed that part of the original bill which
+provided for a popular vote on the constitution to be drafted by the
+Kansas convention. In replying to Trumbull, Douglas had damaged his
+own case by denying that the Toombs bill had ever contained such a
+provision. Lincoln proved the contrary by the most transparent
+testimony, convicting Douglas not only of the original offense but of
+an untruth in connection with it.<a name="FNanchor_742_742" id="FNanchor_742_742"></a><a href="#Footnote_742_742"><sup>[742]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>This was not a vague charge of conspiracy which could be treated with
+contempt, but an indictment, accompanied by circumstantial evidence.
+While a dispassionate examination of the whole incident will acquit
+Douglas of any part in a plot to prevent the fair adoption of a
+constitution by the people of Kansas, yet he certainly took a most
+unfortunate and prejudicial mode of defending himself.<a name="FNanchor_743_743" id="FNanchor_743_743"></a><a href="#Footnote_743_743"><sup>[743]</sup></a> His
+personal retorts were so vindictive and his attack upon Trumbull so
+full of venom, that his words did not carry conviction to the minds of
+his hearers. It was a matter of common observation that Democrats
+seemed ill at ease after the debate.<a name="FNanchor_744_744" id="FNanchor_744_744"></a><a href="#Footnote_744_744"><sup>[744]</sup></a> &quot;Judge Douglas is playing
+cuttle-fish,&quot; remarked Lincoln, noting with satisfaction the very
+evident discomfiture of his opponent, &quot;a <a name="Page_381" id="Page_381"></a>small species of fish that
+has no mode of defending itself when pursued except by throwing out a
+black fluid, which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it,
+and thus it escapes.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_745_745" id="FNanchor_745_745"></a><a href="#Footnote_745_745"><sup>[745]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas, however, did his best to recover his ground by accusing
+Lincoln of shifting his principles as he passed from the northern
+counties to Egypt; the principles of his party in the north were
+&quot;jet-black,&quot; in the center, &quot;a decent mulatto,&quot; and in lower Egypt
+&quot;almost white.&quot; Lincoln then dared him to point out any difference
+between his speeches. Blows now fell thick and fast, both speakers
+approaching dangerously near the limit of parliamentary language.
+Reverting to his argument that slavery must be put in the course of
+ultimate extinction, Lincoln made this interesting qualification: &quot;I
+do not mean that when it takes a turn toward ultimate extinction it
+will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose
+that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less
+than a hundred years at least; but that it will occur in the best way
+for both races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_746_746" id="FNanchor_746_746"></a><a href="#Footnote_746_746"><sup>[746]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was now feeling the full force of the opposition within his
+own party. The Republican newspapers of the State had seized upon his
+Freeport speech to convince the South and the administration that he
+was false to their creed. The Washington <i>Union</i> had from the first
+denounced him as a renegade, with whom no self-respecting Democrat
+would associate.<a name="FNanchor_747_747" id="FNanchor_747_747"></a><a href="#Footnote_747_747"><sup>[747]</sup></a> Slidell was active in Illinois, spending money
+<a name="Page_382" id="Page_382"></a>freely to defeat him.<a name="FNanchor_748_748" id="FNanchor_748_748"></a><a href="#Footnote_748_748"><sup>[748]</sup></a> The Danites in the central counties plotted
+incessantly to weaken his following. Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
+sent &quot;a Thousand Greetings&quot; to a mass-meeting of Danites in
+Springfield,&mdash;a liberal allowance, commented some Douglasite, as each
+delegate would receive about ten greetings.<a name="FNanchor_749_749" id="FNanchor_749_749"></a><a href="#Footnote_749_749"><sup>[749]</sup></a> Yet the dimensions of
+this movement were not easily ascertained. The declination of
+Vice-President Breckinridge to come to the aid of Douglas was a rebuff
+not easily laughed down, though to be sure, he expressed a guarded
+preference for Douglas over Lincoln. The coolness of Breckinridge was
+in a measure offset by the friendliness of Senator Crittenden, who
+refused to aid Lincoln, because he believed Douglas's re-election
+&quot;necessary as a rebuke to the administration and a vindication of the
+great cause of popular rights and public justice.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_750_750" id="FNanchor_750_750"></a><a href="#Footnote_750_750"><sup>[750]</sup></a> The most
+influential Republican papers in the East gave Lincoln tardy support,
+with the exception of the New York <i>Times</i>.<a name="FNanchor_751_751" id="FNanchor_751_751"></a><a href="#Footnote_751_751"><sup>[751]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Unquestionably Douglas drew upon resources which Lincoln could not
+command. The management of the Illinois Central Railroad was naturally
+friendly toward him, though there is no evidence that it countenanced
+any illegitimate use of influence on his behalf. If Douglas enjoyed
+special train service, which Lincoln did not, it was because he drew
+upon funds that exceeded Lincoln's modest income. How many thousands
+of dollars Douglas devoted from his own exchequer to <a name="Page_383" id="Page_383"></a>his campaign,
+can now only be conjectured. In all probability, he spent all that
+remained from the sale of his real estate in Chicago, and more which
+he borrowed in New York by mortgaging his other holdings in Cook
+County.<a name="FNanchor_752_752" id="FNanchor_752_752"></a><a href="#Footnote_752_752"><sup>[752]</sup></a> And not least among his assets was the constant
+companionship of Mrs. Douglas, whose tact, grace, and beauty placated
+feelings which had been ruffled by the rude vigor of &quot;the Little
+Giant.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_753_753" id="FNanchor_753_753"></a><a href="#Footnote_753_753"><sup>[753]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When the rivals met three weeks later at Galesburg, they were disposed
+to drop personalities. Indeed, both were aware that they were about to
+address men and women who demanded an intelligent discussion of the
+issues of the hour. Lincoln had the more sympathetic hearing, for Knox
+County was consistently Republican; and the town with its academic
+atmosphere and New England traditions shared his hostility to slavery.
+Vast crowds braved the cold, raw winds of the October day to listen
+for three hours to this debate.<a name="FNanchor_754_754" id="FNanchor_754_754"></a><a href="#Footnote_754_754"><sup>[754]</sup></a> From a platform on the college
+campus, Douglas looked down somewhat defiantly upon his hearers,
+though his words were well-chosen and courteous. The circumstances
+were much the same as at Ottawa; and he spoke in much the same vein.
+He rang the changes upon his great fundamental principle; he defended
+his course in respect to Lecomptonism; he denounced the Republican
+party as a sectional organization whose leaders were bent upon
+&quot;outvoting, conquering, <a name="Page_384" id="Page_384"></a>governing, and controlling the South.&quot;
+Douglas laid great stress upon this sectional aspect of Republicanism,
+which made its southward extension impossible. &quot;Not only is this
+Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in the North
+and in the South, in the free States and in the slave States, but it
+cannot even proclaim them in the same forms and give them the same
+strength and meaning in all parts of the same State. My friend Lincoln
+finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in the center part of
+the State, where there is a mixture of men from the North and the
+South.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_755_755" id="FNanchor_755_755"></a><a href="#Footnote_755_755"><sup>[755]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Here Douglas paused to read from Lincoln's speeches at Chicago and at
+Charleston, and to ask his hearers to reconcile the conflicting
+statements respecting negro equality. He pronounced Lincoln's
+doctrine, that the negro and the white man are made equal by the
+Declaration of Independence and Divine Providence, &quot;a monstrous
+heresy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lincoln protested that nothing was farther from his purpose than to
+&quot;advance hypocritical and deceptive and contrary views in different
+portions of the country.&quot; As for the charge of sectionalism, Judge
+Douglas was himself fast becoming sectional, for his speeches no
+longer passed current south of the Ohio as they had once done.
+&quot;Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between Judge
+Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of
+sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of
+Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_756_756" id="FNanchor_756_756"></a><a href="#Footnote_756_756"><sup>[756]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>And Lincoln again scored on his opponent, when he <a name="Page_385" id="Page_385"></a>pointed out that
+his political doctrine rested upon the major premise, that there was
+no wrong in slavery. &quot;If you will take the Judge's speeches, and
+select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him,&mdash;as his
+declaration that he 'don't care whether slavery is voted up or
+down'&mdash;you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do
+not admit that slavery is wrong.... Judge Douglas declares that if any
+community wants slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that
+logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you
+admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that
+anybody has a right to do wrong.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_757_757" id="FNanchor_757_757"></a><a href="#Footnote_757_757"><sup>[757]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Those who now read these memorable debates dis-passionately, will
+surely acquit Lincoln of inconsistency in his attitude toward the
+negro. His speech at Charleston supplements the speech at Chicago; at
+Galesburg, he made an admirable re-statement of his position.
+Nevertheless, there was a marked difference in point of emphasis
+between his utterances in Northern and in Southern Illinois. Even the
+casual reader will detect subtle omissions which the varying character
+of his audience forced upon Lincoln. In Chicago he said nothing about
+the physical inferiority of the negro; he said nothing about the
+equality of the races in the Declaration of Independence, when he
+spoke at Charleston. Among men of anti-slavery leanings, he had much
+to say about the moral wrong of slavery; in the doubtful counties,
+Lincoln was solicitous that he should not be understood as favoring
+social and political equality between whites and blacks.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling keenly this diplomatic shifting of emphasis, Douglas persisted
+in accusing Lincoln of inconsistency: &quot;<a name="Page_386" id="Page_386"></a>He has one set of principles
+for the Abolition counties and another set for the counties opposed to
+Abolitionism.&quot; If Lincoln had said in Coles County what he has to-day
+said in old Knox, Douglas complained, &quot;it would have settled the
+question between us in that doubtful county.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_758_758" id="FNanchor_758_758"></a><a href="#Footnote_758_758"><sup>[758]</sup></a> And in this Douglas
+was probably correct.</p>
+
+<p>At Quincy, Douglas was in his old bailiwick. Three times the Democrats
+of this district had sent him to Congress; and though the bounds of
+the congressional district had since been changed, Adams County was
+still Democratic by a safe majority. Among the people who greeted the
+speakers, however, were many old-time Whigs, for whose special benefit
+the Republicans of the city carried on a pole, at the head of their
+procession, a live raccoon. With a much keener historic sense, the
+Democrats bore aloft a dead raccoon, suspended by its tail.<a name="FNanchor_759_759" id="FNanchor_759_759"></a><a href="#Footnote_759_759"><sup>[759]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Lincoln again harked back to his position that slavery was &quot;a moral, a
+social, and a political wrong&quot; which the Republican party proposed to
+prevent from growing any larger; and that &quot;the leading man&mdash;I think I
+may do my friend Judge Douglas the honor of calling him
+such&mdash;advocating the present Democratic policy, never himself says it
+is wrong.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_760_760" id="FNanchor_760_760"></a><a href="#Footnote_760_760"><sup>[760]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The consciousness that he was made to seem morally obtuse, cut Douglas
+to the quick. Even upon his tough constitution this prolonged campaign
+was beginning to tell. His voice was harsh and broken; and he gave
+unmistakable signs of nervous irritability, <a name="Page_387" id="Page_387"></a>brought on by physical
+fatigue. When he rose to reply to Lincoln, his manner was offensively
+combative. At the outset, he referred angrily to Lincoln's &quot;gross
+personalities and base insinuations.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_761_761" id="FNanchor_761_761"></a><a href="#Footnote_761_761"><sup>[761]</sup></a> In his references to the
+Springfield resolutions and to his mistake, or rather the mistake of
+his friends at the capital, he was particularly denunciatory. &quot;When I
+make a mistake,&quot; he boasted, &quot;as an honest man, I correct it without
+being asked to, but when he, Lincoln, makes a false charge, he sticks
+to it and never corrects it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_762_762" id="FNanchor_762_762"></a><a href="#Footnote_762_762"><sup>[762]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But Douglas was too old a campaigner to lose control of himself, and
+no doubt the rude charge and counter-charge were prompted less by
+personal ill-will than by controversial exigencies. Those who have
+conceived Douglas as the victim of deep-seated and abiding resentment
+toward Lincoln, forget the impulsive nature of the man. There is not
+the slightest evidence that Lincoln took these blows to heart. He had
+himself dealt many a vigorous blow in times past. It was part of the
+game.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas found fault with Lincoln's answers to the Ottawa questions: &quot;I
+ask you again, Lincoln, will you vote to admit New Mexico, when she
+has the requisite population with such a constitution as her people
+adopt, either recognizing slavery or not, as they shall determine!&quot; He
+was well within the truth when he asserted that Lincoln's answer had
+been purposely evasive and equivocal, &quot;having no reference to any
+territory now in existence.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_763_763" id="FNanchor_763_763"></a><a href="#Footnote_763_763"><sup>[763]</sup></a> Of Lincoln's Republican policy of
+confining slavery within its present limits, by prohibiting it in the
+Territories, he said, &quot;When he <a name="Page_388" id="Page_388"></a>gets it thus confined, and surrounded,
+so that it cannot spread, the natural laws of increase will go on
+until the negroes will be so plenty that they cannot live on the soil.
+He will hem them in until starvation seizes them, and by starving them
+to death, he will put slavery in the course of ultimate
+extinction.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_764_764" id="FNanchor_764_764"></a><a href="#Footnote_764_764"><sup>[764]</sup></a> A silly argument which Douglas's wide acquaintance
+with Southern conditions flatly contradicted and should have kept him
+from repeating.</p>
+
+<p>To the charge of moral obliquity on the slavery question, Douglas made
+a dignified and worthy reply. &quot;I hold that the people of the
+slave-holding States are civilized men as well as ourselves; that they
+bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God
+and their posterity, and not to us. It is for them to decide,
+therefore, the moral and religious right of the slavery question for
+themselves within their own limits.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_765_765" id="FNanchor_765_765"></a><a href="#Footnote_765_765"><sup>[765]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the following day both Lincoln and Douglas took passage on a river
+steamer for Alton. The county of Madison had once been Whig in its
+political proclivities. In the State legislature it was now
+represented by two representatives and a senator who were Native
+Americans; and in the present campaign, the county was classed as
+doubtful. In Alton and elsewhere there was a large German vote which
+was likely to sway the election.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas labored under a physical disadvantage. His voice was painful
+to hear, while Lincoln's betrayed no sign of fatigue.<a name="FNanchor_766_766" id="FNanchor_766_766"></a><a href="#Footnote_766_766"><sup>[766]</sup></a> Both fell
+into the argument <i>ad hominem</i>. Lincoln advocated holding the
+Territories open <a name="Page_389" id="Page_389"></a>to &quot;free white people&quot; the world over&mdash;to &quot;Hans,
+Baptiste, and Patrick.&quot; Douglas contended that the equality referred
+to in the Declaration of Independence, was the equality of white
+men&mdash;&quot;men of European birth and European descent.&quot; Both conjured with
+the revered name of Clay. Douglas persistently referred to Lincoln as
+an Abolitionist, knowing that his auditors had &quot;strong sympathies
+southward,&quot; as Lincoln shrewdly guessed; while Lincoln sought to
+unmask that &quot;false statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system
+of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the very thing that
+everybody does care the most about.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_767_767" id="FNanchor_767_767"></a><a href="#Footnote_767_767"><sup>[767]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas made a successful appeal to the sympathy of the crowd, when he
+said of his conduct in the Lecompton fight, &quot;Most of the men who
+denounced my course on the Lecompton question objected to it, not
+because I was not right, but because they thought it expedient at that
+time, for the sake of keeping the party together, to do wrong. I never
+knew the Democratic party to violate any one of its principles, out of
+policy or expediency, that it did not pay the debt with sorrow. There
+is no safety or success for our party unless we always do right, and
+trust the consequences to God and the people. I chose not to depart
+from principle for the sake of expediency on the Lecompton question,
+and I never intend to do it on that or any other question.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_768_768" id="FNanchor_768_768"></a><a href="#Footnote_768_768"><sup>[768]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Both at Quincy and at Alton, Douglas paid his respects to the
+&quot;contemptible crew&quot; who were trying to break up the party and defeat
+him. At first he had avoided direct attacks upon the administration;
+but <a name="Page_390" id="Page_390"></a>the relentless persecution of the Washington <i>Union</i> made him
+restive. Lincoln derived great satisfaction from this intestine
+warfare in the Democratic camp. &quot;Go it, husband! Go it, bear!&quot; he
+cried.</p>
+
+<p>In this last debate, both sought to summarize the issues. Said
+Lincoln, &quot;You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from
+beginning to end, ... it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that
+there is anything wrong in it [slavery].</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
+country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be
+silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles&mdash;right
+and wrong&mdash;throughout the world.... I was glad to express my gratitude
+at Quincy, and I re-express it here, to Judge Douglas,&mdash;<i>that he looks
+to no end of the institution of slavery</i>. That will help the people to
+see where the struggle really is.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_769_769" id="FNanchor_769_769"></a><a href="#Footnote_769_769"><sup>[769]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>To the mind of Douglas, the issue presented itself in quite another
+form. &quot;He [Lincoln] says that he looks forward to a time when slavery
+shall be abolished everywhere. I look forward to a time when each
+State shall be allowed to do as it pleases. If it chooses to keep
+slavery forever, it is not my business, but its own; if it chooses to
+abolish slavery, it is its own business,&mdash;not mine. I care more for
+the great principle of self-government, the right of the people to
+rule, than I do for all the negroes in Christendom. I would not
+endanger the perpetuity of this Union, I would not blot out the great
+inalienable rights of the white men, for all the negroes that ever
+existed.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_770_770" id="FNanchor_770_770"></a><a href="#Footnote_770_770"><sup>[770]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With this encounter at Alton, the joint debates, but <a name="Page_391" id="Page_391"></a>not the campaign
+closed. Douglas continued to speak at various strategic points, in
+spite of inclement weather and physical exhaustion, up to the eve of
+the election.<a name="FNanchor_771_771" id="FNanchor_771_771"></a><a href="#Footnote_771_771"><sup>[771]</sup></a> The canvass had continued just a hundred days,
+during which Douglas had made one hundred and thirty speeches.<a name="FNanchor_772_772" id="FNanchor_772_772"></a><a href="#Footnote_772_772"><sup>[772]</sup></a>
+During the last weeks of the campaign, election canards designed to
+injure Douglas were sedulously circulated, adding no little
+uncertainty to the outcome in doubtful districts. The most damaging of
+these stories seems to have emanated from Senator John Slidell of
+Louisiana, whose midsummer sojourn in Illinois has already been noted.
+A Chicago journal published the tale that Douglas's slaves in the
+South were &quot;the subjects of inhuman and disgraceful treatment&mdash;that
+they were hired out to a factor at fifteen dollars per annum
+each&mdash;that he, in turn, hired them out to others in lots, and that
+they were ill-fed, over-worked, and in every way so badly treated that
+they were spoken of in the neighborhood where they are held as a
+disgrace to all slave-holders and the system they support.&quot; The
+explicit denial of the story came from Slidell some weeks after the
+election, when the slander had accomplished the desired purpose.<a name="FNanchor_773_773" id="FNanchor_773_773"></a><a href="#Footnote_773_773"><sup>[773]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>All signs pointed to a heavy vote for both tickets. As the campaign
+drew to a close, the excitement reached a pitch rarely equalled even
+in presidential elections. Indeed, the total vote cast exceeded that
+of 1856 by many thousands,&mdash;an increase that cannot be wholly
+accounted for by the growth of population in these years.<a name="FNanchor_774_774" id="FNanchor_774_774"></a><a href="#Footnote_774_774"><sup>[774]</sup></a> The
+Republican State ticket was <a name="Page_392" id="Page_392"></a>elected by less than four thousand votes
+over the Democratic ticket. The relative strength of the rival
+candidates for the senatorship, however, is exhibited more fully in
+the vote for the members of the lower house of the State legislature..
+The avowed Douglas candidates polled over 174,000, while the Lincoln
+men received something over 190,000. Administration candidates
+received a scant vote of less than 2,000. Notwithstanding this popular
+majority, the Republicans secured only thirty-five seats, while the
+Democratic minority secured forty. Out of fifteen contested senatorial
+seats, the Democrats won eight with a total of 44,826 votes, while the
+Republicans cast 53,784 votes and secured but seven. No better proof
+could be offered of Lincoln's contention that the State was
+gerrymandered in favor of the Democrats. Still, this was part of the
+game; and had the Republicans been in office, they would have
+undoubtedly used an advantage which has proved too tempting for the
+virtue of every American party.</p>
+
+<p>When the two houses of the Illinois Legislature met in joint session,
+January 6, 1859, not a man ventured, or desired, to record his vote
+otherwise than as his party affiliations dictated. Douglas received
+fifty-four votes and Lincoln forty-six. &quot;Glory to God and the Sucker
+Democracy,&quot; telegraphed the editor of the <i>State Register</i> to his
+chief. And back over the wires from Washington was flashed the laconic
+message, &quot;Let the voice of the people rule.&quot; But had the <i>will</i> of the
+people ruled?</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_669_669" id="Footnote_669_669"></a><a href="#FNanchor_669_669">[669]</a> Hollister, Life of Colfax pp. 119 ff; Wilson, Rise and
+Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 567.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_670_670" id="Footnote_670_670"></a><a href="#FNanchor_670_670">[670]</a> Hollister, Colfax, p. 121.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_671_671" id="Footnote_671_671"></a><a href="#FNanchor_671_671">[671]</a> Wilson, p. 567.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_672_672" id="Footnote_672_672"></a><a href="#FNanchor_672_672">[672]</a> Bancroft, Life of Seward, I, pp. 449-450.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_673_673" id="Footnote_673_673"></a><a href="#FNanchor_673_673">[673]</a> Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 403.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_674_674" id="Footnote_674_674"></a><a href="#FNanchor_674_674">[674]</a> Hollister, Colfax, p. 119.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_675_675" id="Footnote_675_675"></a><a href="#FNanchor_675_675">[675]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 121.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_676_676" id="Footnote_676_676"></a><a href="#FNanchor_676_676">[676]</a> Wilson, II, p 567; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 397.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_677_677" id="Footnote_677_677"></a><a href="#FNanchor_677_677">[677]</a> Hollister, Colfax, p. 120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_678_678" id="Footnote_678_678"></a><a href="#FNanchor_678_678">[678]</a> Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, pp. 59 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_679_679" id="Footnote_679_679"></a><a href="#FNanchor_679_679">[679]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 394.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_680_680" id="Footnote_680_680"></a><a href="#FNanchor_680_680">[680]</a> Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_681_681" id="Footnote_681_681"></a><a href="#FNanchor_681_681">[681]</a> Forney, Anecdotes, II, p. 179.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_682_682" id="Footnote_682_682"></a><a href="#FNanchor_682_682">[682]</a> Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Edition of 1860), p. 1.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_683_683" id="Footnote_683_683"></a><a href="#FNanchor_683_683">[683]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 398-400.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_684_684" id="Footnote_684_684"></a><a href="#FNanchor_684_684">[684]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 400; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, p. 93.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_685_685" id="Footnote_685_685"></a><a href="#FNanchor_685_685">[685]</a> Debates, p. 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_686_686" id="Footnote_686_686"></a><a href="#FNanchor_686_686">[686]</a> Debates, p. 9.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_687_687" id="Footnote_687_687"></a><a href="#FNanchor_687_687">[687]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 10.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_688_688" id="Footnote_688_688"></a><a href="#FNanchor_688_688">[688]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 11.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_689_689" id="Footnote_689_689"></a><a href="#FNanchor_689_689">[689]</a> Debates, p. 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_690_690" id="Footnote_690_690"></a><a href="#FNanchor_690_690">[690]</a> Debates, p. 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_691_691" id="Footnote_691_691"></a><a href="#FNanchor_691_691">[691]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_692_692" id="Footnote_692_692"></a><a href="#FNanchor_692_692">[692]</a> Flint, Douglas, pp. 114-117; Chicago <i>Times</i>, July 18,
+1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_693_693" id="Footnote_693_693"></a><a href="#FNanchor_693_693">[693]</a> Debates, p. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_694_694" id="Footnote_694_694"></a><a href="#FNanchor_694_694">[694]</a> Debates, p. 27.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_695_695" id="Footnote_695_695"></a><a href="#FNanchor_695_695">[695]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 30.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_696_696" id="Footnote_696_696"></a><a href="#FNanchor_696_696">[696]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 33-34.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_697_697" id="Footnote_697_697"></a><a href="#FNanchor_697_697">[697]</a> Debates, p. 35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_698_698" id="Footnote_698_698"></a><a href="#FNanchor_698_698">[698]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_699_699" id="Footnote_699_699"></a><a href="#FNanchor_699_699">[699]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 417; Chicago <i>Times</i>, July 21,
+1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_700_700" id="Footnote_700_700"></a><a href="#FNanchor_700_700">[700]</a> Debates, p. 44.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_701_701" id="Footnote_701_701"></a><a href="#FNanchor_701_701">[701]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 60.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_702_702" id="Footnote_702_702"></a><a href="#FNanchor_702_702">[702]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 61.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_703_703" id="Footnote_703_703"></a><a href="#FNanchor_703_703">[703]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 63.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_704_704" id="Footnote_704_704"></a><a href="#FNanchor_704_704">[704]</a> Debates, p. 64.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_705_705" id="Footnote_705_705"></a><a href="#FNanchor_705_705">[705]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 64-65.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_706_706" id="Footnote_706_706"></a><a href="#FNanchor_706_706">[706]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_707_707" id="Footnote_707_707"></a><a href="#FNanchor_707_707">[707]</a> Debates, p. 66.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_708_708" id="Footnote_708_708"></a><a href="#FNanchor_708_708">[708]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+104-105.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_709_709" id="Footnote_709_709"></a><a href="#FNanchor_709_709">[709]</a> For the following description I have drawn freely from
+the narratives of eye-witnesses. I am particularly indebted to the
+graphic account by Mr. Carl Schurz in <i>McClure's Magazine</i>, January,
+1907.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_710_710" id="Footnote_710_710"></a><a href="#FNanchor_710_710">[710]</a> Mr. Schurz in <i>McClure's</i>, January, 1907.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_711_711" id="Footnote_711_711"></a><a href="#FNanchor_711_711">[711]</a> Debates, p. 67.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_712_712" id="Footnote_712_712"></a><a href="#FNanchor_712_712">[712]</a> Debates, p. 68.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_713_713" id="Footnote_713_713"></a><a href="#FNanchor_713_713">[713]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 69.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_714_714" id="Footnote_714_714"></a><a href="#FNanchor_714_714">[714]</a> Herndon in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp. 76-77; Mr.
+Carl Schurz in <i>McClure's</i>, January, 1907.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_715_715" id="Footnote_715_715"></a><a href="#FNanchor_715_715">[715]</a> Debates, p. 73.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_716_716" id="Footnote_716_716"></a><a href="#FNanchor_716_716">[716]</a> Debates, p. 75.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_717_717" id="Footnote_717_717"></a><a href="#FNanchor_717_717">[717]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 82.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_718_718" id="Footnote_718_718"></a><a href="#FNanchor_718_718">[718]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 86.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_719_719" id="Footnote_719_719"></a><a href="#FNanchor_719_719">[719]</a> Henry Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 93; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 108.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_720_720" id="Footnote_720_720"></a><a href="#FNanchor_720_720">[720]</a> Debates, p. 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_721_721" id="Footnote_721_721"></a><a href="#FNanchor_721_721">[721]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 130.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_722_722" id="Footnote_722_722"></a><a href="#FNanchor_722_722">[722]</a> Holland, Lincoln, p. 185; Tarbell, Lincoln, <i>McClure's
+Magazine</i>, VII, pp. 408-409.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_723_723" id="Footnote_723_723"></a><a href="#FNanchor_723_723">[723]</a> Debates, p. 89.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_724_724" id="Footnote_724_724"></a><a href="#FNanchor_724_724">[724]</a> Holland, Lincoln, pp. 188-189; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_725_725" id="Footnote_725_725"></a><a href="#FNanchor_725_725">[725]</a> Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_726_726" id="Footnote_726_726"></a><a href="#FNanchor_726_726">[726]</a> Debates, p. 95.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_727_727" id="Footnote_727_727"></a><a href="#FNanchor_727_727">[727]</a> Debates, pp. 94-97.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_728_728" id="Footnote_728_728"></a><a href="#FNanchor_728_728">[728]</a> Debates, pp. 100-101.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_729_729" id="Footnote_729_729"></a><a href="#FNanchor_729_729">[729]</a> Debates, p. 101.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_730_730" id="Footnote_730_730"></a><a href="#FNanchor_730_730">[730]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 110.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_731_731" id="Footnote_731_731"></a><a href="#FNanchor_731_731">[731]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 118.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_732_732" id="Footnote_732_732"></a><a href="#FNanchor_732_732">[732]</a> Debates, pp. 113-114.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_733_733" id="Footnote_733_733"></a><a href="#FNanchor_733_733">[733]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_734_734" id="Footnote_734_734"></a><a href="#FNanchor_734_734">[734]</a> Debates, p. 127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_735_735" id="Footnote_735_735"></a><a href="#FNanchor_735_735">[735]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_736_736" id="Footnote_736_736"></a><a href="#FNanchor_736_736">[736]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_737_737" id="Footnote_737_737"></a><a href="#FNanchor_737_737">[737]</a> Debates, p. 133. Lamon is authority for the statement
+that Lincoln pledged himself to Lovejoy and his faction to favor the
+exclusion of slavery from all the territory of the United States.
+Douglas did not know of this pledge, but suspected an understanding to
+this effect. If Lamon may be believed, this statement explains the
+persistence of Douglas on this point and the evasiveness of Lincoln.
+See Lamon, Lincoln, pp. 361-365.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_738_738" id="Footnote_738_738"></a><a href="#FNanchor_738_738">[738]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 135.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_739_739" id="Footnote_739_739"></a><a href="#FNanchor_739_739">[739]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 119.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_740_740" id="Footnote_740_740"></a><a href="#FNanchor_740_740">[740]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 121.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_741_741" id="Footnote_741_741"></a><a href="#FNanchor_741_741">[741]</a> Debates, p. 136.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_742_742" id="Footnote_742_742"></a><a href="#FNanchor_742_742">[742]</a> Debates, pp. 137-143.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_743_743" id="Footnote_743_743"></a><a href="#FNanchor_743_743">[743]</a> See above pp. 303-304.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_744_744" id="Footnote_744_744"></a><a href="#FNanchor_744_744">[744]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 122.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_745_745" id="Footnote_745_745"></a><a href="#FNanchor_745_745">[745]</a> Debates, p. 159.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_746_746" id="Footnote_746_746"></a><a href="#FNanchor_746_746">[746]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 157.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_747_747" id="Footnote_747_747"></a><a href="#FNanchor_747_747">[747]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 342.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_748_748" id="Footnote_748_748"></a><a href="#FNanchor_748_748">[748]</a> Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135; Herndon-Weik,
+Lincoln, II, p. 127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_749_749" id="Footnote_749_749"></a><a href="#FNanchor_749_749">[749]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 129.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_750_750" id="Footnote_750_750"></a><a href="#FNanchor_750_750">[750]</a> Coleman, Life of Crittenden, II, p. 163.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_751_751" id="Footnote_751_751"></a><a href="#FNanchor_751_751">[751]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 341.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_752_752" id="Footnote_752_752"></a><a href="#FNanchor_752_752">[752]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 338, note
+3. The record of the Circuit Court of Cook County, December term,
+1867, states that the entire lien upon the estate in 1864 exceeded
+$94,000. The mortgages were held by Fernando Wood and others of New
+York.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_753_753" id="Footnote_753_753"></a><a href="#FNanchor_753_753">[753]</a> Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_754_754" id="Footnote_754_754"></a><a href="#FNanchor_754_754">[754]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 123.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_755_755" id="Footnote_755_755"></a><a href="#FNanchor_755_755">[755]</a> Debates p. 173.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_756_756" id="Footnote_756_756"></a><a href="#FNanchor_756_756">[756]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 180.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_757_757" id="Footnote_757_757"></a><a href="#FNanchor_757_757">[757]</a> Debates, p. 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_758_758" id="Footnote_758_758"></a><a href="#FNanchor_758_758">[758]</a> Debates, p. 188.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_759_759" id="Footnote_759_759"></a><a href="#FNanchor_759_759">[759]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+123-124.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_760_760" id="Footnote_760_760"></a><a href="#FNanchor_760_760">[760]</a> Debates, p. 198.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_761_761" id="Footnote_761_761"></a><a href="#FNanchor_761_761">[761]</a> Debates, p. 199; <i>McClure's Magazine</i>, January, 1907.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_762_762" id="Footnote_762_762"></a><a href="#FNanchor_762_762">[762]</a> Debates, p. 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_763_763" id="Footnote_763_763"></a><a href="#FNanchor_763_763">[763]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 201.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_764_764" id="Footnote_764_764"></a><a href="#FNanchor_764_764">[764]</a> Debates, p. 204.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_765_765" id="Footnote_765_765"></a><a href="#FNanchor_765_765">[765]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 209.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_766_766" id="Footnote_766_766"></a><a href="#FNanchor_766_766">[766]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 124.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_767_767" id="Footnote_767_767"></a><a href="#FNanchor_767_767">[767]</a> Debates, p. 231.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_768_768" id="Footnote_768_768"></a><a href="#FNanchor_768_768">[768]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 218.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_769_769" id="Footnote_769_769"></a><a href="#FNanchor_769_769">[769]</a> Debates, p. 234.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_770_770" id="Footnote_770_770"></a><a href="#FNanchor_770_770">[770]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 238.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_771_771" id="Footnote_771_771"></a><a href="#FNanchor_771_771">[771]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, p. 432.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_772_772" id="Footnote_772_772"></a><a href="#FNanchor_772_772">[772]</a> Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, II, p. 146 note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_773_773" id="Footnote_773_773"></a><a href="#FNanchor_773_773">[773]</a> Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 439-442; Herndon-Weik, Lincoln,
+II, p. 128.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_774_774" id="Footnote_774_774"></a><a href="#FNanchor_774_774">[774]</a> It has not been generally observed that the Democrats
+gained more than their opponents over the State contest of 1856. The
+election returns were as follows:<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Democratic ticket in 1856, 106,643; in 1858, 121,609; gain, 14,966.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Republican ticket in 1856, 111,375; in 1858, 125,430; gain, 14,055.</span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393"></a>CHAPTER XVII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE AFTERMATH</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Douglas had achieved a great personal triumph. Not even his Republican
+opponents could gainsay it. In the East, the Republican newspapers
+applauded him undisguisedly, not so much because they admired him or
+lacked sympathy with Lincoln, as because they regarded his re-election
+as a signal condemnation of the Buchanan administration. Moreover,
+there was a general expectation in anti-slavery circles to which
+Theodore Parker gave expression when he wrote, &quot;Had Lincoln succeeded,
+Douglas would be a ruined man.... But now in place for six years more,
+with his own personal power unimpaired and his positional influence
+much enhanced, he can do the Democratic party a world of damage.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_775_775" id="FNanchor_775_775"></a><a href="#Footnote_775_775"><sup>[775]</sup></a>
+There was cheer in this expectation even for those who deplored the
+defeat of Lincoln.</p>
+
+<p>As Douglas journeyed southward soon after the November elections, he
+must have felt the poignant truth of Lincoln's shrewd observation that
+he was himself becoming sectional. Though he was received with seeming
+cordiality at Memphis and New Orleans, he could not but notice that
+his speeches, as Lincoln predicted, &quot;would not go current south of the
+Ohio River as they had formerly.&quot; Democratic audiences applauded his
+bold insistence upon the universality of the principles of the party
+creed, but the tone of the <a name="Page_394" id="Page_394"></a>Southern press was distinctly unfriendly
+to him and his Freeport doctrine.<a name="FNanchor_776_776" id="FNanchor_776_776"></a><a href="#Footnote_776_776"><sup>[776]</sup></a> He told his auditors at Memphis
+that he indorsed the decision of the Supreme Court; he believed that
+the owners of slaves had the same right to take them into the
+Territories as they had to take other property; but slaves once in the
+Territory were then subject to local laws for protection, on an equal
+footing with all other property. If no local laws protecting slave
+property were passed, slavery would be practically excluded.
+&quot;Non-action is exclusion.&quot; It was a matter of soil, climate,
+interests, whether a Territory would permit slavery or not. &quot;You come
+right back to the principle of dollars and cents ... If old Joshua E.
+Giddings should raise a colony in Ohio and settle down in Louisiana,
+he would be the strongest advocate of slavery in the whole South; he
+would find when he got there, his opinion would be very much modified;
+he would find on those sugar plantations that it was not a question
+between the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the
+crocodile.&quot; &quot;The Almighty has drawn the line on this continent, on one
+side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor; on the other
+by white labor.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_777_777" id="FNanchor_777_777"></a><a href="#Footnote_777_777"><sup>[777]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At New Orleans, he repeated more emphatically much the same thought.
+&quot;There is a line, or belt of country, meandering through the valleys
+and over the mountain tops, which is a natural barrier between free
+territory and slave territory, on the south of which are to be found
+the productions suitable to slave labor, while on the north exists a
+country adapted to free <a name="Page_395" id="Page_395"></a>labor alone.... But in the great central
+regions, where there may be some doubt as to the effect of natural
+causes, who ought to decide the question except the people residing
+there, who have all their interests there, who have gone there to live
+with their wives and children!&quot;<a name="FNanchor_778_778" id="FNanchor_778_778"></a><a href="#Footnote_778_778"><sup>[778]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was characteristic of the man that he thought politics even when he
+was in pursuit of health. Advised to take an ocean voyage, he decided
+to visit Cuba so that even his recreative leisure might be politically
+profitable, for the island was more than ever coveted by the South and
+he wished to have the advantage of first-hand information about this
+unhappy Spanish province. Landing in New York upon his return, he was
+given a remarkable ovation by the Democracy of the city; and he was
+greeted with equal warmth in Philadelphia and Baltimore.<a name="FNanchor_779_779" id="FNanchor_779_779"></a><a href="#Footnote_779_779"><sup>[779]</sup></a> Even a
+less ambitious man might have been tempted to believe in his own
+capacity for leadership, in the midst of these apparently spontaneous
+demonstrations of regard. At the capital, however, he was less
+cordially welcomed. He was not in the least surprised, for while he
+was still in the South, the newspapers had announced his deposition
+from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. He knew well
+enough what he had to expect from the group of Southern Democrats who
+had the ear of the administration.<a name="FNanchor_780_780" id="FNanchor_780_780"></a><a href="#Footnote_780_780"><sup>[780]</sup></a> Nevertheless, his removal from
+a position which he had held ever since he entered the Senate was a
+bitter pill.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396"></a>For the sake of peace Douglas smothered his resentment, and, for a
+brief time at least, sought to demonstrate his political orthodoxy in
+matters where there was no conflict of opinion. As a member of the
+Committee on Foreign Affairs, he cordially supported the bill for the
+purchase of Cuba, even though the chairman, Slidell, had done more to
+injure him in the recent campaign than any other man. There were those
+who thought he demeaned himself by attending the Democratic caucus and
+indorsing the Slidell project.<a name="FNanchor_781_781" id="FNanchor_781_781"></a><a href="#Footnote_781_781"><sup>[781]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was charged that the proposed appropriation of $30,000,000 was to
+be used to bribe Spanish ministers to sell Cuba; that the whole
+project was motived by the desire of the South to acquire more slave
+territory; and that Douglas was once more cultivating the South to
+secure the presidency in 1860. The first of these charges has never
+been proved; the second is probably correct; but the third is surely
+open to question. As long ago as Folk's administration, Douglas had
+expressed his belief that the Pearl of the Antilles must some day fall
+to us; and on various occasions he had advocated the annexation of
+Cuba, with the consent of Spain and the inhabitants. At New Orleans,
+he had been called upon to express his views regarding the acquisition
+of the island; and he had said, without hesitation, &quot;It is folly to
+debate the acquisition of Cuba. It naturally belongs to the American
+continent. It guards the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is the
+heart of the American continent and the body of the American nation.&quot;
+At the same time he was <a name="Page_397" id="Page_397"></a>careful to add that he was no filibuster: he
+desired Cuba only upon terms honorable to all concerned.<a name="FNanchor_782_782" id="FNanchor_782_782"></a><a href="#Footnote_782_782"><sup>[782]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Subsequent events acquit Douglas of truckling to the South at this
+time. No doubt he would have been glad to let bygones be bygones, to
+close up the gap of unpleasant memories between himself and the
+administration, and to restore Democratic harmony. For Douglas loved
+his party and honored its history. To him the party of Jefferson and
+Jackson was inseparably linked with all that made the American
+Commonwealth the greatest of democracies. Yet where men are acutely
+conscious of vital differences of opinion, only the hourly practice of
+self-control can prevent clashing. Neither Douglas nor his opponents
+were prepared to undergo any such rigid self-discipline.</p>
+
+<p>On February 23d, the pent-up feeling broke through all barriers and
+laid bare the thoughts and intents of the Democratic factions. The
+Kansas question once more recurring, Brown of Mississippi now demanded
+adequate protection for property; that is, &quot;protection sufficient to
+protect animate property.&quot; Any other protection would be a delusion
+and a cheat. If the territorial legislature refused such protection,
+he for one would demand it of Congress. He dissented altogether from
+the doctrine of the Senator from Illinois, that by non-action, or
+unfriendly legislation a Territory could annul a decision of the
+Supreme Court and exclude slavery. That was mistaking power for right.
+&quot;What I want to know is, whether you will interpose against power and
+in favor of right.... If the Territorial Legislature refuses to act,
+will you act?... If it pass laws hostile to slavery, will you annul
+them, <a name="Page_398" id="Page_398"></a>and substitute laws favoring slavery in their stead?&quot; &quot;What I
+and my people ask is action; positive, unqualified action. Our
+understanding of the doctrine of non-intervention was, that you were
+not to intervene against us, but I never understood that we could have
+any compromise or understanding here which could release Congress from
+an obligation imposed on it by the Constitution of the United
+States.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_783_783" id="FNanchor_783_783"></a><a href="#Footnote_783_783"><sup>[783]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Reluctant as Douglas must have been to accentuate the differences
+between himself and the Southern Democrats, he could not remain
+silent, for silence would be misconstrued. With all the tact which he
+could muster out of a not too abundant store, he sought to conciliate,
+without yielding his own opinions. It was a futile effort. At the very
+outset he was forced to deny the right of slave property to other
+protection than common property. Thence he passed with wider and wider
+divergence from the Southern position over the familiar ground of
+popular sovereignty. To the specific demands which Brown had voiced,
+he replied that Congress had never passed an act creating a criminal
+code for any organized Territory, nor any law protecting any species
+of property. Congress had left these matters to the territorial
+legislatures. Why, then, make an exception of slave property? The
+Supreme Court had made no such distinction. &quot;I know,&quot; said Douglas, in
+a tone little calculated to soothe the feelings of his opponents, &quot;I
+know that some gentlemen do not like the doctrine of non-intervention
+as well as they once did. It is now becoming fashionable to talk
+sneeringly of 'your doctrine of non-intervention,' Sir, that doctrine
+has been a fundamental <a name="Page_399" id="Page_399"></a>article in the Democratic creed for years.&quot;
+&quot;If you repudiate the doctrine of non-intervention and form a slave
+code by act of Congress, when the people of a Territory refuse it, you
+must step off the Democratic platform.... I tell you, gentlemen of the
+South, in all candor, I do not believe a Democratic candidate can ever
+carry any one Democratic State of the North on the platform that it is
+the duty of the Federal government to force the people of a Territory
+to have slavery when they do not want it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_784_784" id="FNanchor_784_784"></a><a href="#Footnote_784_784"><sup>[784]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>What Brown had asserted with his wonted impulsiveness, was then
+reaffirmed more soberly by his colleague, Jefferson Davis, upon whom
+more than any other Southerner the mantle of Calhoun had fallen. State
+sovereignty was also his major premise. The Constitution was a
+compact. The Territories were common property of the States. The
+territorial legislatures were mere instruments through which the
+Congress of the United States &quot;executed its trust in relation to the
+Territories.&quot; If, as the Senator from Illinois insisted, Congress had
+granted full power to the inhabitants of the Territories to legislate
+on all subjects not inconsistent with the Constitution, then Congress
+had exceeded its authority. Turning to Douglas, Davis said, &quot;Now, the
+senator asks, will you make a discrimination in the Territories? I
+say, yes, I would discriminate in the Territories wherever it is
+needful to assert the right of citizens.... I have heard many a
+siren's song on this doctrine of non-intervention; a thing shadowy and
+fleeting, changing its color as often as the chameleon.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_785_785" id="FNanchor_785_785"></a><a href="#Footnote_785_785"><sup>[785]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400"></a>When Douglas could again get the floor, he retorted sharply, &quot;The
+senator from Mississippi says, if I am not willing to stand in the
+party on his platform, I can go out. Allow me to inform him that I
+stand on the platform, and those that jump off must go out of the
+party.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hot words now passed between them. Davis spoke disdainfully of men who
+seek to build up a political reputation by catering to the prejudice
+of a majority, to exclude the property of the minority. And Douglas
+retorted, &quot;I despise to see men from other sections of the Union
+pandering to a public sentiment against what I conceive to be common
+rights under the Constitution.&quot; &quot;Holding the views that you do,&quot; said
+Davis, &quot;you would have no chance of getting the vote of Mississippi
+to-day.&quot; The senator has &quot;confirmed me in the belief that he is now as
+full of heresy as he once was of adherence to the doctrine of popular
+sovereignty, correctly construed; that he has gone back to his first
+love of squatter sovereignty, a thing offensive to every idea of
+conservatism and sound government.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Davis made repeated efforts to secure an answer to the question
+whether, in the event that slavery should be excluded by the people of
+a Territory and the Supreme Court should decide against such action,
+Douglas would maintain the rights of the slave-holders. Douglas
+replied, somewhat evasively, that when the Supreme Court should decide
+upon the constitutionality of the local laws, he would abide by the
+decision. &quot;That is not the point,&quot; rejoined Davis impatiently;
+&quot;Congress must compel the Territorial Legislature to perform its
+proper functions&quot;; <i>i.e.</i> actively protect slave property. &quot;Well,&quot;
+said Douglas with <a name="Page_401" id="Page_401"></a>exasperating coolness, &quot;on that point, the Senator
+and I differ. If the Territorial Legislature will not pass such laws
+as will encourage mules, I will not force them to have them.&quot; Again
+Davis insisted that his question had not been answered. Douglas
+repeated, &quot;I will vote against any law by Congress attempting to
+interfere with a regulation made by the Territories, with respect to
+any kind of property whatever, whether horses, mules, negroes, or
+anything else.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_786_786" id="FNanchor_786_786"></a><a href="#Footnote_786_786"><sup>[786]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But there was a flaw in Douglas's armor which Green of Missouri
+detected. Had the Senator from Illinois not urged the intervention of
+Congress to prevent polygamy in Utah? &quot;Not at all,&quot; replied Douglas;
+&quot;the people of that Territory were in a state of rebellion against the
+Federal authorities.&quot; What he had urged was the repeal of the organic
+act of the Territory, so that the United States might exercise
+absolute jurisdiction and protect property in that region. &quot;But if the
+people of a Territory took away property in slaves, were they not also
+defying the Federal authorities?&quot; persisted Green. Unquestionably
+Congress might revoke the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas admitted; but
+it should be remembered that the act was bottomed upon an agreement.
+There was a distinct understanding that the question whether
+territorial laws affecting the right of property in slaves were
+constitutional, should be referred to the Supreme Court. &quot;If
+constitutional, they were to remain in force until repealed by the
+Territorial Legislature; if not, they were to become void not by
+action of Congress but by the decision of the court.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_787_787" id="FNanchor_787_787"></a><a href="#Footnote_787_787"><sup>[787]</sup></a> And Douglas
+quoted at <a name="Page_402" id="Page_402"></a>length from a speech by Senator Benjamin in 1856, to prove
+his point. But it was precisely this agreement of 1854, which was now
+being either repudiated or construed in the interest of the South.
+Jefferson Davis frankly deprecated the &quot;great hazard&quot; which
+representatives from his section ran in 1854; but, he added, &quot;I take
+it for granted my friends who are about me must have understood at
+that time clearly that this was the mere reference of a right; and
+that if decided in our favor, congressional legislation would follow
+in its train, and secure to us the enjoyment of the right thus
+defined.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_788_788" id="FNanchor_788_788"></a><a href="#Footnote_788_788"><sup>[788]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The wide divergence of purpose and opinion which this debate revealed,
+dashed any hope of a united Democratic party in 1860. Men who looked
+into the future were sobered by the prospect. If the Democratic party
+were rent in twain,&mdash;the only surviving national party,&mdash;if
+Northerners and Southerners could no longer act together within a
+party of such elastic principles, what hope remained for the Union?
+The South was already boldly facing the inevitable. Said Brown,
+passionately, &quot;If I cannot obtain the rights guaranteed to me and my
+people under the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court,
+then, Sir, I am prepared to retire from the concern.... When our
+constitutional rights are denied us, we <i>ought</i> to retire from the
+Union.... If you are going to convert the Union into a masked battery
+from behind which to make war on me and my property, in the name of
+all the gods at once, why should I not retire from it?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_789_789" id="FNanchor_789_789"></a><a href="#Footnote_789_789"><sup>[789]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>After the 23d of February, Douglas neither gave <a name="Page_403" id="Page_403"></a>nor expected quarter
+from the Southern faction led by Jefferson Davis. So far from avoiding
+conflict, he seems rather to have forced the fighting. He flaunted his
+views in the faces of the fire-eaters. Prudence would have suggested
+silence, when a convention of Southern States met at Vicksburg and
+resolved that &quot;all laws, State and Federal, prohibiting the African
+slave-trade, ought to be repealed,&quot;<a name="FNanchor_790_790" id="FNanchor_790_790"></a><a href="#Footnote_790_790"><sup>[790]</sup></a> but Douglas, who knew
+something of the dimensions which this illicit traffic had already
+assumed, at once declared himself opposed to it. He said privately in
+a conversation, which afterwards was reported by an anonymous
+correspondent to the New York <i>Tribune</i>, that he believed fifteen
+thousand Africans were brought into the country last year. He had seen
+&quot;with his own eyes three hundred of those recently imported miserable
+beings in a slave-pen at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and also large
+numbers at Memphis, Tennessee.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_791_791" id="FNanchor_791_791"></a><a href="#Footnote_791_791"><sup>[791]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In a letter which speedily became public property, Douglas said that
+he would not accept the nomination of the Democratic party, if the
+convention should interpolate into the party creed &quot;such new issues as
+the revival of the African slave-trade, or a congressional slave code
+for the Territories.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_792_792" id="FNanchor_792_792"></a><a href="#Footnote_792_792"><sup>[792]</sup></a> And to leave no doubt as to his attitude he
+wrote a second letter, devoted exclusively to this subject; it also
+found its way, as the author probably intended it should, into the
+newspapers. He opposed the revival of the African slave-trade because
+it was abolished by one of the compromises which had made the Federal
+Union and the <a name="Page_404" id="Page_404"></a>Constitution. &quot;In accordance with this compromise, I am
+irreconcilably opposed to the revival of the African slave-trade, in
+any form and under any circumstances.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_793_793" id="FNanchor_793_793"></a><a href="#Footnote_793_793"><sup>[793]</sup></a> How deeply this
+unequivocal condemnation lacerated the feelings of the South, will
+never be known until the economic necessities and purposes of the
+large plantation owners are more clearly revealed.</p>
+
+<p>The captious criticism of the Freeport doctrine by Southerners of the
+Calhoun-Jefferson Davis school was less damaging, from a legal point
+of view, than the sober analysis of Lincoln. The emphasis in Lincoln's
+famous question at Freeport fell upon the word <i>lawful</i>: &quot;Can the
+people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way,&quot; etc. Douglas
+had replied to the question of legal right by an assertion of the
+power of the people of the Territories. This answer, as Lincoln
+pointed out subsequently, was equivalent to saying that &quot;a thing may
+be lawfully driven away from where it has the lawful right to
+be.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_794_794" id="FNanchor_794_794"></a><a href="#Footnote_794_794"><sup>[794]</sup></a> As a prediction, Douglas's simple statement, that if the
+people of a Territory wanted slavery they would have it, and if they
+did not, they would not let it be forced on them, was fully justified
+by the facts of American history. It has been characteristic of the
+American people that, without irreverence for law, they have not
+allowed it to stand in the way of their natural development: they have
+not, as a rule, driven rough-shod over law, but have quietly allowed
+undesirable laws to fall into innocuous desuetude.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405"></a>But such an answer was unworthy of a man who prided himself upon his
+fidelity to the obligation of the Constitution and the laws. Feeling
+the full force of Lincoln's inexorable logic,<a name="FNanchor_795_795" id="FNanchor_795_795"></a><a href="#Footnote_795_795"><sup>[795]</sup></a> but believing that
+it was bottomed on a false premise, Douglas endeavored to give his
+Freeport doctrine its proper constitutional setting. During the
+summer, he elaborated an historical and constitutional defense of
+popular sovereignty. The editors of <i>Harper's Magazine</i> so far
+departed from the traditions of that popular periodical as to publish
+this long and tedious essay in the September number. Douglas probably
+calculated that through this medium better than almost any other, he
+would reach those readers to whom Lincoln made his most effective
+appeal.<a name="FNanchor_796_796" id="FNanchor_796_796"></a><a href="#Footnote_796_796"><sup>[796]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The essay bore the title &quot;The Dividing Line between Federal and Local
+Authority,&quot; with the sub-caption, &quot;Popular Sovereignty in the
+Territories.&quot; In his interpretation of history, the author proved
+himself rather a better advocate than historian. He had traversed much
+the same ground in his speeches&mdash;and with far more vivacity and force.
+Douglas searched the colonial records, and found&mdash;one is tempted to
+say, to find&mdash;our fathers contending unremittingly for &quot;the
+inalienable right, when formed into political <a name="Page_406" id="Page_406"></a>communities, to
+exercise exclusive power of legislation in their local legislatures in
+respect to all things affecting their internal polity&mdash;slavery not
+excepted.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_797_797" id="FNanchor_797_797"></a><a href="#Footnote_797_797"><sup>[797]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas took issue with the fundamental postulate of Lincoln's
+syllogism&mdash;that a Territory is the mere creature of Congress and
+cannot be clothed with powers not possessed by the creator. He denied
+that such an inference could be drawn from that clause in the
+Constitution which permits Congress to dispose of, and make all
+needful rules for, the territory or other property belonging to the
+United States. Names were deceptive. The word &quot;territory&quot; in this
+connection was not used in a political, but in a geographical sense.
+The power of Congress to organize governments for the Territories must
+be inferred rather from the power to admit new States into the Union.
+The Federal government possessed only expressly delegated powers; and
+the absence of any explicit authority to interfere in local
+territorial affairs must be held to inhibit any exercise of such
+power. It was on these grounds that the Supreme Court had ruled that
+Congress was not authorized by the Constitution to prohibit slavery in
+the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>It had been erroneously held by some, continued the essayist, that the
+Court decided in the Dred Scott case that a territorial legislature
+could not legislate in respect to slave property like other property.
+He understood the Court to speak only of forbidden powers&mdash;powers
+denied to Congress, to State legislatures and to territorial
+legislatures alike. But if ever slavery should be decided to be one of
+these forbidden subjects of legislation, then the conclusion <a name="Page_407" id="Page_407"></a>would be
+inevitable that the Constitution established slavery in the
+Territories beyond the power of the people to control it by law, and
+guaranteed to every citizen the right to go there and be protected in
+the enjoyment of his slave property; then every member of Congress
+would be in duty bound to supply adequate protection, if the rights of
+property should be invaded. Not only so, but another conclusion would
+follow,&mdash;if the Constitution should be held to establish slavery in
+the Territories beyond the power of the people to control
+it,&mdash;Congress would be bound to provide adequate protection for slave
+property everywhere, <i>in the States</i> as well as in the Territories.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas immediately went on to show that such was not the decision of
+the Court in the Dred Scott case. The Court had held that &quot;the right
+of property in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
+Constitution.&quot; Yes, but where? Why in that provision which speaks of
+persons &quot;held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
+thereof&quot;; not under the Constitution, not under the laws of Congress,
+Douglas emphasized, but <i>under the laws of the particular State where
+such service is due.</i> And so, when the Court declared that &quot;the
+government, in express terms, is pledged to protect it [slave
+property] in all future time,&quot; it added &quot;if the slave escapes from his
+owner.&quot; &quot;This is the only contingency,&quot; Douglas maintained, &quot;in which
+the Federal Government is authorized, required, or permitted to
+interfere with slavery in the States or Territories; and in that case
+only for the purpose of 'guarding and protecting the owner in his
+rights' to reclaim his slave property.&quot; Slave-owners, therefore, who
+moved with their property to a <a name="Page_408" id="Page_408"></a>Territory, must hold it like all other
+property, subject to local law, and look to local authorities for its
+protection.</p>
+
+<p>One other question remained: was the word &quot;State,&quot; as used in the
+clause just cited, intended to include Territories? Douglas so
+contended. Otherwise, &quot;the Territories must become a sanctuary for all
+fugitives from service and justice.&quot; In numerous clauses in the
+Constitution, the Territories were recognized as <i>States</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Clever as this reasoning was, it clearly was not a fair exposition of
+the opinion of the Court in the case of Dred Scott. If the Court did
+not deny the right of a territorial legislature to interfere with
+slave property, it certainly left that proposition open to fair
+inference by the phrasing and emphasis of the critical passages. It
+should be noted that Douglas, in quoting the decision, misplaced the
+decisive clause so as to bring it in juxtaposition to the reference to
+the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, thus redistributing the
+emphasis and confusing the real significance of the foregoing
+paragraph.<a name="FNanchor_798_798" id="FNanchor_798_798"></a><a href="#Footnote_798_798"><sup>[798]</sup></a> Douglas stated subsequently that he did not believe
+the decision of the Court reached the power of a territorial
+legislature, because there was no territorial legislature in the
+record nor any allusion to one; because there was no territorial
+enactment before the Court; and because there was no fact in the case
+alluding to or connected with territorial legislation.<a name="FNanchor_799_799" id="FNanchor_799_799"></a><a href="#Footnote_799_799"><sup>[799]</sup></a> All this
+was perfectly true. <a name="Page_409" id="Page_409"></a>The opinion of the Court was <i>obiter dicens</i>; but
+the Court expressed its opinion nevertheless. As Lincoln said, men
+knew what to expect of the Court when a territorial act prohibiting
+slavery came before it. Yet this was what Douglas would not concede.
+He would not admit the inference. Congress could confer powers upon a
+territorial legislature which it could not itself exercise. The
+dividing line between Federal and local authority was so drawn as to
+permit Congress to institute governments with legislative, judicial,
+and executive functions but without permitting Congress to exercise
+those functions itself. From Douglas's point of view, a Territory was
+not a dependency of the Federal government, but an inchoate
+Commonwealth, endowed with many of the attributes of sovereignty
+possessed by the full-fledged States.</p>
+
+<p>So unusual an event as a political contribution by a prominent
+statesman to a popular magazine, created no little excitement.<a name="FNanchor_800_800" id="FNanchor_800_800"></a><a href="#Footnote_800_800"><sup>[800]</sup></a>
+Attorney-General Black came to the defense of the South with an
+unsigned contribution to the Washington <i>Constitution</i>, the organ of
+the administration.<a name="FNanchor_801_801" id="FNanchor_801_801"></a><a href="#Footnote_801_801"><sup>[801]</sup></a> And Douglas, who had meantime gone to Ohio to
+take part in the State campaign, replied caustically to this critique
+in his speech at Wooster, September 16th. Black rejoined in a pamphlet
+under his own name. Whereupon Douglas returned to the attack with a
+slashing pamphlet, which he sent to the printer in an unfinished form
+and which did him little credit.<a name="FNanchor_802_802" id="FNanchor_802_802"></a><a href="#Footnote_802_802"><sup>[802]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410"></a>This war of pamphlets was productive of no results. Douglas and Black
+were wide apart upon their major premises, and diverged inevitably in
+their conclusions. Holding fast to the premise that a Territory was
+not sovereign but a &quot;subordinate dependency,&quot; Black ridiculed the
+attempts of Douglas to clothe it, not with complete sovereignty but
+with &quot;the attributes of sovereignty.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_803_803" id="FNanchor_803_803"></a><a href="#Footnote_803_803"><sup>[803]</sup></a> Then Douglas denounced in
+scathing terms the absurdity of Black's assumption that property in
+the Territories would be held by the laws of the State from which it
+came, while it must look for redress of wrongs to the law of its new
+domicile.<a name="FNanchor_804_804" id="FNanchor_804_804"></a><a href="#Footnote_804_804"><sup>[804]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Ohio campaign attracted much attention throughout the country, not
+only because the gubernatorial candidates were thoroughgoing
+representatives of the Republican party and of Douglas Democracy, but
+because both Lincoln and Douglas were again brought into the
+arena.<a name="FNanchor_805_805" id="FNanchor_805_805"></a><a href="#Footnote_805_805"><sup>[805]</sup></a> While the latter did not meet in joint debate, their
+successive appearance at Columbus and Cincinnati gave the campaign the
+aspect of a prolongation of the Illinois contest. Lincoln devoted no
+little attention to the <i>Harper's Magazine</i> article, while Douglas
+defended himself and his doctrine against all comers. There was a
+disposition in many quarters to concede that popular sovereignty,
+whether theoretically right or wrong, would settle the question of
+slavery in the Territories.<a name="FNanchor_806_806" id="FNanchor_806_806"></a><a href="#Footnote_806_806"><sup>[806]</sup></a> Apropos of Douglas's <a name="Page_411" id="Page_411"></a>speech at
+Columbus, the New York <i>Times</i> admitted that at least his principles
+were &quot;definite&quot; and uttered in a &quot;frank, gallant and masculine&quot;
+spirit;<a name="FNanchor_807_807" id="FNanchor_807_807"></a><a href="#Footnote_807_807"><sup>[807]</sup></a> and his speeches were deemed of enough importance to be
+printed entire in the columns of this Republican journal. &quot;He means to
+go to Charleston,&quot; guessed the editor shrewdly, &quot;as the unmistakable
+representative of the Democratic party of the North and to bring this
+influence to bear upon Southern delegates as the only way to secure
+their interests against anti-slavery sentiment represented by the
+Republicans. He will claim that not a single Northern State can be
+carried on a platform more pro-slavery than his. The Democrats of the
+North have yielded all they will.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_808_808" id="FNanchor_808_808"></a><a href="#Footnote_808_808"><sup>[808]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While Douglas was in Ohio, he was saddened by the intelligence that
+Senator Broderick of California, his loyal friend and staunch
+supporter in the Lecompton fight, had fallen a victim to the animosity
+of the Southern faction in his State. The Washington <i>Constitution</i>
+might explain his death as an affair of honor&mdash;he was shot in a
+duel&mdash;but intelligent men knew that Broderick's assailant had desired
+to rid Southern &quot;chivalry&quot; of a hated political opponent.<a name="FNanchor_809_809" id="FNanchor_809_809"></a><a href="#Footnote_809_809"><sup>[809]</sup></a> A month
+later, on the night of October 16th, John Brown of Kansas fame
+marshalled his little band of eighteen men and descended upon the
+United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry. What did these events
+portend?</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_775_775" id="Footnote_775_775"></a><a href="#FNanchor_775_775">[775]</a> Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, II,
+p. 243.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_776_776" id="Footnote_776_776"></a><a href="#FNanchor_776_776">[776]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 355.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_777_777" id="Footnote_777_777"></a><a href="#FNanchor_777_777">[777]</a> Memphis <i>Avalanche</i>, November 30, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago <i>Times</i>, December 8, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_778_778" id="Footnote_778_778"></a><a href="#FNanchor_778_778">[778]</a> New Orleans <i>Delta</i>, December 8, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago <i>Times</i>, December 19, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_779_779" id="Footnote_779_779"></a><a href="#FNanchor_779_779">[779]</a> Rhodes, History of United States, II, p. 355.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_780_780" id="Footnote_780_780"></a><a href="#FNanchor_780_780">[780]</a> See reported conversation of Douglas with the editor of
+the Chicago <i>Press and Tribune</i>, Hollister, Life of Colfax, p. 123.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_781_781" id="Footnote_781_781"></a><a href="#FNanchor_781_781">[781]</a> Letcher to Crittenden; Coleman. Life of John J.
+Crittenden, II, p. 171; Hollister, Colfax, p. 124.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_782_782" id="Footnote_782_782"></a><a href="#FNanchor_782_782">[782]</a> New Orleans <i>Delta</i>, December 8, 1858.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_783_783" id="Footnote_783_783"></a><a href="#FNanchor_783_783">[783]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1243.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_784_784" id="Footnote_784_784"></a><a href="#FNanchor_784_784">[784]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 2: Sess., p. 1245.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_785_785" id="Footnote_785_785"></a><a href="#FNanchor_785_785">[785]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1247-1248.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_786_786" id="Footnote_786_786"></a><a href="#FNanchor_786_786">[786]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1259.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_787_787" id="Footnote_787_787"></a><a href="#FNanchor_787_787">[787]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1258.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_788_788" id="Footnote_788_788"></a><a href="#FNanchor_788_788">[788]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1256.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_789_789" id="Footnote_789_789"></a><a href="#FNanchor_789_789">[789]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1243.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_790_790" id="Footnote_790_790"></a><a href="#FNanchor_790_790">[790]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 371.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_791_791" id="Footnote_791_791"></a><a href="#FNanchor_791_791">[791]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 369-370.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_792_792" id="Footnote_792_792"></a><a href="#FNanchor_792_792">[792]</a> Letter to J.B. Dorr, June 22, 1859; Flint, Douglas, pp.
+168-169.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_793_793" id="Footnote_793_793"></a><a href="#FNanchor_793_793">[793]</a> Letter to J.L. Peyton, August 2, 1859; Sheahan,
+Douglas, pp. 465-466.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_794_794" id="Footnote_794_794"></a><a href="#FNanchor_794_794">[794]</a> Speech at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859; see Debates,
+p. 250.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_795_795" id="Footnote_795_795"></a><a href="#FNanchor_795_795">[795]</a> On his return to Washington after the debates, Douglas
+said to Wilson, &quot;He [Lincoln] is an able and honest man, one of the
+ablest of the nation. I have been in Congress sixteen years, and there
+is not a man in the Senate I would not rather encounter in debate.&quot;
+Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 577.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_796_796" id="Footnote_796_796"></a><a href="#FNanchor_796_796">[796]</a> It does not seem likely that Douglas hoped to reach the
+people of the South through <i>Harper's Magazine</i>, as it never had a
+large circulation south of Mason and Dixon's line. See Smith, Parties
+and Slavery, p. 292.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_797_797" id="Footnote_797_797"></a><a href="#FNanchor_797_797">[797]</a> <i>Harper's Magazine</i>, XIX, p. 527.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_798_798" id="Footnote_798_798"></a><a href="#FNanchor_798_798">[798]</a> Compare the quotation in <i>Harper's</i>, p. 531, with the
+opinion of the Court, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, 19 How., p. 720. The
+clause beginning &quot;And if the Constitution recognizes&quot; is taken from
+its own paragraph and put in the middle of the following paragraph.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_799_799" id="Footnote_799_799"></a><a href="#FNanchor_799_799">[799]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2152. This statement was
+confirmed by Reverdy Johnson, who was one of the lawyers that argued
+the case. See the speech of Reverdy Johnson, June 7, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_800_800" id="Footnote_800_800"></a><a href="#FNanchor_800_800">[800]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II., p. 374.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_801_801" id="Footnote_801_801"></a><a href="#FNanchor_801_801">[801]</a> Washington <i>Constitution</i>, September 10, 1859. The
+article was afterward published in a collection of his essays and
+speeches.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_802_802" id="Footnote_802_802"></a><a href="#FNanchor_802_802">[802]</a> Flint, Douglas, p. 181.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_803_803" id="Footnote_803_803"></a><a href="#FNanchor_803_803">[803]</a> One of the most interesting commentaries on Black's
+argument is his defense of the people of Utah, many years later,
+against the Anti-Polygamy Laws, when he used Douglas's argument
+without the slightest qualms. See Essays and Speeches, pp. 603, 604,
+609.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_804_804" id="Footnote_804_804"></a><a href="#FNanchor_804_804">[804]</a> Flint, Douglas, pp. 172-181 gives extracts from these
+pamphlets.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_805_805" id="Footnote_805_805"></a><a href="#FNanchor_805_805">[805]</a> Rhodes History of United States, II, p. 381.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_806_806" id="Footnote_806_806"></a><a href="#FNanchor_806_806">[806]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 382.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_807_807" id="Footnote_807_807"></a><a href="#FNanchor_807_807">[807]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, September 9, 1859.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_808_808" id="Footnote_808_808"></a><a href="#FNanchor_808_808">[808]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, September 9, 1859.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_809_809" id="Footnote_809_809"></a><a href="#FNanchor_809_809">[809]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp.
+374-379.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412"></a>CHAPTER XVIII<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Deeds of violence are the inevitable precursors of an approaching war.
+They are so many expressions of that estrangement which is at the root
+of all sectional conflicts. The raid of John Brown upon Harper's
+Ferry, like his earlier lawless acts in Kansas, was less the crime of
+an individual than the manifestation of a deep social unrest.
+Occurring on the eve of a momentous presidential election, it threw
+doubts upon the finality of any appeal to the ballot. The antagonism
+between North and South was such as to make an appeal to arms seem a
+probable last resort. The political question of the year 1860 was
+whether the law-abiding habit of the American people and the
+traditional mode of effecting changes in governmental policy, would be
+strong enough to withstand the primitive instinct to decide the
+question of right by an appeal to might. To actors in the drama the
+question assumed this simple, concrete form: could the national
+Democratic party maintain its integrity and achieve another victory
+over parties which were distinctly sectional?</p>
+
+<p>The passions aroused by the Harper's Ferry episode had no time to cool
+before Congress met. They were again inflamed by the indorsement of
+Helper's &quot;Impending Crisis&quot; by influential Republicans. As the author
+was a poor white of North Carolina who hated slavery and desired to
+prove that the institution was <a name="Page_413" id="Page_413"></a>inimical to the interests of his
+class, the book was regarded by slave-holders as an incendiary
+publication, conceived in the same spirit as John Brown's raid. The
+contest for the Speakership of the House turned upon the attitude of
+candidates toward this book. At the North &quot;The Impending Crisis&quot; had
+great vogue, passing through many editions. All events seemed to
+conspire to prevent sobriety of judgment and moderation in speech.</p>
+
+<p>From a legislative point of view, this exciting session of Congress
+was barren of results. The paramount consideration was the approaching
+party conventions. What principles and policies would control the
+action of the Democratic convention at Charleston, depended very
+largely upon who should control the great body of delegates. Early in
+January various State conventions in the Northwest expressed their
+choice. Illinois took the lead with a series of resolutions which rang
+clear and true on all the cardinal points of the Douglas creed.<a name="FNanchor_810_810" id="FNanchor_810_810"></a><a href="#Footnote_810_810"><sup>[810]</sup></a>
+Within the next sixty days every State in the greater Northwest had
+chosen delegates to the national Democratic convention, pledged to
+support the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas.<a name="FNanchor_811_811" id="FNanchor_811_811"></a><a href="#Footnote_811_811"><sup>[811]</sup></a> It was with the
+knowledge, then, that he spoke for the Democracy of the Northwest that
+Douglas took issue with those Southern senators who plumed themselves
+on their party orthodoxy.</p>
+
+<p>In a debate which was precipitated by a resolution of Senator Pugh,
+the old sores were rent open. Senator Davis of Mississippi was
+particularly irritating in his allusions to the Freeport, and other
+recent, heresies of the Senator from Illinois. In the give and <a name="Page_414" id="Page_414"></a>take
+which followed, Douglas was beset behind and before. But his fighting
+blood was up and he promised to return blow for blow, with interest.
+Let every man make his assault, and when all were through, he would
+&quot;fire into the lump.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_812_812" id="FNanchor_812_812"></a><a href="#Footnote_812_812"><sup>[812]</sup></a> &quot;I am not seeking a nomination,&quot; he
+declared, &quot;I am willing to take one provided I can assume it on
+principles that I believe to be sound; but in the event of your making
+a platform that I could not conscientiously execute in good faith if I
+were elected, I will not stand upon it and be a candidate.&quot; For his
+part he would like to know &quot;who it is that has the right to say who is
+in the party and who not?&quot; He believed that he was backed by
+two-thirds of the Democracy of the United States. Did one-third of the
+Democratic party propose to read out the remaining two-thirds? &quot;I have
+no grievances, but I have no concessions. I have no abandonment of
+position or principle; no recantation to make to any man or body of
+men on earth.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_813_813" id="FNanchor_813_813"></a><a href="#Footnote_813_813"><sup>[813]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Some days later Douglas made it equally clear that he had no
+recantation to make for the sake of Republican support. Speaking of
+the need of some measure by which the States might be protected
+against acts of violence like the Harper's Ferry affair, he roundly
+denounced that outrage as &quot;the natural, logical, inevitable result of
+the doctrines and teachings of the Republican party, as explained and
+enforced in their platform, their partisan presses, their pamphlets
+and books, and especially in the speeches of their leaders in and out
+of Congress.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_814_814" id="FNanchor_814_814"></a><a href="#Footnote_814_814"><sup>[814]</sup></a> True, they disavowed the <i>act</i> of John Brown, but
+they should also repudiate and <a name="Page_415" id="Page_415"></a>denounce the doctrines and teachings
+which produced the act. Fraternal peace was possible only upon &quot;that
+good old golden principle which teaches all men to mind their own
+business and let their neighbors' alone.&quot; When men so act, the Union
+can endure forever as the fathers made it, composed of free and slave
+States.<a name="FNanchor_815_815" id="FNanchor_815_815"></a><a href="#Footnote_815_815"><sup>[815]</sup></a> &quot;Then the senator is really indifferent to slavery, as he
+is reported to have said?&quot; queried Fessenden. &quot;Sir,&quot; replied Douglas,
+&quot;I hold the doctrine that a statesman will adapt his laws to the
+wants, conditions, and interests of the people to be governed by them.
+Slavery may be very essential in one climate and totally useless in
+another. If I were a citizen of Louisiana I would vote for retaining
+and maintaining slavery, because I believe the good of the people
+would require it. As a citizen of Illinois I am utterly opposed to it,
+because our interests would not be promoted by it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_816_816" id="FNanchor_816_816"></a><a href="#Footnote_816_816"><sup>[816]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The lines upon which the Charleston convention would divide, were
+sharply drawn by a series of resolutions presented to the Senate by
+Jefferson Davis. They were intended to serve as an ultimatum, and they
+were so understood by Northern Democrats. They were deliberately
+wrought out in conference as the final expression of Southern
+conviction. In explicit language the right of either Congress or a
+territorial legislature to impair the constitutional right of property
+in slaves, was denied. In case of unfriendly legislation, it was
+declared to be the duty of Congress to provide adequate protection to
+slave property. Popular sovereignty was completely discarded by the
+assertion that <a name="Page_416" id="Page_416"></a>the people of a Territory might pass upon the question
+of slavery only when they formed a State constitution.<a name="FNanchor_817_817" id="FNanchor_817_817"></a><a href="#Footnote_817_817"><sup>[817]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As the delegates to the Democratic convention began to gather in the
+latter part of April, the center of political interest shifted from
+Washington to Charleston. Here the battle between the factions was to
+be fought out, but without the presence of the real leaders. The
+advantages of organization were with the Douglas men. The delegations
+from the Northwest were devoted, heart and soul, to their chief. As
+they passed through the capital on their journey to the South, they
+gathered around him with noisy demonstrations of affection; and when
+they continued on their way, they were more determined than ever to
+secure his nomination.<a name="FNanchor_818_818" id="FNanchor_818_818"></a><a href="#Footnote_818_818"><sup>[818]</sup></a> From the South, too, every Douglas man who
+was likely to carry weight in his community, was brought to Charleston
+to labor among the Ultras of his section.<a name="FNanchor_819_819" id="FNanchor_819_819"></a><a href="#Footnote_819_819"><sup>[819]</sup></a> The Douglas
+headquarters in Hibernian Hall bore witness to the business-like way
+in which his candidacy was being promoted. Not the least striking
+feature within the committee rooms was the ample supply of Sheahan's
+<i>Life of Stephen A. Douglas</i>, fresh from the press.<a name="FNanchor_820_820" id="FNanchor_820_820"></a><a href="#Footnote_820_820"><sup>[820]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Recognized leader of the Douglas forces was Colonel Richardson of
+Illinois, a veteran in convention warfare, seasoned by years of
+congressional service and by long practice in managing men.<a name="FNanchor_821_821" id="FNanchor_821_821"></a><a href="#Footnote_821_821"><sup>[821]</sup></a> It
+was he who had led the Douglas cohorts in the Cincinnati convention.
+The memory of that defeat still rankled, and he was not disposed to
+yield to like contingencies. Indeed, <a name="Page_417" id="Page_417"></a>the spirit of the delegates from
+the Northwest,&mdash;and they seemed likely to carry the other Northern
+delegates with them,&mdash;was offensively aggressive; and their
+demonstrations of enthusiasm assumed a minatory aspect, as they
+learned of the presence of Slidell, Bigler, and Bright, and witnessed
+the efforts of the administration to defeat the hero of the Lecompton
+fight.<a name="FNanchor_822_822" id="FNanchor_822_822"></a><a href="#Footnote_822_822"><sup>[822]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Those who observed the proceedings of the convention could not rid
+themselves of the impression that opposing parties were wrestling for
+control, so bitter and menacing was the interchange of opinion. It was
+matter of common report that the Southern delegations would withdraw
+if Douglas were nominated.<a name="FNanchor_823_823" id="FNanchor_823_823"></a><a href="#Footnote_823_823"><sup>[823]</sup></a> Equally ominous was the rumor that
+Richardson was authorized to withdraw the name of Douglas, if the
+platform adopted should advocate the protection of slavery in the
+Territories.<a name="FNanchor_824_824" id="FNanchor_824_824"></a><a href="#Footnote_824_824"><sup>[824]</sup></a> The temper of the convention was such as to preclude
+an amicable agreement, even if Douglas withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>The advantages of compact organization and conscious purpose were
+apparent in the first days of the convention. At every point the
+Douglas men forced the fighting. On the second day, it was voted that
+where a delegation had not been instructed by a State convention how
+to give its vote, the individual delegates might vote as they pleased.
+This rule would work to the obvious advantage of Douglas.<a name="FNanchor_825_825" id="FNanchor_825_825"></a><a href="#Footnote_825_825"><sup>[825]</sup></a> On the
+third day, the convention refused to admit the <a name="Page_418" id="Page_418"></a>contesting delegations
+from New York and Illinois, represented by Fernando Wood and Isaac
+Cook respectively.<a name="FNanchor_826_826" id="FNanchor_826_826"></a><a href="#Footnote_826_826"><sup>[826]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Meantime the committee on resolutions, composed of one delegate from
+each State, was in the throes of platform-making. Both factions had
+agreed to frame a platform before naming a candidate. But here, as in
+the convention, the possibility of amiable discussion and mutual
+concession was precluded. The Southern delegates voted in caucus to
+hold to the Davis resolutions; the Northern, with equal stubbornness,
+clung to the well-known principles of Douglas. On the fifth day of the
+convention, April 27th, the committee presented a majority report and
+two minority reports. The first was essentially an epitome of the
+Davis resolutions; the second reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform, at
+the same time pledging the party to abide by the decisions of the
+Supreme Court on those questions of constitutional law which should
+affect the rights of property in the States or Territories; and the
+third report simply reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform without
+additional resolutions.<a name="FNanchor_827_827" id="FNanchor_827_827"></a><a href="#Footnote_827_827"><sup>[827]</sup></a> The defense of the main minority report
+fell to Payne of Ohio. In a much more conciliatory spirit than Douglas
+men had hitherto shown, he assured the Southern members of the
+convention that every man who had signed the report felt that &quot;upon
+the result of our deliberations and the action of this convention, in
+all human probability, depended the fate of the Democratic party and
+the destiny of the Union.&quot; The North was devoted to the principle of
+popular sovereignty, but &quot;we ask nothing <a name="Page_419" id="Page_419"></a>for the people of the
+territories but what the Constitution allows them.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_828_828" id="FNanchor_828_828"></a><a href="#Footnote_828_828"><sup>[828]</sup></a> The argument
+of Payne was cogent and commended itself warmly to Northern delegates;
+but it struck Southern ears as a tiresome reiteration of arguments
+drawn from premises which they could not admit.</p>
+
+<p>It was Yancey of Alabama, chief among fire-eaters, who, in the
+afternoon of the same day, warmed the cockles of the Southern heart.
+Gifted with all the graces of Southern orators, he made an eloquent
+plea for Southern rights. Protection was what the South demanded:
+protection in their constitutional rights and in their sacred rights
+of property. The proposition contained in the minority report would
+ruin the South. &quot;You acknowledged that slavery did not exist by the
+law of nature or by the law of God&mdash;that it only existed by State law;
+that it was wrong, but that you were not to blame. That was your
+position, and it was wrong. If you had taken the position directly
+that slavery was right, and therefore ought to be ... you would have
+triumphed, and anti-slavery would now have been dead in your midst....
+I say it in no disrespect, but it is a logical argument that your
+admission that slavery is wrong has been the cause of all this
+discord.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_829_829" id="FNanchor_829_829"></a><a href="#Footnote_829_829"><sup>[829]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>These words brought Senator Pugh to his feet. Wrought to a dangerous
+pitch of excitement, he thanked God that a bold and honest man from
+the South had at last spoken, and had told the whole of the Southern
+demands. The South demanded now nothing less than that Northern
+Democrats should declare slavery to be <a name="Page_420" id="Page_420"></a>right. &quot;Gentlemen of the
+South,&quot; he exclaimed, &quot;you mistake us&mdash;you mistake us&mdash;we will not do
+it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_830_830" id="FNanchor_830_830"></a><a href="#Footnote_830_830"><sup>[830]</sup></a> The convention adjourned before Pugh had finished; but in
+the evening he told the Southern delegates plainly that Northern
+Democrats were not children at the bidding of the South. If the
+gentlemen from the South could stay only on the terms they proposed,
+they must go. For once the hall was awed into quiet, for Senator Pugh
+stood close to Douglas and the fate of the party hung in the
+balance.<a name="FNanchor_831_831" id="FNanchor_831_831"></a><a href="#Footnote_831_831"><sup>[831]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Sunday intervened, but the situation remained unchanged. Gloom settled
+down upon the further deliberations of the convention. On Monday, the
+minority report (the Douglas platform) was adopted by a vote of 165 to
+138. Thereupon the chairman of the Alabama delegation protested and
+announced the formal withdrawal of his State from the convention. The
+crisis had arrived. Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida,
+Texas, and Arkansas followed in succession, with valedictories which
+seemed directed less to the convention than to the Union. Indeed, more
+than one face blanched at the probable significance of this secession.
+Southerners of the Yancey following, however, were jubilant and had
+much to say about an independent Southern Republic.<a name="FNanchor_832_832" id="FNanchor_832_832"></a><a href="#Footnote_832_832"><sup>[832]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the following day, what Yancey scornfully dubbed the &quot;Rump
+Convention,&quot; proceeded to ballot, having first voted that two-thirds
+of the full vote of the convention should be necessary to nominate. On
+the first ballot, Douglas received 145-1/2, Hunter of Virginia 42,
+Guthrie of Kentucky 35-1/2; and the remaining thirty <a name="Page_421" id="Page_421"></a>were divided
+among several candidates. As 202 votes were necessary for a choice,
+the hopelessness of the outlook was apparent to all. Nevertheless, the
+balloting continued, the vote of Douglas increasing on four ballots to
+152-1/2. After the thirty-sixth ballot, he failed to command more than
+151-1/2. In all, fifty-seven ballots were taken.<a name="FNanchor_833_833" id="FNanchor_833_833"></a><a href="#Footnote_833_833"><sup>[833]</sup></a> On the tenth day
+of the convention, it was voted to adjourn to meet at Baltimore, on
+the 18th of June.</p>
+
+<p>The followers of Douglas left Charleston with wrath in their hearts.
+Chagrin and disappointment alternated with bitterness and resentment
+toward their Southern brethren. Moreover, contact with the South, so
+far from having lessened their latent distrust of its culture and
+institutions, had widened the gulf between the sections. Such speeches
+as that of Goulden of Georgia, who had boldly advocated the re-opening
+of the African slave-trade, saying coarsely that &quot;the African
+slave-trade man is the Union man&mdash;the Christian man,&quot; caused a certain
+ethical revolt in the feelings of men, hitherto not particularly
+susceptible to moral appeals on the slavery question.<a name="FNanchor_834_834" id="FNanchor_834_834"></a><a href="#Footnote_834_834"><sup>[834]</sup></a> Added to
+all these cumulative grievances was the uncomfortable probability,
+that the next President was about to be nominated in the Republican
+convention at Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>What were the feelings of the individual who had been such a divisive
+force in the Charleston convention? The country was not long left in
+doubt. Douglas was quite ready to comment upon the outcome; and it
+needed only the bitter arraignment of his theories by Davis, to bring
+him armed <i>cap-a-pie</i> into the arena.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422"></a>Aided by his friend Pugh, who read long extracts from letters and
+speeches, Douglas made a systematic review of Democratic principles
+and policy since 1848. His object, of course, was to demonstrate his
+own consistency, and at the same time to convict his critics of
+apostasy from the party creed. There was, inevitably, much tiresome
+repetition in all this. It was when he directed his remarks to the
+issues at Charleston that Douglas warmed to his subject. He refused to
+recognize the right of a caucus of the Senate or of the House, to
+prescribe new tests, to draft party platforms. That was a task
+reserved, under our political system, for national conventions, made
+up of delegates chosen by the people. Tried by the standard of the
+only Democratic organization competent to pronounce upon questions of
+party faith, he was no longer a heretic, no longer an outlaw from the
+Democratic party, no longer a rebel against the Democratic
+organization. &quot;The party decided at Charleston also, by a majority of
+the whole electoral college, that I was the choice of the Democratic
+party of America for the Presidency of the United States, giving me a
+majority of fifty votes over all other candidates combined; and yet my
+Democracy is questioned!&quot; &quot;But,&quot; he added, and there is no reason to
+doubt his sincerity, &quot;my friends who know me best know that I have no
+personal desire or wish for the nomination;... know that my name never
+would have been presented at Charleston, except for the attempt to
+proscribe me as a heretic, too unsound to be the chairman of a
+committee in this body, where I have held a seat for so many years
+without a suspicion resting on my political fidelity. I was forced to
+allow my name to go there in self-defense; <a name="Page_423" id="Page_423"></a>and I will now say that
+had any gentleman, friend or foe, received a majority of that
+convention over me, the lightning would have carried a message
+withdrawing my name from the convention.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_835_835" id="FNanchor_835_835"></a><a href="#Footnote_835_835"><sup>[835]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas was ready to acquit his colleagues in the Senate of a purpose
+to dissolve the Union, but he did not hesitate to assert that such
+principles as Yancey had advocated at Charleston would lead &quot;directly
+and inevitably&quot; to a dissolution of the Union. Why was the South so
+eager to repudiate the principle of non-intervention? By it they had
+converted New Mexico into slave Territory; by it, in all probability,
+they would extend slavery into the northern States of Mexico, when
+that region should be acquired. &quot;Why,&quot; he asked, &quot;are you not
+satisfied with these practical results? The only difference of opinion
+is on the judicial question, about which we agreed to differ&mdash;which we
+never did decide; because, under the Constitution, no tribunal on
+earth but the Supreme Court could decide it.&quot; To commit the Democratic
+party to intervention was to make the party sectional and to invite
+never-ceasing conflict. &quot;Intervention, North or South, means disunion;
+non-intervention promises peace, fraternity, and perpetuity to the
+Union, and to all our cherished institutions.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_836_836" id="FNanchor_836_836"></a><a href="#Footnote_836_836"><sup>[836]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The challenge contained in these words was not permitted to pass
+unanswered. Davis replied with offensive references to the &quot;swelling
+manner&quot; and &quot;egregious vanity&quot; of the Senator from Illinois. He
+resented such dictation.<a name="FNanchor_837_837" id="FNanchor_837_837"></a><a href="#Footnote_837_837"><sup>[837]</sup></a> On the following day, May 17th, an
+exciting passage-at-arms occurred between these <a name="Page_424" id="Page_424"></a>representatives of
+the Northwest and the Southwest. Douglas repeated his belief that
+disunion was the prompting motive which broke up the Charleston
+convention. Davis resented the insinuation, with fervent protestations
+of affection for the Union of the States. It was the Senator from
+Illinois, who, in his pursuit of power, had prevented unanimity, by
+trying to plant his theory upon the party. The South would have no
+more to do with the &quot;rickety, double-construed platform&quot; of 1856. &quot;The
+fact is,&quot; said Davis, &quot;I have a declining respect for platforms. I
+would sooner have an honest man on any sort of a rickety platform you
+could construct, than to have a man I did not trust on the best
+platform which could be made. A good platform and an honest man on it
+is what we want.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_838_838" id="FNanchor_838_838"></a><a href="#Footnote_838_838"><sup>[838]</sup></a> Douglas reminded his opponent sharply that the
+bolters at Charleston seceded, not on the candidate, but on the
+platform. &quot;If the platform is not a matter of much consequence, why
+press that question to the disruption of the party? Why did you not
+tell us in the beginning of this debate that the whole fight was
+against the man, and not upon the platform?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_839_839" id="FNanchor_839_839"></a><a href="#Footnote_839_839"><sup>[839]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the interval between the Charleston and the Baltimore conventions,
+the Davis resolutions were pressed to a vote in the Senate, with the
+purpose of shaping party opinion. They passed by votes which gave a
+deceptive appearance of Democratic unanimity. Only Senator Pugh parted
+company with his Democratic colleagues on the crucial resolution; yet
+he represented the popular opinion at the North.<a name="FNanchor_840_840" id="FNanchor_840_840"></a><a href="#Footnote_840_840"><sup>[840]</sup></a> The futility of
+these resolutions, so far as practical results were <a name="Page_425" id="Page_425"></a>concerned, was
+demonstrated by the adoption of Clingman's resolution, that the
+existing condition of the Territories did not require the intervention
+of Congress for the protection of property in slaves.<a name="FNanchor_841_841" id="FNanchor_841_841"></a><a href="#Footnote_841_841"><sup>[841]</sup></a> In other
+words, the South was insisting upon rights which were barren of
+practical significance. Slave-holders were insisting upon the right to
+carry their slaves where local conditions were unfavorable, and where
+therefore they had no intention of going.<a name="FNanchor_842_842" id="FNanchor_842_842"></a><a href="#Footnote_842_842"><sup>[842]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The nomination of Lincoln rather than Seward, at the Republican
+convention in Chicago, was a bitter disappointment to those who felt
+that the latter was the real leader of the party of moral ideas, and
+that the rail-splitter was simply an &quot;available&quot; candidate.<a name="FNanchor_843_843" id="FNanchor_843_843"></a><a href="#Footnote_843_843"><sup>[843]</sup></a> But
+Douglas, with keener insight into the character of Lincoln, said to a
+group of Republicans at the Capitol, &quot;Gentlemen, you have nominated a
+very able and a very honest man.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_844_844" id="FNanchor_844_844"></a><a href="#Footnote_844_844"><sup>[844]</sup></a> For the candidate of the new
+Constitutional Union party, which had rallied the politically
+unattached of various opinions in a convention at Baltimore, Douglas
+had no such words of praise, though he recognized John Bell as a
+Unionist above suspicion and as an estimable gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>These nominations rendered it still less prudent for Northern
+Democrats to accept a candidate with stronger Southern leanings than
+Douglas. No Northern Democrat could carry the Northern States on a
+Southern platform; and no Southern Democrat would accept a nomination
+on the Douglas platform. Unless <a name="Page_426" id="Page_426"></a>some middle ground could be
+found,&mdash;and the debates in the Senate had disclosed none,&mdash;the
+Democrats of the North were bound to adhere to Douglas as their first
+and only choice in the Baltimore convention.</p>
+
+<p>When the delegates reassembled in Baltimore, the factional quarrel had
+lost none of its bitterness. Almost immediately the convention fell
+foul of a complicated problem of organization. Some of the original
+delegates, who had withdrawn at Charleston, desired to be re-admitted.
+From some States there were contesting delegations, notably from
+Louisiana and Alabama, where the Douglas men had rallied in force.
+Those anti-Douglas delegates who were still members of the convention,
+made every effort to re-admit the delegations hostile to him. The
+action of the convention turned upon the vote of the New York
+delegation, which would be cast solidly either for or against the
+admission of the contesting delegations. For three days the fate of
+Douglas was in the hands of these thirty-five New Yorkers, in whom the
+disposition to bargain was not wanting.<a name="FNanchor_845_845" id="FNanchor_845_845"></a><a href="#Footnote_845_845"><sup>[845]</sup></a> It was at this juncture
+that Douglas wrote to Dean Richmond, the <i>Deus ex machina</i> in the
+delegation,<a name="FNanchor_846_846" id="FNanchor_846_846"></a><a href="#Footnote_846_846"><sup>[846]</sup></a> &quot;If my enemies are determined to divide and destroy
+the Democratic party, and perhaps the country, rather than see me
+elected, and if the unity of the party can be preserved, and its
+ascendancy perpetuated by dropping my name and uniting upon some
+reliable non-intervention and Union-loving Democrat, I beseech you, in
+consultation with my friends, to pursue that course which will save
+the country, without regard to my individual interests. I mean all
+this <a name="Page_427" id="Page_427"></a>letter implies. Consult freely and act boldly for the
+right.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_847_847" id="FNanchor_847_847"></a><a href="#Footnote_847_847"><sup>[847]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was precisely the &quot;if's&quot; in this letter that gave the New Yorkers
+most concern. Where was the candidate who possessed these
+qualifications and who would be acceptable to the South? On the fifth
+day of the convention, the contesting Douglas delegations were
+admitted. The die was cast. A portion of the Virginia delegation then
+withdrew, and their example was followed by nearly all the delegates
+from North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland. If the first
+withdrawal at Charleston presaged the secession of the cotton States
+from the Union, this pointed to the eventual secession of the border
+States.</p>
+
+<p>On June 23d, the convention proceeded to ballot. Douglas received
+173-1/2 votes; Guthrie 10; and Breckinridge 5; scattering 3. On the
+second ballot, Douglas received all but thirteen votes; whereupon it
+was moved and carried unanimously with a tremendous shout that
+Douglas, having received &quot;two-thirds of all votes given in this
+convention,&quot; should be the nominee of the party.<a name="FNanchor_848_848" id="FNanchor_848_848"></a><a href="#Footnote_848_848"><sup>[848]</sup></a> Colonel
+Richardson then begged leave to have the Secretary read a letter from
+Senator Douglas. He had carried it in his pocket for three days, but
+the course of the bolters, he said, had prevented him from using
+it.<a name="FNanchor_849_849" id="FNanchor_849_849"></a><a href="#Footnote_849_849"><sup>[849]</sup></a> The letter was of the same tenor as that written to Dean
+Richmond. There is little likelihood that an earlier acquaintance with
+its contents would have changed the course of events, <a name="Page_428" id="Page_428"></a>since so long
+as the platform stood unaltered, the choice of Douglas was a logical
+and practical necessity. Douglas and the platform were one and
+inseparable.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the bolters completed their destructive work by organizing a
+separate convention in Baltimore, by adopting the report of the
+majority in the Charleston convention as their platform, and by
+nominating John C. Breckinridge as their candidate for the presidency.
+Lane of Oregon was named for the second place on the ticket for much
+the same reason that Fitzpatrick of Alabama, and subsequently Herschel
+V. Johnson of Georgia, was put upon the Douglas ticket. Both factions
+desired to demonstrate that they were national Democrats, with
+adherents in all sections. In his letter of acceptance Douglas rang
+the changes on the sectional character of the doctrine of intervention
+either for or against slavery. &quot;If the power and duty of Federal
+interference is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be
+the inevitable result&mdash;the one inflaming the passions and ambitions of
+the North, the other of the South.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_850_850" id="FNanchor_850_850"></a><a href="#Footnote_850_850"><sup>[850]</sup></a> Indeed, his best,&mdash;his
+only,&mdash;chance of success lay in his power to appeal to conservative,
+Union-loving men, North and South. This was the secret purpose of his
+frequent references to Clay and Webster, who were invoked as
+supporters of &quot;the essential, living principle of 1850&quot;; <i>i.e.</i> his
+own doctrine of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the
+Territories. But the Constitutional Union party was quite as likely to
+attract the remnant of the old Whig party of Clay and Webster.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429"></a>Douglas began his campaign in excellent spirits. His only regret was
+that he had been placed in a position where he had to look on and see
+a fight without taking a hand in it.<a name="FNanchor_851_851" id="FNanchor_851_851"></a><a href="#Footnote_851_851"><sup>[851]</sup></a> The New York <i>Times</i>, whose
+editor followed the campaign of Douglas with the keenest interest,
+without indorsing him, frankly conceded that popular sovereignty had a
+very strong hold upon the instinct of nine-tenths of the American
+people.<a name="FNanchor_852_852" id="FNanchor_852_852"></a><a href="#Footnote_852_852"><sup>[852]</sup></a> Douglas wrote to his Illinois confidant in high spirits
+after the ratification meeting in New York.<a name="FNanchor_853_853" id="FNanchor_853_853"></a><a href="#Footnote_853_853"><sup>[853]</sup></a> Conceding South
+Carolina and possibly Mississippi to Breckinridge, and the border
+slave States to Bell, he expressed the firm conviction that he would
+carry the rest of the Southern States and enough free States to be
+elected by the people. Richardson had just returned from New England,
+equally confident that Douglas would carry Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, and Connecticut. If the election should go to the House of
+Representatives, Douglas calculated that Lincoln, Bell, and he would
+be the three candidates. In any event, he was sure that Breckinridge
+and Lane had &quot;no show.&quot; He enjoined his friends everywhere to treat
+the Bell and Everett men in a friendly way and to cultivate good
+relations with them, &quot;for they are Union men.&quot; But, he added, &quot;we can
+have no partnership with the Bolters.&quot; &quot;Now organize and rally in
+Illinois and the Northwest. The chances in our favor are immense in
+the East. Organize the State!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Buoyed up by these sanguine expectations, Douglas <a name="Page_430" id="Page_430"></a>undertook a tour
+through New England, not to make stump speeches, he declared, but to
+visit and enhearten his followers. Yet at every point on the way to
+Boston, he was greeted with enthusiasm; and whenever time permitted he
+responded with brief allusions to the political situation. As the
+guest of Harvard University, at the alumni dinner, he was called upon
+to speak&mdash;not, to be sure, as a candidate for the presidency, but as
+one high in the councils of the nation, and as a generous contributor
+to the founding of an educational institution in Chicago.<a name="FNanchor_854_854" id="FNanchor_854_854"></a><a href="#Footnote_854_854"><sup>[854]</sup></a> A visit
+to Bunker Hill suggested the great principle for which our
+Revolutionary fathers fought and for which all good Democrats were now
+contending.<a name="FNanchor_855_855" id="FNanchor_855_855"></a><a href="#Footnote_855_855"><sup>[855]</sup></a> At Springfield, too, he harked back to the Revolution
+and to the beginnings of the great struggle for control of domestic
+concerns.<a name="FNanchor_856_856" id="FNanchor_856_856"></a><a href="#Footnote_856_856"><sup>[856]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Along the route from Boston to Saratoga, he was given ovations, and
+his diffidence about making stump speeches lessened perceptibly.<a name="FNanchor_857_857" id="FNanchor_857_857"></a><a href="#Footnote_857_857"><sup>[857]</sup></a>
+At Troy, he made a political speech in his own vigorous style,
+remarking apologetically that if he did not return home soon, he would
+&quot;get to making stump speeches before he knew it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_858_858" id="FNanchor_858_858"></a><a href="#Footnote_858_858"><sup>[858]</sup></a> Passing through
+Vermont, he visited the grave of his father and the scenes of his
+childhood; and here and there, as he told the people of Concord with a
+twinkle in his eye, he spoke &quot;a little just for exercise.&quot; Providence
+recalled the memory of Roger Williams and the principles for which he
+suffered&mdash;principles so nearly akin to those for which Democrats
+to-day were laboring. By this time the true nature <a name="Page_431" id="Page_431"></a>of this pilgrimage
+was apparent to everybody. It was the first time in our history that a
+presidential candidate had taken the stump in his own behalf. There
+was bitter criticism on the part of those who regretted the departure
+from decorous precedent.<a name="FNanchor_859_859" id="FNanchor_859_859"></a><a href="#Footnote_859_859"><sup>[859]</sup></a> When Douglas reached Newport for a brief
+sojourn, the expectation was generally entertained that he would
+continue in retirement for the remainder of the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>Except for this anomaly of a candidate canvassing in his own behalf,
+the campaign was devoid of exciting incidents. The personal canvass of
+Douglas was indeed almost the only thing that kept the campaign from
+being dull and spiritless.<a name="FNanchor_860_860" id="FNanchor_860_860"></a><a href="#Footnote_860_860"><sup>[860]</sup></a> Republican politicians were somewhat
+at a loss to understand why he should manoeuvre in a section devoted
+beyond question to Lincoln. Indeed, a man far less keen than Douglas
+would have taken note of the popular current in New England. Why,
+then, this expenditure of time and effort! In all probability Douglas
+gauged the situation correctly. He is said to have conceded frankly
+that Lincoln would be elected.<a name="FNanchor_861_861" id="FNanchor_861_861"></a><a href="#Footnote_861_861"><sup>[861]</sup></a> His contest was less with
+Republicans and Constitutional Unionists now, than with the followers
+of Breckinridge. He hoped to effect a reorganization of the Democratic
+party by crushing the disunion elements within it. With this end in
+view he could not permit the organization to go to pieces in the
+North. A listless campaign on his part would not only give the
+election to Lincoln, but leave his own followers to wander leaderless
+into other organizations. For the sake of discipline and future
+<a name="Page_432" id="Page_432"></a>success, he rallied Northern Democrats for a battle that was already
+lost.<a name="FNanchor_862_862" id="FNanchor_862_862"></a><a href="#Footnote_862_862"><sup>[862]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Well assured that Lincoln would be elected, Douglas determined to go
+South and prepare the minds of the people for the inevitable.<a name="FNanchor_863_863" id="FNanchor_863_863"></a><a href="#Footnote_863_863"><sup>[863]</sup></a> The
+language of Southern leaders had grown steadily more menacing as the
+probability of Republican success increased. It was now proclaimed
+from the house-tops that the cotton States would secede, if Lincoln
+were elected. Republicans might set these threats down as Southern
+gasconade, but Douglas knew the animus of the secessionists better
+than they.<a name="FNanchor_864_864" id="FNanchor_864_864"></a><a href="#Footnote_864_864"><sup>[864]</sup></a> This determination of Douglas was warmly applauded
+where it was understood.<a name="FNanchor_865_865" id="FNanchor_865_865"></a><a href="#Footnote_865_865"><sup>[865]</sup></a> Indeed, that purpose was dictated now
+alike by politics and patriotism.</p>
+
+<p>On August 25th, Douglas spoke at Norfolk, Virginia. In the course of
+his address, an elector on the Breckinridge ticket interrupted him
+with two questions. Though taken somewhat by surprise, Douglas with
+unerring sagacity detected the purpose of his interrogator and
+answered circumstantially.<a name="FNanchor_866_866" id="FNanchor_866_866"></a><a href="#Footnote_866_866"><sup>[866]</sup></a> &quot;First, If Abraham Lincoln be elected
+President of the United States, will the Southern States be justified
+in seceding from the Union?&quot; &quot;To this I emphatically answer no. The
+election of a man to the presidency by the American people in
+conformity with the Constitution of the United States <i>would not
+justify any attempt at <a name="Page_433" id="Page_433"></a>dissolving this glorious confederacy</i>.&quot;
+&quot;Second, If they secede from the Union upon the inauguration of
+Abraham Lincoln, before an overt act against their constitutional
+rights, will you advise or vindicate resistance to the decision!&quot; &quot;I
+answer emphatically, that it is the duty of the President of the
+United States and of all others in authority under him, to enforce the
+laws of the United States, passed by Congress and as the Courts
+expound them; and I, as in duty bound by my oath of fidelity to the
+Constitution, <i>would do all in my power to aid the government of the
+United States in maintaining the supremacy of the laws against all
+resistance to them, come from whatever quarter it might</i>.... I hold
+that the Constitution has a remedy for every grievance that may arise
+within the limits of the Union.... The mere inauguration of a
+President of the United States, whose political opinions were, in my
+judgment, hostile to the Constitution and safety of the Union, without
+an overt act on his part, without striking a blow at our institutions
+or our rights, is not such a grievance as would justify revolution or
+secession.&quot; But for the disunionists at the South, Douglas went on to
+say, &quot;I would have beaten Lincoln in every State but Vermont and
+Massachusetts. As it is I think I will beat him in almost all of them
+yet.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_867_867" id="FNanchor_867_867"></a><a href="#Footnote_867_867"><sup>[867]</sup></a> And now these disunionists come forward and ask aid in
+dissolving the Union. &quot;I tell them 'no&mdash;never on earth!'&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Widely quoted, this bold defiance of disunion made a <a name="Page_434" id="Page_434"></a>profound
+impression through the South. At Raleigh, North Carolina, Douglas
+entered into collusion with a friend, in order to have the questions
+repeated.<a name="FNanchor_868_868" id="FNanchor_868_868"></a><a href="#Footnote_868_868"><sup>[868]</sup></a> And again he stated his attitude in unequivocal
+language. &quot;I am in favor of executing, in good faith, every clause and
+provision of the Constitution, and of protecting every right under it,
+and then hanging every man who takes up arms against it. Yes, my
+friends, I would hang every man higher than Haman who would attempt to
+resist by force the execution of any provision of the Constitution
+which our fathers made and bequeathed to us.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_869_869" id="FNanchor_869_869"></a><a href="#Footnote_869_869"><sup>[869]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>He touched many hearts when he reminded his hearers that in the great
+Northwest, Northerners and Southerners met and married, bequeathing
+the choice gifts of both sections to their children. &quot;When their
+children grow up, the child of the same parents has a grandfather in
+North Carolina and another in Vermont, and that child does not like to
+hear either of those States abused.... He will never consent that this
+Union shall be dissolved so that he will be compelled to obtain a
+passport and get it <i>vis&eacute;d</i> to enter a foreign land to visit the
+graves of his ancestors. You cannot sever this Union unless you cut
+the heart strings that bind father to son, daughter to mother, and
+brother to sister, in all our new States and territories.&quot; And the
+heart of the speaker went out to his kindred and his boys, who were
+almost within hearing of his voice. &quot;I love my children,&quot; he
+exclaimed, &quot;but I do not desire to see them survive this Union.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At Richmond, Douglas received an ovation which <a name="Page_435" id="Page_435"></a>recalled the days when
+Clay was the idol of the Whigs;<a name="FNanchor_870_870" id="FNanchor_870_870"></a><a href="#Footnote_870_870"><sup>[870]</sup></a> but as he journeyed northward he
+felt more and more the hostility of Breckinridge men, and marked the
+disposition of many of his own supporters to strike an alliance with
+them. Unhesitatingly he threw the weight of his personal influence
+against fusion. At Baltimore, he averred that while Breckinridge was
+not a disunionist, every disunionist was a Breckinridge man.<a name="FNanchor_871_871" id="FNanchor_871_871"></a><a href="#Footnote_871_871"><sup>[871]</sup></a> And
+at Reading, he said, &quot;For one, I can never fuse, and never will fuse
+with a man who tells me that the Democratic creed is a dogma, contrary
+to reason and to the Constitution.... I have fought twenty-seven
+pitched battles, since I entered public life, and never yet traded
+with nominations or surrendered to treachery.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_872_872" id="FNanchor_872_872"></a><a href="#Footnote_872_872"><sup>[872]</sup></a> With equal
+pertinacity he refused to countenance any attempts at fusion in North
+Carolina.<a name="FNanchor_873_873" id="FNanchor_873_873"></a><a href="#Footnote_873_873"><sup>[873]</sup></a> Even more explicitly he declared against fusion in a
+speech at Erie: &quot;No Democrat can, without dishonor, and a forfeiture
+of self-respect and principle, fuse with anybody who is in favor of
+intervention, either for or against slavery.... As Democrats we can
+never fuse either with Northern Abolitionists or Southern Bolters and
+Secessionists.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_874_874" id="FNanchor_874_874"></a><a href="#Footnote_874_874"><sup>[874]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In spite of these protests and admonitions, Douglas men in several of
+the doubtful States entered into more or less definite agreement with
+the supporters <a name="Page_436" id="Page_436"></a>of Breckinridge. The pressure put upon him in New York
+by those to whom he was indebted for his nomination, was almost too
+strong to be resisted. Yet he withstood all entreaties, even to
+maintain a discreet silence and let events take their course. Hostile
+newspapers expressed his sentiments when they represented him as
+opposed to fusion, &quot;all the way from Maine to California.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_875_875" id="FNanchor_875_875"></a><a href="#Footnote_875_875"><sup>[875]</sup></a>
+&quot;Douglas either must have lost his craft as a politician,&quot; commented
+Raymond, in the editorial columns of the <i>Times</i>, &quot;or be credited with
+steadfast convictions.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_876_876" id="FNanchor_876_876"></a><a href="#Footnote_876_876"><sup>[876]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Adverse comment on Douglas's personal canvass had now ceased. Wise men
+recognized that he was preparing the public mind for a crisis, as no
+one else could. He set his face westward, speaking at numerous
+points.<a name="FNanchor_877_877" id="FNanchor_877_877"></a><a href="#Footnote_877_877"><sup>[877]</sup></a> Continuous speaking had now begun to tell upon him. At
+Cincinnati, he was so hoarse that he could not address the crowds
+which had gathered to greet him, but he persisted in speaking on the
+following day at Indianapolis. He paused in Chicago only long enough
+to give a public address, and then passed on into Iowa.<a name="FNanchor_878_878" id="FNanchor_878_878"></a><a href="#Footnote_878_878"><sup>[878]</sup></a> Among his
+own people he unbosomed himself as he had not done before in all these
+weeks of incessant public speaking. &quot;I am no alarmist. I believe that
+this country is in more danger now than at any other moment since I
+have known anything of public life. It is not personal ambition that
+has induced me to take the stump this year. I say to you who know me,
+that the presidency has no charms <a name="Page_437" id="Page_437"></a>for me. I do not believe that it is
+my interest as an ambitious man, to be President this year if I could.
+But I do love this Union. There is no sacrifice on earth that I would
+not make to preserve it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_879_879" id="FNanchor_879_879"></a><a href="#Footnote_879_879"><sup>[879]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While Douglas was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he received a dispatch from
+his friend, Forney, announcing that the Republicans had carried
+Pennsylvania in the October State election. Similar intelligence came
+from Indiana. The outcome in November was thus clearly foreshadowed.
+Recognizing the inevitable, Douglas turned to his Secretary with the
+laconic words, &quot;Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save
+the Union. I will go South.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_880_880" id="FNanchor_880_880"></a><a href="#Footnote_880_880"><sup>[880]</sup></a> He at once made appointments to
+speak in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, as soon as he should have
+met his Western engagements. His friends marvelled at his powers of
+endurance. For weeks he had been speaking from hotel balconies, from
+the platform of railroad coaches, and in halls to monster
+mass-meetings.<a name="FNanchor_881_881" id="FNanchor_881_881"></a><a href="#Footnote_881_881"><sup>[881]</sup></a> Not infrequently he spoke twice and thrice a day,
+for days together. It was often said that he possessed the
+constitution of the United States; and he caught up the jest with
+delight, remarking that he believed he had. Small wonder if much that
+he said was trivial and unworthy of his attention;<a name="FNanchor_882_882" id="FNanchor_882_882"></a><a href="#Footnote_882_882"><sup>[882]</sup></a> in and through
+all his utterance, nevertheless, coursed the passionate current of his
+love for the Union, transfiguring all that was paltry and commonplace.
+From Iowa he passed into Wisconsin and <a name="Page_438" id="Page_438"></a>Michigan, finally entering
+upon his Southern mission at St. Louis, October 19th. &quot;I am not here
+to-night,&quot; he told his auditors, with a shade of weariness in his
+voice, &quot;to ask your votes for the presidency. I am not one of those
+who believe that I have any more personal interest in the presidency
+than any other good citizen in America. I am here to make an appeal to
+you in behalf of the Union and the peace of the country.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_883_883" id="FNanchor_883_883"></a><a href="#Footnote_883_883"><sup>[883]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>It was a courageous little party that left St. Louis for Memphis and
+the South. Mrs. Douglas was still with her husband, determined to
+share all the hardships that fell to his lot; and besides her, there
+was only James B. Sheridan, Douglas's devoted secretary and
+stenographer. The Southern press had threatened Douglas with personal
+violence, if he should dare to invade the South with his political
+heresies.<a name="FNanchor_884_884" id="FNanchor_884_884"></a><a href="#Footnote_884_884"><sup>[884]</sup></a> But Luther bound for Worms was not more indifferent to
+personal danger than this modern intransigeant. His conduct earned the
+hearty admiration of even Republican journals, for no one could now
+believe that he courted the South in his own behalf. Nor was there any
+foolish bravado in this adventure. He was thoroughly sobered by the
+imminence of disunion. When he read, in a newspaper devoted to his
+interests, that it was &quot;the deep-seated fixed determination on the
+part of the leading Southern States to go out of the Union, peaceably
+and quietly,&quot; he knew that these words were no cheap rhetoric, for
+they were penned by a man of Northern birth and antecedents.<a name="FNanchor_885_885" id="FNanchor_885_885"></a><a href="#Footnote_885_885"><sup>[885]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439"></a>The history of this Southern tour has never been written. It was the
+firm belief of Douglas that at least one attempt was made to wreck his
+train. At Montgomery, while addressing a public gathering, he was made
+the target for nameless missiles.<a name="FNanchor_886_886" id="FNanchor_886_886"></a><a href="#Footnote_886_886"><sup>[886]</sup></a> Yet none of these adventures
+were permitted to find their way into the Northern press. And only his
+intimates learned of them from his own lips after his return.</p>
+
+<p>The news of Mr. Lincoln's election overtook Douglas in Mobile. He was
+in the office of the Mobile <i>Register</i>, one of the few newspapers
+which had held to him and his cause through thick and thin. It now
+became a question what policy the paper should pursue. The editor
+asked his associate to read aloud an article which he had just
+written, advocating a State convention to deliberate upon the course
+of Alabama in the approaching crisis. Douglas opposed its publication;
+but he was assured that the only way to manage the secession movement
+was to appear to go with it, and by electing men opposed to disunion,
+to control the convention. With his wonted sagacity, Douglas remarked
+that if they could not prevent the calling of a convention, they could
+hardly hope to control its action. But the editors determined to
+publish the article, &quot;and Douglas returned to his hotel more hopeless
+than I had ever seen him before,&quot; wrote Sheridan.<a name="FNanchor_887_887" id="FNanchor_887_887"></a><a href="#Footnote_887_887"><sup>[887]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On his return to the North, Douglas spoke twice, at New Orleans and at
+Vicksburg, urging acquiescence in the result of the election.<a name="FNanchor_888_888" id="FNanchor_888_888"></a><a href="#Footnote_888_888"><sup>[888]</sup></a> He
+put the case most <a name="Page_440" id="Page_440"></a>cogently in a letter to the business men of New
+Orleans, which was widely published. No one deplored the election of an
+Abolitionist as President more than he. Still, he could not find any
+just cause for dissolving the Federal Union in the mere election of any
+man to the presidency, in accordance with the Constitution. Those who
+apprehended that the new President would carry out the aggressive
+policy of his party, failed to observe that his party was in a
+minority. Even his appointments to office would have to be confirmed by
+a hostile Senate. Any invasion of constitutional rights would be
+resented in the North, as well as in the South. In short, the election
+of Mr. Lincoln could only serve as a pretext for those who purposed to
+break up the Union and to form a Southern Confederacy.<a name="FNanchor_889_889" id="FNanchor_889_889"></a><a href="#Footnote_889_889"><sup>[889]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the face of the election returns, Douglas made a sorry showing; he
+had won the electoral vote of but a single State, Missouri, though
+three of the seven electoral votes of New Jersey fell to him as the
+result of fusion. Yet as the popular vote in the several States was
+ascertained, defeat wore the guise of a great personal triumph. Leader
+of a forlorn hope, he had yet received the suffrages of 1,376,957
+citizens, only 489,495 less votes than Lincoln had polled. Of these
+163,525 came from the South, while Lincoln received only 26,430, all
+from the border slave States. As compared with the vote of
+Breckinridge and Bell at the South, Douglas's vote was insignificant;
+but at the North, he ran far ahead of the combined vote of both.<a name="FNanchor_890_890" id="FNanchor_890_890"></a><a href="#Footnote_890_890"><sup>[890]</sup></a>
+It goes without saying that had Douglas secured the full Democratic
+vote in the free States, he would have <a name="Page_441" id="Page_441"></a>pressed Lincoln hard in many
+quarters. From the national standpoint, the most significant aspect of
+the popular vote was the failure of Breckinridge to secure a majority
+in the slave States.<a name="FNanchor_891_891" id="FNanchor_891_891"></a><a href="#Footnote_891_891"><sup>[891]</sup></a> Union sentiment was still stronger than the
+secessionists had boasted. The next most significant fact in the
+history of the election was this: Abraham Lincoln had been elected to
+the presidency by the vote of a section which had given over a million
+votes to his rival, the leader of a faction of a disorganized party.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_810_810" id="Footnote_810_810"></a><a href="#FNanchor_810_810">[810]</a> Flint, Douglas, pp. 205-207.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_811_811" id="Footnote_811_811"></a><a href="#FNanchor_811_811">[811]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 207-209.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_812_812" id="Footnote_812_812"></a><a href="#FNanchor_812_812">[812]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 421.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_813_813" id="Footnote_813_813"></a><a href="#FNanchor_813_813">[813]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 424-425.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_814_814" id="Footnote_814_814"></a><a href="#FNanchor_814_814">[814]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 553.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_815_815" id="Footnote_815_815"></a><a href="#FNanchor_815_815">[815]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 554-555.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_816_816" id="Footnote_816_816"></a><a href="#FNanchor_816_816">[816]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 559.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_817_817" id="Footnote_817_817"></a><a href="#FNanchor_817_817">[817]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 658. For the final
+version, see p. 935.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_818_818" id="Footnote_818_818"></a><a href="#FNanchor_818_818">[818]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 59.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_819_819" id="Footnote_819_819"></a><a href="#FNanchor_819_819">[819]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_820_820" id="Footnote_820_820"></a><a href="#FNanchor_820_820">[820]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 5.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_821_821" id="Footnote_821_821"></a><a href="#FNanchor_821_821">[821]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 9 and 20.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_822_822" id="Footnote_822_822"></a><a href="#FNanchor_822_822">[822]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 12-13.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_823_823" id="Footnote_823_823"></a><a href="#FNanchor_823_823">[823]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 8.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_824_824" id="Footnote_824_824"></a><a href="#FNanchor_824_824">[824]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_825_825" id="Footnote_825_825"></a><a href="#FNanchor_825_825">[825]</a> Especially in securing votes from the delegations of
+Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the influence of the
+administration was strong. Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860,
+pp. 25-28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_826_826" id="Footnote_826_826"></a><a href="#FNanchor_826_826">[826]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 36.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_827_827" id="Footnote_827_827"></a><a href="#FNanchor_827_827">[827]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 283-288.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_828_828" id="Footnote_828_828"></a><a href="#FNanchor_828_828">[828]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 446.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_829_829" id="Footnote_829_829"></a><a href="#FNanchor_829_829">[829]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 448.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_830_830" id="Footnote_830_830"></a><a href="#FNanchor_830_830">[830]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 49.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_831_831" id="Footnote_831_831"></a><a href="#FNanchor_831_831">[831]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 50.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_832_832" id="Footnote_832_832"></a><a href="#FNanchor_832_832">[832]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 74-75.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_833_833" id="Footnote_833_833"></a><a href="#FNanchor_833_833">[833]</a> Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, pp.
+46-53.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_834_834" id="Footnote_834_834"></a><a href="#FNanchor_834_834">[834]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 78.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_835_835" id="Footnote_835_835"></a><a href="#FNanchor_835_835">[835]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 313.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_836_836" id="Footnote_836_836"></a><a href="#FNanchor_836_836">[836]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 316.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_837_837" id="Footnote_837_837"></a><a href="#FNanchor_837_837">[837]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2120.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_838_838" id="Footnote_838_838"></a><a href="#FNanchor_838_838">[838]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2155.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_839_839" id="Footnote_839_839"></a><a href="#FNanchor_839_839">[839]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 2156.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_840_840" id="Footnote_840_840"></a><a href="#FNanchor_840_840">[840]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 456.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_841_841" id="Footnote_841_841"></a><a href="#FNanchor_841_841">[841]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2344.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_842_842" id="Footnote_842_842"></a><a href="#FNanchor_842_842">[842]</a> See Wise, Life of Henry A. Wise, pp. 264-265.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_843_843" id="Footnote_843_843"></a><a href="#FNanchor_843_843">[843]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 472.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_844_844" id="Footnote_844_844"></a><a href="#FNanchor_844_844">[844]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 472.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_845_845" id="Footnote_845_845"></a><a href="#FNanchor_845_845">[845]</a> Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 227-228.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_846_846" id="Footnote_846_846"></a><a href="#FNanchor_846_846">[846]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 194-195.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_847_847" id="Footnote_847_847"></a><a href="#FNanchor_847_847">[847]</a> The letter was written at Washington, June 22d, at 9:30
+a.m.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_848_848" id="Footnote_848_848"></a><a href="#FNanchor_848_848">[848]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 286; Halstead,
+Political Conventions of 1860, p. 211.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_849_849" id="Footnote_849_849"></a><a href="#FNanchor_849_849">[849]</a> Halstead, p. 216.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_850_850" id="Footnote_850_850"></a><a href="#FNanchor_850_850">[850]</a> Flint, Douglas, pp. 213-215.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_851_851" id="Footnote_851_851"></a><a href="#FNanchor_851_851">[851]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, July 3, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_852_852" id="Footnote_852_852"></a><a href="#FNanchor_852_852">[852]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, June 26.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_853_853" id="Footnote_853_853"></a><a href="#FNanchor_853_853">[853]</a> MS. letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, July 5, 1860. He
+wrote in a similar vein to a friend in Missouri, July 4, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_854_854" id="Footnote_854_854"></a><a href="#FNanchor_854_854">[854]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, July 20, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_855_855" id="Footnote_855_855"></a><a href="#FNanchor_855_855">[855]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, July 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_856_856" id="Footnote_856_856"></a><a href="#FNanchor_856_856">[856]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, July 21.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_857_857" id="Footnote_857_857"></a><a href="#FNanchor_857_857">[857]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, July 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_858_858" id="Footnote_858_858"></a><a href="#FNanchor_858_858">[858]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, July 28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_859_859" id="Footnote_859_859"></a><a href="#FNanchor_859_859">[859]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, July. 24.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_860_860" id="Footnote_860_860"></a><a href="#FNanchor_860_860">[860]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 482-483.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_861_861" id="Footnote_861_861"></a><a href="#FNanchor_861_861">[861]</a> Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 699.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_862_862" id="Footnote_862_862"></a><a href="#FNanchor_862_862">[862]</a> This was the view of a well-informed correspondent of
+the New York <i>Times</i>, August 10, 14, 16, 1860. From this point of
+view, Douglas's tour through Maine in August takes on special
+significance.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_863_863" id="Footnote_863_863"></a><a href="#FNanchor_863_863">[863]</a> Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, 699.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_864_864" id="Footnote_864_864"></a><a href="#FNanchor_864_864">[864]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 487,
+489.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_865_865" id="Footnote_865_865"></a><a href="#FNanchor_865_865">[865]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, August 16, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_866_866" id="Footnote_866_866"></a><a href="#FNanchor_866_866">[866]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, August 29, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_867_867" id="Footnote_867_867"></a><a href="#FNanchor_867_867">[867]</a> This can hardly be regarded as a sober opinion.
+Clingman had become convinced by conversation with Douglas that he was
+not making the canvass in his own behalf, but in order to weaken and
+divide the South, so as to aid Lincoln. Clingman, Speeches and
+Writings, p. 513.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_868_868" id="Footnote_868_868"></a><a href="#FNanchor_868_868">[868]</a> Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_869_869" id="Footnote_869_869"></a><a href="#FNanchor_869_869">[869]</a> North Carolina <i>Standard</i>, September 5, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_870_870" id="Footnote_870_870"></a><a href="#FNanchor_870_870">[870]</a> Correspondent to New York <i>Times</i>, September 5, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_871_871" id="Footnote_871_871"></a><a href="#FNanchor_871_871">[871]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, September 7, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_872_872" id="Footnote_872_872"></a><a href="#FNanchor_872_872">[872]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, September 10, 1860. Greeley did
+Douglas an injustice when he accused him of courting votes by favoring
+a protective tariff in Pennsylvania. The misapprehension was doubtless
+due to a garbled associated press dispatch.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_873_873" id="Footnote_873_873"></a><a href="#FNanchor_873_873">[873]</a> Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_874_874" id="Footnote_874_874"></a><a href="#FNanchor_874_874">[874]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, September 27, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_875_875" id="Footnote_875_875"></a><a href="#FNanchor_875_875">[875]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, September 13, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_876_876" id="Footnote_876_876"></a><a href="#FNanchor_876_876">[876]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_877_877" id="Footnote_877_877"></a><a href="#FNanchor_877_877">[877]</a> His movements were still followed by the New York
+<i>Times</i>, which printed his list of appointments.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_878_878" id="Footnote_878_878"></a><a href="#FNanchor_878_878">[878]</a> Chicago <i>Times</i> and <i>Herald</i>, October 9, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_879_879" id="Footnote_879_879"></a><a href="#FNanchor_879_879">[879]</a> Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, October 6, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_880_880" id="Footnote_880_880"></a><a href="#FNanchor_880_880">[880]</a> Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
+II, p. 700; see also Forney's Eulogy of Douglas, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_881_881" id="Footnote_881_881"></a><a href="#FNanchor_881_881">[881]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 493.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_882_882" id="Footnote_882_882"></a><a href="#FNanchor_882_882">[882]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_883_883" id="Footnote_883_883"></a><a href="#FNanchor_883_883">[883]</a> Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, October 24, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_884_884" id="Footnote_884_884"></a><a href="#FNanchor_884_884">[884]</a> Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, October 29, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_885_885" id="Footnote_885_885"></a><a href="#FNanchor_885_885">[885]</a> Savannah (Ga.) <i>Express</i>, quoted by Chicago <i>Times and
+Herald</i>, October 25, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_886_886" id="Footnote_886_886"></a><a href="#FNanchor_886_886">[886]</a> There was a bare reference to the Montgomery incident
+in the Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, November 12, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_887_887" id="Footnote_887_887"></a><a href="#FNanchor_887_887">[887]</a> Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 700.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_888_888" id="Footnote_888_888"></a><a href="#FNanchor_888_888">[888]</a> Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, November 13, 1860;
+Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, November 28, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_889_889" id="Footnote_889_889"></a><a href="#FNanchor_889_889">[889]</a> Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, November 19, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_890_890" id="Footnote_890_890"></a><a href="#FNanchor_890_890">[890]</a> Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 297.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_891_891" id="Footnote_891_891"></a><a href="#FNanchor_891_891">[891]</a> Douglas and Bell polled 135,057 votes more than
+Breckinridge; see Greeley, American Conflict, I, p. 328.</p></div>
+
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442"></a>CHAPTER XIX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>On the day after the election, the palmetto and lone star flag was
+thrown out to the breeze from the office of the Charleston <i>Mercury</i>
+and hailed with cheers by the populace. &quot;The tea has been thrown
+overboard&mdash;the revolution of 1860 has been initiated,&quot; said that
+ebullient journal next morning.<a name="FNanchor_892_892" id="FNanchor_892_892"></a><a href="#Footnote_892_892"><sup>[892]</sup></a> On the 10th of November, the
+legislature of South Carolina called a convention of the people to
+consider the relations of the Commonwealth &quot;with the Northern States
+and the government of the United States.&quot; The instantaneous approval
+of the people of Charleston, the focus of public opinion in the State,
+left no doubt that South Carolina would secede from the Union soon
+after the 17th of December, when the convention was to assemble. On
+November 23d, Major Robert Anderson, in command of Fort Moultrie in
+Charleston harbor, urged the War Department to reinforce his garrison
+and to occupy also Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney, saying, &quot;I need
+not say how anxious I am&mdash;indeed, determined, so far as honor will
+permit&mdash;to avoid collision with the citizens of South Carolina.
+Nothing, however, will be better calculated to prevent bloodshed than
+our being found in such an attitude that it would be madness and folly
+to attack us.&quot; &quot;That there is a settled determination,&quot; he continued,
+&quot;to leave the Union, and to obtain possession of this work, is
+<a name="Page_443" id="Page_443"></a>apparent to all.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_893_893" id="FNanchor_893_893"></a><a href="#Footnote_893_893"><sup>[893]</sup></a> No sane man could doubt that a crisis was
+imminent. Unhappily, James Buchanan was still President of the United
+States.</p>
+
+<p>To those who greeted Judge Douglas upon his return to Washington, he
+seemed to be in excellent health, despite rumors to the contrary.<a name="FNanchor_894_894" id="FNanchor_894_894"></a><a href="#Footnote_894_894"><sup>[894]</sup></a>
+Demonstrative followers insisted upon hearing his voice immediately
+upon his arrival, and he was not unwilling to repeat what he had said
+at New Orleans, here within hearing of men of all sections. The burden
+of his thought was contained in a single sentence: &quot;Mr. Lincoln,
+having been elected, must be inaugurated in obedience to the
+Constitution.&quot; &quot;Fellow citizens,&quot; he said, in his rich, sonorous
+voice, sounding the key-note of his subsequent career, &quot;I beseech you,
+with reference to former party divisions, to lay aside all political
+asperities, all personal prejudices, to indulge in no criminations or
+recriminations, but to unite with me, and all Union-loving men, in a
+common effort to save the country from the disasters which threaten
+it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_895_895" id="FNanchor_895_895"></a><a href="#Footnote_895_895"><sup>[895]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the midst of forebodings which even the most optimistic shared,
+Congress reassembled. Feeling was tense in both houses, but it was
+more noticeable in the Senate, where, hitherto, political differences
+had not been a barrier to social intercourse. Senator Iverson put into
+words what all felt: &quot;Look at the spectacle exhibited on this floor.
+How is it? There are Republican Northern senators upon that side. Here
+are Southern senators on this side. How much social intercourse is
+there between us? You sit upon <a name="Page_444" id="Page_444"></a>your side, silent and gloomy; we sit
+upon ours with knit brows and portentous scowls.... Here are two
+hostile bodies on this floor; and it is but a type of the feeling that
+exists between the two sections.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_896_896" id="FNanchor_896_896"></a><a href="#Footnote_896_896"><sup>[896]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Southern senators hastened to lay bare their grievances. However much
+they might differ in naming specific, tangible ills, they all agreed
+upon the great cause of their apprehension and uneasiness. Davis
+voiced the common feeling when he said, &quot;I believe the true cause of
+our danger to be that a sectional hostility has been substituted for a
+general fraternity.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_897_897" id="FNanchor_897_897"></a><a href="#Footnote_897_897"><sup>[897]</sup></a> And his colleague confirmed this opinion.
+Clingman put the same thought more concretely when he declared that
+the South was apprehensive, not because a dangerous man had been
+elected to the presidency; but because a President had been elected
+who was known to be a dangerous man and who had declared his purpose
+to war upon the social system of the South.<a name="FNanchor_898_898" id="FNanchor_898_898"></a><a href="#Footnote_898_898"><sup>[898]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With the utmost boldness, Southern senators announced the impending
+secession of their States. &quot;We intend,&quot; said Iverson of Georgia
+speaking for his section, &quot;to go out peaceably if we can, forcibly if
+we must.... In this state of feeling, divided as we are by interests,
+by a geographical feeling, by everything that makes two people
+separate and distinct, I ask why we should remain in the same Union
+together?&quot;<a name="FNanchor_899_899" id="FNanchor_899_899"></a><a href="#Footnote_899_899"><sup>[899]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>No Northern senator had better reason than Douglas to believe that
+these were not merely idle threats. The knowledge sobered him. In this
+hour of peril, <a name="Page_445" id="Page_445"></a>his deep love for the Union welled up within him,
+submerging the partisan and the politician. &quot;I trust,&quot; he said,
+rebuking a Northern senator, &quot;we may lay aside all party grievances,
+party feuds, partisan jealousies, and look to our country, and not to
+our party, in the consequences of our action. Sir, I am as good a
+party man as anyone living, when there are only party issues at stake,
+and the fate of political parties to be provided for. But, Sir, if I
+know myself, I do not desire to hear the word party, or to listen to
+any party appeal, while we are considering and discussing the
+questions upon which the fate of the country now hangs.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_900_900" id="FNanchor_900_900"></a><a href="#Footnote_900_900"><sup>[900]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In this spirit Douglas welcomed from the South the recital of special
+grievances. &quot;Give us each charge and each specification.... I hold
+that there is no grievance growing out of a nonfulfillment of
+constitutional obligations, which cannot be remedied under the
+Constitution and within the Union.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_901_901" id="FNanchor_901_901"></a><a href="#Footnote_901_901"><sup>[901]</sup></a> And when the Personal Liberty
+Acts of Northern States were cited as a long-standing grievance, he
+heartily denounced them as in direct violation of the letter and the
+spirit of the Constitution. At the same time he contended that these
+acts existed generally in the States to which few fugitives ever fled,
+and that the Fugitive Slave Act was enforced nineteen out of twenty
+times. It was the twentieth case that was published abroad through the
+press, misleading the South. In fact, the present excitement was, to
+his mind, due to the inability of the extremes of North and South to
+understand each other. &quot;Those of us that live upon the border, and
+have <a name="Page_446" id="Page_446"></a>commercial intercourse and social relations across the line, can
+live in peace with each other.&quot; If the border slave States and the
+border free States could arbitrate the question of slavery, the Union
+would last forever.<a name="FNanchor_902_902" id="FNanchor_902_902"></a><a href="#Footnote_902_902"><sup>[902]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Arbitration and compromise&mdash;these were the words with which the
+venerable Crittenden of Kentucky, successor to Clay, now endeavored to
+rally Union-loving men. He was seconded by his colleague, Senator
+Powell, who had already moved the appointment of a special committee
+of thirteen, to consider the grievances between the slave-holding and
+non-slave-holding States. Douglas put himself unreservedly at the
+service of the party of compromise. It seemed, for the moment, as
+though the history of the year 1850 were to be repeated. Now, as then,
+the initiative was taken by a senator from the border-State of
+Kentucky. Again a committee of thirteen was to prepare measures of
+adjustment. The composition of the committee was such as to give
+promise of a settlement, if any were possible. Seward, Collamer, Wade,
+Doolittle, and Grimes, were the Republican members; Douglas, Rice, and
+Bigler represented the Democracy of the North. Davis and Toombs
+represented the Gulf States; Powell, Crittenden, and Hunter, the
+border slave States.<a name="FNanchor_903_903" id="FNanchor_903_903"></a><a href="#Footnote_903_903"><sup>[903]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 22d of December, the committee took under consideration the
+Crittenden resolutions, which proposed six amendments to the
+Constitution and four joint resolutions. The crucial point was the
+first amendment, which would restore the Missouri Compromise line &quot;in
+all the territory of the United States <a name="Page_447" id="Page_447"></a>now held, or hereafter
+acquired.&quot; Could this disposition of the vexing territorial question
+have been agreed upon, the other features of the compromise would
+probably have commanded assent. But this and all the other proposed
+amendments were defeated by the adverse vote of the Republican members
+of the committee.<a name="FNanchor_904_904" id="FNanchor_904_904"></a><a href="#Footnote_904_904"><sup>[904]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The outcome was disheartening. Douglas had firmly believed that
+conciliation, or concession, alone could save the country from civil
+war.<a name="FNanchor_905_905" id="FNanchor_905_905"></a><a href="#Footnote_905_905"><sup>[905]</sup></a> When the committee first met informally<a name="FNanchor_906_906" id="FNanchor_906_906"></a><a href="#Footnote_906_906"><sup>[906]</sup></a> the news was
+already in print that the South Carolina convention had passed an
+ordinance of secession. Under the stress of this event, and of others
+which he apprehended, Douglas had voted for all the Crittenden
+amendments and resolutions, regardless of his personal predilections.
+&quot;The prospects are gloomy,&quot; he wrote privately, &quot;but I do not yet
+despair of the Union. <i>We can never acknowledge the right of a State
+to secede and cut us off from the ocean and the world, without our
+consent.</i> But in view of impending civil war with our brethren in
+nearly one-half of the States of the Union, I will not consider the
+question of force and war until all efforts at peaceful adjustment
+have been made and have failed. The fact can no longer be disguised
+that many of the Republican leaders desire war and disunion under
+pretext of saving the Union. They wish to get rid of the Southern
+senators in order to have a majority in the Senate to confirm
+Lincoln's appointments; and many of them think they can hold a
+permanent Republican <a name="Page_448" id="Page_448"></a>ascendancy in the Northern States, but not in
+the whole Union. For partisan reasons, therefore, they are anxious to
+dissolve the Union, if it can be done without making them responsible
+before the people. I am for the Union, and am ready to make any
+reasonable sacrifice to save it. No adjustment will restore and
+preserve peace <i>which does not banish the slavery question from
+Congress forever</i> and place it beyond the reach of Federal
+legislation. Mr. Crittenden's proposition to extend the Missouri line
+accomplishes this object, and hence I can accept it now for the same
+reasons that I proposed it in 1848. I prefer our own plan of
+non-intervention and popular sovereignty, however.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_907_907" id="FNanchor_907_907"></a><a href="#Footnote_907_907"><sup>[907]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The propositions which Douglas laid before the committee proved to be
+even less acceptable than the Crittenden amendments. Only a single,
+insignificant provision relating to the colonizing of free negroes in
+distant lands, commended itself to a majority of the committee.<a name="FNanchor_908_908" id="FNanchor_908_908"></a><a href="#Footnote_908_908"><sup>[908]</sup></a>
+All hope of an agreement had now vanished. Sad at heart, Douglas voted
+to report the inability of the committee to agree upon any general
+plan of adjustment.<a name="FNanchor_909_909" id="FNanchor_909_909"></a><a href="#Footnote_909_909"><sup>[909]</sup></a> Yet he did not abandon all hope; he was not
+yet ready to admit that the dread alternative must be accepted. He
+joined with Crittenden in replying to a dispatch from the South: &quot;We
+have hopes that the rights of the South, and of every State and
+section, may be protected within the Union. Don't give up the ship.
+Don't despair of the Republic.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_910_910" id="FNanchor_910_910"></a><a href="#Footnote_910_910"><sup>[910]</sup></a> <a name="Page_449" id="Page_449"></a>And when Crittenden proposed to
+the Senate that the people at large should be allowed to express their
+approval, or disapproval, of his amendments by a vote, Douglas
+cordially indorsed the suggested referendum in a speech of great
+power.</p>
+
+<p>There was dross mingled with the gold in this speech of January 3d.
+Not all his auditors by any means were ready to admit that the attempt
+of the Federal government to control the slavery question in the
+Territories, regardless of the wishes of the inhabitants, was the real
+cause of Southern discontent. Nor were all willing to concede that
+&quot;whenever Congress had refrained from such interference, harmony and
+fraternal feeling had been restored.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_911_911" id="FNanchor_911_911"></a><a href="#Footnote_911_911"><sup>[911]</sup></a> The history of Kansas was
+still too recent. Yet from these premises, Douglas drew the conclusion
+&quot;that the slavery question should be banished forever from the Halls
+of Congress and the arena of Federal politics by an irrepealable
+constitutional provision.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_912_912" id="FNanchor_912_912"></a><a href="#Footnote_912_912"><sup>[912]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The immediate occasion for revolution in the South was no doubt the
+outcome of the presidential election; but that it furnished a just
+cause for the dissolution of the Union, he would not for an instant
+admit. No doubt Mr. Lincoln's public utterances had given some ground
+for apprehension. No one had more vigorously denounced these
+dangerous, revolutionary doctrines than he; but neither Mr. Lincoln
+nor his party would have the power to injure the South, if the
+Southern States remained in the Union and maintained full delegations
+in Congress. &quot;Besides,&quot; he added, &quot;I still indulge the hope that when
+Mr. Lincoln shall assume the high responsibilities which will soon
+devolve upon <a name="Page_450" id="Page_450"></a>him, he will be fully impressed with the necessity of
+sinking the politician in the statesman, the partisan in the patriot,
+and regard the obligations which he owes to his country as paramount
+to those of his party.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_913_913" id="FNanchor_913_913"></a><a href="#Footnote_913_913"><sup>[913]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>No one brought the fearful alternatives into view, with such
+inexorable logic, as Douglas in this same speech. While he denounced
+secession as &quot;wrong, unlawful, unconstitutional, and criminal,&quot; he was
+bound to recognize the fact of secession. &quot;South Carolina had no right
+to secede; <i>but she has done it</i>. The rights of the Federal government
+remain, but possession is lost. How can possession be regained, by
+arms or by a peaceable adjustment of the matters in controversy? <i>Are
+we prepared for war?</i> I do not mean that kind of preparation which
+consists of armies and navies, and supplies, and munitions of war; but
+are we prepared IN OUR HEARTS for war with our own brethren and
+kindred? I confess I am not.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_914_914" id="FNanchor_914_914"></a><a href="#Footnote_914_914"><sup>[914]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>These were not mere words for oratorical effect. They were expressions
+wrung from a tortured heart, bound by some of the tenderest of human
+affections to the people of the South. Buried in the land of her birth
+rested the mother of his two boys, whom he had loved tenderly and
+truly. There in the Southland were her kindred, the kindred of his two
+boys, and many of his warmest personal friends. The prospect <a name="Page_451" id="Page_451"></a>of war
+brought no such poignant grief to men whose associations for
+generations had been confined to the North.</p>
+
+<p>Returning to the necessity of concession and compromise, he frankly
+admitted that he had thrown consistency to the winds. The preservation
+of the Union was of more importance than party platforms or individual
+records. &quot;I have no hesitation in saying to senators on all sides of
+this Chamber, that I am prepared to act on this question with
+reference to the present exigencies of the case, as if I had never
+given a vote, or uttered a word, or had an opinion upon the
+subject.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_915_915" id="FNanchor_915_915"></a><a href="#Footnote_915_915"><sup>[915]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Nor did he hesitate to throw the responsibility for disagreement in
+the Committee of Thirteen upon the Republican members. In the name of
+peace he pled for less of party pride and the pride of individual
+opinion. &quot;The political party which shall refuse to allow the people
+to determine for themselves at the ballot-box the issue between
+revolution and war on the one side, and obstinate adherence to a party
+platform on the other, will assume a fearful responsibility. A war
+upon a political issue, waged by the people of eighteen States against
+the people and domestic institutions of fifteen sister-States, is a
+fearful and revolting thought.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_916_916" id="FNanchor_916_916"></a><a href="#Footnote_916_916"><sup>[916]</sup></a> But Republican senators were deaf
+to all warnings from so recent a convert to non-partisan politics.</p>
+
+<p>While the Committee of Thirteen was in session, Major Anderson moved
+his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor,
+urging <a name="Page_452" id="Page_452"></a>repeatedly the need of reinforcements. At the beginning of the
+new year, President Buchanan was inspired to form a good resolution.
+He resolved that Anderson should not be ordered to return to Moultrie
+but should be reinforced. On the 5th of January, the &quot;Star of the
+West,&quot; with men, arms and ammunition, was dispatched to Charleston
+harbor. On the 9th the steamer was fired upon and forced to return
+without accomplishing its mission. Then came the news of the secession
+of Mississippi. In rapid succession Florida, Alabama, and Georgia
+passed ordinances of secession.<a name="FNanchor_917_917" id="FNanchor_917_917"></a><a href="#Footnote_917_917"><sup>[917]</sup></a> Louisiana and Texas were sure to
+follow the lead of the other cotton States.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of these untoward events, the Republican senators remained
+obdurate. Their answer to the Crittenden referendum proposition was
+the Clark resolution, which read, &quot;The provisions of the Constitution
+are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all
+the material interests of the country; it needs to be obeyed rather
+than amended.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_918_918" id="FNanchor_918_918"></a><a href="#Footnote_918_918"><sup>[918]</sup></a> On the 21st of the month, the senators of the
+seceding States withdrew; yet Douglas could still say to anxious Union
+men at the South, &quot;There is hope of adjustment, and the prospect has
+never been better than since we first assembled.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_919_919" id="FNanchor_919_919"></a><a href="#Footnote_919_919"><sup>[919]</sup></a> And Senator
+Crittenden concurred in this view. On what could they have grounded
+their hopes?</p>
+
+<p>Douglas still believed in the efficacy of compromise to preserve the
+Union. Through many channels he <a name="Page_453" id="Page_453"></a>received intelligence from the South,
+and he knew well that the leaders of public opinion were not of one
+mind. Some, at least, regarded the proposed Southern confederacy as a
+means of securing a revision of the Constitution. Men like Benjamin of
+Louisiana were still ready to talk confidentially of a final
+adjustment.<a name="FNanchor_920_920" id="FNanchor_920_920"></a><a href="#Footnote_920_920"><sup>[920]</sup></a> Moreover, there was a persistent rumor that Seward
+was inclining to the Crittenden Compromise; and Seward, as the
+prospective leader of the incoming administration, would doubtless
+carry many Republicans with him. Something, too, might be expected
+from the Peace Convention, which was to meet on February 4th, in
+Washington.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime Douglas lent his aid to such legislative labors as the
+exigencies of the hour permitted. Once again, he found himself acting
+with the Republicans to do justice to Kansas, for Kansas was now a
+suppliant for admission into the Union with a free constitution. Again
+specious excuses were made for denying simple justice. Toward the
+obstructionists, his old enemies, Douglas showed no rancor: there was
+no time to lose in personalities. &quot;The sooner we close up this
+controversy the better, if we intend to wipe out the excited and
+irritated feelings that have grown out of it. It will have a tendency
+to restore good feelings.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_921_921" id="FNanchor_921_921"></a><a href="#Footnote_921_921"><sup>[921]</sup></a> But not until the Southern senators
+had withdrawn, was Kansas admitted to the Union of the States, which
+was then hanging in the balance.</p>
+
+<p>Whenever senators from the slave States could be <a name="Page_454" id="Page_454"></a>induced to name
+their tangible grievances, and not to dwell merely upon anticipated
+injuries, they were wont to cite the Personal Liberty Acts. In spite
+of his good intentions, Douglas was drawn into an altercation with
+Mason of Virginia, in which he cited an historic case where Virginia
+had been the offender. Recovering himself, he said ingenuously, &quot;I
+hope we are not to bandy these little cases backwards and forwards for
+the purpose of sectional irritation. Let us rather meet the question,
+and give the Constitution the true construction, and allow all
+criminals to be surrendered according to the law of the State where
+the offense was committed.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_922_922" id="FNanchor_922_922"></a><a href="#Footnote_922_922"><sup>[922]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>As evidence of his desire to remove this most tangible of Southern
+gravamina, Douglas introduced a supplementary fugitive slave bill on
+January 28th.<a name="FNanchor_923_923" id="FNanchor_923_923"></a><a href="#Footnote_923_923"><sup>[923]</sup></a> Its notable features were the provision for jury
+trial in a Federal court, if after extradition a fugitive should
+persist in claiming his freedom; and the provisions for the payment of
+damages to the claimant, if he should lose through violence a fugitive
+slave to whom he had a valid title. The Federal government in turn
+might bring suit against the county where the rescue had occurred, and
+the county might reimburse itself by suing the offenders to the full
+amount of the damages paid.<a name="FNanchor_924_924" id="FNanchor_924_924"></a><a href="#Footnote_924_924"><sup>[924]</sup></a> Had this bill passed, it would have
+made good the most obvious defects in the much-defamed legislation of
+1850; but the time had long since passed, when such concessions would
+satisfy the South.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas had to bear many a gibe for his publicly <a name="Page_455" id="Page_455"></a>expressed hopes of
+peace. Mason denounced his letter to Virginia gentlemen as a &quot;puny,
+pusillanimous attempt to hoodwink&quot; the people of Virginia. But Douglas
+replied with an earnest reiteration of his expectations. Yet all
+depended, he admitted, on the action of Virginia and the border
+States. For this reason he deprecated the uncompromising attitude of
+the senator from Virginia, when he said, &quot;We want no concessions.&quot;
+Equally deplorable, he thought, was the spirit evinced by the senator
+from New Hampshire who applauded that regrettable remark. &quot;I never
+intend to give up the hope of saving this Union so long as there is a
+ray left,&quot; he cried.<a name="FNanchor_925_925" id="FNanchor_925_925"></a><a href="#Footnote_925_925"><sup>[925]</sup></a> Why try to force slavery to go where
+experience has demonstrated that climate is adverse and where the
+people do not want it? Why prohibit slavery where the government
+cannot make it exist? &quot;Why break up the Union upon an abstraction?&quot;
+Let the one side give up its demand for protection and the other for
+prohibition; and let them unite upon an amendment to the Constitution
+which shall deny to Congress the power to legislate upon slavery
+everywhere, except in the matter of fugitive slaves and the African
+slave-trade. &quot;Do that, and you will have peace; do that, and the Union
+will last forever; do that, and you do not extend slavery one inch,
+nor circumscribe it one inch; you do not emancipate a slave, and do
+not enslave a free-man.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_926_926" id="FNanchor_926_926"></a><a href="#Footnote_926_926"><sup>[926]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the course of his eloquent plea for mutual concession, Douglas was
+repeatedly interrupted by Wigfall of Texas, whose State was at the
+moment <a name="Page_456" id="Page_456"></a>preparing to leave the Union. In ironical tones, Wigfall
+begged to be informed upon what ground the senator based his hope and
+belief that the Union would be preserved. Douglas replied, &quot;I see
+indications every day of a disposition to meet this question now and
+consider what is necessary to save the Union.&quot; And then, anticipating
+the sneers of his interrogator, he said sharply, &quot;If the senator will
+just follow me, instead of going off to Texas; sit here, and act in
+concert with us Union men, we will make him a very efficient agent in
+accomplishing that object.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_927_927" id="FNanchor_927_927"></a><a href="#Footnote_927_927"><sup>[927]</sup></a> But to the obdurate mind of Wigfall
+this Union talk was &quot;the merest balderdash.&quot; Compromise on the basis
+of non-intervention, he pronounced &quot;worse than 'Sewardism,' for it had
+hypocrisy and the other was bold and open.&quot; There was, unhappily, only
+too much truth in his pithy remark that &quot;the apple of discord is
+offered to us as the fruit of peace.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a sad commentary on the state of the Union that while the six
+cotton States were establishing the constitution and government of a
+Southern Confederacy, the Federal Senate was providing for the
+territorial organization of that great domain whose acquisition had
+been the joint labor of all the States. Three Territories were
+projected. In one of these, Colorado, a provisional government had
+already been set up by the mining population of the Pike's Peak
+country. To the Colorado bill Douglas interposed serious objections.
+By its provisions, the southern boundary cut off a portion of New
+Mexico, which was slave Territory, and added it to Colorado. At the
+same time a provision in the bill prevented the territorial
+legislature <a name="Page_457" id="Page_457"></a>from passing any law to destroy the rights of private
+property. Was the new Territory of Colorado to be free or slave?
+Another provision debarred the territorial legislature from condemning
+private property for public uses. How, then, could Colorado construct
+even a public road? Still another provision declared that there should
+be no discrimination in the rate of taxation between different kinds
+of property. How, then, could Colorado make those necessary exemptions
+which were to be found on all statute books?<a name="FNanchor_928_928" id="FNanchor_928_928"></a><a href="#Footnote_928_928"><sup>[928]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In his encounter with Senator Green, who had succeeded him as chairman
+of the Committee on Territories, Douglas did not appear to good
+advantage. It was easy to prove his first objection idle, as there was
+no slave property in northern New Mexico. As for the other
+objectionable provisions, all&mdash;by your leave!&mdash;were to be found in the
+Washington Territory Act, which had passed through Douglas's committee
+without comment.<a name="FNanchor_929_929" id="FNanchor_929_929"></a><a href="#Footnote_929_929"><sup>[929]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Douglas proposed a substitute for the Colorado bill, nevertheless,
+which, besides rectifying these errors,&mdash;for such he still deemed them
+to be,&mdash;proposed that the people of the Territory should elect their
+own officers. He reminded the Senate that the Kansas-Nebraska bill had
+been sharply criticised, because while professing to recognize popular
+sovereignty, it had withheld this power. At that time, however, the
+governor was also an Indian agent and a Federal officer; now, the two
+functions were separated. He proposed that, henceforth, the President
+and Senate should appoint only such officers as performed Federal
+<a name="Page_458" id="Page_458"></a>duties.<a name="FNanchor_930_930" id="FNanchor_930_930"></a><a href="#Footnote_930_930"><sup>[930]</sup></a> When Senator Wade suggested that Douglas had experienced
+a conversion on this point, because he happened to be in opposition to
+the incoming administration, which would appoint the new territorial
+officers, Douglas referred to his utterances in the last session, as
+proof of his disinterestedness in the matter.<a name="FNanchor_931_931" id="FNanchor_931_931"></a><a href="#Footnote_931_931"><sup>[931]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Even in his r&ocirc;le of peace-maker, Douglas could not help remarking that
+the bill contained not a word about slavery. &quot;I am rejoiced,&quot; he said,
+somewhat ironically, &quot;to find that the two sides of the House,
+representing the two sides of the 'irrepressible conflict,' find it
+impossible when they get into power, to practically carry on the
+government without coming to non-intervention, and saying nothing upon
+the subject of slavery. Although they may not vote for my proposition,
+the fact that they have to avow the principle upon which they have
+fought me for years is the only one upon which they can possibly
+agree, is conclusive evidence that I have been right in that
+principle, and that they have been wrong in fighting me upon it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_932_932" id="FNanchor_932_932"></a><a href="#Footnote_932_932"><sup>[932]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the House the Colorado bill was amended by the excision of the
+clause providing for appeals to the United States Supreme Court in all
+cases involving title to slaves. Douglas promptly pointed out the
+significance of this omission. The decisions of the territorial court
+regarding slavery would now be final. The question of whether the
+territorial legislature might, or might not, exclude slavery, would
+now be decided by territorial judges who would be appointed <a name="Page_459" id="Page_459"></a>by a
+Republican President.<a name="FNanchor_933_933" id="FNanchor_933_933"></a><a href="#Footnote_933_933"><sup>[933]</sup></a> The Republicans now in control of the
+Senate were eager to press their advantage. And Douglas had to
+acquiesce. After all, the practical importance of the matter was not
+great. No one anticipated that slavery ever would exist in these new
+Territories.</p>
+
+<p>The substitute which Douglas offered for the Colorado bill, and
+subsequently for the other territorial bills, deserves more than a
+passing allusion. Not only was it his last contribution to territorial
+legislation, but it suggested a far-reaching change in our colonial
+policy. It was the logical conclusion of popular sovereignty
+practically applied.<a name="FNanchor_934_934" id="FNanchor_934_934"></a><a href="#Footnote_934_934"><sup>[934]</sup></a> Congress was invited to abdicate all but the
+most meagre power in organizing new Territories. The task of framing
+an organic act for the government of a Territory was to be left to a
+convention chosen by adult male citizens who were in actual residence;
+but this organic law must be republican in form, and in every way
+subordinate to the Constitution and to all laws and treaties affecting
+the Indians and the public lands. A Territory so organized was to be
+admitted into the Union whenever its population should be equal to the
+unit required for representation in the lower house of Congress. The
+initiative in taking a preliminary census and calling a territorial
+convention, was to be taken by the judge of the Federal court in the
+Territory. The tutelage of the Federal government was thus to be
+reduced to lowest terms.</p>
+
+<p>Congress was to confine itself to general provisions applicable to all
+Territories, leaving the formation of new Territories to the caprice
+of the people in actual <a name="Page_460" id="Page_460"></a>residence. This was a generous concession to
+popular sovereignty; but even so, the paramount authority was still
+vested in Congress. Congress, and not the people, was to designate the
+bounds of the Territory; Congress was to pass judgment upon the
+republicanism of the organic law, and a Federal judge was to set the
+machinery of popular sovereignty in motion. Obviously the time had
+passed when Congress would make so radical a departure from precedent.
+Least of all were the Republican members disposed to weaken the hold
+of the Federal government upon Territories where the question of
+slavery might again become acute.</p>
+
+<p>While the House was unwilling to vote for a submission of the
+Crittenden propositions to a popular vote, it did propose an amendment
+denying to Congress the power to interfere with the domestic
+institutions of any State. Not being in any sense a concession, but
+only an affirmation of a widely accepted principle, this amendment
+passed the House easily enough. Yet in his r&ocirc;le of compromiser,
+Douglas made much of this vote. He called Senator Mason's attention to
+two great facts&mdash;&quot;startling, tremendous facts&mdash;that they [the
+Republicans] have abandoned their aggressive policy in the Territories
+and are willing to give guarantees in the States.&quot; These &quot;ought to be
+accepted as an evidence of a salutary change in public opinion at the
+North.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_935_935" id="FNanchor_935_935"></a><a href="#Footnote_935_935"><sup>[935]</sup></a> Now if the Republican party would only offer a similar
+guarantee, by a constitutional amendment, that they would never revive
+their aggressive policy toward slavery in the Territories!</p>
+
+<p>As the February days wore away, Douglas became <a name="Page_461" id="Page_461"></a>less hopeful of
+peaceable adjustment through compromise. If he had counted upon large
+concessions from Seward, he was disappointed. If he had entertained
+hopes of the Peace Conference, he had also erred grievously. He became
+more and more assured that the forces making against peace were from
+the North as well as the South. He told the Senate on February 21st,
+that there was &quot;a deliberate plot to break up this Union under
+pretense of preserving it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_936_936" id="FNanchor_936_936"></a><a href="#Footnote_936_936"><sup>[936]</sup></a> Privately he feared the influence of
+some of Mr. Lincoln's advisers, who were hostile to Seward. &quot;What the
+Blairs really want,&quot; he said hotly to a friend, &quot;is a civil war.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_937_937" id="FNanchor_937_937"></a><a href="#Footnote_937_937"><sup>[937]</sup></a>
+With many another well-wisher he deplored the secret entrance of Mr.
+Lincoln into the capital. It seemed to him both weak and undignified,
+when the situation called for a conciliatory, but firm, front.<a name="FNanchor_938_938" id="FNanchor_938_938"></a><a href="#Footnote_938_938"><sup>[938]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>With an absence of personal pique which did him credit, he determined
+to take the first opportunity to warn Mr. Lincoln of the dangers of
+his position. Douglas knew Lincoln far better than the average
+Washington politician. To an acquaintance who lamented the apparent
+weakness of the President-elect, Douglas said emphatically, &quot;No, he is
+not that, Sir; but he is eminently a man of the atmosphere which
+surrounds him. He has not yet got out of Springfield, Sir.... He he
+does not know that he is President-elect of the United States, Sir, he
+does not see that the shadow he casts is any bigger now than it was
+last year. It will not take him long to find it out when he has got
+established in the White House.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_939_939" id="FNanchor_939_939"></a><a href="#Footnote_939_939"><sup>[939]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462"></a>The ready tact of Mrs. Douglas admirably seconded the initiative of
+her husband. She was among the first to call upon Mrs. Lincoln,
+thereby setting the example for the ladies of the opposition.<a name="FNanchor_940_940" id="FNanchor_940_940"></a><a href="#Footnote_940_940"><sup>[940]</sup></a> A
+little incident, to be sure; but in critical hours, the warp and woof
+of history is made up of just such little acts of thoughtful courtesy.
+Washington society understood and appreciated the gracious spirit of
+Ad&egrave;le Cutts Douglas; and even the New York press commented upon the
+incident with satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>That Seward and his friends were no less alarmed than Douglas, at the
+prospect of Lincoln's falling under the influence of the coercionists,
+is a matter of record.<a name="FNanchor_941_941" id="FNanchor_941_941"></a><a href="#Footnote_941_941"><sup>[941]</sup></a> There were, indeed, two factions
+contending for mastery over the incoming administration. So far as an
+outsider could do so, Douglas was willing to lend himself to the
+schemes of the Seward faction, for in so doing he was obviously
+promoting the cause of peace.<a name="FNanchor_942_942" id="FNanchor_942_942"></a><a href="#Footnote_942_942"><sup>[942]</sup></a> Three days after Lincoln's arrival
+Douglas called upon him; and on the following evening (February 27th)
+he sought another private interview.<a name="FNanchor_943_943" id="FNanchor_943_943"></a><a href="#Footnote_943_943"><sup>[943]</sup></a> They had long known each
+other; and politics aside, Lincoln entertained a high opinion of
+Douglas's fairmindedness and common sense.<a name="FNanchor_944_944" id="FNanchor_944_944"></a><a href="#Footnote_944_944"><sup>[944]</sup></a> They talked earnestly
+about the Peace Conference and the efforts of extremists in Congress
+to make it abortive.<a name="FNanchor_945_945" id="FNanchor_945_945"></a><a href="#Footnote_945_945"><sup>[945]</sup></a> Each knew the other to be a genuine lover of
+the Union. Upon this common basis of sentiment they could converse
+without reservations.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463"></a>Douglas was agitated and distressed.<a name="FNanchor_946_946" id="FNanchor_946_946"></a><a href="#Footnote_946_946"><sup>[946]</sup></a> Compromise was now
+impossible in Congress. He saw but one hope. With great earnestness he
+urged Lincoln to recommend the instant calling of a national
+convention to amend the Constitution. Upon the necessity of this step
+Douglas and Seward agreed. But Lincoln would not commit himself to
+this suggestion, without further consideration.<a name="FNanchor_947_947" id="FNanchor_947_947"></a><a href="#Footnote_947_947"><sup>[947]</sup></a> &quot;It is impossible
+not to feel,&quot; wrote an old acquaintance, after hearing Douglas's
+account of this interview, &quot;that he [Douglas] really and truly loves
+his country in a way not too common, I fear now, in Washington.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_948_948" id="FNanchor_948_948"></a><a href="#Footnote_948_948"><sup>[948]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The Senate remained in continuous session from Saturday, March 2d,
+until the oath of office was taken by Vice-President Hamlin on Monday
+morning. During these eventful hours, the Crittenden amendments were
+voted down;<a name="FNanchor_949_949" id="FNanchor_949_949"></a><a href="#Footnote_949_949"><sup>[949]</sup></a> and when the venerable senator from Kentucky made a
+final effort to secure the adoption of the resolution of the Peace
+Congress, which was similar to his own, it too was decisively
+defeated.<a name="FNanchor_950_950" id="FNanchor_950_950"></a><a href="#Footnote_950_950"><sup>[950]</sup></a> In the closing hours of the session, however, in spite
+of the opposition of irreconcilables like Sumner, Wade, and Wilson,
+the Senate adopted the amendment which had passed the House, limiting
+the powers of Congress in the States.<a name="FNanchor_951_951" id="FNanchor_951_951"></a><a href="#Footnote_951_951"><sup>[951]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>While Union-loving men were thus wrestling with a forlorn hope,
+Douglas was again closeted with Lincoln. It is very probable that
+Douglas was invited to call, in order to pass judgment upon certain
+passages in the <a name="Page_464" id="Page_464"></a>inaugural address, which would be delivered on the
+morrow. At all events, Douglas exhibited a familiarity with portions
+of the address, which can hardly be accounted for in other ways. He
+expressed great satisfaction with Lincoln's statement of the
+invalidity of secession. It would do, he said, for all constitutional
+Democrats to &quot;brace themselves against.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_952_952" id="FNanchor_952_952"></a><a href="#Footnote_952_952"><sup>[952]</sup></a> He frankly announced
+that he would stand by Mr. Lincoln in a temperate, resolute Union
+policy.<a name="FNanchor_953_953" id="FNanchor_953_953"></a><a href="#Footnote_953_953"><sup>[953]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the forenoon of Inauguration Day, Douglas told a friend that he
+meant to put himself as prominently forward in the ceremonies as he
+properly could, and to leave no doubt in any one's mind of his
+determination to stand by the administration in the performance of its
+first great duty to maintain the Union. &quot;I watched him carefully,&quot;
+records this same acquaintance. &quot;He made his way not without
+difficulty&mdash;for there was literally no sort of order in the
+arrangements&mdash;to the front of the throng directly beside Mr. Lincoln,
+when he prepared to read his address. A miserable little rickety table
+had been provided for the President, on which he could hardly find
+room for his hat, and Senator Douglas, reaching forward, took it with
+a smile and held it during the delivery of the address. It was a
+trifling act, but a symbolical one, and not to be forgotten, and it
+attracted much attention all around me.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_954_954" id="FNanchor_954_954"></a><a href="#Footnote_954_954"><sup>[954]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>At least one passage in the inaugural address was framed upon
+suggestions made by Douglas. Contrary to his original intention,
+Lincoln went out of his way to say, &quot;I cannot be ignorant of the fact
+that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having <a name="Page_465" id="Page_465"></a>the
+National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
+amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people
+over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes
+prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing
+circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being
+afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me
+the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to
+originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them
+to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially
+chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they
+would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed
+amendment to the Constitution&mdash;which amendment, however, I have not
+seen&mdash;has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government
+shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States,
+including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of
+what I have said, I depart from my purpose, not to speak of particular
+amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be
+implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made
+express and irrevocable.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_955_955" id="FNanchor_955_955"></a><a href="#Footnote_955_955"><sup>[955]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>In the original draft of his address, written before he came to
+Washington, Lincoln had dismissed with scant consideration the notion
+of a constitutional amendment: &quot;I am not much impressed with the
+belief that the present Constitution can be improved. I am rather for
+the old ship, and the chart of the old pilots.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_956_956" id="FNanchor_956_956"></a><a href="#Footnote_956_956"><sup>[956]</sup></a> <a name="Page_466" id="Page_466"></a>Sometime after
+his interview with Douglas, Lincoln struck out these words and
+inserted the paragraph already quoted, rejecting at the same time a
+suggestion from Seward.<a name="FNanchor_957_957" id="FNanchor_957_957"></a><a href="#Footnote_957_957"><sup>[957]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The curious and ubiquitous correspondents of the New York press,
+always on the alert for straws to learn which way the wind was
+blowing, made much of Douglas's conspicuous gallantry toward Mrs.
+Lincoln. He accompanied her to the inaugural ball and unhesitatingly
+defended his friendliness with the President's household, on the
+ground that Mr. Lincoln &quot;meant to do what was right.&quot; To one press
+agent, eager to have his opinion of the inaugural, Douglas said, &quot;I
+defend the inaugural if it is as I understand it, namely, an emanation
+from the brain and heart of a patriot, and as I mean, if I know
+myself, to act the part of a patriot, I endorse it.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_958_958" id="FNanchor_958_958"></a><a href="#Footnote_958_958"><sup>[958]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On March 6th, while Republican senators maintained an uncertain and
+discreet silence respecting the inaugural address, Douglas rose to
+speak in its defense. Senator Clingman had interpreted the President's
+policy in terms of his own emotions: there was no doubt about it, the
+inaugural portended war. &quot;In no wise,&quot; responded Douglas with energy:
+&quot;It is a peace-offering rather than a war message.&quot; In all his long
+congressional career there is nothing that redounds more to Douglas's
+everlasting credit than his willingness to defend the policy of his
+successful rival, while men of Lincoln's own party were doubting <a name="Page_467" id="Page_467"></a>what
+manner of man the new President was and what his policy might mean.
+Nothing could have been more adroit than Douglas's plea for the
+inaugural address. He did not throw himself into the arms of the
+administration and betray his intimate acquaintance with the plans of
+the new President. He spoke as the leader of the opposition,
+critically and judiciously. He had read the inaugural with care; he
+had subjected it to a critical analysis; and he was of the opinion
+that it was characterized by ability and directness on certain points,
+but by lack of explicitness on others. He cited passages that he
+deemed equivocal and objectionable. Nevertheless he rejoiced to read
+one clause which was evidently the key to the entire document:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and
+experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in
+every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according
+to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a
+peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of
+fraternal sympathies and affections.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_959_959" id="FNanchor_959_959"></a><a href="#Footnote_959_959"><sup>[959]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>By the terms of his message, too, the President was pledged to favor
+such amendments as might originate with the people for the settlement
+of the slavery question,&mdash;even if the settlement should be repugnant
+to the principles of his party. Mr. Lincoln should receive the thanks
+of all Union-loving men for having &quot;sunk the partisan in the patriot.&quot;
+The voice of Douglas never rang truer than when he paid this tribute
+to his rival's honesty and candor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do not wish it to be inferred,&quot; he said in <a name="Page_468" id="Page_468"></a>conclusion,... &quot;that I
+have any political sympathy with his administration, or that I expect
+any contingency can happen in which I may be identified with it. I
+expect to oppose his administration with all my energy on those great
+principles which have separated parties in former times; but on this
+one question&mdash;that of preserving the Union by a peaceful solution of
+our present difficulties; that of preventing any future difficulties
+by such an amendment of the Constitution as will settle the question
+by an express provision&mdash;if I understand his true intent and meaning,
+I am with him.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_960_960" id="FNanchor_960_960"></a><a href="#Footnote_960_960"><sup>[960]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>But neither President Lincoln nor Douglas had committed himself on the
+concrete question upon which hung peace or war&mdash;what should be done
+about Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. The point was driven home with
+relentless vigor by Wigfall, who still lingered in the Senate after
+the secession of his State. &quot;Would the Senator who is speaking for the
+administration say explicitly, whether he would advise the withdrawal
+of the troops from the forts?&quot; The reply of Douglas was admirable: &quot;As
+I am not in their counsels nor their confidence, I shall not tender
+them my advice until they ask it.... I do not choose either, to
+proclaim what my policy would be, in view of the fact that the Senator
+does not regard himself as the guardian of the honor and interests of
+my country, but is looking to the interests of another, which he
+thinks is in hostility to this country. It would hardly be good policy
+or wisdom for me to reveal what I think ought to be our policy, to one
+who may so soon be in the counsels of the enemy, and the command of
+its armies.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_961_961" id="FNanchor_961_961"></a><a href="#Footnote_961_961"><sup>[961]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469"></a>Douglas did admit, however, that since the garrison of Fort Sumter had
+provisions for only thirty days, he presumed no attempt would be made
+to reinforce it. Under existing circumstances the President had no
+power to collect the revenues of the government and no military force
+sufficient to reinforce Sumter. Congress was not in session to supply
+either the necessary coercive powers or troops. He therefore drew the
+conclusion that not only the President himself was pacific in his
+policy, but the Republican party as well, despite the views of
+individual members. &quot;But,&quot; urged Mason of Virginia, &quot;I ask the
+Senator, then, what is to be done with the garrison if they are in a
+starving condition?&quot; &quot;If the Senator had voted right in the last
+presidential election,&quot; replied Douglas good-naturedly, &quot;I should have
+been in a condition, perhaps, to tell him authoritatively what ought
+to be done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>From this moment on, Douglas enjoyed the confidence of President
+Lincoln to an extraordinary degree. No one knew better than Lincoln
+the importance of securing the co&ouml;peration of so influential a
+personage. True, by the withdrawal of Southern senators, the
+Democratic opposition had been greatly reduced; but Douglas was still
+a power in this Democratic remnant. Besides, the man who could command
+the suffrages of a million voters was not a force lightly to be
+reckoned with. After this speech of the 6th, Lincoln again sent for
+Douglas, to express his entire agreement with its views and with its
+spirit.<a name="FNanchor_962_962" id="FNanchor_962_962"></a><a href="#Footnote_962_962"><sup>[962]</sup></a> He gave Douglas the impression that he desired to gain
+time for passions to cool by removing the causes <a name="Page_470" id="Page_470"></a>of irritation. He
+felt confident that there would soon be a general demand for a
+national convention where all existing differences could be radically
+treated. &quot;I am just as ready,&quot; Douglas reported him to have said, &quot;to
+reinforce the garrisons at Sumter and Pickens or to withdraw them, as
+I am to see an amendment adopted protecting slavery in the Territories
+or prohibiting slavery in the Territories. What I want is to get done
+what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to
+find that out exactly.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_963_963" id="FNanchor_963_963"></a><a href="#Footnote_963_963"><sup>[963]</sup></a> On this point they were in entire accord.</p>
+
+<p>The patriotic conduct of Douglas earned for him the warm commendation
+of Northern newspapers, many of which had hitherto been incapable of
+ascribing honorable motives to him.<a name="FNanchor_964_964" id="FNanchor_964_964"></a><a href="#Footnote_964_964"><sup>[964]</sup></a> No one who met him at the
+President's levees would have suspected that he had been one of his
+host's most relentless opponents. A correspondent of the New York
+<i>Times</i> described him as he appeared at one of these functions. &quot;Here
+one minute, there the next&mdash;now congratulating the President, then
+complimenting Mrs. Lincoln, bowing and scraping, and shaking hands,
+and smiling, laughing, yarning and saluting the crowd of people whom
+he knew.&quot; More soberly, this same observer added, &quot;He has already done
+a great deal of good to the administration.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_965_965" id="FNanchor_965_965"></a><a href="#Footnote_965_965"><sup>[965]</sup></a> It is impossible to
+find the soured and discomfited rival in this picture.</p>
+
+<p>The country was anxiously awaiting the development of the policy of
+the new Executive, for to eight <a name="Page_471" id="Page_471"></a>out of every ten men, Lincoln was
+still an unknown man. Rumors were abroad that both Sumter and Pickens
+would be surrendered.<a name="FNanchor_966_966" id="FNanchor_966_966"></a><a href="#Footnote_966_966"><sup>[966]</sup></a> Seward was known to be conciliatory on this
+point; and the man on the street never once doubted that Seward would
+be the master-mind in the cabinet. Those better informed knew&mdash;and
+Douglas was among them&mdash;that Seward's influence was menaced by an
+aggressive faction in the cabinet.<a name="FNanchor_967_967" id="FNanchor_967_967"></a><a href="#Footnote_967_967"><sup>[967]</sup></a> Behind these official
+advisers, giving them active support, were those Republican senators
+who from the first had doubted the efficacy of compromise.</p>
+
+<p>Believing the country should have assurances that President Lincoln
+did not meditate war,&mdash;did not, in short, propose to yield to the
+aggressive wing of his party,&mdash;Douglas sought to force a show of
+hands.<a name="FNanchor_968_968" id="FNanchor_968_968"></a><a href="#Footnote_968_968"><sup>[968]</sup></a> On March 13th, he offered a resolution which was designed
+to draw the fire of Republican senators. The Secretary of War was
+requested to furnish information about the Southern forts now in
+possession of the Federal government; to state whether reinforcements
+were needed to retain them; whether under existing laws the government
+had the power and means to reinforce them, and whether it was wise to
+retain military possession of such forts and to recapture those that
+had been lost, except for the purpose of subjugating and occupying the
+States which had seceded; and finally, if such were the motives, to
+supply estimates of the military force required to reduce the seceding
+States and to protect the national capital.<a name="FNanchor_969_969" id="FNanchor_969_969"></a><a href="#Footnote_969_969"><sup>[969]</sup></a> The <a name="Page_472" id="Page_472"></a>wording of the
+resolution was purposely involved. Douglas hoped that it would
+precipitate a discussion which would disclose the covert wish of the
+aggressives, and force an authoritative announcement of President
+Lincoln's policy. Doubtless there was a political motive behind all
+this. Douglas was not averse to putting his bitter and implacable
+enemies in their true light, as foes of compromise even to the extent
+of disrupting the Union.<a name="FNanchor_970_970" id="FNanchor_970_970"></a><a href="#Footnote_970_970"><sup>[970]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Not receiving any response, Douglas took the floor in defense of his
+resolution. He believed that the country should have the information
+which his resolution was designed to elicit. The people were
+apprehensive of civil war. He had put his construction upon the
+President's inaugural; but &quot;the Republican side of the Chamber remains
+mute and silent, neither assenting nor dissenting.&quot; The answer which
+he believed the resolution would call forth, would demonstrate two
+points of prime importance: &quot;First, that the President does not
+meditate war; and, secondly, that he has no means for prosecuting a
+warfare upon the seceding States, even if he desired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>With his wonted dialectic skill Douglas sought to establish his case.
+The existing laws made no provision for collecting the revenue on
+shipboard. It was admitted on all sides that collection at the port of
+entry in South Carolina was impossible. The President had no legal
+right to blockade the port of Charleston. He could not employ the army
+to enforce the laws in the seceded States, for the military could be
+used only to aid a civil process; and where was the marshal in South
+Carolina to execute a writ? The <a name="Page_473" id="Page_473"></a>President must have known that he
+lacked these powers. He must have referred to the future action of
+Congress, then, when he said that he should execute the laws in all
+the States, unless the &quot;requisite means were withheld.&quot; But Congress
+had not passed laws empowering the Executive to collect revenue or to
+gain possession of the forts. What, then, was the inference? Clearly
+this, that the Republican senators did not desire to confer these
+powers.</p>
+
+<p>If this inference is not correct, if this interpretation of the
+inaugural address is faulty, urged Douglas, why preserve this
+impenetrable silence? Why not let the people know what the policy of
+the administration is? They have a right to know. &quot;The President of
+the United States holds the destiny of this country in his hands. I
+believe he means peace, and war will be averted, unless he is
+overruled by the disunion portion of his party. We all know the
+irrepressible conflict is going on in their camp.... Then, throw aside
+this petty squabble about how you are to get along with your pledges
+before election; meet the issues as they are presented; do what duty,
+honor, and patriotism require, and appeal to the people to sustain
+you. Peace is the only policy that can save the country or save your
+party.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_971_971" id="FNanchor_971_971"></a><a href="#Footnote_971_971"><sup>[971]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the Republican side of the chamber, this appeal was bitterly
+resented. It met with no adequate response, because there was none to
+give; but Wilson roundly denounced it as a wicked, mischief-making
+utterance.<a name="FNanchor_972_972" id="FNanchor_972_972"></a><a href="#Footnote_972_972"><sup>[972]</sup></a> Unhappily, Douglas allowed himself to be drawn into a
+personal altercation with Fessenden, <a name="Page_474" id="Page_474"></a>in which he lost his temper and
+marred the effect of his patriotic appeal. There was probably some
+truth in Douglas's charge that both senators intended to be personally
+irritating.<a name="FNanchor_973_973" id="FNanchor_973_973"></a><a href="#Footnote_973_973"><sup>[973]</sup></a> Under the circumstances, it was easier to indulge in
+personal disparagement of Douglas, than to meet his embarrassing
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>How far Douglas still believed in the possibility of saving the Union
+through compromise, it is impossible to say. Publicly he continued to
+talk in an optimistic strain.<a name="FNanchor_974_974" id="FNanchor_974_974"></a><a href="#Footnote_974_974"><sup>[974]</sup></a> On March 25th, he expressed his
+satisfaction in the Senate that only one danger-point remained; Fort
+Sumter, he understood, was to be evacuated.<a name="FNanchor_975_975" id="FNanchor_975_975"></a><a href="#Footnote_975_975"><sup>[975]</sup></a> But among his friends
+no one looked into the future with more anxiety than he. Intimations
+from the South that citizens of the United States would probably be
+excluded from the courts of the Confederacy, wrung from him the
+admission that such action would be equivalent to war.<a name="FNanchor_976_976" id="FNanchor_976_976"></a><a href="#Footnote_976_976"><sup>[976]</sup></a> He noted
+anxiously the evident purpose of the Confederated States to coerce
+Kentucky and Virginia into secession.<a name="FNanchor_977_977" id="FNanchor_977_977"></a><a href="#Footnote_977_977"><sup>[977]</sup></a> Indeed, it is probable that
+before the Senate adjourned, his ultimate hope was to rally the Union
+men in the border States.<a name="FNanchor_978_978" id="FNanchor_978_978"></a><a href="#Footnote_978_978"><sup>[978]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>When President Lincoln at last determined to send supplies to Fort
+Sumter, the issue of peace or war rested with Jefferson Davis and his
+cabinet at Montgomery. Early on the morning of April 12th, a shell,
+fired from a battery in Charleston harbor, burst directly over Fort
+Sumter, proclaiming to anxious ears the close of an era.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_892_892" id="Footnote_892_892"></a><a href="#FNanchor_892_892">[892]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp. 116 ff.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_893_893" id="Footnote_893_893"></a><a href="#FNanchor_893_893">[893]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+131-132.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_894_894" id="Footnote_894_894"></a><a href="#FNanchor_894_894">[894]</a> Chicago <i>Times and Herald</i>, December 7, 1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_895_895" id="Footnote_895_895"></a><a href="#FNanchor_895_895">[895]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_896_896" id="Footnote_896_896"></a><a href="#FNanchor_896_896">[896]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_897_897" id="Footnote_897_897"></a><a href="#FNanchor_897_897">[897]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 29.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_898_898" id="Footnote_898_898"></a><a href="#FNanchor_898_898">[898]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 3.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_899_899" id="Footnote_899_899"></a><a href="#FNanchor_899_899">[899]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 11-12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_900_900" id="Footnote_900_900"></a><a href="#FNanchor_900_900">[900]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_901_901" id="Footnote_901_901"></a><a href="#FNanchor_901_901">[901]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 57.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_902_902" id="Footnote_902_902"></a><a href="#FNanchor_902_902">[902]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 52.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_903_903" id="Footnote_903_903"></a><a href="#FNanchor_903_903">[903]</a> Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+151-153.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_904_904" id="Footnote_904_904"></a><a href="#FNanchor_904_904">[904]</a> Report of the Committee of Thirteen, pp. 11-12.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_905_905" id="Footnote_905_905"></a><a href="#FNanchor_905_905">[905]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 158.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_906_906" id="Footnote_906_906"></a><a href="#FNanchor_906_906">[906]</a> December 21st.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_907_907" id="Footnote_907_907"></a><a href="#FNanchor_907_907">[907]</a> MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, December 25,
+1860.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_908_908" id="Footnote_908_908"></a><a href="#FNanchor_908_908">[908]</a> Report of the Committee of Thirteen, p. 16.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_909_909" id="Footnote_909_909"></a><a href="#FNanchor_909_909">[909]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_910_910" id="Footnote_910_910"></a><a href="#FNanchor_910_910">[910]</a> McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 38.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_911_911" id="Footnote_911_911"></a><a href="#FNanchor_911_911">[911]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 35.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_912_912" id="Footnote_912_912"></a><a href="#FNanchor_912_912">[912]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 38.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_913_913" id="Footnote_913_913"></a><a href="#FNanchor_913_913">[913]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39. It is not
+unlikely that Douglas may have been reassured on this point by some
+communication from Lincoln himself. The Diary of a Public Man (<i>North
+American Review</i>, Vol. 129,) p. 130, gives the impression that they
+had been in correspondence. Personal relations between them had been
+cordial even in 1859, just after the debates; See Publication No. 11,
+of the Illinois Historical Library, p. 191.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_914_914" id="Footnote_914_914"></a><a href="#FNanchor_914_914">[914]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_915_915" id="Footnote_915_915"></a><a href="#FNanchor_915_915">[915]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 41.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_916_916" id="Footnote_916_916"></a><a href="#FNanchor_916_916">[916]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 42.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_917_917" id="Footnote_917_917"></a><a href="#FNanchor_917_917">[917]</a> January 10th, 11th, and 19th.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_918_918" id="Footnote_918_918"></a><a href="#FNanchor_918_918">[918]</a> The resolution was carried, 25 to 23, six Southern
+Senators refusing to vote. <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 409.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_919_919" id="Footnote_919_919"></a><a href="#FNanchor_919_919">[919]</a> McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 39.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_920_920" id="Footnote_920_920"></a><a href="#FNanchor_920_920">[920]</a> Diary of a Public Man, pp. 133-134. Douglas was on
+terms of intimacy with the writer, and must have shared these
+communications. Besides, Douglas had independent sources of
+information.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_921_921" id="Footnote_921_921"></a><a href="#FNanchor_921_921">[921]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 445-446.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_922_922" id="Footnote_922_922"></a><a href="#FNanchor_922_922">[922]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 508.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_923_923" id="Footnote_923_923"></a><a href="#FNanchor_923_923">[923]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 586.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_924_924" id="Footnote_924_924"></a><a href="#FNanchor_924_924">[924]</a> Senate Bill, No. 549, 36 Cong., 2 Sess.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_925_925" id="Footnote_925_925"></a><a href="#FNanchor_925_925">[925]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 661.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_926_926" id="Footnote_926_926"></a><a href="#FNanchor_926_926">[926]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_927_927" id="Footnote_927_927"></a><a href="#FNanchor_927_927">[927]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 669.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_928_928" id="Footnote_928_928"></a><a href="#FNanchor_928_928">[928]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_929_929" id="Footnote_929_929"></a><a href="#FNanchor_929_929">[929]</a> <i>Ibid.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_930_930" id="Footnote_930_930"></a><a href="#FNanchor_930_930">[930]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_931_931" id="Footnote_931_931"></a><a href="#FNanchor_931_931">[931]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 765.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_932_932" id="Footnote_932_932"></a><a href="#FNanchor_932_932">[932]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 766.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_933_933" id="Footnote_933_933"></a><a href="#FNanchor_933_933">[933]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1205.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_934_934" id="Footnote_934_934"></a><a href="#FNanchor_934_934">[934]</a> It is printed in full in <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p.
+1207.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_935_935" id="Footnote_935_935"></a><a href="#FNanchor_935_935">[935]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1391.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_936_936" id="Footnote_936_936"></a><a href="#FNanchor_936_936">[936]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1081.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_937_937" id="Footnote_937_937"></a><a href="#FNanchor_937_937">[937]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_938_938" id="Footnote_938_938"></a><a href="#FNanchor_938_938">[938]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 260.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_939_939" id="Footnote_939_939"></a><a href="#FNanchor_939_939">[939]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_940_940" id="Footnote_940_940"></a><a href="#FNanchor_940_940">[940]</a> Correspondent of the New York <i>Times</i>, February 25,
+1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_941_941" id="Footnote_941_941"></a><a href="#FNanchor_941_941">[941]</a> Diary of a Public Man, pp. 260-261.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_942_942" id="Footnote_942_942"></a><a href="#FNanchor_942_942">[942]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 264.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_943_943" id="Footnote_943_943"></a><a href="#FNanchor_943_943">[943]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 264, 268; the interview of February 26th
+was commented upon by the Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, February 28.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_944_944" id="Footnote_944_944"></a><a href="#FNanchor_944_944">[944]</a> Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 73, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_945_945" id="Footnote_945_945"></a><a href="#FNanchor_945_945">[945]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_946_946" id="Footnote_946_946"></a><a href="#FNanchor_946_946">[946]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_947_947" id="Footnote_947_947"></a><a href="#FNanchor_947_947">[947]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_948_948" id="Footnote_948_948"></a><a href="#FNanchor_948_948">[948]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_949_949" id="Footnote_949_949"></a><a href="#FNanchor_949_949">[949]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1405.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_950_950" id="Footnote_950_950"></a><a href="#FNanchor_950_950">[950]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1405.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_951_951" id="Footnote_951_951"></a><a href="#FNanchor_951_951">[951]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1403.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_952_952" id="Footnote_952_952"></a><a href="#FNanchor_952_952">[952]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 380.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_953_953" id="Footnote_953_953"></a><a href="#FNanchor_953_953">[953]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 379.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_954_954" id="Footnote_954_954"></a><a href="#FNanchor_954_954">[954]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 383.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_955_955" id="Footnote_955_955"></a><a href="#FNanchor_955_955">[955]</a> Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, pp. 340-341. These
+authors note that Lincoln rewrote this paragraph, but take it for
+granted that he did so upon his own motion, after rejecting Seward's
+suggestion.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_956_956" id="Footnote_956_956"></a><a href="#FNanchor_956_956">[956]</a> Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 340, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_957_957" id="Footnote_957_957"></a><a href="#FNanchor_957_957">[957]</a> Seward's letter was written on the evening of February
+24th. Douglas called upon the President February 26th. See Nicolay and
+Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 319; Diary of a Public Man, pp. 264, 268.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_958_958" id="Footnote_958_958"></a><a href="#FNanchor_958_958">[958]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, March 6, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_959_959" id="Footnote_959_959"></a><a href="#FNanchor_959_959">[959]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1437.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_960_960" id="Footnote_960_960"></a><a href="#FNanchor_960_960">[960]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1438</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_961_961" id="Footnote_961_961"></a><a href="#FNanchor_961_961">[961]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1442.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_962_962" id="Footnote_962_962"></a><a href="#FNanchor_962_962">[962]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_963_963" id="Footnote_963_963"></a><a href="#FNanchor_963_963">[963]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_964_964" id="Footnote_964_964"></a><a href="#FNanchor_964_964">[964]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, March 8, 1861; also the Philadelphia
+<i>Press</i>, March 11, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_965_965" id="Footnote_965_965"></a><a href="#FNanchor_965_965">[965]</a> New York <i>Times</i>, March 10, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_966_966" id="Footnote_966_966"></a><a href="#FNanchor_966_966">[966]</a> Rhodes History of the United States, III, p. 332.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_967_967" id="Footnote_967_967"></a><a href="#FNanchor_967_967">[967]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_968_968" id="Footnote_968_968"></a><a href="#FNanchor_968_968">[968]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 495-496.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_969_969" id="Footnote_969_969"></a><a href="#FNanchor_969_969">[969]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1452.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_970_970" id="Footnote_970_970"></a><a href="#FNanchor_970_970">[970]</a> Diary of a Public Man, pp. 495-496.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_971_971" id="Footnote_971_971"></a><a href="#FNanchor_971_971">[971]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p 1461.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_972_972" id="Footnote_972_972"></a><a href="#FNanchor_972_972">[972]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1461.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_973_973" id="Footnote_973_973"></a><a href="#FNanchor_973_973">[973]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1465.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_974_974" id="Footnote_974_974"></a><a href="#FNanchor_974_974">[974]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, pp. 1460, 1501, 1504.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_975_975" id="Footnote_975_975"></a><a href="#FNanchor_975_975">[975]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 1501.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_976_976" id="Footnote_976_976"></a><a href="#FNanchor_976_976">[976]</a> Diary of a Public Man, p. 494.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_977_977" id="Footnote_977_977"></a><a href="#FNanchor_977_977">[977]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 494.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_978_978" id="Footnote_978_978"></a><a href="#FNanchor_978_978">[978]</a> <i>Globe</i>, 36 Cong., Special Sess., pp. 1505, 1511.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475"></a>CHAPTER XX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<h3>THE SUMMONS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>The news of the capitulation of Fort Sumter reached Washington on
+Sunday morning, April 14th. At a momentous cabinet meeting, President
+Lincoln read the draft of a proclamation calling into service
+seventy-five thousand men, to suppress combinations obstructing the
+execution of the laws in the Southern States. The cabinet was now a
+unit. Now that the crisis had come, the administration had a policy.
+Would it approve itself to the anxious people of the North? Could it
+count upon the support of those who had counselled peace, peace at any
+cost?</p>
+
+<p>Those who knew Senator Douglas well could not doubt his loyalty to the
+Union in this crisis; yet his friends knew that Union-loving men in
+the Democratic ranks would respond to the President's proclamation
+with a thousandfold greater enthusiasm, could they know that their
+leader stood by the administration. Moved by these considerations,
+Hon. George Ashmun of Massachusetts ventured to call upon Douglas on
+this Sunday evening, and to suggest the propriety of some public
+statement to strengthen the President's hands. Would he not call upon
+the President at once and give him the assurance of his support?
+Douglas demurred: he was not sure that Mr. Lincoln wanted his advice
+and aid. Mr. Ashmun assured him that the President would welcome any
+advances, and he spoke advisedly as a friend to both men. The peril of
+the country was <a name="Page_476" id="Page_476"></a>grave; surely this was not a time when men should let
+personal and partisan considerations stand between them and service to
+their country. Mrs. Douglas added her entreaties, and Douglas finally
+yielded. Though the hour was late, the two men set off for the White
+House, and found there the hearty welcome which Ashmun had
+promised.<a name="FNanchor_979_979" id="FNanchor_979_979"></a><a href="#Footnote_979_979"><sup>[979]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Of all the occurrences of this memorable day, this interview between
+Lincoln and Douglas strikes the imagination with most poignant
+suggestiveness. Had Douglas been a less generous opponent, he might
+have reminded the President that matters had come to just that pass
+which he had foreseen in 1858. Nothing of the sort passed Douglas's
+lips. The meeting of the rivals was most cordial and hearty. They held
+converse as men must when hearts are oppressed with a common burden.
+The President took up and read aloud the proclamation summoning the
+nation to arms. When he had done, Douglas said with deep earnestness,
+&quot;Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document,
+except that instead of the call for seventy-five thousand men, I would
+make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes
+of those men as well as I do.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_980_980" id="FNanchor_980_980"></a><a href="#Footnote_980_980"><sup>[980]</sup></a> Why has not some artist seized
+upon the dramatic moment when they rose and passed to the end of the
+room to examine a map which hung there? Douglas, with animated face
+and impetuous gesture, pointing out the strategic places in the coming
+contest; Lincoln, with the suggestion of brooding melancholy upon his
+careworn face, listening in rapt attention to the quick, <a name="Page_477" id="Page_477"></a>penetrating
+observations of his life-long rival. But what no artist could put upon
+canvas was the dramatic absence of resentment and defeated ambition in
+the one, and the patient teachableness and self-mastery of the other.
+As they parted, a quick hearty grasp of hands symbolized this
+remarkable consecration to a common task.</p>
+
+<p>As they left the executive mansion, Ashmun urged his companion to send
+an account of this interview to the press, that it might accompany the
+President's message on the morrow. Douglas then penned the following
+dispatch: &quot;Senator Douglas called upon the President, and had an
+interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The
+substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was
+unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues,
+he was prepared to fully sustain the President in the exercise of all
+his constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the
+government, and defend the Federal capital. A firm policy and prompt
+action was necessary. The capital was in danger, and must be defended
+at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the
+present and future without any reference to the past.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_981_981" id="FNanchor_981_981"></a><a href="#Footnote_981_981"><sup>[981]</sup></a> When the
+people of the North read the proclamation in the newspapers, on the
+following morning, a million men were cheered and sustained in their
+loyalty to the Union by the intelligence that their great leader had
+subordinated all lesser ends of party to the paramount duty of
+maintaining the Constitution of the fathers. To his friends in
+Washington, Douglas said unhesitatingly, &quot;<a name="Page_478" id="Page_478"></a>We must fight for our
+country and forget all differences. There can be but two parties&mdash;the
+party of patriots and the party of traitors. We belong to the
+first.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_982_982" id="FNanchor_982_982"></a><a href="#Footnote_982_982"><sup>[982]</sup></a> And to friends in Missouri where disunion sentiment was
+rife, he telegraphed, &quot;I deprecate war, but if it must come I am with
+my country, and for my country, under all circumstances and in every
+contingency. Individual policy must be subordinated to the public
+safety.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_983_983" id="FNanchor_983_983"></a><a href="#Footnote_983_983"><sup>[983]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>From this day on, Douglas was in frequent consultation with the
+President. The sorely tried and distressed Lincoln was unutterably
+grateful for the firm grip which this first of &quot;War Democrats&quot; kept
+upon the progress of public opinion in the irresolute border States.
+It was during one of these interviews, after the attack upon the Sixth
+Massachusetts Regiment in the streets of Baltimore, that Douglas urged
+upon the President the possibility of bringing troops by water to
+Annapolis, thence to Washington, thus avoiding further conflict in the
+disaffected districts of Maryland.<a name="FNanchor_984_984" id="FNanchor_984_984"></a><a href="#Footnote_984_984"><sup>[984]</sup></a> Eventually the Eighth
+Massachusetts and the Seventh New York reached Washington by this
+route, to the immense relief of the President and his cabinet.</p>
+
+<p>Before this succor came to the alarmed capital, Douglas had left the
+city for the West. He had received intimations that Egypt in his own
+State showed marked symptoms of disaffection. The old ties of blood
+and kinship of the people of southern Illinois with their neighbors in
+the border States were proving stronger than Northern affiliations.
+Douglas wielded an influence in these southern, Democratic counties,
+<a name="Page_479" id="Page_479"></a>such as no other man possessed. Could he not best serve the
+administration by bearding disunionism in its den? Believing that
+Cairo, at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio, was destined
+to be a strategic point of immense importance in the coming struggle,
+and that the fate of the whole valley depended upon the unwavering
+loyalty of Illinois, Douglas laid the matter before Lincoln. He would
+go or stay in Washington, wherever Lincoln thought he could do the
+most good. Probably neither then realized the tremendous nature of the
+struggle upon which the country had entered; yet both knew that the
+Northwest would be the makeweight in the balance for the Union; and
+that every nerve must be strained to hold the border States of
+Kentucky and Missouri. Who could rouse the latent Unionism of the
+Northwest and of the border States like Douglas? Lincoln advised him
+to go. There was a quick hand-grasp, a hurried farewell, and they
+parted never to meet again.<a name="FNanchor_985_985" id="FNanchor_985_985"></a><a href="#Footnote_985_985"><sup>[985]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>Rumor gave strange shapes to this &quot;mission&quot; which carried Douglas in
+such haste to the Northwest. Most persistent of all is the tradition
+that he was authorized to raise a huge army in the States of the upper
+Mississippi Valley, and to undertake that vast flanking movement which
+subsequently fell to Grant and Sherman to execute. Such a project
+would have been thoroughly consonant with Douglas's conviction of the
+inevitable unity and importance of the great valley; but evidence is
+wanting to corroborate this legend.<a name="FNanchor_986_986" id="FNanchor_986_986"></a><a href="#Footnote_986_986"><sup>[986]</sup></a> <a name="Page_480" id="Page_480"></a>Its frequent repetition,
+then and now, must rather be taken as a popular recognition of the
+complete accord between the President and the greatest of War
+Democrats. Colonel Forney, who stood very near to Douglas, afterward
+stated &quot;by authority,&quot; that President Lincoln would eventually have
+called Douglas into the administration or have placed him in one of
+the highest military commands.<a name="FNanchor_987_987" id="FNanchor_987_987"></a><a href="#Footnote_987_987"><sup>[987]</sup></a> Such importance may be given to
+this testimony as belongs to statements which have passed unconfirmed
+and unchallenged for half a century.</p>
+
+<p>On his way to Illinois, Douglas missed a train and was detained half a
+day in the little town of Bellaire, Ohio, a few miles below Wheeling
+in Virginia.<a name="FNanchor_988_988" id="FNanchor_988_988"></a><a href="#Footnote_988_988"><sup>[988]</sup></a> It was a happy accident, for just across the river
+the people of northwestern Virginia were meditating resistance to the
+secession movement, which under the guidance of Governor Letcher
+threatened to sever them from the Union-loving population of Ohio and
+Pennsylvania. It was precisely in this region, nearly a hundred years
+before, that popular sovereignty had almost succeeded in forming a
+fourteenth State of the Confederacy. There had always been a disparity
+between the people of these transmontane counties and the tide-water
+region. The intelligence that Douglas was in Bellaire speedily brought
+a throng about the hotel in which he was resting. There were clamors
+for a speech. In the afternoon he yielded to their importunities. By
+this time the countryside was aroused. People came across the river
+from Virginia and many <a name="Page_481" id="Page_481"></a>came down by train from Wheeling,<a name="FNanchor_989_989" id="FNanchor_989_989"></a><a href="#Footnote_989_989"><sup>[989]</sup></a> Men who
+were torn by a conflict of sentiments, not knowing where their
+paramount allegiance lay, hung upon his words.</p>
+
+<p>Douglas spoke soberly and thoughtfully, not as a Democrat, not as a
+Northern man, but simply and directly as a lover of the Union. &quot;If we
+recognize the right of secession in one case, we give our assent to it
+in all cases; and if the few States upon the Gulf are now to separate
+themselves from us, and erect a barrier across the mouth of that great
+river of which the Ohio is a tributary, how long will it be before New
+York may come to the conclusion that she may set up for herself, and
+levy taxes upon every dollar's worth of goods imported and consumed in
+the Northwest, and taxes upon every bushel of wheat, and every pound
+of pork, or beef, or other productions that may be sent from the
+Northwest to the Atlantic in search of a market?&quot; Secession meant
+endless division and sub-division, the formation of petty
+confederacies, appeals to the sword and the bayonet instead of to the
+ballot.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unite as a band of brothers,&quot; he pleaded, &quot;and rescue your government
+and its capital and your country from the enemy who have been the
+authors of your calamity.&quot; His eye rested upon the great river. &quot;Ah!&quot;
+he exclaimed, a great wave of emotion checking his utterance, &quot;This
+great valley must never be divided. The Almighty has so arranged the
+mountain and the plain, and the water-courses as to show that this
+valley in all time shall remain one and indissoluble. Let no man
+attempt to sunder what Divine Providence has rendered indivisible.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_990_990" id="FNanchor_990_990"></a><a href="#Footnote_990_990"><sup>[990]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482"></a>As he concluded, anxious questions were put to him, regarding the
+rumored retirement of General Scott from the army. &quot;I saw him only
+Saturday,&quot; replied Douglas. &quot;He was at his desk, pen in hand, writing
+his orders for the defense and safety of the American Capital.&quot; And as
+he repeated the words of General Scott declining the command of the
+forces of Virginia&mdash;&quot;'I have served my country under the flag of the
+Union for more than fifty years, and as long as God permits me to
+live, I will defend that flag with my sword; even if my own State
+assails it,'&quot;&mdash;the crowds around him broke into tumultuous cheers.
+Within thirty days the Unionists of western Virginia had rallied,
+organized, and begun that hardy campaign which brought West Virginia
+into the Union. On the very day that Douglas was making his fervent
+plea for the Union, Robert E. Lee cast in his lot with the South.</p>
+
+<p>At Columbus, Douglas was again forced to break his journey; and again
+he was summoned to address the crowd that gathered below his window.
+It was already dark; the people had collected without concert; there
+were no such trappings, as had characterized public demonstrations in
+the late campaign. Douglas appeared half-dressed at his bedroom
+window, a dim object to all save to those who stood directly below
+him. Out of the darkness came his solemn, sonorous tones, bringing
+relief and assurance to all who listened, for in the throng were men
+of all parties, men who had followed him through all changes of
+political weather, and men who had been his persistent foes. There was
+little cheering. As Douglas pledged anew his hearty support to
+President Lincoln, &quot;it was rather a deep 'Amen' that went up from the
+crowd,&quot; wrote one who <a name="Page_483" id="Page_483"></a>had distrusted hitherto the mighty power of
+this great popular leader.<a name="FNanchor_991_991" id="FNanchor_991_991"></a><a href="#Footnote_991_991"><sup>[991]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>On the 25th of April, Douglas reached Springfield, where he purposed
+to make his great plea for the Union. He spoke at the Capitol to
+members of the legislature and to packed galleries. Friend and foe
+alike bear witness to the extraordinary effect wrought by his words.
+&quot;I do not think that it is possible for a human being to produce a
+more prodigious effect with spoken words,&quot; wrote one who had formerly
+detested him.<a name="FNanchor_992_992" id="FNanchor_992_992"></a><a href="#Footnote_992_992"><sup>[992]</sup></a> &quot;Never in all my experience in public life, before
+or since,&quot; testified the then Speaker of the House, now high in the
+councils of the nation, &quot;have I been so impressed by a speaker.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_993_993" id="FNanchor_993_993"></a><a href="#Footnote_993_993"><sup>[993]</sup></a>
+Douglas himself was thrilled with his message. As he approached the
+climax, the veins of his neck and forehead were swollen with passion,
+and the perspiration ran down his face in streams. At times his clear
+and resonant voice reverberated through the chamber, until it seemed
+to shake the building.<a name="FNanchor_994_994" id="FNanchor_994_994"></a><a href="#Footnote_994_994"><sup>[994]</sup></a> While he was in the midst of a passionate
+invective, a man rushed into the hall bearing an American flag. The
+trumpet tones of the speaker and the sight of the Stars and Stripes
+roused the audience to the wildest pitch of excitement.<a name="FNanchor_995_995" id="FNanchor_995_995"></a><a href="#Footnote_995_995"><sup>[995]</sup></a> Men and
+women became hysterical with the divine madness of patriotism. &quot;When
+hostile armies,&quot; he exclaimed with amazing force, &quot;When hostile armies
+are marching under new and odious banners against the <a name="Page_484" id="Page_484"></a>government of
+our country, the shortest way to peace is the most stupendous and
+unanimous preparation for war. We in the great valley of the
+Mississippi have peculiar interests and inducements in the struggle
+... I ask every citizen in the great basin between the Rocky Mountains
+and the Alleghanies ... to tell me whether he is ever willing to
+sanction a line of policy that may isolate us from the markets of the
+world, and make us dependent provinces upon the powers that thus
+choose to isolate us?... Hence, if a war does come, it is a war of
+self-defense on our part. It is a war in defense of the Government
+which we have inherited as a priceless legacy from our patriotic
+fathers, in defense of those great rights of freedom of trade,
+commerce, transit and intercourse from the center to the circumference
+of our great continent.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_996_996" id="FNanchor_996_996"></a><a href="#Footnote_996_996"><sup>[996]</sup></a></p>
+
+<p>The voice of the strong man, so little given to weak sentiment, broke,
+as he said, &quot;I have struggled almost against hope to avert the
+calamities of war and to effect a reunion and reconciliation with our
+brethren in the South. I yet hope it may be done, but I am not able to
+point out how it may be. Nothing short of Providence can reveal to us
+the issues of this great struggle. Bloody&mdash;calamitous&mdash;I fear it will
+be. May we so conduct it, if a collision must come, that we will stand
+justified in the eyes of Him who knows our hearts, and who will
+justify our every act. We must not yield to resentments, nor to the
+spirit of vengeance, much less to the desire for conquest or ambition.
+I see no path of ambition open in a bloody struggle for triumphs over
+my countrymen. There is no path of <a name="Page_485" id="Page_485"></a>ambition open for me in a divided
+country.... My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is
+the most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart&mdash;with a grief
+I have never before experienced&mdash;that I have to contemplate this
+fearful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is a duty we
+owe to ourselves and to our children, and to our God, to protect this
+Government and that flag from every assailant, be he who he may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Thereafter treason had no abiding place within the limits of the State
+of Illinois. And no one, it may be safely affirmed, could have so
+steeled the hearts of men in Southern Illinois for the death grapple.
+In a manly passage in his speech, Douglas said, &quot;I believe I may with
+confidence appeal to the people of every section of the country to
+bear witness that I have been as thoroughly national as any man that
+has lived in my day. And I believe if I should make an appeal to the
+people of Illinois, or of the Northern States, to their impartial
+verdict; they would say that whatever errors I have committed have
+been in leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union against
+my own.... I have never pandered to the prejudice and passion of my
+section against the minority section of the Union.&quot; It was precisely
+this truth which gave him a hearing through the length and breadth of
+Illinois and the Northwest during this crisis.</p>
+
+<p>The return of Douglas to Chicago was the signal for a remarkable
+demonstration of regard. He had experienced many strange home-comings.
+His Democratic following, not always discriminating, had ever accorded
+him noisy homage. His political opponents had alternately execrated
+him and given him grudging <a name="Page_486" id="Page_486"></a>praise. But never before had men of all
+parties, burying their differences, united to do him honor. On the
+evening of his arrival, he was escorted to the Wigwam, where hardly a
+year ago Lincoln had been nominated for the presidency. Before him
+were men who had participated jubilantly in the Republican campaign,
+with many a bitter gibe at the champion of &quot;squatter sovereignty.&quot;
+Douglas could not conceal his gratification at this proof that,
+however men had differed from him on political questions, they had
+believed in his loyalty. And it was of loyalty, not of himself, that
+he spoke. He did not spare Southern feelings before this Chicago
+audience. He told his hearers unequivocally that the slavery question,
+the election of Lincoln, and the territorial question, were so many
+pretexts for dissolving the Union. &quot;The present secession movement is
+the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since,
+formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months
+ago.&quot; But this was no time to discuss pretexts and causes. &quot;The
+conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to
+accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man
+must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals
+in this war; <i>only patriots</i>&mdash;<i>or traitors</i>.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_997_997" id="FNanchor_997_997"></a><a href="#Footnote_997_997"><sup>[997]</sup></a> It was the first
+time he had used the ugly epithet.</p>
+
+<p>Hardly had he summoned the people of Illinois to do battle, when again
+he touched that pathetic note that recurred again and again in his
+appeal at Springfield. Was it the memory of the mother of his boys
+that moved him to say, &quot;But we must remember <a name="Page_487" id="Page_487"></a>certain restraints on
+our action even in time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war
+must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations. We
+must not invade Constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer,
+nor women and children be the victims.&quot; Before him were some who felt
+toward the people of the South as Greek toward barbarian. But Douglas
+foresaw that the horrors of war must invade and desolate the homes of
+those whom he still held dear. There is no more lovable and admirable
+side of his personality than this tenderness for the helpless and
+innocent. Had he but lived to temper justice with mercy, what a power
+for good might he not have been in the days of reconstruction!</p>
+
+<p>The summons had gone forth. Already doubts and misgivings had given
+way, and the North was now practically unanimous in its determination
+to stifle rebellion. There was a common belief that secession was the
+work of a minority, skillfully led by designing politicians, and that
+the loyal majority would rally with the North to defend the flag.
+Young men who responded jubilantly to the call to arms did not doubt,
+that the struggle would be brief. Douglas shared the common belief in
+the conspiracy theory of secession, but he indulged no illusion as to
+the nature of the war, if war should come. Months before the firing
+upon Fort Sumter, in a moment of depression, he had prophesied that if
+the cotton States should succeed in drawing the border States into
+their schemes of secession, the most fearful civil war the world had
+ever seen would follow, lasting for years. &quot;Virginia,&quot; said he,
+pointing toward Arlington, &quot;over yonder across the Potomac, will
+become a charnel-house.... Washington <a name="Page_488" id="Page_488"></a>will become a city of
+hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This
+house 'Minnesota Block,' will be devoted to that purpose before the
+end of the war.&quot;<a name="FNanchor_998_998" id="FNanchor_998_998"></a><a href="#Footnote_998_998"><sup>[998]</sup></a> He, at least, did not mistake the chivalry of
+the South. Not for an instant did he doubt the capacity of the
+Southern people to suffer and endure, as well as to do battle. And he
+knew&mdash;Ah! how well&mdash;the self-sacrifice and devotion of Southern women.</p>
+
+<p>The days following the return of Douglas to Chicago were filled also
+with worries and anxieties of a private nature. The financial panic of
+1857 had been accompanied by a depression of land values, which caused
+Douglas grave concern for his holdings in Chicago, and no little
+immediate distress. Unable and unwilling to sacrifice his investments,
+he had mortgaged nearly all of his property in Cook County, including
+the valuable &quot;Grove Property&quot; in South Chicago. Though he was always
+lax in pecuniary matters, and, with his buoyant generous nature,
+little disposed to take anxious thought for the morrow, these heavy
+financial obligations began now to press upon him with grievous
+weight. The prolonged strain of the previous twelve months had racked
+even his constitution. He had made heavy drafts on his bodily health,
+with all too little regard for the inevitable compensation which
+Nature demands. As in all other things, he had been prodigal with
+Nature's choicest gift.</p>
+
+<p>Not long after his public address Douglas fell ill and developed
+symptoms that gave his physicians the gravest concern. Weeks of
+illness followed. The <a name="Page_489" id="Page_489"></a>disease, baffling medical skill, ran its
+course. Yet never in his lucid moments did Douglas forget the ills of
+his country; and even when delirium clouded his mind, he was still
+battling for the Union. &quot;Telegraph to the President and let the column
+move on,&quot; he cried, wrestling with his wasting fever. In his last
+hours his mind cleared. Early on the morning of June 3d, he seemed to
+rally, but only momentarily. It was evident to those about him that
+the great summons had come. Tenderly his devoted wife leaned over him
+to ask if he had any message for his boys, &quot;Robbie&quot; and &quot;Stevie.&quot; With
+great effort, but clearly and emphatically, he replied, &quot;Tell them to
+obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States.&quot; Not
+long after, he grappled with the great Foe, and the soul of a great
+patriot passed on.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span>&quot;I was ever a fighter, so&mdash;one fight more,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The best and the last!<br /></span>
+<span>I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And bade me creep past.<br /></span>
+<span>No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The heroes of old,<br /></span>
+<span>Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of pain, darkness and cold.&quot;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>With almost royal pomp, the earthly remains of Stephen Arnold Douglas
+were buried beside the inland sea that washes the shores of the home
+of his adoption. It is a fitting resting place. The tempestuous waters
+of the great lake reflect his own stormy career. Yet they have their
+milder moods. There are hours when sunlight falls aslant the subdued
+surface and irradiates the depths.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<p class="cen">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+<br />
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_979_979" id="Footnote_979_979"></a><a href="#FNanchor_979_979">[979]</a> Holland, Life of Lincoln, p. 301.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_980_980" id="Footnote_980_980"></a><a href="#FNanchor_980_980">[980]</a> <i>Ibid.</i>, p. 302.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_981_981" id="Footnote_981_981"></a><a href="#FNanchor_981_981">[981]</a> Arnold, Lincoln, pp. 200-201. The date of this dispatch
+should be April 14, and not April 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_982_982" id="Footnote_982_982"></a><a href="#FNanchor_982_982">[982]</a> Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 224.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_983_983" id="Footnote_983_983"></a><a href="#FNanchor_983_983">[983]</a> New York <i>Tribune</i>, April 18.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_984_984" id="Footnote_984_984"></a><a href="#FNanchor_984_984">[984]</a> Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 225.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_985_985" id="Footnote_985_985"></a><a href="#FNanchor_985_985">[985]</a> Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 249 note; Forney,
+Anecdotes, I, p. 225.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_986_986" id="Footnote_986_986"></a><a href="#FNanchor_986_986">[986]</a> Many friends of Douglas have assured me of their
+unshaken belief in this story.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_987_987" id="Footnote_987_987"></a><a href="#FNanchor_987_987">[987]</a> Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 121, 226.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_988_988" id="Footnote_988_988"></a><a href="#FNanchor_988_988">[988]</a> Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, April 26, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_989_989" id="Footnote_989_989"></a><a href="#FNanchor_989_989">[989]</a> Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, April 26, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_990_990" id="Footnote_990_990"></a><a href="#FNanchor_990_990">[990]</a> The Philadelphia <i>Press</i>, April 26, 1861, reprinted the
+speech from the Wheeling <i>Intelligencer</i> of April 21, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_991_991" id="Footnote_991_991"></a><a href="#FNanchor_991_991">[991]</a> J.D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, I,
+pp. 5-6.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_992_992" id="Footnote_992_992"></a><a href="#FNanchor_992_992">[992]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_993_993" id="Footnote_993_993"></a><a href="#FNanchor_993_993">[993]</a> Senator Cullom of Illinois, quoted in Arnold, Lincoln,
+p. 201, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_994_994" id="Footnote_994_994"></a><a href="#FNanchor_994_994">[994]</a> Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_995_995" id="Footnote_995_995"></a><a href="#FNanchor_995_995">[995]</a> Arnold, Lincoln, p. 201, note.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_996_996" id="Footnote_996_996"></a><a href="#FNanchor_996_996">[996]</a> The speech was printed in full in the New York
+<i>Tribune</i>, May 1, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_997_997" id="Footnote_997_997"></a><a href="#FNanchor_997_997">[997]</a> The New York <i>Tribune</i>, June 13th, and the Philadelphia
+<i>Press</i>, June 14th, published this speech in full.</p></div>
+
+<div class="note"><p class="hang"><a name="Footnote_998_998" id="Footnote_998_998"></a><a href="#FNanchor_998_998">[998]</a> Arnold, Lincoln, p. 193. See also his remarks in the
+Senate, January 3, 1861.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX"></a><hr />
+<br />
+<h3><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490"></a>INDEX<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<ul>
+<li>Abolitionism, debate in the Senate on, <a href="#Page_124">124-126</a>.</li>
+<li>Abolitionists, in Illinois, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158-160</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>agitation of, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Adams, John Quincy, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>catechises Douglas, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Albany Regency, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+<li>Anderson, Robert, dispatch to War Department, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>moves garrison to Port Sumter, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Andrews, Sherlock J., <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+<li>Anti-Masonry, in New York, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+<li>Anti-Nebraska party. <i>See</i> Republican party.</li>
+<li>&quot;Appeal of the Independent Democrats,&quot; origin, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>assails motives of Douglas, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Arnold, Martha, grandmother of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+<li>Arnold, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+<li>Ashmun, George, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li>
+<li>Atchison, David R., pro-slavery leader in Missouri, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>favors Nebraska bill (1853), <a href="#Page_225">225</a>;</li>
+  <li>and repeal of Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+  </ul><br />
+</li>
+<li>Badger, George E., <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Barnburners,&quot; <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
+<li>Bay Islands, Colony of, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+<li>Bell, John, presidential candidate, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440</a>.</li>
+<li>Benjamin, Judah P., quoted, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
+<li>Benton, Thomas H., <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+<li>Berrien, John M., <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+<li>Bigler, William, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+<li>Bissell, William H., <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+<li>Black, Jeremiah S., controversy with Douglas, <a href="#Page_409">409-410</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Black Republicans,&quot; origin of epithet, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>arraigned by Douglas, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374-375</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>&quot;Blue Lodges&quot; of Missouri, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+<li>Boyd, Linn, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+<li>Brandon, birthplace of Douglas, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>.</li>
+<li>Brandon Academy, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+<li>Breckinridge, John C., <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>presidential candidate (1860), <a href="#Page_427">427</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440-441</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Breese, Sidney, judge of Circuit Court, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>elected Senator, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Federal patronage, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>;</li>
+  <li>director of Great Western Railroad Company, <a href="#Page_168">168-170</a>;</li>
+  <li>retirement, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Bright, Jesse D., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
+<li>Broderick, David C., and Lecompton constitution, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and English bill, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>;</li>
+  <li>killed, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Brooks, S.S., editor of Jacksonville <i>News</i>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+<li>Brooks, Preston, assaults Sumner, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+<li>Brown, Albert G., <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397-398</a>, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
+<li>Brown, John, Pottawatomie massacre, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Harper's Ferry raid, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Brown, Milton, of Tennessee, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+<li>Browning, O.H., <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+<li>Buchanan, James, candidacy (1852), <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>nominated for presidency (1856), <a href="#Page_276">276-278</a>;</li>
+  <li>indorses Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_279">279</a> <i>n.</i>;</li>
+  <li>elected, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>;</li>
+  <li>appoints Walker governor of Kansas, <a href="#Page_324">324-325</a>;</li>
+  <li>interview with Douglas, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>;</li>
+  <li>message, <a href="#Page_328">328-329</a>;</li>
+  <li>advises admission of Kansas, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>;</li>
+  <li>orders reinforcement of Sumter, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Bulwer, Sir Henry, Clayton-Bulwer treaty, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>.</li>
+<li>Butler, Andrew P., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Calhoun, John, president of Lecompton Convention, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>.</li>
+<li>Calhoun, John C., <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>;</li>
+  <li>radical Southern leader, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>;</li>
+  <li>on the Constitution, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>California, coveted by Polk, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Clayton Compromise, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li>Polk's programme, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>statehood bill, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>;</li>
+  <li>controversy in Senate, <a href="#Page_135">135-142</a>;</li>
+  <li>Clay's resolutions, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li>
+  <li>new statehood bill, <a href="#Page_181">181-184</a>;</li>
+  <li>the Omnibus, <a href="#Page_184">184-186</a>;</li>
+  <li>admitted, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Canandaigua Academy, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>.</li>
+<li>Carlin, Thomas, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li>
+<li>Cass, Lewis, defends Oregon policy, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>introduces Ten Regiments bill, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>;</li>
+  <li>Nicholson letter, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;</li>
+  <li>presidential candidate, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+  <li>candidacy (1852), <a href="#Page_206">206</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Clayton-Bulwer treaty, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Monroe Doctrine, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_245">245-246</a>;</li>
+  <li>candidacy (1856), <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Sumner, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Charleston Convention, delegates to, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>organization of, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>;</li>
+  <li>Committee on Resolutions, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>;</li>
+  <li>speech of Payne, <a href="#Page_418">418-419</a>;</li>
+  <li>speech of Yancey, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>;</li>
+  <li>speech of Pugh, <a href="#Page_419">419-420</a>;</li>
+  <li>minority report adopted, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</li>
+  <li>secession, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</li>
+  <li>balloting, <a href="#Page_420">420-421</a>;</li>
+  <li>adjournment, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Chase, Salmon P., joint author of the &quot;Appeal,&quot; <a href="#Page_240">240-241</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>; <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
+  <li>assailed by Douglas, <a href="#Page_251">251-252</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Chicago, residence of Douglas, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>investments of Douglas in, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Chicago Convention, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li>
+<li>Chicago <i>Press and Tribune</i>, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>declares Springfield resolutions a forgery, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Chicago <i>Times</i>, Douglas organ in Northwest, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+<li>Chicago University, gift of Douglas to, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+<li>Clark Resolution (1861), <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+<li>Clay, Henry, compromise programme, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_183">183-184</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Utah bill, <a href="#Page_186">186-187</a>;</li>
+  <li>on passage of compromise measures, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Clayton-Bulwer treaty, <a  href="#Page_209">209-214</a>.</li>
+<li>Clayton, John M., <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Oregon, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li><i>entente</i> with Bulwer, <a href="#Page_209">209-210</a>;</li>
+  <li>assailed by Cass and Douglas, <a href="#Page_211">211-212</a>;</li>
+  <li>replies to critics, <a href="#Page_213">213-214</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_247">247-248</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Clingman, Thomas L., <a href="#Page_425">425</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+<li>Colfax, Schuyler, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>.</li>
+<li>Collamer, Jacob, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446-447</a>.</li>
+<li>Colorado bill, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>substitute of Douglas for, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459-460</a>;</li>
+  <li>slavery in, <a href="#Page_456">456</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458-459</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Committee on Territories, Douglas as chairman, in House, <a href="#Page_99">99-100</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>in Senate, <a href="#Page_119">119-120</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas deposed, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Compromise of 1850, Clay's resolutions, <a href="#Page_176">176-177</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>speech of Douglas, <a href="#Page_177">177-181</a>;</li>
+  <li>compromise bills, <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>;</li>
+  <li>committee of thirteen, <a href="#Page_183">183-184</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate in Senate, <a href="#Page_184">184-187</a>;</li>
+  <li>passage, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;</li>
+  <li>finality resolution, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a>; <a href="#Page_197">197</a>;</li>
+  <li>principle involved, <a href="#Page_189">189-190</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Constitutional Union party, possibility of, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>nominates Bell, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</li>
+  <li>prospects, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Cook, Isaac, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
+<li>Crittenden Compromise, <a href="#Page_446">446-447</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>indorsed by Douglas, <a href="#Page_447">447-448</a>;</li>
+  <li>proposed referendum on, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>;</li>
+  <li>opposed by Republicans, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</li>
+  <li>defeated, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Crittenden, John J., favors Douglas's re-election, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>compromise resolutions, <a href="#Page_446">446-447</a>;</li>
+  <li>efforts for peace, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Cuba, acquisition of, favored by Douglas, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396-397</a>.</li>
+<li>Cutts, J. Madison, father of Ad&egrave;le Cutts Douglas, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Danites, Mormon order, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;
+    <ul>
+  <li>Buchanan Democrats, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Davis, Jefferson, and Douglas, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>;
+    <ul>
+  <li>and Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Freeport doctrine, <a href="#Page_399">399</a> ff., <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</li>
+  <li>resolutions of, <a href="#Page_415">415-416</a>;</li>
+  <li>assails Douglas, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>;</li>
+  <li>on candidates and platforms, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Southern grievances, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>;</li>
+  <li>on committee of thirteen, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>;</li>
+  <li>permits attack on Sumter, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Davis, John, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+<li>Democratic party, Baltimore convention (1844), <a href="#Page_79">79</a>;
+    <ul>
+  <li>campaign, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a>;</li>
+  <li>platform, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98-99</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104-105</a>;</li>
+  <li>convention of 1848, <a href="#Page_131">131-132</a>;</li>
+  <li>Cass and Barnburners, <a href="#Page_132">132-133</a>;</li>
+  <li>convention of 1852, <a href="#Page_204">204-206</a>;</li>
+  <li>campaign, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li>
+  <li>Cincinnati convention, <a href="#Page_276">276-278</a>;</li>
+  <li>platform and candidate, <a href="#Page_278">278-279</a>;</li>
+  <li>&quot;Bleeding Kansas,&quot; <a href="#Page_299">299</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>election of 1856, <a href="#Page_305">305-306</a>;</li>
+  <li>Charleston convention, <a href="#Page_413">413</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>Davis resolutions, <a href="#Page_415">415-416</a>;</li>
+  <li>minority report, <a href="#Page_418">418-420</a>;</li>
+  <li>secession, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>;</li>
+  <li>adjournment, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</li>
+  <li>Baltimore convention, <a href="#Page_426">426-428</a>;</li>
+  <li>Bolters' convention, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li>
+  <li>campaign of 1860, <a href="#Page_429">429-441</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li><i>Democratic Review</i>, and candidacy of Douglas (1852), <a href="#Page_200">200-202</a>.</li>
+<li>Dickinson, Daniel S., <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
+<li>Divorce, Douglas on, <a href="#Page_33">33-34</a>.</li>
+<li>Dixon, Archibald, and repeal of Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_235">235-236</a>;
+    <ul>
+  <li>and Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Dodge, Augustus C., Nebraska bill of, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;
+    <ul>
+  <li>favors two Territories, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Doolittle, James R., <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+<li>Douglas, Ad&egrave;le Cutts, wife of Stephen A., <a href="#Page_316">316-317</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>leader in Washington society, <a href="#Page_336">336-337</a>;</li>
+  <li>in campaign of 1858, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>;</li>
+  <li>in campaign of 1860, <a href="#Page_438">438</a>;</li>
+  <li>calls upon Mrs. Lincoln, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>; <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Douglas, Martha (<i>n&eacute;e</i> Martha Denny Martin), daughter of
+  <ul>
+  <li>Robert Martin, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;</li>
+  <li>marries Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
+  <li>inherits father's estate, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>;</li>
+  <li>death, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Douglas, Stephen Arnold.
+  <ul>
+  <li><i>Early years</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>ancestry and birth, <a href="#Page_4">4-5</a>;</li>
+    <li>boyhood, <a href="#Page_5">5-7</a>;</li>
+    <li>apprentice, <a href="#Page_8">8-9</a>;</li>
+    <li>in Brandon Academy, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
+    <li>removal to New York, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>;</li>
+    <li>in Canandaigua Academy, <a href="#Page_9">9-10</a>;</li>
+    <li>studies law, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>;</li>
+    <li>goes west, <a href="#Page_11">11-13</a>;</li>
+    <li>reaches Jacksonville, Illinois, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>;</li>
+    <li>teaches school, <a href="#Page_16">16-17</a>;</li>
+    <li>admitted to bar, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>Beginnings in Politics</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>first public speech, <a href="#Page_20">20-21</a>;</li>
+    <li>elected State's attorney, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>;</li>
+    <li>first indictments, <a href="#Page_23">23-24</a>;</li>
+    <li>defends Caucus system, <a href="#Page_26">26-27</a>;</li>
+    <li>candidate for Legislature, <a href="#Page_27">27-29</a>;</li>
+    <li>in Legislature, <a href="#Page_29">29-34</a>;</li>
+    <li>Register of Land Office, <a href="#Page_35">35-36</a>;</li>
+    <li>nominated for Congress (1837), <a href="#Page_40">40-41</a>;</li>
+    <li>campaign against Stuart, <a href="#Page_42">42-44</a>;</li>
+    <li>resumes law practice, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>;</li>
+    <li>chairman of State committee, <a href="#Page_47">47-50</a>;</li>
+    <li>Secretary of State, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>;</li>
+    <li>appointed judge, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a>;</li>
+    <li>visits Mormons, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>;</li>
+    <li>on the Bench, <a href="#Page_63">63-64</a>;</li>
+    <li>candidate for Senate, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>;</li>
+    <li>nominated for Congress, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>;</li>
+    <li>elected, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>Congressman</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>defends Jackson, <a href="#Page_69">69-72</a>;</li>
+    <li>reports on Election Law, <a href="#Page_73">73-76</a>;</li>
+    <li>plea for Internal Improvements, <a href="#Page_77">77-78</a>;</li>
+    <li>on Polk, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+    <li>meets Jackson, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>;</li>
+    <li>re-elected (1844), <a href="#Page_83">83</a>;</li>
+    <li>advocates annexation of Texas, <a href="#Page_85">85-90</a>;</li>
+    <li>and the Mormons, <a href="#Page_91">91-92</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes Oregon bills, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;</li>
+    <li>urges &quot;re-occupation of Oregon,&quot; <a href="#Page_96">96-98</a>;</li>
+    <li>supports Polk's policy, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+    <li>appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+    <li>offers bill on Oregon, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</li>
+    <li>opposes compromise and arbitration, <a href="#Page_101">101-103</a>;</li>
+    <li>renominated for Congress, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+    <li>and the President, <a href="#Page_104">104-106</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes organization of Oregon, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+    <li>advocates admission of Florida, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>;</li>
+    <li>defends Mexican War, <a href="#Page_109">109-110</a>;</li>
+    <li>claims Rio Grande as boundary, <a href="#Page_111">111-114</a>;</li>
+    <li>seeks military appointment, <a href="#Page_114">114-115</a>;</li>
+    <li>re-elected (1846), <a href="#Page_115">115</a>;</li>
+    <li>defends Polk's war policy, <a href="#Page_116">116-117</a>;</li>
+    <li>elected Senator (1847), <a href="#Page_117">117-118</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>United States Senator</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>;</li>
+    <li>on Ten Regiments bill, <a href="#Page_120">120-122</a>;</li>
+    <li>on Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_124">124-126</a>;</li>
+    <li>second attempt to organize Oregon, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+    <li>favors Clayton Compromise, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes extension of Missouri Compromise line, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li>
+    <li>offers California statehood bills, <a href="#Page_134">134-137</a>;</li>
+    <li>advocates &quot;squatter sovereignty,&quot; <a href="#Page_138">138-139</a>;</li>
+    <li>presents resolutions of Illinois Legislature, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>;</li>
+    <li>marriage, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>;</li>
+    <li>denies ownership of slaves, <a href="#Page_149">149-150</a>;</li>
+    <li>removes to Chicago, <a href="#Page_169">169</a>;</li>
+    <li>advocates central railroad, <a href="#Page_169">169-172</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech on California (1850), <a href="#Page_177">177</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>concerts territorial bills with Toombs and Stephens, <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>;</li>
+    <li>vote on compromise measures, <a href="#Page_187">187-188</a>;</li>
+    <li>defends Fugitive Slave Law, <a href="#Page_191">191-194</a>;</li>
+    <li>presidential aspirations, <a href="#Page_195">195-196</a>;</li>
+    <li>on intervention in Hungary, <a href="#Page_199">199-200</a>;</li>
+    <li>candidacy (1852), <a href="#Page_200">200-206</a>;</li>
+    <li>in campaign of 1852, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li>
+    <li>re-elected Senator, <a href="#Page_208">208</a> <i>n.</i>;</li>
+    <li>death of his wife, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>;</li>
+    <li>on Clayton-Bulwer treaty, <a href="#Page_211">211-214</a>;</li>
+    <li>hostility to Great Britain, <a href="#Page_215">215-216</a>;</li>
+    <li>travels abroad, <a href="#Page_217">217-219</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes military colonization of Nebraska, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li>
+    <li>urges organization of Nebraska, <a href="#Page_224">224-225</a>;</li>
+    <li>report of January 4, 1854, <a href="#Page_229">229</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>offers substitute for Dodge bill, <a href="#Page_231">231-232</a>;</li>
+    <li>interprets new bill, <a href="#Page_233">233-234</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Dixon, <a href="#Page_235">235-236</a>;</li>
+    <li>drafts Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>;</li>
+    <li>secures support of administration, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a>;</li>
+    <li>reports bill, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>;</li>
+    <li>arraigned by Independent Democrats, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>;</li>
+    <li>replies to &quot;Appeal,&quot; <a href="#Page_241">241-243</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes amendments to Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>;</li>
+    <li>closes debate, <a href="#Page_251">251-254</a>;</li>
+    <li>answers protests, <a href="#Page_256">256-257</a>;</li>
+    <li>faces mob in Chicago, <a href="#Page_258">258-259</a>;</li>
+    <li>denounces Know-Nothings, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li>
+    <li>in campaign of 1854, <a href="#Page_264">264</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>debate with Lincoln, <a href="#Page_265">265-266</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Shields, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href="#Page_268">268</a>;</li>
+    <li>on the elections, <a href="#Page_269">269-272</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Wade, <a href="#Page_272">272-273</a>;</li>
+    <li>on &quot;Black Republicanism,&quot; <a href="#Page_275">275-276</a>;</li>
+    <li>candidacy at Cincinnati, <a href="#Page_276">276-278</a>;</li>
+    <li>supports Buchanan, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>;</li>
+    <li>reports on Kansas, <a href="#Page_289">289-293</a>;</li>
+    <li>proposes admission of Kansas, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>;</li>
+    <li>replies to Trumbull, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Sumner, <a href="#Page_296">296-298</a>;</li>
+    <li>reports Toombs bill, <a href="#Page_300">300-301</a>;</li>
+    <li>omits referendum provision, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</li>
+    <li>subsequent defense, <a href="#Page_303">303-304</a>;</li>
+    <li>in campaign of 1856, <a href="#Page_304">304-306</a>;</li>
+    <li>second marriage, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>;</li>
+    <li>on Dred Scott decision, <a href="#Page_321">321-323</a>;</li>
+    <li>interview with Walker, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li>
+    <li>  and Buchanan, <a href="#Page_327">327-328</a>;</li>
+    <li>denounces Lecompton constitution, <a href="#Page_329">329-332</a>;</li>
+    <li>report on Kansas, <a href="#Page_338">338-340</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech on Lecomptonism, <a href="#Page_341">341-343</a>;</li>
+    <li>rejects English bill, <a href="#Page_345">345-347</a>;</li>
+    <li>Republican ally, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</li>
+    <li>re-election opposed, <a href="#Page_349">349-350</a>;</li>
+    <li>in Chicago, <a href="#Page_352">352-354</a>;</li>
+    <li>opening speech of campaign, <a href="#Page_354">354-357</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Bloomington, <a href="#Page_358">358-360</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Springfield, <a href="#Page_360">360-361</a>;</li>
+    <li>agrees to joint debate, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</li>
+    <li>first debate at Ottawa, <a href="#Page_363">363-370</a>;</li>
+    <li>Springfield resolutions, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>;</li>
+    <li>Freeport debate, <a href="#Page_370">370-375</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate at Jonesboro, <a href="#Page_375">375-378</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate at Charleston, <a href="#Page_378">378-381</a>;</li>
+    <li>friends and foes, <a href="#Page_381">381-382</a>;</li>
+    <li>resources, <a href="#Page_382">382-383</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate at Galesburg, <a href="#Page_383">383-386</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate at Quincy, <a href="#Page_386">386-388</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate at Alton, <a href="#Page_388">388-390</a>;</li>
+    <li>the election, <a href="#Page_391">391-392</a>;</li>
+    <li>journey to South and Cuba, <a href="#Page_393">393-395</a>;</li>
+    <li>deposed from chairmanship of Committee on Territories, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>;</li>
+    <li>supports Slidell project, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li>
+    <li>debate of February 23, 1859, <a href="#Page_397">397</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>opposes slave-trade, <a href="#Page_403">403-404</a>;</li>
+    <li><i>Harper's Magazine</i> article, <a href="#Page_405">405-409</a>;</li>
+    <li>controversy with Black, <a href="#Page_409">409-410</a>;</li>
+    <li>in Ohio, <a href="#Page_410">410-411</a>;</li>
+    <li>presidential candidate of Northwest, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;</li>
+    <li>and the South, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Republicans, <a href="#Page_414">414-415</a>;</li>
+    <li>candidate at Charleston, <a href="#Page_416">416</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>defends his orthodoxy, <a href="#Page_422">422-424</a>;</li>
+    <li>nominated at Baltimore, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</li>
+    <li>letter of acceptance, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>;</li>
+    <li>personal canvass, <a href="#Page_429">429-439</a>;</li>
+    <li>on election of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_439">439</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>and Crittenden compromise, <a href="#Page_446">446-448</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech of January 3, 1861, <a href="#Page_449">449</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>  efforts for peace, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</li>
+    <li>offers fugitive slave bill, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Mason, <a href="#Page_454">454-455</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Wigfall, <a href="#Page_455">455-456</a>;</li>
+    <li>fears the Blairs, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</li>
+    <li>opinion of President-elect, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</li>
+    <li>and Lincoln, <a href="#Page_462">462-463</a>;</li>
+    <li>at inauguration, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</li>
+    <li>and the inaugural, <a href="#Page_466">466-468</a>;</li>
+    <li>on reinforcement of Sumter, <a href="#Page_468">468-469</a>;</li>
+    <li>in the confidence of Lincoln, <a href="#Page_469">469-470</a>;</li>
+    <li>on policy of administration, <a href="#Page_471">471-473</a>;</li>
+    <li>faces war, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</li>
+    <li>closeted with Lincoln, April <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_475">475-477</a>;</li>
+    <li>press dispatch, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>;</li>
+    <li>first War Democrat, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</li>
+    <li>mission in Northwest, <a href="#Page_478">478-480</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Bellaire, <a href="#Page_480">480-482</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Columbus, <a href="#Page_482">482-483</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Springfield, <a href="#Page_483">483-485</a>;</li>
+    <li>speech at Chicago, <a href="#Page_485">485-487</a>;</li>
+    <li>premonitions of war, <a href="#Page_487">487-488</a>;</li>
+    <li>last illness and death, <a href="#Page_488">488-489</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>Personal traits</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>Physical appearance, <a href="#Page_22">22-23</a>, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-295</a>, <a href="#Page_364">364-365</a>;</li>
+    <li>limitations upon his culture, <a href="#Page_36">36-37</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119-120</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215-217</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270-272</a>;</li>
+    <li>his indebtedness to Southern associations, <a href="#Page_147">147-148</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317-318</a>;</li>
+    <li>advocate rather than judge, <a href="#Page_70">70-71</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121-122</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177-181</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270-272</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>;</li>
+    <li>liberal in religion, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</li>
+    <li>retentive memory, <a href="#Page_319">319-320</a>;</li>
+    <li>his impulsiveness, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li>
+    <li>his generosity of temper, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li>
+    <li>his loyalty to friends, <a href="#Page_267">267-268</a>, <a href="#Page_318">318-319</a>;</li>
+    <li>his prodigality in pecuniary matters, <a href="#Page_309">309-310</a>;</li>
+    <li>his domestic relations, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;</li>
+    <li>the man and the politician, <a href="#Page_270">270-272</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>As a party leader</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>early interest in politics, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>;</li>
+    <li>schooling in politics, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a>;</li>
+    <li>his talent as organizer, <a href="#Page_25">25</a> ff.; <a href="#Page_39">39</a> ff., <a href="#Page_47">47-50</a>;</li>
+    <li>secret of his popularity, <a href="#Page_318">318-319</a>;</li>
+    <li>his partisanship, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+  <li><i>As a statesman</i>:
+    <ul>
+    <li>readiness in debate, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>;</li>
+    <li>early manner of speaking, <a href="#Page_70">70</a> ff.;</li>
+    <li>later manner, <a href="#Page_251">251-252</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294-297</a>;</li>
+    <li>insight into value of the public domain, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311-312</a>;</li>
+    <li>belief in territorial expansion, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107-108</a>;</li>
+    <li>his Chauvinism, <a href="#Page_87">87-88</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97-98</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101-103</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_211">211-214</a>;</li>
+    <li>his statecraft, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107-108</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174-181</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270-272</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314-315</a>;</li>
+    <li>abhorrence of civil war, <a href="#Page_449">449-451</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484-487</a>;</li>
+    <li>love of the Union, <a href="#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436-437</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>, <a href="#Page_489">489</a>.</li>
+    </ul>
+  </li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Douglass, Benajah, grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_4">4-5</a>.</li>
+<li>Douglass, Sally Fisk, mother of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+<li>Douglass, Stephen A., father of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li>
+<li>Douglass, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+<li>Dred Scott decision, Douglas on, <a href="#Page_321">321-323</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359-360</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372-373</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Lincoln on, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376-377</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Duncan, Joseph, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+<li>Election Law of 1842, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas on, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Elections, State and local, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158-159</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>congressional, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73-76</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>;</li>
+  <li>senatorial, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_208">208</a> <i>n.</i>, <a href="#Page_268">268-269</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391-392</a>;</li>
+  <li>presidential, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440-441</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>English bill, reported, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>;
+  <ul>
+    <li>opposed by Douglas, <a href="#Page_345">345-346</a>;</li>
+  <li>passed, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Everett, Edward, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Fessenden, William P., <a href="#Page_473">473-474</a>.</li>
+<li>Field, Alexander P., <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+<li>Fillmore, Millard, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+<li>Fitch, Graham N., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li>
+<li>Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+<li>Foote, Henry S., on Abolitionism, <a href="#Page_124">124-125</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>;</li>
+  <li>offers finality resolution, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Ford, Thomas, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li>
+<li>Forney, John W., <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Douglas and Lincoln, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Fort Pickens, question of evacuating, <a href="#Page_468">468</a> ff.</li>
+<li>Fort Sumter, occupation advised, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>occupied, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>;</li>
+  <li>abortive attempt to reinforce, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</li>
+  <li>question of evacuating, <a href="#Page_468">468</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>attack upon, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</li>
+  <li>capitulation of, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Francis, Simeon, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
+<li>Fr&eacute;mont, John C., <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+<li>Freeport doctrine, foreshadowed, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359-360</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>stated, <a href="#Page_372">372-373</a>;</li>
+  <li>analyzed by Lincoln, <a href="#Page_376">376-377</a>;</li>
+  <li>effect upon South, <a href="#Page_381">381-382</a>;</li>
+  <li>denounced in Senate, <a href="#Page_397">397</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>defended in <i>Harper's Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_405">405-409</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Free-Soil party, convention of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>holds balance of power in House, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Illinois, <a href="#Page_158">158-160</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Fugitive Slave Law, passed, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>not voted upon by Douglas, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>;</li>
+  <li>defended by Douglas, <a href="#Page_191">191-194</a>;</li>
+  <li>violations of, <a href="#Page_194">194-195</a>;</li>
+  <li>repeal proposed, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li>
+  <li>attitude of South, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li>
+  <li>Lincoln on, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>;</li>
+  <li>evasions of, <a href="#Page_445">445-446</a>;</li>
+  <li>supplementary law proposed by Douglas, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Fusion party, in Illinois, <a href="#Page_264">264</a> ff.
+  <ul>
+  <li><i>See</i> Republican party.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+<li>Galena alien case, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+<li>Granger, Gehazi, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+<li>Great Britain, animus of Douglas toward, concerning Oregon, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>,
+  <ul>
+  <li><a href="#Page_93">93-94</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>;</li>
+  <li>concerning Central America, <a href="#Page_211">211-213</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215-216</a>; <a href="#Page_217">217</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Great Western Railroad Company, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li>
+<li>Greeley, Horace, and Douglas, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>favors re-election of Douglas, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Green, James S., <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
+<li>Greenhow's <i>History of the Northwest Coast of North America</i>, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>.</li>
+<li>Grimes, James W., <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+<li>Guthrie, James, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Hale, John P., <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>.</li>
+<li>Hall, Willard P., <a href="#Page_223">223-224</a>.</li>
+<li>Hannegan, Edward A., <a href="#Page_103">103-104</a>.</li>
+<li>Hardin, John J., <a href="#Page_21">21-22</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+<li><i>Harper's Magazine</i>, essay by Douglas in, <a href="#Page_405">405</a> ff.</li>
+<li>Harris, Thomas L., <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+<li>Helper's <i>Impending Crisis</i>, <a href="#Page_412">412-413</a>.</li>
+<li>Herndon, William H., Lincoln's law partner, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+<li>Hise, Elijah, drafts treaty, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li>
+<li>Hoge, Joseph B., <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+<li>Homestead bill of Douglas, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
+<li>Honduras and its dependencies, claimed by Great Britain, <a href="#Page_209">209-211</a>.</li>
+<li>Howe, Henry, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+<li>Hunter, R.M.T., <a href="#Page_420">420</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Illinois and Michigan Canal, lands granted to, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas and construction of, <a href="#Page_32">32-33</a>;</li>
+  <li>probable influence upon settlement, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Illinois Central Railroad, inception of, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>project taken up by Douglas, <a href="#Page_169">169-170</a>;</li>
+  <li>bill for land grant to, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>;</li>
+  <li>legislative history of, <a href="#Page_171">171-173</a>;</li>
+  <li>larger aspects of, <a href="#Page_174">174</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>in the campaign of 1858, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Illinois <i>Republican</i>, attack upon office of, <a href="#Page_37">37-38</a>.</li>
+<li>Illinois <i>State Register</i>, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Springfield clique, <a href="#Page_61">61-62</a>;</li>
+  <li>editorial by Douglas in, <a href="#Page_149">149-150</a>;</li>
+  <li>forecast of Nebraska legislation, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Indian claims, in Nebraska, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222-225</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a>.</li>
+<li>Internal Improvements, agitation in Illinois, <a href="#Page_29">29-30</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas on, <a href="#Page_30">30-31</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Iverson, Alfred, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Jackson, Andrew, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>defended by Douglas, <a href="#Page_69">69-72</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_81">81-82</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Jacksonville, Illinois, early home of Douglas, <a href="#Page_14">14</a> ff.</li>
+<li>Johnson, Hadley D., <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a>.</li>
+<li>Johnson, Herschel V., <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+<li>Johnson, Thomas, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
+<li>Judiciary bill, in Illinois legislature, <a href="#Page_54">54-56</a>, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Kansas, first settlers in, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>colonists of Emigrant Aid Company in, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>;</li>
+  <li>defect in organic act of, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;</li>
+  <li>first elections in, <a href="#Page_284">284</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>invasion by Missourians, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li>
+  <li>first territorial legislature, <a href="#Page_286">286-287</a>;</li>
+  <li>Topeka convention and free State legislature, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>;</li>
+  <li>sack of Lawrence, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
+  <li>raid of John Brown, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>;</li>
+  <li>convention elected, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>;</li>
+  <li>free State party in control of legislature, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>;</li>
+  <li>Lecompton convention, <a href="#Page_326">326-327</a>;</li>
+  <li>vote on constitution, <a href="#Page_337">337-338</a>;</li>
+  <li>land ordinance rejected, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Kansas-Nebraska bill, origin of, <a href="#Page_236">236-239</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>in Democratic caucus, <a href="#Page_243">243-245</a>;</li>
+  <li>wording criticised, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>;</li>
+  <li>amended, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li>
+  <li>passes to third reading in Senate, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>;</li>
+  <li>course in House, <a href="#Page_254">254-255</a>;</li>
+  <li>defeat of Clayton amendment, <a href="#Page_255">255-256</a>;</li>
+  <li>passes Senate, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
+  <li>becomes law, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
+  <li>arouses North, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>popular sovereignty in, <a href="#Page_281">281-282</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>King, William F., <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li>
+<li>Knowlton, Caleb, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>.</li>
+<li>Know-Nothing party, origin, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>denounced by Douglas, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Northwest, <a href="#Page_263">263-264</a>;</li>
+  <li>nominates Fillmore, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Kossuth, Louis, reception of, <a href="#Page_199">199</a> ff.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Lamborn, Josiah, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li>
+<li>Lane, James H., in Kansas, <a href="#Page_287">287-288</a>.</li>
+<li>Lane, Joseph, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+<li>Lecompton constitution, origin, <a href="#Page_326">326-327</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>denounced by Douglas, <a href="#Page_329">329</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>vote upon, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>;</li>
+  <li>submitted to Congress, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>;</li>
+  <li>bill to admit Kansas with, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Lee, Robert E., <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
+<li>Letcher, John, <a href="#Page_480">480</a>.</li>
+<li>Liberty party, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
+<li>Lincoln, Abraham, in Illinois legislature, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <i>n.</i>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>leader of &quot;the Long Nine,&quot; <a href="#Page_34">34</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate with Douglas (1839), <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Douglas, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>;</li>
+  <li>elected to Congress, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate with Douglas (1854), <a href="#Page_265">265-266</a>;</li>
+  <li>&quot;the Peoria Truce,&quot; <a href="#Page_266">266</a> <i>n.</i>;</li>
+  <li>candidate for Senate, <a href="#Page_268">268-269</a>;</li>
+  <li>Republican nominee for Senate (1858), <a href="#Page_350">350</a>;</li>
+  <li>early career, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>;</li>
+  <li>personal traits, <a href="#Page_351">351-352</a>;</li>
+  <li>addresses Republican convention, <a href="#Page_352">352-353</a>;</li>
+  <li>hears Douglas in Chicago, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>;</li>
+  <li>replies to Douglas, <a href="#Page_357">357-358</a>;</li>
+  <li>speech at Springfield, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>;</li>
+  <li>proposes joint debates, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>;</li>
+  <li>personal appearance, <a href="#Page_364">364-365</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Ottawa, <a href="#Page_365">365-370</a>;</li>
+  <li>Freeport debate, <a href="#Page_370">370-375</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Jonesboro, <a href="#Page_375">375-378</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Charleston, <a href="#Page_378">378-381</a>;</li>
+  <li>resources, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Galesburg, <a href="#Page_383">383-386</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Quincy, <a href="#Page_386">386-388</a>;</li>
+  <li>debate at Alton, <a href="#Page_388">388-390</a>;</li>
+  <li>defeated, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Ohio, <a href="#Page_410">410-411</a>;</li>
+  <li>presidential candidate, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</li>
+  <li>elected, <a href="#Page_440">440-441</a>;</li>
+  <li>enters Washington, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>;</li>
+  <li>and advisers, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>;</li>
+  <li>confers with Douglas, <a href="#Page_463">463-464</a>;</li>
+  <li>inauguration, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>;</li>
+  <li>address, <a href="#Page_464">464-466</a>;</li>
+  <li>defended by Douglas, <a href="#Page_466">466</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>consults Douglas, <a href="#Page_469">469-470</a>;</li>
+  <li>not generally known, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>;</li>
+  <li>decides to provision Sumter, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>;</li>
+  <li>calls for troops, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>;</li>
+  <li>confers with Douglas, <a href="#Page_476">476-477</a>, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>;</li>
+  <li>last interview with Douglas, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Logan, Stephen T., <a href="#Page_23">23</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Lord Coke's Assembly,&quot; <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>McClernand, John A., <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+<li>McConnell, Murray, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+<li>McRoberts, Samuel, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>.</li>
+<li>Marble, Mary Ann, wife of William Douglass, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+<li>Marble, Thomas, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li>
+<li>Marshall, Edward C., <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li>
+<li>Martin, Colonel Robert, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>plantations of, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>;</li>
+  <li>will of, <a href="#Page_148">148-149</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Mason, James M., <a href="#Page_454">454</a>, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>.</li>
+<li>Matteson, Joel A., <a href="#Page_268">268-269</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>letter of Douglas to, <a href="#Page_313">313-314</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>May, William L., <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li>
+<li>Mexico, Slidell's mission to, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>dictatorship in, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</li>
+  <li>treaty with Texas, <a href="#Page_111">111-112</a>;</li>
+  <li>territory lost by, <a href="#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+  <li>treaty of 1848, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Mexican War, announced by Polk, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>defended by Douglas, <a href="#Page_109">109-112</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116-117</a>;</li>
+  <li>appointments in, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>;</li>
+  <li>terminated, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Minnesota bill, to organize territorial government, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>to admit State, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Minnesota Block, Douglas residence in Washington, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>, <a href="#Page_488">488</a>.</li>
+<li>Missouri Compromise, and annexation of Texas, <a href="#Page_89">89-90</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and organization of Oregon, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li>and organization of Mexican cession, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>and organization of Nebraska, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230-231</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232-233</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>;</li>
+  <li>repeal agitated by Atchison, <a href="#Page_235">235-236</a>;</li>
+  <li>repealed, <a href="#Page_237">237</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>declared unconstitutional, <a href="#Page_321">321-322</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Monroe doctrine, debated in Senate, <a href="#Page_211">211-214</a>.</li>
+<li>Moore, John, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+<li>Mormons, settle in Illinois, <a href="#Page_57">57-58</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>politics of, <a href="#Page_58">58-61</a>;</li>
+  <li>disorders in Hancock County, <a href="#Page_90">90-91</a>;</li>
+  <li>advised to emigrate, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>;</li>
+  <li>removal, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Utah, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Morris, Edward J., <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
+<li>Mosquito protectorate, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210-211</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Nashville convention (1844), <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li>
+<li><i>National Era</i>, occasions controversy in Senate, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+<li>Native American party, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.
+  <ul>
+  <li><i>See</i> Know-Nothing party.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Nauvoo, settled by Mormons, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>charter repealed, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+  <li>evacuated, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Nauvoo Legion, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+<li>Nebraska, first bill to organize, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>second bill, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>;</li>
+  <li>bill for military colonization of, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li>
+  <li>third bill, <a href="#Page_223">223-224</a>;</li>
+  <li>Dodge bill, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li>
+  <li>report of Douglas on, <a href="#Page_239">239</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>new bill reported, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>;</li>
+  <li>bill printed, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>;</li>
+  <li>manuscript of, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>.</li>
+  <li><i>See</i> Kansas-Nebraska bill.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Negro equality, Douglas on, <a href="#Page_275">275-276</a>, <a href="#Page_356">356-357</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Lincoln on, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>New England Emigrant Aid Company, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+<li>New Mexico, slavery in, <a href="#Page_127">127</a> ff.;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Clayton compromise, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li>controversy in Congress, <a href="#Page_130">130-131</a>;</li>
+  <li>Polk's policy, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas's statehood bills, <a href="#Page_134">134-137</a>;</li>
+  <li>Taylor's policy, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>;</li>
+  <li>Clay's resolutions, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>;</li>
+  <li>territorial bill for, <a href="#Page_181">181-183</a>;</li>
+  <li>in the Omnibus, <a href="#Page_184">184-186</a>;</li>
+  <li>organized, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>New York <i>Times</i>, supports Lincoln (1858), <a href="#Page_382">382</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Douglas, <a href="#Page_411">411</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>New York <i>Tribune</i>, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
+<li><i>Niles' Register</i>, cited as a source, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
+<li>Non-intervention, principle of, Cass on, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>in Clayton compromise, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas on, <a href="#Page_138">138-139</a>;</li>
+  <li>in compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_181">181-187</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189-190</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Kansas-Nebraska legislation, <a href="#Page_230">230-231</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243-249</a>, <a href="#Page_289">289-292</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397-402</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>&quot;Old Fogyism,&quot; <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+<li>Oregon, emigration from Illinois to, <a href="#Page_93">93</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>&quot;re-occupation&quot; of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>;</li>
+  <li>international status of, <a href="#Page_94">94-95</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas on, <a href="#Page_96">96-98</a>;</li>
+  <li>Polk's policy toward, <a href="#Page_98">98-99</a>;</li>
+  <li>bill to protect settlers in, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>;</li>
+  <li>and treaty with Great Britain, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+  <li>bills to organize, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>;</li>
+  <li>Clayton compromise, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>;</li>
+  <li>organized, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>Pacific Railroad, and organization of Nebraska, <a href="#Page_222">222-224</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238-239</a>.</li>
+<li>Parker, Nahum, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>.</li>
+<li>Parker, Theodore, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
+<li>Party organizations, beginnings of, in Illinois, <a href="#Page_25">25-27</a>, <a href="#Page_38">38-42</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49-50</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>efficiency of, <a href="#Page_65">65-66</a>, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</li>
+  <li>sectional influence upon, <a href="#Page_158">158-160</a>;</li>
+  <li>institutional character of, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Payne, Henry B., <a href="#Page_418">418-419</a>.</li>
+<li>Peace Convention, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>resolution of, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Peck, Ebenezer, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>.</li>
+<li>Personal Liberty Acts, <a href="#Page_445">445</a>, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+<li>Pierce, Franklin, presidential candidacy, <a href="#Page_204">204-205</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>approves Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_237">237-238</a>;</li>
+  <li>signs Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>;</li>
+  <li>opinion on slavery extension, <a href="#Page_256">256</a> <i>n.</i>;</li>
+  <li>candidacy at Cincinnati, <a href="#Page_276">276-277</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Political parties, and annexation of Texas, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Mexican War, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+  <li>and slavery in Territories, <a href="#Page_127">127-129</a>;</li>
+  <li>and election of 1848, <a href="#Page_132">132-133</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Illinois, <a href="#Page_157">157-158</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Free-Soilers, <a href="#Page_158">158</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>and compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;</li>
+  <li>nationalizing influence of, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>;</li>
+  <li>decline of Whigs, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li>
+  <li>rise of Know-Nothings, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Nebraska Act, <a href="#Page_264">264</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>rise of Republican party, <a href="#Page_273">273-274</a>;</li>
+  <li>and &quot;Bleeding Kansas,&quot; <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299-302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304-306</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Lecomptonism, <a href="#Page_332">332</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>possible re-alignment of, <a href="#Page_348">348-349</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Lincoln-Douglas contest, <a href="#Page_349">349-350</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381-382</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Freeport doctrine, <a href="#Page_397">397-402</a>, <a href="#Page_413">413-414</a>;</li>
+  <li>and issues of 1860, <a href="#Page_415">415</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>and election of 1860, <a href="#Page_440">440-441</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Polk, James K., presidential candidacy, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>indorsed by Douglas, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>;</li>
+  <li>inaugural of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Oregon, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>;</li>
+  <li>negotiates with Great Britain, <a href="#Page_103">103-104</a>;</li>
+  <li>war message of, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_105">105-106</a>;</li>
+  <li>announces Oregon treaty, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>;</li>
+  <li>covets California, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;</li>
+  <li>and appointments, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>;</li>
+  <li>urges indemnity, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>;</li>
+  <li>and slavery in Territories, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>;</li>
+  <li>proposes territorial governments, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>;</li>
+  <li>proposes statehood bills, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Popular sovereignty, doctrine anticipated, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>phrase coined, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Kansas-Nebraska Act, <a href="#Page_281">281-282</a>;</li>
+  <li>tested in Kansas, <a href="#Page_283">283</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>and Dred Scott decision, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Lecompton constitution, <a href="#Page_326">326-327</a>;</li>
+  <li>defended by Douglas, <a href="#Page_329">329-332</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338-340</a>, <a href="#Page_342">342-343</a>;</li>
+  <li>indorsed by Seward, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;</li>
+  <li>debated by Lincoln and Douglas, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>, <a href="#Page_359">359-360</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372-373</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376-377</a>;</li>
+  <li>denounced by South, <a href="#Page_397">397</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>defended in <i>Harper's Magazine</i> <a href="#Page_405">405-409</a>;</li>
+  <li>ridiculed by Black, <a href="#Page_409">409-410</a>;</li>
+  <li>operates against slavery, <a href="#Page_410">410-411</a>, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas urges further concessions to, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>, <a href="#Page_459">459-460</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Powell, Lazarus W., <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+<li>Public lands, granted to Illinois for canal, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas and administration of, <a href="#Page_35">35-36</a>;</li>
+  <li>squatters and land leagues, <a href="#Page_163">163-164</a>;</li>
+  <li>granted to Illinois Central, <a href="#Page_170">170</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>granted to Indians, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li>
+  <li>and proposed military colonies, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>;</li>
+  <li>and proposed Pacific railroad, <a href="#Page_222">222-224</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Kansas, <a href="#Page_283">283-285</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas and proper distribution of, <a href="#Page_311">311-313</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Pugh, George E., and Lecompton constitution, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and English bill, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>; <a href="#Page_413">413</a>;</li>
+  <li>speech in Charleston convention, <a href="#Page_419">419-420</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Douglas, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>Ralston, J.H., <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+<li>Raymond, Henry J., editor of New York <i>Times</i>, <a href="#Page_436">436</a>.</li>
+<li>Reapportionment Act of 1843, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+<li>Reeder, A.H., governor of Kansas, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and elections, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>;</li>
+  <li>joins free State party, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>;</li>
+  <li>chosen senator at Topeka, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Reid, David S., <a href="#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li>
+<li>Republican party, rise of, in Illinois, <a href="#Page_264">264</a> ff.;
+  <ul>
+  <li>elections of 1854, <a href="#Page_269">269</a>;</li>
+  <li>origin of name, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>;</li>
+  <li>composition of, <a href="#Page_273">273-274</a>;</li>
+  <li>Philadelphia convention, <a href="#Page_279">279-280</a>;</li>
+  <li>and &quot;Bleeding Kansas,&quot; <a href="#Page_304">304-305</a>;</li>
+  <li>opposes Lecomptonism, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>;</li>
+  <li>Chicago convention, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;</li>
+  <li>nominates Lincoln, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</li>
+  <li>elections of 1860, <a href="#Page_437">437</a>, <a href="#Page_440">440-441</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Resolution of Illinois Legislature, presented in Senate, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>origin, <a href="#Page_159">159-160</a>;</li>
+  <li>controls Douglas (1850), <a href="#Page_184">184</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Rice, Henry M., <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+<li>Richardson, William A., on House Committee on Territories, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>steers Kansas-Nebraska bill through House, <a href="#Page_254">254-255</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Cincinnati convention, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>;</li>
+  <li>candidate for governor, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Charleston convention, <a href="#Page_416">416</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>in Baltimore convention, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>;</li>
+  <li>forecasts election, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Richmond, Dean, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
+<li>River and harbor improvements, Douglas on, <a href="#Page_77">77-78</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313-314</a>.
+  <ul>
+  <li><i>See also</i> Internal Improvements.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Robinson, Charles, leader of free State party in Kansas, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+<li>Roman Church, Ad&egrave;le Cutts an adherent of, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>attitude of Douglas toward, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>Sangamo <i>Journal</i>, on Caucus system, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Douglas, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Santa Anna, treaty with Texas, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>.</li>
+<li>Scott, Winfield, <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
+<li>Secession, apprehended, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>of South Carolina, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>;</li>
+  <li>of Cotton States, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>;</li>
+  <li>and border States, <a href="#Page_474">474</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Seward, William H., and Douglas, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>loses Republican nomination, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>;</li>
+  <li>on committee of thirteen, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>;</li>
+  <li>and the Blairs, <a href="#Page_461">461</a>, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Shadrach rescue, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+<li>Shannon, Wilson, governor of Kansas, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+<li>Sheahan, James W., biographer of Douglas, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>;
+  <ul>
+<li> editor of Chicago <i>Times</i>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Sheridan, James B., <a href="#Page_438">438</a>.</li>
+<li>Shields, James, senator from Illinois, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and Illinois Central Railroad, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>;</li>
+  <li>fails of re-election, <a href="#Page_267">267</a> ff.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Slavery, in North Carolina, <a href="#Page_147">147-148</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>in Illinois, <a href="#Page_155">155-156</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242-243</a>;</li>
+  <li>in Kansas, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li>
+  <li>Nebraska bill not designed to extend, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas on extension of, <a href="#Page_179">179-180</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>;</li>
+  <li>peonage, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>;</li>
+  <li>Douglas on, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>;</li>
+  <li>Lincoln on, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href="#Page_358">358</a>, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368-369</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Slave-trade, revival proposed, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>, <a href="#Page_421">421</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>condemned by Douglas, <a href="#Page_403">403-404</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Slidell, John, mission to Mexico, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>seeks Douglas's defeat (1858), <a href="#Page_381">381-382</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>;</li>
+  <li>project to purchase Cuba, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>;</li>
+  <li>at Charleston, <a href="#Page_417">417</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Smith, Joseph, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_58">58-59</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>to Mormon voters, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a>;</li>
+  <li>on polygamy, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+  <li>murdered, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Smith, Theophilus W., <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>.</li>
+<li>Smithsonian Institution, foundation of, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas on board of Regents, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Snyder, Adam W., <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+<li>Southern Rights advocates, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+<li>Spoils system, countenanced by Douglas, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+<li>Springfield Resolutions, in Lincoln-Douglas debates, <a href="#Page_366">366-367</a>, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>,
+    <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Squatter sovereignty,&quot; Cass and Dickinson on, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>favored by Douglas, <a href="#Page_138">138-139</a>;</li>
+  <li>genesis of, <a href="#Page_161">161</a> ff.;</li>
+  <li>explained by Douglas, <a href="#Page_184">184-185</a>;</li>
+  <li>and compromise of 1850, <a href="#Page_189">189-190</a>.</li>
+  <li><i>See</i> Popular sovereignty.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Squier, E.G., drafts treaty, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Star of the West,&quot; sent to Sumter, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+<li>Stephens, Alexander H., and annexation of Texas, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>and territorial bills (1850), <a href="#Page_181">181-182</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Stowe, Harriet B., description of Douglas, <a href="#Page_295">295-296</a>.</li>
+<li>Stuart, Charles E., <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+<li>Stuart, John T., lawyer, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas's opponent (1838), <a href="#Page_42">42-44</a>;</li>
+  <li>Whig politician, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Sumner, Charles, and Fugitive Slave Act, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>on Kansas, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_296">296</a>;</li>
+  <li>altercation with Douglas, <a  href="#Page_296">296-298</a>;</li>
+  <li>assaulted, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>;</li>
+  <li>foe to compromise, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>Tariff, views of Douglas on, <a href="#Page_314">314-315</a>.</li>
+<li>Taylor, Zachary, in Mexican War, <a href="#Page_109">109</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>nominated for presidency, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;</li>
+  <li>message, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Texas, as campaign issue, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Douglas on annexation of, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>;</li>
+  <li>and slavery, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Missouri Compromise, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+  <li>joint resolution adopted, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>;</li>
+  <li>admitted, <a href="#Page_100">100-101</a>;</li>
+  <li>and Mexican boundary, <a href="#Page_110">110-114</a>, <a href="#Page_122">122-123</a>;</li>
+  <li>and New Mexico boundary, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>&quot;The Third House,&quot; <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>.</li>
+<li>Toombs, Robert, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Kansas bill, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>; <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>;</li>
+  <li>on committee of thirteen, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Trumbull, Lyman, senator from Illinois, <a href="#Page_268">268-269</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Democracy questioned, <a href="#Page_274">274-275</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Kansas, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>;</li>
+  <li>on Toombs bill, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>;</li>
+  <li>opposes Douglas, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Tyler, John, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> <i>n.</i>; <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Urquhart, J.D., Douglas's law partner, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+<li>Utah, territorial organization of, <a href="#Page_181">181-187</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>Mormons in, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>;</li>
+  <li>polygamy and intervention in, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+<br />
+</li>
+
+<li>Van Buren, Martin, nominated by Free-Soilers, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Wade, Benjamin F., <a href="#Page_269">269</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>, <a href="#Page_446">446</a>, <a href="#Page_458">458</a>, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>.</li>
+<li>Walker, Cyrus, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>.</li>
+<li>Walker, Isaac P., <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li>
+<li>Walker, Robert J., governor of Kansas, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
+<li>Washington <i>Sentinel</i>, prints Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+<li>Washington Territory, organization of, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+<li>Washington <i>Union</i>, on Douglas, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>forecast of Nebraska legislation, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>;</li>
+  <li>supports Kansas-Nebraska bill, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>;</li>
+  <li>assails Douglas, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Webster, Daniel, on the Constitution, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li>
+<li>Whig party, convention of 1848, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>campaign of 1852, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>;</li>
+  <li>decline, <a href="#Page_260">260-262</a>;</li>
+  <li>nominates Fillmore, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Whitney, Asa, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li>
+<li>Wigfall, Louis T., <a href="#Page_455">455-456</a>, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+<li>Wilmot proviso, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li>
+<li>Wilson, Henry, Republican leader, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>favors re-election of Douglas, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>;</li>
+  <li>foe to compromise, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>, <a href="#Page_473">473-474</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Winthrop, Robert C., <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+<li>Wood, Fernando, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
+<li>Wyandot Indians, memorial of, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li>
+<li>Wyatt, John, <a href="#Page_21">21-22</a>.<br /><br /></li>
+
+<li>Yancey, William L., resolution of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>;
+  <ul>
+  <li>speech in Charleston convention, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
+  </ul>
+</li>
+<li>Yates, Richard, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+<li>&quot;Young America,&quot; <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+<li>Young, Brigham, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>.</li>
+<li>Young, Richard M., <a href="#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 160%; font-weight: bold;">Norman Hapgood's</span> <i>biographies</i></p>
+
+<p class="cen">Illustrated with portraits, fac similes, etc.</p>
+
+<h3>Abraham Lincoln&mdash;The Man of the People</h3>
+
+<p class="cen"><i>Library edition, half leather, $2.00</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&quot;A Life of Lincoln that has never been surpassed in
+     vividness, compactness and lifelike reality,&quot;&mdash;<i>Chicago
+     Tribune</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Perhaps the best short biography that has yet
+     appeared.&quot;&mdash;<i>Review of Reviews</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Its depth, its clearness, its comprehensiveness, seem to me
+     to mark the author as a genuine critic of the broader and
+     the higher school.&quot;&mdash;<i>Justin McCarthy</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+
+<h3>George Washington</h3>
+
+<p class="cen"><i>Half leather, $1.75 net; by mail, $1.90</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&quot;Mr. Hapgood may have done more brilliant or more
+     entertaining work in other fields but we doubt if any of his
+     previous work will take its place in permanent literature so
+     certainly as this study of Washington.&quot;&mdash;<i>Daily Eagle</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Mr. Norman Hapgood's 'George Washington' is characterized
+     by an unusual amount of judicious quotation, and also by
+     many pages of graphic narrative and description. It has not
+     been customary heretofore, in brief biographies of eminent
+     men, to put the reader so closely in touch with the sources
+     of history. In this case, however, the method adopted by Mr.
+     Hapgood has not only greatly enhanced the historical value
+     of his work, but has at the same time added to its intrinsic
+     interest.&quot;&mdash;<i>Review of Reviews</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold;">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="sc">Publishers</span>, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, <span class="sc">New York</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 160%; font-weight: bold;">Mr. Owen Wister's</span> <i>sketch of</i></p>
+
+<h3>The Seven Ages of Washington</h3>
+
+<p class="cen"><i>Boards, leather back in box cover, $2.00 net; by mail, $2.11</i><br />
+<i>With nine illustrations in photogravure</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&quot;A bright, enjoyable book, brimfull of individuality,
+     containing one of the truest sketches of Washington ever
+     written,&quot;&mdash;<i>Record-Herald</i>, Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The essence of the whole book is character, and it is as a
+     study of character that it possesses unique value.... It
+     would be a good thing for high school and college students
+     if this study of Washington were made a required text-book
+     in the course of American history. Certainly the young
+     Americans of our day would get from it a far more correct
+     idea of Washington's life, character and influence than from
+     any of the standard biographies or histories.&quot;&mdash;<i>San
+     Francisco Chronicle</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The value of the book consists largely in its placing of
+     Washington in the right perspective. Mr. Wister's portrait
+     of him is all of a piece.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The background, like the portrait, is handled with perfect
+     discretion. The reader who is searching for an authoritative
+     biography of Washington, brief, and made humanly interesting
+     from the first page to the last, will find it here.&quot;&mdash;From a
+     column review of the book in <i>The New York Tribune</i>, Nov.
+     23, 1907.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Mr. Wister has succeeded in revealing a new Washington&mdash;a
+     Washington who becomes a wholly lovable man without losing
+     any of his dignity.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Herald</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;In Mr. Wister's hands the Father of his Country is no
+     frozen god. He steps out of the block of ice into which, as
+     the author so well indicates, he was put for safekeeping
+     after death. The book emphasizes the man side of
+     Washington's character. The hero is in the background, and
+     the result is a warm and very convincing picture which it is
+     good to have.&quot;&mdash;<i>Philadelphia Public Ledger</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold;">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="sc">Publishers</span>, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, <span class="sc">New York</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<h1>Theodore Roosevelt</h1>
+
+<h3>The Boy and the Man</h3>
+
+<h3>By JAMES MORGAN</h3>
+
+<p class="cen"><i>Cloth, illustrated, gilt tops, $1.50</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&quot;It does not pretend to be an analysis of the individual,
+     and it was not written with the intention of advocating or
+     criticising his political policies. It was meant to be a
+     simple, straightforward, yet complete biography of the most
+     interesting personality of our day. Its aim is to present a
+     life of action by portraying the varied dramatic scenes in
+     the career of a man who still has the enthusiasm of a boy,
+     and whose energy and faith have illustrated before the world
+     the spirit of Young America.&quot;&mdash;<i>From the Author's Foreword</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The book can go into home or school, north or south,
+     without the possibility of offence.... It is especially
+     tonic for high school youth and college young men. I doubt
+     if any book has been written that will do as much for
+     students as will this story of a real life.... Buy it, read
+     it, and tell others to read it.&quot;&mdash;<i>Journal of Education</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;In point of style the work is a masterpiece of vivid,
+     forceful, sinewy, Anglo-Saxon. The story never halts, one is
+     never irritated by floridity and gush.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Traveler</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Whether or not a reader believes in Mr. Roosevelt's
+     policies, we doubt if he can fail, after reading Mr.
+     Morgan's book, to be a better American.&quot;&mdash;<i>Sacred Heart
+     Review</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;It is a book which boys will delight to read, and which
+     they cannot read without feeling the potent charm of what is
+     wholesomest, manliest, worthiest, in man or boy.&quot;&mdash;<i>Chicago
+     Tribune</i>.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;The book is as readable as a novel and the story it tells
+     is packed with inspiration for American boys.&quot;&mdash;<i>Hamilton
+     Wright Mabie</i>.</p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold;">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="sc">Publishers</span>, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, <span class="sc">New York</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+<p class="cen"><i>&quot;Unquestionably the Final Edition&quot; of</i></p>
+
+<h1>The Life and Letters of Benjamin Franklin</h1>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 20em;">Edited by ALBERT H. SMYTH, late Professor of English Language and</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 20em;">Literature in the Central High School, Philadelphia. In ten volumes</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 20em;">with twenty portraits.</span><br />
+
+<p style="text-align: right; margin-right: 5em;"><i>Special limited edition, $30.00 net.</i><br />
+<i>Eversley edition, $15.00 net.</i></p>
+
+<blockquote><p>&quot;The volume closes with a copy of Franklin's will and a
+     series of remarkably complete indexes, rendering the
+     contents of all the volumes easily accessible from several
+     different points of view. The whole work bears evidences of
+     painstaking care and devotion to the task for its own sake.
+     It is incomparably the best and most complete edition of
+     Franklin's writings in existence, containing all that is
+     worth preserving, while in arrangement, editorial treatment,
+     and mechanical workmanship it leaves nothing to be desired.
+     The set is certain to have an irresistible attraction for
+     admirers of Franklin and for lovers of well-made
+     books.&quot;&mdash;<i>Record-Herald</i>, Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>     &quot;'Franklin's writings are his best biography.' To few has it
+     been given to tell their own story so frankly and so fully,
+     and with shrewd wisdom and such unfailing humor. We have
+     already, on several occasions, described this excellent
+     edition of Franklin, the fullest, the most accurate that we
+     have ever had.&quot;&mdash;<i>Churchman.</i></p>
+
+<p>     &quot;Some interesting notes regarding the twenty rare Franklin
+     portraits that have appeared in these volumes are given in
+     the preface to Volume X. The most interesting portrait is
+     the one appearing as the final volume frontispiece, a
+     photogravure of the painting that originally belonged to
+     Franklin, which was taken from his home in Philadelphia
+     during the British occupation, and after the lapse of 130
+     years was presented to the United States by Earl Gray. It
+     was painted in London in 1759 by Benjamin Wilson, and is now
+     in the White House at Washington.&quot;&mdash;<i>Boston Transcript.</i></p></blockquote>
+
+<p class="cen"><span style="font-size: 140%; font-weight: bold;">THE MACMILLAN COMPANY</span><br />
+<span class="sc">Publishers</span>, 64-66 Fifth Avenue, <span class="sc">New York</span></p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr style="width: 15%;" />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Stephen A. Douglas, by Allen Johnson
+
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+</pre>
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+</body>
+</html>
+
+
+
diff --git a/15508.txt b/15508.txt
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+++ b/15508.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Stephen A. Douglas, by Allen Johnson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Stephen A. Douglas
+       A Study in American Politics
+
+Author: Allen Johnson
+
+Release Date: March 30, 2005 [EBook #15508]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Jeannie Howse and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net).
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
++---------------------------------------------------------------+
+|              Transcriber's Note:                              |
+|                                                               |
+|Original spellings and inconsistent hyphenation have been kept,|
+|including the earlier spelling variant Douglass.               |
+|                                                               |
++---------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS:
+
+A STUDY IN AMERICAN POLITICS
+
+
+By ALLEN JOHNSON
+
+PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN BOWDOIN COLLEGE;
+SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN IOWA COLLEGE
+
+New York
+
+THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1908
+
+_All rights reserved_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+COPYRIGHT 1908
+
+By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
+
+Set up and electrotyped. Published February 1908
+
+THE MASON-HENRY PRESS SYRACUSE, N.Y.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+To
+
+PROFESSOR JESSE MACY
+
+whose wisdom and kindliness have inspired
+a generation of students
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+To describe the career of a man who is now chiefly remembered as the
+rival of Abraham Lincoln, must seem to many minds a superfluous, if
+not invidious, undertaking. The present generation is prone to forget
+that when the rivals met in joint debate fifty years ago, on the
+prairies of Illinois, it was Senator Douglas, and not Mr. Lincoln, who
+was the cynosure of all observing eyes. Time has steadily lessened the
+prestige of the great Democratic leader, and just as steadily enhanced
+the fame of his Republican opponent.
+
+The following pages have been written, not as a vindication, but as an
+interpretation of a personality whose life spans the controversial
+epoch before the Civil War. It is due to the chance reader to state
+that the writer was born in a New England home, and bred in an
+anti-slavery atmosphere where the political creed of Douglas could not
+thrive. If this book reveals a somewhat less sectional outlook than
+this personal allusion suggests, the credit must be given to those
+generous friends in the great Middle West, who have helped the writer
+to interpret the spirit of that region which gave both Douglas and
+Lincoln to the nation.
+
+The material for this study has been brought together from many
+sources. Through the kindness of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield,
+Illinois, I have had access to a valuable collection of letters
+written by Douglas to her father, Charles H. Lanphier, Esq., editor of
+the Illinois _State Register_. Judge Robert M. Douglas of North
+Carolina has permitted me to use an autobiographical sketch of his
+father, as well as other papers in the possession of the family. Among
+those who have lightened my labors, either by copies of letters penned
+by Douglas or by personal recollections, I would mention with
+particular gratitude the late Mrs. L.K. Lippincott ("Grace
+Greenwood"); Mr. J.H. Roberts and Stephen A. Douglas, Esq. of Chicago;
+Chief Justice Melville W. Fuller and the late Hon. Robert E. Hitt of
+Washington. With his wonted generosity, Mr. James F. Rhodes has given
+me the benefit of his wide acquaintance with the newspapers of the
+period, which have been an invaluable aid in the interpretation of
+Douglas's career. Finally, by personal acquaintance and conversation
+with men who knew him, I have endeavored to catch the spirit of those
+who made up the great mass of his constituents.
+
+Brunswick, Maine,
+
+November, 1907.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    BOOK I. THE CALL OF THE WEST
+
+    CHAPTER I
+    FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES       3
+
+    CHAPTER II
+    THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN                    18
+
+    CHAPTER III
+    LAW AND POLITICS                              51
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+    UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON             68
+
+    CHAPTER V
+    MANIFEST DESTINY                              84
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+    WAR AND POLITICS                             109
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+    THE MEXICAN CESSION                          127
+
+
+    BOOK II. THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+    SENATOR AND CONSTITUENCY                     145
+
+    CHAPTER IX
+    MEASURES OF ADJUSTMENT                       166
+
+    CHAPTER X
+    YOUNG AMERICA                                191
+
+    CHAPTER XI
+    THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT                      220
+
+    CHAPTER XII
+    BLACK REPUBLICANISM                          260
+
+    CHAPTER XIII
+    THE TESTING OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY           281
+
+
+    BOOK III. THE IMPENDING CRISIS
+
+    CHAPTER XIV
+    THE PERSONAL EQUATION                        309
+
+    CHAPTER XV
+    THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS                        324
+
+    CHAPTER XVI
+    THE JOINT DEBATES WITH LINCOLN               348
+
+    CHAPTER XVII
+    THE AFTERMATH                                393
+
+    CHAPTER XVIII
+    THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860                         412
+
+    CHAPTER XIX
+    THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT   442
+
+    CHAPTER XX
+    THE SUMMONS                                  475
+
+
+
+
+BOOK I
+
+THE CALL OF THE WEST
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+FROM THE GREEN MOUNTAINS TO THE PRAIRIES
+
+
+The dramatic moments in the colonizing of coastal New England have
+passed into song, story, and sober chronicle; but the farther
+migration of the English people, from tide-water to interior, has been
+too prosaic a theme for poets and too diverse a movement for
+historians. Yet when all the factors in our national history shall be
+given their full value, none will seem more potent than the great
+racial drift from the New England frontier into the heart of the
+continent. The New Englanders who formed a broad belt from Vermont and
+New York across the Northwest to Kansas, were a social and political
+force of incalculable power, in the era which ended with the Civil
+War. The New Englander of the Middle West, however, ceased to be
+altogether a Yankee. The lake and prairie plains bred a spirit which
+contrasted strongly with the smug provincialism of rock-ribbed and
+sterile New England. The exultation born of wide, unbroken, horizon
+lines and broad, teeming, prairie landscapes, found expression in the
+often-quoted saying, "Vermont is the most glorious spot on the face of
+this globe for a man to be born in, _provided_ he emigrates when he is
+very young." The career of Stephen Arnold Douglas is intelligible only
+as it is viewed against the background of a New England boyhood, a
+young manhood passed on the prairies of Illinois, and a wedded life
+pervaded by the gentle culture of Southern womanhood.
+
+In America, observed De Tocqueville two generations ago, democracy
+disposes every man to forget his ancestors. When the Hon. Stephen A.
+Douglas was once asked to prepare an account of his career for a
+biographical history of Congress, he chose to omit all but the barest
+reference to his forefathers.[1] Possibly he preferred to leave the
+family tree naked, that his unaided rise to eminence might the more
+impress the chance reader. Yet the records of the Douglass family are
+not uninteresting.[2] The first of the name to cross the ocean was
+William Douglass, who was born in Scotland and who wedded Mary Ann,
+daughter of Thomas Marble of Northampton. Just when this couple left
+Old England is not known, but the birth of a son is recorded in
+Boston, in the year 1645. Soon after this event they removed to New
+London, preferring, it would seem, to try their luck in an outlying
+settlement, for this region was part of the Pequot country. Somewhat
+more than a hundred years later, Benajah Douglass, a descendant of
+this pair and grandfather of the subject of this sketch, pushed still
+farther into the interior, and settled in Rensselaer County, in the
+province of New York. The marriage of Benajah Douglass to Martha
+Arnold, a descendant of Governor William Arnold of Rhode Island, has
+an interest for those who are disposed to find Celtic qualities in the
+grandson, for the Arnolds were of Welsh stock, and may be supposed to
+have revived the strain in the Douglass blood.
+
+Tradition has made Benajah Douglass a soldier in the war of the
+Revolution, but authentic records go no farther back than the year
+1795, when he removed with his family to Brandon, Vermont. There he
+purchased a farm of about four hundred acres, which he must have
+cultivated with some degree of skill, since it seems to have yielded
+an ample competency. He is described as a man of genial, buoyant
+disposition, with much self-confidence. He was five times chosen
+selectman of Brandon; and five times he was elected to represent the
+town in the General Assembly. The physical qualities of the grandson
+may well have been a family inheritance, since of Benajah we read that
+he was of medium height, with large head and body, short neck, and
+short limbs.[3]
+
+The portrait of Benajah's son is far less distinct. He was a graduate
+of Middlebury College and a physician by profession. He married Sally
+Fisk, the daughter of a well-to-do farmer in Brandon, by whom he had
+two children, the younger of whom was Stephen Arnold Douglass, born
+April 23, 1813. The promising career of the young doctor was cut short
+by a sudden stroke, which overtook him as he held his infant son in
+his arms. The plain, little one-and-a-half story house, in which the
+boy first saw the light, suggests that the young physician had been
+unable to provide for more than the bare necessities of his family.[4]
+
+Soon after the death of Dr. Douglass, his widow removed to the farm
+which she and her unmarried brother had inherited from her father. The
+children grew to love this bachelor uncle with almost filial
+affection. Too young to take thought for the morrow, they led the
+wholesome, natural life of country children. Stephen went to the
+district school on the Brandon turnpike, and had no reason to bemoan
+the fate which left him largely dependent upon his uncle's generosity.
+An old school-mate recalls young Douglass through the haze of years,
+as a robust, healthy boy, with generous instincts though tenacious of
+his rights.[5] After school hours work and play alternated. The
+regular farm chores were not the least part in the youngster's
+education; he learned to be industrious and not to despise honest
+labor.[6]
+
+This bare outline of a commonplace boyhood must be filled in with many
+details drawn from environment. Stephen fell heir to a wealth of
+inspiring local traditions. The fresh mountain breezes had also once
+blown full upon the anxious faces of heroes and patriots; the quiet
+valleys had once echoed with the noise of battle; this land of the
+Green Mountains was the Wilderness of colonial days, the frontier for
+restless New Englanders, where with good axe and stout heart they had
+carved their home plots out of the virgin forest. Many a legend of
+adventure, of border warfare, and of personal heroism, was still
+current among the Green Mountain folk. Where was the Vermont lad who
+did not fight over again the battles of Bennington, Ticonderoga, and
+Plattsburg?
+
+Other influences were scarcely less formative in the life of the
+growing boy. Vermont was also the land of the town meeting. Whatever
+may be said of the efficiency of town government, it was and is a
+school of democracy. In Vermont it was the natural political
+expression of social forces. How else, indeed, could the general will
+find fit expression, except through the attrition of many minds? And
+who could know better the needs of the community than the commonalty?
+Not that men reasoned about the philosophy of their political
+institutions: they simply accepted them. And young Douglass grew up in
+an atmosphere friendly to local self-government of an extreme type.
+
+Stephen was nearing his fourteenth birthday, when an event occurred
+which interrupted the even current of his life. His uncle, who was
+commonly regarded as a confirmed old bachelor, confounded the village
+gossips by bringing home a young bride. The birth of a son and heir
+was the nephew's undoing. While the uncle regarded Stephen with
+undiminished affection, he was now much more emphatically _in loco
+parentis_. An indefinable something had come between them. The subtle
+change in relationship was brought home to both when Stephen proposed
+that he should go to the academy in Brandon, to prepare for college.
+That he was to go to college, he seems to have taken for granted.
+There was a moment of embarrassment, and then the uncle told the lad,
+frankly but kindly, that he could not provide for his further
+education. With considerable show of affection, he advised him to give
+up the notion of going to college and to remain on the farm, where he
+would have an assured competence. In after years the grown man related
+this incident with a tinge of bitterness, averring that there had been
+an understanding in the family that he was to attend college.[7]
+Momentary disappointment he may have felt, to be sure, but he could
+hardly have been led to believe that he could draw indefinitely upon
+his uncle's bounty.
+
+Piqued and somewhat resentful, Stephen made up his mind to live no
+longer under his uncle's roof. He would show his spirit by proving
+that he was abundantly able to take care of himself. Much against the
+wishes of his mother, who knew him to be mastered by a boyish whim, he
+apprenticed himself to Nahum Parker, a cabinet-maker in Middlebury.[8]
+He put on his apron, went to work sawing table legs from two-inch
+planks, and, delighted with the novelty of the occupation and
+exhilarated by his newly found sense of freedom, believed himself on
+the highway to happiness and prosperity. He found plenty of companions
+with whom he spent his idle hours, young fellows who had a taste for
+politics and who rapidly kindled in the newcomer a consuming
+admiration for Andrew Jackson. He now began to read with avidity such
+political works as came to hand. Discussion with his new friends and
+with his employer, who was an ardent supporter of Adams and Clay,
+whetted his appetite for more reading and study. In after years he was
+wont to say that these were the happiest days of his life.[9]
+
+Toward the end of the year, he became dissatisfied with his employer
+because he was forced to perform "some menial services in the
+house."[10] He wished his employer to know that he was not a household
+servant, but an apprentice. Further difficulties arose, which
+terminated his apprenticeship in Middlebury. Returning to Brandon, he
+entered the shop of Deacon Caleb Knowlton, also a cabinet-maker; but
+in less than a year he quit this employer on the plea of
+ill-health.[11] It is quite likely that the confinement and severe
+manual labor may have overtaxed the strength of the growing boy; but
+it is equally clear that he had lost his taste for cabinet work. He
+never again expressed a wish to follow a trade. He again took up his
+abode with his mother; and, the means now coming to hand from some
+source, he enrolled as a student in Brandon Academy, with the avowed
+purpose of preparing for a professional career.[12] It was a wise
+choice. Vermont may have lost a skilled handworker--there are those
+who vouch for the excellence of his handiwork[13]--but the Union
+gained a joiner of first-rate ability.
+
+Wedding bells rang in another change in his fortunes. The marriage of
+his sister to a young New Yorker from Ontario County, was followed by
+the marriage of his mother to the father, Gehazi Granger. Both couples
+took up their residence on the Granger estate, and thither also went
+Stephen, with perhaps a sense of loneliness in his boyish heart.[14]
+He was then but seventeen. This removal to New York State proved to be
+his first step along a path which Vermonters were wearing toward the
+West.
+
+Happily, his academic course was not long interrupted by this
+migration, for Canandaigua Academy, which offered unusual advantages,
+was within easy reach from his new home. Under the wise instruction of
+Professor Henry Howe, he began the study of Latin and Greek; and by
+his own account made "considerable improvement," though there is
+little evidence in his later life of any acquaintance with the
+classics. He took an active part in the doings of the literary
+societies of the academy, distinguishing himself by his readiness in
+debate. His Democratic proclivities were still strong; and he became
+an ardent defender of Democracy against the rising tide of
+Anti-Masonry, which was threatening to sweep New York from its
+political moorings. Tradition says that young Douglass mingled much
+with local politicians, learning not a little about the arts and
+devices by which the Albany Regency controlled the Democratic
+organization in the State. In this school of practical politics he was
+beyond a peradventure an apt pupil.
+
+A characteristic story is told of Douglass during these school days at
+Canandaigua.[15] A youngster who occupied a particularly desirable
+seat at table had been ousted by another lad, who claimed a better
+right to the place. Some one suggested that the claimants should have
+the case argued by counsel before a board of arbitration. The
+dispossessed boy lost his case, because of the superior skill with
+which Douglass presented the claims of his client. "It was the first
+assertion of the doctrine of squatter sovereignty," said the defeated
+claimant, recalling the incident years afterward, when both he and
+Douglas were in politics.
+
+Douglass was now maturing rapidly. His ideals were clearer; his native
+tastes more pronounced. It is not improbable that already he looked
+forward to politics as a career. At all events he took the proximate
+step toward that goal by beginning the study of law in the office of
+local attorneys, at the same time continuing his studies begun in the
+academy. What marked him off from his comrades even at this period was
+his lively acquisitiveness. He seemed to learn quite as much by
+indirection as by persevering application to books.[16]
+
+In the spring of 1833, the same unrest that sent the first Douglass
+across the sea to the new world, seized the young man. Against the
+remonstrances of his mother and his relatives, he started for the
+great West which then spelled opportunity to so many young men. He was
+only twenty years old, and he had not yet finished his academic
+course; but with the impatience of ambition he was reluctant to spend
+four more years in study before he could gain admission to the bar. In
+the newer States of the West conditions were easier. Moreover, he was
+no longer willing to be a burden to his mother, whose resources were
+limited. And so, with purposes only half formed and with only enough
+money for his immediate needs, he began, not so much a journey, as a
+drift in a westerly direction, for he had no particular destination in
+view.[17]
+
+After a short stay in Buffalo and a visit to Niagara Falls and the
+battle ground of Chippewa, the boy took a steamboat to Cleveland,
+where happily he found a friend in Sherlock J. Andrews, Esquire, a
+successful attorney and a man of kindly impulses. Finding the city
+attractive and the requirements for the Ohio bar less rigorous,
+Douglass determined to drop anchor in this pleasant port. Mr. Andrews
+encouraged him in this purpose, offering the use of his office and
+law library. In a single year Douglass hoped to gain admission to the
+bar. With characteristic energy, he began his studies. Fate ruled,
+however, that his career should not be linked with the Western
+Reserve. Within a few days he was prostrated by that foe which then
+lurked in the marshes and lowlands of the West--foe more dreaded than
+the redman--malarial typhoid. For four weary months he kept his bed,
+hovering between life and death, until the heat of summer was spent
+and the first frosts of October came to revive him. Urgent appeals now
+came to him to return home; but pride kept him from yielding. After
+paying all his bills, he still had forty dollars left. He resolved to
+push on farther into the interior.[18]
+
+He was far from well when he took the canal boat from Cleveland to
+Portsmouth on the Ohio river; but he was now in a reckless and
+adventurous mood. He would test his luck by pressing on to Cincinnati.
+He had no well-defined purpose: he was in a listless mood, which was
+no doubt partly the result of physical exhaustion. From Cincinnati he
+drifted on to Louisville, and then to St. Louis. His small funds were
+now almost all spent. He must soon find occupation or starve. His
+first endeavor was to find a law office where he could earn enough by
+copying and other work to pay his expenses while he continued his law
+studies. No such opening fell in his way and he had no letters of
+introduction here to smooth his path. He was now convinced that he
+must seek some small country town. Hearing that Jacksonville,
+Illinois, was a thriving settlement, he resolved to try his luck in
+this quarter. With much the same desperation with which a gambler
+plays his last stake, he took passage on a river boat up the Illinois,
+and set foot upon the soil of the great prairie State.[19]
+
+A primitive stage coach plied between the river and Jacksonville. Too
+fatigued to walk the intervening distance, Douglass mounted the
+lumbering vehicle and ruefully paid his fare. From this point of
+vantage he took in the prairie landscape. Morgan County was then but
+sparsely populated. Timber fringed the creeks and the river bottoms,
+while the prairie grass grew rank over soil of unsuspected fertility.
+Most dwellings were rude structures made of rough-hewn logs and
+designed as makeshifts. Wildcats and wolves prowled through the timber
+lands in winter, and game of all sorts abounded.[20] As the stage
+swung lazily along, the lad had ample time to let the first impression
+of the prairie landscape sink deep. In the timber, the trees were
+festooned with bitter-sweet and with vines bearing wild grapes; in the
+open country, nothing but unmeasured stretches of waving grass caught
+the eye.[21] To one born and bred among the hills, this broad horizon
+and unbroken landscape must have been a revelation. Weak as he was,
+Douglass drew in the fresh autumnal air with zest, and unconsciously
+borrowed from the face of nature a sense of unbounded capacity. Years
+afterward, when he was famous, he testified, "I found my mind
+liberalized and my opinions enlarged, when I got on these broad
+prairies, with only the heavens to bound my vision, instead of having
+them circumscribed by the little ridges that surrounded the valley
+where I was born."[22] But of all this he was unconscious, when he
+alighted from the stage in Jacksonville. He was simply a wayworn lad,
+without a friend in the town and with only one dollar and twenty-five
+cents in his pocket.[23]
+
+Jacksonville was then hardly more than a crowded village of log cabins
+on the outposts of civilized Illinois.[24] Comfort was not among the
+first concerns of those who had come to subdue the wilderness. Comfort
+implied leisure to enjoy, and leisure was like Heaven,--to be attained
+only after a wearisome earthly pilgrimage. Jacksonville had been
+scourged by the cholera during the summer; and those who had escaped
+the disease had fled the town for fear of it.[25] By this time,
+however, the epidemic had spent itself, and the refugees had returned.
+All told, the town had a population of about one thousand souls, among
+whom were no less than eleven lawyers, or at least those who called
+themselves such.[26]
+
+A day's lodging at the Tavern ate up the remainder of the wanderer's
+funds, so that he was forced to sell a few school books that he had
+brought with him. Meanwhile he left no stone unturned to find
+employment to his liking. One of his first acquaintances was Murray
+McConnell, a lawyer, who advised him to go to Pekin, farther up the
+Illinois River, and open a law office. The young man replied that he
+had no license to practice law and no law books. He was assured that
+a license was a matter of no consequence, since anyone could practice
+before a justice of the peace, and he could procure one at his
+leisure. As for books, McConnell, with true Western generosity,
+offered to loan such as would be of immediate use. So again Douglass
+took up his travels. At Meredosia, the nearest landing on the river,
+he waited a week for the boat upstream. There was no other available
+route to Pekin. Then came the exasperating intelligence, that the only
+boat which plied between these points had blown up at Alton. After
+settling accounts with the tavern-keeper, he found that he had but
+fifty cents left.[27]
+
+There was now but one thing to do, since hard manual labor was out of
+the question: he would teach school. But where? Meredosia was a
+forlorn, thriftless place, and he had no money to travel. Fortunately,
+a kind-hearted farmer befriended him, lodging him at his house over
+night and taking him next morning to Exeter, where there was a
+prospect of securing a school. Disappointment again awaited him; but
+Winchester, ten miles away, was said to need a teacher. Taking his
+coat on his arm--he had left his trunk at Meredosia--he set off on
+foot for Winchester.[28]
+
+Accident, happily turned to his profit, served to introduce him to the
+townspeople of Winchester. The morning after his arrival, he found a
+crowd in the public square and learned that an auction sale of
+personal effects was about to take place. Everyone from the
+administrator of the estate to the village idler, was eager for the
+sale to begin. But a clerk to keep record of the sales and to draw the
+notes was wanting. The eye of the administrator fell upon Douglass;
+something in the youth's appearance gave assurance that he could
+"cipher.". The impatient bystanders "'lowed that he might do," so he
+was given a trial. Douglass proved fully equal to the task, and in two
+days was in possession of five dollars for his pains.[29]
+
+Through the good will of the village storekeeper, who also hailed from
+Vermont, Douglass was presented to several citizens who wished to see
+a school opened in town; and by the first Monday in December he had a
+subscription list of forty scholars, each of whom paid three dollars
+for three months' tuition.[30] Luck was now coming his way. He found
+lodgings under the roof of this same friendly compatriot, the village
+storekeeper, who gave him the use of a small room adjoining the
+store-room.[31] Here Douglass spent his evenings, devoting some hours
+to his law books and perhaps more to comfortable chats with his host
+and talkative neighbors around the stove. For diversion he had the
+weekly meetings of the Lyceum, which had just been formed.[32] He owed
+much to this institution, for the the debates and discussions gave him
+a chance to convert the traditional leadership which fell to him as
+village schoolmaster, into a real leadership of talent and ready wit.
+In this Lyceum he made his first political speech, defending Andrew
+Jackson and his attack upon the Bank against Josiah Lamborn, a lawyer
+from Jacksonville.[33] For a young man he proved himself astonishingly
+well-informed. If the chronology of his autobiography may be accepted,
+he had already read the debates in the Constitutional Convention of
+1787, the _Federalist_, the works of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson,
+and the recent debates in Congress.
+
+Even while he was teaching school, Douglass found time to practice law
+in a modest way before the justices of the peace; and when the first
+of March came, he closed the schoolhouse door on his career as
+pedagogue. He at once repaired to Jacksonville and presented himself
+before a justice of the Supreme Court for license to practice law.
+After a short examination, which could not have been very searching,
+he was duly admitted to the bar of Illinois. He still lacked a month
+of being twenty-one years of age.[34] Measured by the standard of
+older communities in the East, he knew little law; but there were few
+cases in these Western courts which required much more than
+common-sense, ready speech, and acquaintance with legal procedure.
+_Stare decisis_ was a maxim that did not trouble the average lawyer,
+for there were few decisions to stand upon.[35] Besides, experience
+would make good any deficiencies of preparation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: There can be little doubt that he supplied the data for
+the sketch in Wheeler's Biographical and Political History of
+Congress.]
+
+[Footnote 2: See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical
+Society, 1901, pp. 113-114.]
+
+[Footnote 3: Vermont Historical Gazetteer, III, p. 457.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 5: Mr. B.F. Field in the _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]
+
+[Footnote 6: For many facts relating to Douglas's life, I am indebted
+to an unpublished autobiographical sketch in the possession of his
+son, Judge R.M. Douglas, of Greensboro, North Carolina.]
+
+[Footnote 7: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 61; also
+MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 8: Troy _Whig_, July 6, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 9: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 10: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 11: MS. Autobiography; see Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 12: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 13: _Vermonter_, January, 1897.]
+
+[Footnote 14: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 15: This story was repeated to me by Judge Douglas, on the
+authority, I believe, of Senator Lapham of New York.]
+
+[Footnote 16: This is the impression of all who knew him personally,
+then and afterward. See Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]
+
+[Footnote 17: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 18: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 19: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 20: Kirby, Sketch of Joseph Duncan in Fergus Historical
+Series No. 29; also Historic Morgan, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 21: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 22: Speech at Jonesboro, in the debate with Lincoln, Sept.
+15, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 23: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 24: Kirby, Joseph Duncan.]
+
+[Footnote 25: James S. Anderson in Historic Morgan.]
+
+[Footnote 26: Peck, _Gazetteer of Illinois_, 1834.]
+
+[Footnote 27: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 28: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 29: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 30: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 31: Letter of E.G. Miner, January, 1877, in Proceedings of
+the Illinois Association of Sons of Vermont.]
+
+[Footnote 32: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 33: _Ibid._; MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 34: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 35: Hon. J.C. Conkling in Fergus Historical Series,
+No. 22.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE RISE OF THE POLITICIAN
+
+
+The young attorney who opened a law office in the Court House at
+Jacksonville, bore little resemblance to the forlorn lad who had
+vainly sought a livelihood there some months earlier. The winter winds
+of the prairies, so far from racking the frame of the convalescent,
+had braced and toned his whole system. When spring came, he was in the
+best of health and full of animal spirits. He entered upon his new
+life with zest. Here was a people after his own heart; a generous,
+wholesome, optimistic folk. He opened his heart to them, and, of
+course, hospitable doors opened to him. He took society as he found
+it, rude perhaps, but genuine. With plenty of leisure at command, he
+mingled freely with young people of his own age; he joined the
+boisterous young fellows in their village sports; he danced with the
+maidens; and he did not forget to cultivate the good graces of their
+elders. Mothers liked his animation and ready gallantry; fathers found
+him equally responsive on more serious matters of conversation.
+Altogether, he was a very general favorite in a not too fastidious
+society.[36]
+
+Nor was the circle of the young attorney's acquaintances limited to
+Jacksonville. As the county seat and most important town in Morgan
+County, Jacksonville was a sort of rural emporium. Thither came
+farmers from the country round about, to market their produce and to
+purchase their supplies. The town had an unwontedly busy aspect on
+Saturdays. This was the day which drew women to town. While they did
+their shopping, the men loitered on street corners, or around the
+Court House, to greet old acquaintances. Douglass was sure to be found
+among them, joining in that most subtle of all social processes, the
+forming of public opinion. Moving about from group to group, with his
+pockets stuffed with newspapers, he became a familiar figure.[37]
+Plain farmers, in clothes soiled with the rich loam of the prairies,
+enjoyed hearing the young fellow express so pointedly their own
+nascent convictions.
+
+This forum was an excellent school for the future politician. The dust
+might accumulate upon his law books: he was learning unwritten law in
+the hearts of these countrymen. And yet, even at this time, he
+exhibited a certain maturity. There seems never to have been a time
+when the arts of the politician were not instinctive in him. He had no
+boyish illusions to outlive regarding the nature and conditions of
+public life. His perfect self-possession attested this mental
+maturity.
+
+One of the first friendships which the young lawyer formed in his new
+home was with S.S. Brooks, Esq., editor of the Jacksonville _News_.
+While Douglass was still in Winchester, the first issue of this sheet
+had appeared; and he had written a complimentary letter to Brooks,
+congratulating him on his enterprise. The grateful editor never forgot
+this kindly word of encouragement.[38] The intimacy which followed
+was of great value to the younger man, who needed just the advertising
+which the editor was in a position to give. The bond between them was
+their devotion to the fortunes of Andrew Jackson. Together they
+labored to consolidate the Democratic forces of the county, with
+results which must have surprised even the sanguine young lawyer.
+
+The political situation in Morgan County, as the State election
+approached, is not altogether clear. President Jackson's high-handed
+acts, particularly his attitude toward the National Bank, had alarmed
+many men who had supported him in 1832. There were defections in the
+ranks of the Democracy. The State elections would surely turn on
+national issues. The Whigs were noisy, assertive, and confident.
+Largely through the efforts of Brooks and Douglass, the Democrats of
+Jacksonville were persuaded to call a mass-meeting of all good
+Democrats in the county. It was on this occasion, very soon after his
+arrival in town, that Douglass made his debut on the political stage.
+
+It is said that accident brought the young lawyer into prominence at
+this meeting. A well-known Democrat who was to have presented
+resolutions, demurred, at the last minute, and thrust the copy into
+Douglass' hands, bidding him read them. The Court House was full to
+overflowing with interested observers of this little by-play.
+Excitement ran high, for the opposition within the party was vehement
+in its protest to cut-and-dried resolutions commending Jackson. An
+older man with more discretion and modesty, would have hesitated to
+face the audience; but Douglass possessed neither retiring modesty
+nor the sobriety which comes with years. He not only read the
+resolutions, but he defended them with such vigorous logic and with
+such caustic criticism of Whigs and half-hearted Democrats, that he
+carried the meeting with him in tumultuous approval of the course of
+Andrew Jackson, past and present.[39]
+
+The next issue of the _Patriot_, the local Whig paper, devoted two
+columns to the speech of this young Democratic upstart; and for weeks
+thereafter the editor flayed him on all possible occasions. The result
+was such an enviable notoriety for the young attorney among Whigs and
+such fame among Democrats, that he received collection demands to the
+amount of thousands of dollars from persons whom he had never seen or
+known. In after years, looking back on these beginnings, he used to
+wonder whether he ought not to have paid the editor of the _Patriot_
+for his abuse, according to the usual advertising rates.[40] The
+political outcome was not in every respect so gratifying. The
+Democratic county ticket was elected and a Democratic congressman from
+the district; but the Whigs elected their candidate for governor.
+
+A factional quarrel among members of his own party gave Douglass his
+reward for services to the cause of Democracy, and his first political
+office. Captain John Wyatt nursed a grudge against John J. Hardin,
+Esq., who had been elected State's attorney for the district through
+his influence, but who had subsequently proved ungrateful. Wyatt had
+been re-elected member of the legislature, however, in spite of
+Hardin's opposition, and now wished to revenge himself, by ousting
+Hardin from his office. With this end in view, Wyatt had Douglass
+draft a bill making the State's attorneys elective by the legislature,
+instead of subject to the governor's appointment. Since the new
+governor was a Whig, he could not be used by the Democrats. The bill
+met with bitter opposition, for it was alleged that it had no other
+purpose than to vacate Hardin's office for the benefit of Douglass.
+This was solemnly denied;[41] but when the bill had been declared
+unconstitutional by the Council of Revision, Douglass' friends made
+desperate exertions to pass the bill over the veto, with the now
+openly avowed purpose to elect him to the office. The bill passed, and
+on the 10th of February, 1835, the legislature in joint session
+elected the boyish lawyer State's attorney for the first judicial
+district, by a majority of four votes over an attorney of experience
+and recognized merit. It is possible, as Douglass afterward averred,
+that he neither coveted the office nor believed himself fitted for it;
+and that his judgment was overruled by his friends. But he accepted
+the office, nevertheless.
+
+When Douglas,--for he had now begun to drop the superfluous s in the
+family name, for simplicity's sake,[42]--set out on his judicial
+circuit, he was not an imposing figure. There was little in his boyish
+face to command attention, except his dark-blue, lustrous eyes. His
+big head seemed out of proportion to his stunted figure. He measured
+scarcely over five feet and weighed less than a hundred and ten
+pounds. Astride his horse, he looked still more diminutive. His mount
+was a young horse which he had borrowed. He carried under his arm a
+single book, also loaned, a copy of the criminal law.[43] His chief
+asset was a large fund of Yankee shrewdness and good nature.
+
+An amusing incident occurred in McLean County at the first court which
+Douglas attended. There were many indictments to be drawn, and the new
+prosecuting attorney, in his haste, misspelled the name of the
+county--M Clean instead of M'Lean. His professional brethren were
+greatly amused at this evidence of inexperience; and made merry over
+the blunder. Finally, John T. Stuart, subsequently Douglas's political
+rival, moved that all the indictments be quashed. Judge Logan asked
+the discomfited youth what he had to say to support the indictments.
+Smarting under the gibes of Stuart, Douglas replied obstinately that
+he had nothing to say, as he supposed the Court would not quash the
+indictments until the point had been proven. This answer aroused more
+merriment; but the Judge decided that the Court could not rule upon
+the matter, until the precise spelling in the statute creating the
+county had been ascertained. No one doubted what the result would be;
+but at least Douglas had the satisfaction of causing his critics some
+annoyance and two days' delay, for the statutes had to be procured
+from an adjoining county. To the astonishment of Court and Bar, and of
+Douglas himself, it appeared that Douglas had spelled the name
+correctly. To the indescribable chagrin of the learned Stuart, the
+Court promptly sustained all the indictments. The young attorney was
+in high feather; and he made the most of his triumph. The incident
+taught him a useful lesson: henceforth he would admit nothing, and
+require his opponents to prove everything that bore upon the case in
+hand. Some time later, upon comparing the printed statute of the
+county with the enrolled bill in the office of the Secretary of State,
+Douglas found that the printer had made a mistake and that the name of
+the county should have been M'Lean.[44]
+
+On the whole Douglas seems to have discharged his not very onerous
+duties acceptably. The more his fellow practitioners saw of him, the
+more respect they had for him. Moreover, they liked him personally.
+His wholesome frankness disarmed ill-natured opponents; his generosity
+made them fast friends. There was not an inn or hostelry in the
+circuit, which did not welcome the sight of the talkative,
+companionable, young district attorney.
+
+Politically as well as socially, Illinois was in a transitional stage.
+Although political parties existed, they were rather loose
+associations of men holding similar political convictions than parties
+in the modern sense with permanent organs of control. He who would
+might stand for office, either announcing his own candidacy in the
+newspapers, or if his modesty forbade this course, causing such an
+announcement to be made by "many voters." In benighted districts,
+where the light of the press did not shine, the candidate offered
+himself in person. Even after the advent of Andrew Jackson in national
+politics, allegiance to party was so far subordinated to personal
+ambition, that it was no uncommon occurrence for several candidates
+from each party to enter the lists.[45] From the point of view of
+party, this practice was strategically faulty, since there was always
+the possibility that the opposing party might unite on a single
+candidate. What was needed to insure the success of party was the
+rationale of an army. But organization was abhorrent to people so
+tenacious of their personal freedom as Illinoisans, because
+organization necessitated the subordination of the individual to the
+centralized authority of the group. To the average man organization
+spelled dictation.
+
+The first step in the effective control of nominations by party in
+Illinois, was taken by certain Democrats, foremost among whom was S.A.
+Douglas, Esq. His rise as a politician, indeed, coincides with this
+development of party organization and machinery. The movement began
+sporadically in several counties. At the instance of Douglas and his
+friend Brooks of the _News_, the Democrats of Morgan County put
+themselves on record as favoring a State convention to choose
+delegates to the national convention of 1836.[46] County after county
+adopted the suggestion, until the movement culminated in a
+well-attended convention at Vandalia in April, 1835. Not all counties
+were represented, to be sure, and no permanent organization was
+effected; but provision was made for a second convention in December,
+to nominate presidential electors.[47] Among the delegates from Morgan
+County in this December convention was Douglas, burning with zeal for
+the consolidation of his party. Signs were not wanting that he was in
+league with other zealots to execute a sort of _coup d'etat_ within
+the party. Early in the session, one Ebenezer Peck, recently from
+Canada, boldly proposed that the convention should proceed to nominate
+not only presidential electors but candidates for State offices as
+well. A storm of protests broke upon his head, and for the moment he
+was silenced; but on the second day, he and his confidants succeeded
+in precipitating a general discussion of the convention system.
+Peck--contemptuously styled "the Canadian" by his enemies--secured the
+floor and launched upon a vigorous defense of the nominating
+convention as a piece of party machinery. He thought it absurd to talk
+of a man's having a right to become a candidate for office without the
+indorsement of his party. He believed it equally irrational to allow
+members of the party to consult personal preferences in voting. The
+members of the party must submit to discipline, if they expected to
+secure control of office. Confusion again reigned. The presiding
+officer left the chair precipitately, denouncing the notions of Peck
+as anti-republican.[48]
+
+In the exciting wrangle that followed, Douglas was understood to say
+that he had seen the workings of the nominating convention in New
+York, and he knew it to be the only way to manage elections
+successfully. The opposition had overthrown the great DeWitt Clinton
+only by organizing and adopting the convention system. Gentlemen were
+mistaken who feared that the people of the West had enjoyed their own
+opinions too long to submit quietly to the wise regulations of a
+convention. He knew them better: he had himself had the honor of
+introducing the nominating convention into Morgan County, where it had
+already prostrated one individual high in office. These wise
+admonitions from a mere stripling failed to mollify the conservatives.
+The meeting broke up in disorder, leaving the party with divided
+counsels.[49]
+
+Successful county and district conventions did much to break down the
+resistance to the system. During the following months, Morgan County,
+and the congressional district to which it belonged, became a
+political experiment station. A convention at Jacksonville in April
+not only succeeded in nominating one candidate for each elective
+office, but also in securing the support of the disappointed aspirants
+for office, which under the circumstances was in itself a triumph.[50]
+Taking their cue from the enemy, the Whigs of Morgan County also
+united upon a ticket for the State offices, at the head of which was
+John J. Hardin, a formidable campaigner. When the canvass was fairly
+under way, not a man could be found on the Democratic ticket to hold
+his own with Hardin on the hustings. The ticket was then reorganized
+so as to make a place for Douglas, who was already recognized as one
+of the ablest debaters in the county. Just how this transposition was
+effected is not clear. Apparently one of the nominees of the
+convention for State representative was persuaded to withdraw.[51] The
+Whigs promptly pointed out the inconsistency of this performance.
+"What are good Democrats to do?" asked the Sangamo _Journal_
+mockingly. Douglas had told them to vote for no man who had not been
+nominated by a caucus![52]
+
+The Democrats committed also another tactical blunder. The county
+convention had adjourned without appointing delegates to the
+congressional district convention, which was to be held at Peoria.
+Such of the delegates as had remained in town, together with resident
+Democrats, were hastily reassembled to make good this omission.[53]
+Douglas and eight others were accredited to the Peoria convention; but
+when they arrived, they found only four other delegates present, one
+from each of four counties. Nineteen counties were unrepresented.[54]
+Evidently there was little or no interest in this political
+innovation. In no wise disheartened, however, these thirteen delegates
+declared themselves a duly authorized district convention and put
+candidates in nomination for the several offices. Again the Whig press
+scored their opponents. "Our citizens cannot be led at the dictation
+of a dozen unauthorized individuals, but will act as freemen," said
+the Sangamo _Journal_.[55] There were stalwart Democrats, too, who
+refused to put on "the Caucus collar." Douglas and his "Peoria Humbug
+Convention" were roundly abused on all sides. The young politician
+might have replied, and doubtless did reply, that the rank and file
+had not yet become accustomed to the system, and that the bad roads
+and inclement weather were largely responsible for the slim attendance
+at Peoria.
+
+The campaign was fought with the inevitable concomitants of an
+Illinois election. The weapons that slew the adversary were not always
+forged by logic. In rude regions, where the rougher border element
+congregated, country stores were subsidized by candidates, and liquor
+liberally dispensed. The candidate who refused to treat was doomed. He
+was the last man to get a hearing, when the crowds gathered on
+Saturday nights to hear the candidates discuss the questions at issue.
+To speak from an improvised rostrum--"the stump"--to a boisterous
+throng of men who had already accepted the orator's hospitality at the
+store, was no light ordeal. This was the school of oratory in which
+Douglas was trained.[56]
+
+The election of all but one of the Democratic nominees was hailed as a
+complete vindication of the nominating convention as a piece of party
+machinery. Douglas shared the elation of his fellow workers, even
+though he was made to feel that his nomination was not due to this
+much-vaunted caucus system. At all events, the value of organization
+and discipline had been demonstrated. The day of the professional
+politician and of the machine was dawning in the frontier State of
+Illinois.
+
+During the campaign there had been much wild talk about internal
+improvements. The mania which had taken possession of the people in
+most Western States had affected the grangers of Illinois. It amounted
+to an obsession. The State was called upon to use its resources and
+unlimited credit to provide a market for their produce, by supplying
+transportation facilities for every aspiring community. Elsewhere
+State credit was building canals and railroads: why should Illinois,
+so generously endowed by nature, lag behind? Where crops were spoiling
+for a market, farmers were not disposed to inquire into the mysteries
+of high finance and the nature of public credit. All doubts were laid
+to rest by the magic phrase "natural resources."[57] Mass-meetings
+here and there gave propulsion to the movement.[58] Candidates for
+State office were forced to make the maddest pledges. A grand
+demonstration was projected at Vandalia just as the legislature
+assembled.
+
+The legislature which met in December, 1836, is one of the most
+memorable, and least creditable, in the annals of Illinois. In full
+view of the popular demonstrations at the capital, the members could
+not remained unmoved and indifferent to the demands of their
+constituents, if they wished. Besides, the great majority were already
+committed in favor of internal improvements in some form. The subject
+dwarfed all others. For a time two sessions a day were held; and
+special committees prolonged their labors far into the night.
+Petitions from every quarter deluged the assembly.[59]
+
+A plan for internal improvements had already taken shape in the mind
+of the young representative from Morgan County.[60] He made haste to
+lay it before his colleagues. First of all, he would have the State
+complete the Illinois and Michigan canal, and improve the navigation
+of the Illinois and Wabash rivers. Then he would have two railroads
+constructed which would cross the State from north to south, and from
+east to west. For these purposes he would negotiate a loan, pledging
+the credit of the State, and meet the interest payments by judicious
+sales of the public lands which had been granted by the Federal
+government for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal.
+The most creditable feature of these proposals is their moderation.
+This youth of twenty-three evinced far more conservatism than many
+colleagues twice his age.
+
+There was not the slightest prospect, however, that moderate views
+would prevail. Log-rolling had already begun; the lobby was active;
+and every member of the legislature who had pledged himself to his
+constituents was solicitous that his section of the State should not
+be passed over, in the general scramble for appropriations. In the end
+a bill was drawn, which proposed to appropriate no less than
+$10,230,000 for public works. A sum of $500,000 was set aside for
+river improvements, but the remainder was to be expended in the
+construction of eight railroads. A sop of $200,000 was tossed to those
+counties through which no canal or railroad was to pass.[61] What were
+prudent men to do? Should they support this bill, which they believed
+to be thoroughly pernicious, or incur the displeasure of their
+constituents by defeating this, and probably every other, project for
+the session? Douglas was put in a peculiarly trying position. He had
+opposed this "mammoth bill," but he knew his constituents favored it.
+With great reluctance, he voted for the bill.[62] He was not minded
+to immolate himself on the altar of public economy at the very
+threshold of his career.[63]
+
+Much the same issue was forced upon Douglas in connection with the
+Illinois and Michigan canal. Unexpected obstacles to the construction
+of the canal had been encountered. To allow the waters of Lake
+Michigan to flow through the projected canal, it was found that a cut
+eighteen feet deep would have to be made for twenty-eight miles
+through solid rock. The cost of such an undertaking would exceed the
+entire appropriation. It was then suggested that a shallow cut might
+be made above the level of Lake Michigan which would then permit the
+Calumet River or the Des Plaines, to be used as a feeder. The problem
+was one for expert engineers to solve; but it devolved upon an
+ignorant assembly, which seems to have done its best to reduce the
+problem to a political equation. A majority of the House--Douglas
+among them--favored a shallow cut, while the Senate voted for the deep
+cut. The deadlock continued for some weeks, until a conference
+committee succeeded in agreeing upon the Senate's programme. As a
+member of the conferring committee, Douglas vigorously opposed this
+settlement, but on the final vote in the House he yielded his
+convictions. In after years he took great satisfaction in pointing
+out--as evidence of his prescience--that the State became financially
+embarrassed and had finally to adopt the shallow cut.[64]
+
+The members of the 10th General Assembly have not been wont to point
+with pride to their record. With a few notable exceptions they had
+fallen victims to a credulity which had become epidemic. When the
+assembly of 1840 repealed this magnificent act for the improvement of
+Illinois, they encountered an accumulated indebtedness of over
+$14,000,000. There are other aspects of the assembly of 1836-37 upon
+which it is pleasanter to dwell.
+
+As chairman of a committee on petitions Douglas rendered a real
+service to public morality. The general assembly had been wont upon
+petition to grant divorces by special acts. Before the legislature had
+been in session ten days, no less than four petitions for divorces had
+been received. It was a custom reflecting little credit upon the
+State.[65] Reporting for his committee, Douglas contended that the
+legislature had no power to grant divorces, but only to enact salutary
+laws, which should state the circumstances under which divorces might
+be granted by the courts. The existing practice, he argued, was
+contrary to those provisions of the constitution which expressly
+separated the three departments of government. Moreover, everyone
+recognized the injustice and unwisdom of dissolving marriage contracts
+by act of legislature, upon _ex parte_ evidence.[66] Without
+expressing an opinion on the constitutional questions involved, the
+assembly accepted the main recommendation of the committee, that
+henceforth the legislature should not grant bills of divorce.[67]
+
+One of the recurring questions during this session was whether the
+State capital should be moved. Vandalia was an insignificant town,
+difficult of access and rapidly falling far south of the center of
+population in the State. Springfield was particularly desirous to
+become the capital, though there were other towns which had claims
+equally strong. The Sangamon County delegation was annoyingly
+aggressive in behalf of their county seat. They were a conspicuous
+group, not merely because of their stature, which earned for them the
+nickname of "the Long Nine," but also because they were men of real
+ability and practical shrewdness. By adroit management, a vote was
+first secured to move the capital from Vandalia, and then to locate it
+at Springfield. Unquestionably there was some trading of votes in
+return for special concessions in the Internal Improvements bill. It
+is said that Abraham Lincoln was the virtual head of the Sangamon
+delegation, and the chief promoter of the project.[68]
+
+Soon after the adjournment of the legislature, Douglas resigned his
+seat to become Register of the Land Office at Springfield; and when
+"the Long Nine" returned to their constituents and were feted and
+banqueted by the grateful citizens of Springfield, Douglas sat among
+the guests of honor.[69] It began to be rumored about that the young
+man owed his appointment to the Sangamon delegation, whose schemes he
+had industriously furthered in the legislature. Finally, the Illinois
+_Patriot_ made the direct accusation of bargain.[70] Touched to the
+quick, Douglas wrote a letter to the editor which fairly bristles with
+righteous indignation. His circumstantial denial of the charge,--his
+well-known opposition to the removal of the capital and to all the
+schemes of the Sangamon delegation during the session,--cleared him of
+all complicity. Indeed, Douglas was too zealous a partisan to play
+into the hands of the Sangamon Whigs.[71]
+
+The advent of the young Register at the Land Office was noted by the
+Sangamo Whig _Journal_ in these words: "The Land Office at this place
+was opened on Monday last. We are told the _little man_ from Morgan
+was perfectly astonished, at finding himself making money at the rate
+of from one to two hundred dollars a day!"[72] This sarcastic comment
+is at least good evidence that the office was doing a thriving
+business. In two respects Douglas had bettered himself by this change
+of occupation. He could not afford to hold his seat in the legislature
+with its small salary. Now he was assured of a competence. Besides, as
+a resident of Springfield, he could keep in touch with politics at the
+future capital and bide his time until he was again promoted for
+conspicuous service to his party.
+
+The educative value of his new office was no small consideration to
+the young lawyer. He not only kept the records and plans of surveys
+within his district, but put up each tract at auction, in accordance
+with the proclamation of the President, and issued certificates of
+sale to all purchasers, describing the land purchased. The duties were
+not onerous, but they required considerable familiarity with land laws
+and with the practical difficulties arising from imperfect surveys,
+pre-emption rights, and conflicting claims.[73] Daily contact with the
+practical aspects of the public land policy of the country, seems to
+have opened his eyes to the significance of the public domain as a
+national asset. With all his realism, Douglas was gifted with a
+certain sort of imagination in things political. He not only saw what
+was obvious to the dullest clerk,--the revenue derived from land
+sales,--but also those intangible and prospective gains which would
+accrue to State and nation from the occupation and cultivation of the
+national domain. He came to believe that, even if not a penny came
+into the treasury, the government would still be richer from having
+parcelled out the great uninhabited wastes in the West. Beneath the
+soiled and uncomely exterior of the Western pioneer, native or
+foreigner, Douglas discerned not only a future tax-bearer, but the
+founder of Commonwealths.
+
+Only isolated bits of tradition throw light upon the daily life of the
+young Register of the Land Office. All point to the fact that politics
+was his absorbing interest. He had no avocations; he had no private
+life, no esoteric tastes which invite a prying curiosity; he had no
+subtle aspects of character and temperament which sometimes make even
+commonplace lives dramatic. His life was lived in the open. Lodging at
+the American Tavern, he was always seen in company with other men.
+Diller's drug-store, near the old market, was a familiar rendezvous
+for him and his boon companions. Just as he had no strong interests
+which were not political, so his intimates were likely to be his
+political confreres. He had no literary tastes: if he read at all, he
+read law or politics.[74] Yet while these characteristics suggest
+narrowness, they were perhaps the inevitable outcome of a society
+possessing few cultural resources and refinements, but tremendous
+directness of purpose.
+
+One of the haunts of Douglas in these Springfield days was the office
+of the _Republican_, a Democratic journal then edited by the Webers.
+There he picked up items of political gossip and chatted with the
+chance comer, or with habitues like himself. He was a welcome visitor,
+just the man whom a country editor, mauling over hackneyed matter,
+likes to have stimulate his flagging wits with a jest or a racy
+anecdote. Now and then Douglas would take up a pen good-naturedly, and
+scratch off an editorial which would set Springfield politicians by
+the ears. The tone of the _Republican_, as indeed of the Western press
+generally at this time, was low. Editors of rival newspapers heaped
+abuse upon each other, without much regard to either truth or decency.
+Feuds were the inevitable product of these editorial amenities.
+
+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.
+
+Before many weeks of the campaign had passed, Douglas had ceased to be
+merely a consultative specialist on party ailments. Not at all
+unwillingly, he was drawn into active service. It was commonly
+supposed that the Honorable William L. May, who had served a term in
+Congress acceptably, would again become the nominee of the Democratic
+party without opposition. If the old-time practice prevailed, he would
+quietly assume the nomination "at the request of many friends." Still,
+consistency required that the nomination should be made in due form by
+a convention. The Springfield _Republican_ clamored for a convention;
+and the Jacksonville _News_ echoed the cry.[80] Other Democratic
+papers took up the cry, until by general agreement a congressional
+district convention was summoned to meet at Peoria. The Jacksonville
+_News_ was then ready with a list of eligible candidates among whom
+Douglas was mentioned. At the same time the enterprising Brooks
+announced "authoritatively" that _if_ Mr. May concluded to become a
+candidate, he would submit his claims to the consideration of the
+convention.[81] This was the first intimation that the gentleman's
+claims were likely to be contested in the convention. Meantime, good
+friends in Sangamon County saw to it that the county delegation was
+made up of men who were favorably disposed toward Douglas, and bound
+them by instructions to act as a unit in the convention.[82]
+
+The history of the district convention has never been written: it
+needs no historian. Under the circumstances the outcome was a foregone
+conclusion. Not all the counties were represented; some were poorly
+represented; most of the delegates came without any clearly defined
+aims; all were unfamiliar with the procedure of conventions. The
+Sangamon County delegation alone, with the possible exception of that
+from Morgan County, knew exactly what it wanted. When a ballot was
+taken, Douglas received a majority of votes cast, and was declared to
+be the regular nominee of the party for Congress.[83]
+
+There was much shaking of heads over this machine-made nomination. An
+experienced public servant had been set aside to gratify the ambition
+of a mere stripling. Even Democrats commented freely upon the
+untrustworthiness of a device which left nominations to the caprice of
+forty delegates representing only fourteen counties out of
+thirty-five.[84] The Whigs made merry over the folly of their
+opponents. "No nomination could suit us better," declared the Sangamo
+_Journal_.[85]
+
+The Democratic State convention met at the appointed time, and again
+new methods prevailed. In spite of strong opposition, a slate was made
+up and proclaimed as the regular ticket of the party. Unhappily, the
+nominee for governor fell under suspicion as an alleged defaulter to
+the government, so that his deposition became imperative.[86] The
+Democrats were in a sorry plight. Defeat stared them in the face.
+There was but one way to save the situation, and that was to call a
+second convention. This was done. On June 5th, a new ticket was put in
+the field, without further mention of the discredited nominee of the
+earlier convention.[87] It so happened that Carlin, the nominee for
+Governor, and McRoberts, candidate for Congress from the first
+district, were receivers in land offices. This "Land Office Ticket"
+became a fair mark for wags in the Whig party.[88]
+
+In after years, Douglas made his friends believe that he accepted the
+nomination with no expectation of success: his only purpose was to
+"consolidate the party."[89] If this be true, his buoyant optimism
+throughout the canvass is admirable. He was pitted against a
+formidable opponent in the person of Major John T. Stuart, who had
+been the candidate of the Whigs two years before. Stuart enjoyed great
+popularity. He was "an old resident" of Springfield,--as Western
+people then reckoned time. He had earned his title in the Black Hawk
+War, since which he had practiced law. For the arduous campaign, which
+would range over thirty-four counties,--from Calhoun, Morgan and
+Sangamon on the south to Cook County on the north,--Stuart was
+physically well-equipped.[90]
+
+Douglas was eager to match himself against Stuart. They started off
+together, in friendly rivalry. As they rode from town to town over
+much the same route, they often met in joint debate; and at night,
+striking a truce, they would on occasion, when inns were few and far
+between, occupy the same quarters. Accommodations were primitive in
+the wilderness of the northern counties. An old resident relates how
+he was awakened one night by the landlord of the tavern, who insisted
+that he and his companion should share their beds with two belated
+travelers. The late arrivals turned out to be Douglas and Stuart.
+Douglas asked the occupants of the beds what their politics were, and
+on learning that one was a Whig and the other a Democrat, he said to
+Stuart, "Stuart, you sleep with the Whig, and I'll sleep with the
+Democrat."[91]
+
+Douglas never seemed conscious of the amusing discrepancy between
+himself and his rival in point of physique. Stuart was fully six feet
+tall and heavily built, so that he towered like a giant above his
+boyish competitor. Yet strange to relate, the exposure to all kinds of
+weather, the long rides, and the incessant speaking in the open air
+through five weary months, told on the robust Stuart quite as much as
+on Douglas. In the midst of the canvass Douglas found his way to
+Chicago. He must have been a forlorn object. His horse, his clothes,
+his boots, and his hat were worn out. His harness was held together
+only by ropes and strings. Yet he was still plucky. And so his friends
+fitted him out again and sent him on his way rejoicing.[92]
+
+The rivals began the canvass good-naturedly, but both gave evidence of
+increasing irritability as the summer wore on. Shortly before the
+election, they met in joint debate at Springfield, in front of the
+Market House. In the course of his speech, Douglas used language that
+offended his big opponent. Stuart then promptly tucked Douglas's head
+under his arm, and carried him _hors de combat_ around the square. In
+his efforts to free himself, Douglas seized Stuart's thumb in his
+mouth and bit it vigorously, so that Stuart carried a scar, as a
+memento of the occasion, for many a year.[93]
+
+As the canvass advanced, the assurance of the Whigs gave way to
+ill-disguised alarm. Disquieting rumors of Douglas's popularity among
+some two thousand Irishmen, who were employed on the canal excavation,
+reached the Whig headquarters.[94] The young man was assiduously
+cultivating voters in the most inaccessible quarters. He was a far
+more resourceful campaigner than his older rival.
+
+The election in August was followed by weeks of suspense. Both parties
+claimed the district vociferously. The official count finally gave the
+election to Stuart by a majority of thirty-five, in a total vote of
+over thirty-six thousand.[95] Possibly Douglas might have successfully
+contested the election.[96] There were certain discrepancies in the
+counting of the votes; but he declined to vex Congress with the
+question, so he said, because similar cases were pending and he could
+not hope to secure a decision before Congress adjourned. It is
+doubtful whether this merciful consideration for Congress was
+uppermost in his mind in the year 1838. The fact is, that Douglas
+wrote to Senator Thomas H. Benton to ascertain the proper procedure in
+such cases;[97] and abandoned the notion of carrying his case before
+Congress, when he learned how costly such a contest would be.[98] He
+had resigned his position as Register of the Land Office to enter the
+campaign, and he had now no other resources than his profession.
+
+It was comforting to the wounded pride of the young man to have the
+plaudits of his own party, at least. He had made a gallant fight; and
+when Democrats from all over the State met at a dinner in honor of
+Governor-elect Carlin, at Quincy, they paid him this generous tribute:
+"Although so far defeated in the election that the certificate will be
+given to another, yet he has the proud gratification of knowing that
+the people are with him. His untiring zeal, his firm integrity, and
+high order of talents, have endeared him to the Democracy of the State
+and they will remember him two years hence."[99] Meantime there was
+nothing left for him to do but to solicit a law practice. He entered
+into partnership with a Springfield attorney by the name of Urquhart.
+
+By the following spring, Douglas was again dabbling in local politics,
+and by late fall he was fully immersed in the deeper waters of
+national politics. Preparations for the presidential campaign drew him
+out of his law office,--where indeed there was nothing to detain
+him,--and he was once again active in party conclaves. He presided
+over a Democratic county convention, and lent a hand in the drafting
+of a platform.[100] In November he was summoned to answer Cyrus
+Walker, a Whig who was making havoc of the Democratic programme at a
+mass-meeting in the Court House. In the absence of any reliable
+records, nothing more can be said of Douglas's rejoinder than that it
+moved the Whigs in turn to summon reinforcements, in the person of the
+awkward but clever Lincoln. The debate was prolonged far into the
+night; and on which side victory finally folded her wings, no man can
+tell.[101] Douglas made the stronger impression, though Whigs
+professed entire satisfaction with the performance of their
+protagonist. There were some in the audience who took exception to
+Lincoln's stale anecdotes, and who thought his manner clownish.[102]
+
+Not long after this encounter, Douglas came in for his share of public
+ridicule. Considering himself insulted by a squib in the Sangamo
+_Journal_, Douglas undertook to cane the editor. But as Francis was
+large and rotund, and Douglas was not, the affair terminated
+unsatisfactorily for the latter. Lincoln described the incident with
+great relish, in a letter to Stuart: "Francis caught him by the hair
+and jammed him back against a market-cart, where the matter ended by
+Francis being pulled away from him. The whole affair was so ludicrous
+that Francis and everybody else, Douglas excepted, have been laughing
+about it ever since."[103] The Illinois _State Register_ tried to save
+Douglas's dignity by the following account of the rencontre: "Mr.
+Francis had applied scurrilous language to Mr. Douglas, which could be
+noticed in no other way. Mr. Douglas, therefore, gave him a sound
+caning, which Mr. Francis took with Abolition patience, and is now
+praising God that he was neither killed nor scathed."
+
+The executive talents of Douglas were much in demand. First he was
+made a member of the Sangamon County delegation to the State
+convention;[104] then chairman of the State Central Committee; and
+finally, virtual manager of the Democratic campaign in Illinois.[105]
+He was urged to stand for election to the legislature; but he steadily
+refused this nomination. "Considerations of a private nature," he
+wrote, "constrain me to decline the nomination, and leave the field to
+those whose avocations and private affairs will enable them to devote
+the requisite portion of their time to the canvass."[106] Inasmuch as
+Sangamon County usually sent a Whig delegation to the legislature,
+this declination could hardly have cost him many hours of painful
+deliberation.[107] At all events his avocations did not prevent him
+from making every effort to carry the State for the Democratic party.
+
+An unfortunate legal complication had cost the Democrats no end of
+worry. Hitherto the party had counted safely on the vote of the aliens
+in the State; that is, actual inhabitants whether naturalized or
+not.[108] The right of unnaturalized aliens to vote had never been
+called in question. But during the campaign, two Whigs of Galena
+instituted a collusive suit to test the rights of aliens, hoping, of
+course, to embarrass their opponents.[109] The Circuit Court had
+already decided the case adversely, when Douglas assumed direction of
+the campaign. If the decision were allowed to stand, the Democratic
+ticket would probably lose some nine thousand votes and consequently
+the election. The case was at once appealed.[110] Douglas and his old
+friend and benefactor, Murray McConnell, were retained as counsel for
+the appellant. The opposing counsel were Whigs. The case was argued in
+the winter term of the Supreme Court, but was adjourned until the
+following June, a scant six months before the elections.
+
+It was regrettable that a case, which from its very nature was
+complicated by political considerations, should have arisen in the
+midst of a campaign of such unprecedented excitement as that of 1840.
+It was taken for granted, on all sides, that the judges would follow
+their political predilections--and what had Democrats to expect from a
+bench of Whigs? The counsel for the appellant strained every nerve to
+secure another postponement. Fortune favored the Democrats. When the
+court met in June, Douglas, prompted by Judge Smith, the only Democrat
+on the bench, called attention to clerical errors in the record, and
+on this technicality moved that the case be dismissed. Protracted
+arguments _pro and con_ ensued, so that the whole case finally was
+adjourned until the next term of court in November, after the
+election.[111] Once more, at all events, the Democrats could count on
+the alien vote. Did ever lawyer serve politician so well?
+
+As Chairman of the State Central Committee, Douglas had no perfunctory
+position. The Whigs were displaying unusual aggressiveness. Their
+leaders were adroit politicians and had taken a leaf from Democratic
+experience in the matter of party organization. The processions, the
+torch-light parades, the barbecues and other noisy demonstrations of
+the Whigs, were very disconcerting. Such performances could not be
+lightly dismissed as "Whig Humbuggery," for they were alarmingly
+effective in winning votes. In self-defense, the Democratic managers
+were obliged to set on foot counter-demonstrations. On the whole, the
+Democrats were less successful in manufacturing enthusiasm. When one
+convention of young Democrats failed, for want of support, Douglas
+saved the situation only by explaining that hard-working Democrats
+could not leave their employment to go gadding. They preferred to
+leave noise and sham to their opponents, knowing that in the end "the
+quiet but certain influence of truth and correct principles" would
+prevail.[112] And when the Whigs unwittingly held a great
+demonstration for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too," on the birthday of King
+George III, Douglas saw to it that an address was issued to voters,
+warning them against the chicane of unpatriotic demagogues. As a
+counter-blast, "All Good Democrats" were summoned to hold
+mass-meetings in the several counties on the Fourth of July. "We
+select the Fourth of July," read this pronunciamento, "not to
+desecrate it with unhallowed shouts ... but in cool and calm devotion
+to our country, to renew upon the altars of its liberties, a sacred
+oath of fidelity to its principles."[113]
+
+Both parties now drew upon their reserves. Douglas went to the front
+whenever and wherever there was hard fighting to be done.[114] He
+seemed indefatigable. Once again he met Major Stuart on the
+platform.[115] He was pitted against experienced campaigners like
+ex-Governor Duncan and General Ewing of Indiana. Douglas made a
+fearless defence of Democratic principles in a joint debate with both
+these Whig champions at Springfield.[116] The discussion continued far
+into the night. In his anxiety to let no point escape, Douglas had his
+supper brought to him; and it is the testimony of an old Whig who
+heard the debate, that Duncan was "the worst used-up man" he ever
+saw.[117] Whether Douglas took the field as on this occasion, or
+directed the campaign from headquarters, he was cool, collected, and
+resourceful. If the sobriquet of "the Little Giant" had not already
+been fastened upon him, it was surely earned in this memorable
+campaign of 1840. The victory of Van Buren over Harrison in Illinois
+was little less than a personal triumph for Douglas, for Democratic
+reverses elsewhere emphasized the already conspicuous fact that
+Illinois had been saved only by superior organization and leadership.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 36: Joseph Wallace in a letter to the Illinois _State
+Register_, April 30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 37: Illinois _State Register_, April 30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 38: Sheahan, Life of Douglas, pp. 16-17.]
+
+[Footnote 39: Sheahan's account of this incident (pp. 18-20) is
+confused. The episode is told very differently in the MS.
+Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 40: MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 41: In the Autobiography, Douglas makes a vigorous defense
+of his connection with the whole affair.]
+
+[Footnote 42: Just when he dropped the final s, I am unable to say.
+Joseph Wallace thinks that he did so soon after coming to Illinois.
+See Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1901, p.
+114.]
+
+[Footnote 43: Joseph Wallace in the Illinois _State Register_, April
+30, 1899.]
+
+[Footnote 44: Douglas tells the story with great relish in his
+autobiography. The title of the act reads "An Act creating M'Lean
+County," but the body of the act gives the name as McLean. Douglas had
+used the exact letters of the name, though he had twisted the capital
+letters, writing a capital C for a capital L.]
+
+[Footnote 45: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 285-286; see contemporary
+newspapers.]
+
+[Footnote 46: Illinois _Advocate_, May 4, 1835.]
+
+[Footnote 47: _Ibid._, May 6, 1835.]
+
+[Footnote 48: Illinois _Advocate_, Dec. 17, 1835; Sangamo _Journal_,
+Feb. 6, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 49: Sangamo _Journal_, February 6, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 50: There was one exception, see Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26.]
+
+[Footnote 51: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 26; Wheeler, Biographical History,
+p. 67; Sangamo _Journal_, May 7, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 52: Sangamo _Journal_, May 7, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 53: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 54: _Ibid._, May 14, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 55: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 56: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 103-105.]
+
+[Footnote 57: See letter of "M--" in the Illinois _State Register_,
+July 29, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 58: Illinois _State Register_, October 28, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 59: _Ibid._, December 8, 1836.]
+
+[Footnote 60: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 29; MS. Autobiography.]
+
+[Footnote 61: Act of February 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 62: In his Autobiography Douglas says that the friends of
+the bill persuaded his constituents to instruct him to vote for the
+bill; hence his affirmative vote was the vote of his constituents.]
+
+[Footnote 63: Douglas was in good company at all events. Abraham
+Lincoln was one of those who voted for the bill.]
+
+[Footnote 64: See Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, Chapter 40;
+Wheeler, Biographical History, pp. 68-70; Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+32-33.]
+
+[Footnote 65: But it was no worse than the English custom before the
+Act of 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 66: House Journal, p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 67: The assembly substituted the word "inexpedient" for
+"unconstitutional," in the resolution submitted by Douglas. House
+Journal, p. 62.]
+
+[Footnote 68: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, I, pp. 137-138.]
+
+[Footnote 69: _Ibid._, p. 139.]
+
+[Footnote 70: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, p. 111.]
+
+[Footnote 71: Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society,
+1901, pp. 111-112. The Sangamo _Journal_, August 5, 1837, says that
+Douglas owed his appointment to the efforts of Senator Young in his
+behalf.]
+
+[Footnote 72: Sangamo _Journal_, August 29, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 73: Douglas describes his duties in Cutts, Const. and Party
+Questions, pp. 160 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 74: Conversation with Charles A. Keyes, Esq., of
+Springfield, and with Dr. A.W. French, also of Springfield, Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 75: Sangamo _Journal_, July 1, 1837. The newspaper accounts
+of this affair are confusing; but they are in substantial agreement as
+to the causes and outcome of the attack upon the office of the
+_Republican_.]
+
+[Footnote 76: Illinois _State Register_, July 22, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 77: Illinois _State Register_, July 22, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 78: _Ibid._, November 4, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 79: _Ibid._, October 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 80: Illinois _State Register_, October 13, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 81: Jacksonville _News_, quoted by Illinois _State
+Register_, Oct. 13, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 82: Illinois _State Register_, October 27, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 83: Illinois _State Register_, December 9, 1837; Sangamo
+_Journal_, November 25, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 84: Sangamo _Journal_, November 25, 1837; but see also
+Peoria _Register_, November 25, 1837.]
+
+[Footnote 85: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 86: See Illinois _State Register_, May 11, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 87: Illinois _State Register_, June 8, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 88: Sangamo _Journal_, July 21, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 89: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress I, pp. 72-73;
+Sheahan, Douglas, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 90: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 36-37; Transactions of the
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1902, pp. 109 ff; Peoria
+_Register_, May 19, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 91: Palmer, Personal Recollections, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 92: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 93: Transactions of the Illinois Historical Society, 1902,
+p. 110.]
+
+[Footnote 94: Sangamo _Journal_, August 25, 1838; Peoria _Register_,
+August 11, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 95: Election returns in the Office of the Secretary of
+State.]
+
+[Footnote 96: See Sheahan, Douglas, p. 37; also Illinois _State
+Register_, October 12, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 97: MS. Letter, Benton to Douglas, October 27, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 98: For correspondence between Douglas and Stuart, see
+Illinois _State Register_, April 5, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 99: Illinois _State Register_, October 26, 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 100: _Ibid._, April 5, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 101: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 102: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 103: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, I, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 104: Illinois _State Register_, November 23, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 105: _Ibid._, February 21, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 106: _Ibid._, April 24, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 107: See Illinois _State Register_, August 7, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 108: The Constitution of 1819 bestowed the suffrage upon
+every white male "inhabitant" twenty-one years of age.]
+
+[Footnote 109: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 44-45.]
+
+[Footnote 110: The title of the case was Thomas Spraggins, appellant
+_vs._ Horace H. Houghton, appellee.]
+
+[Footnote 111: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 45-46; Wheeler, Biographical
+History of Congress, p. 76.]
+
+[Footnote 112: Illinois _State Register_, May 15, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 113: _Ibid._, June 12, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 114: Illinois _State Register_, July 10, 1840; Forney,
+Anecdotes of Public Men, II, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 115: _Ibid._, September 4, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 116: _Ibid._, October 2, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 117: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago, to the
+writer; see also Illinois _State Register_, October 2, 1840.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+LAW AND POLITICS
+
+
+The years were passing rapidly during which Douglas should have laid
+broad and deep the foundations of his professional career, if indeed
+law was to be more than a convenient avocation. These were formative
+years in the young man's life; but as yet he had developed neither the
+inclination nor the capacity to apply himself to the study of the more
+intricate and abstruse phases of jurisprudence. To be sure, he had
+picked up much practical information in the courts, but it was not of
+the sort which makes great jurists. Besides, his law practice had
+been, and was always destined to be, the handmaid of his political
+ambition. In such a school, a naturally ardent, impulsive temperament
+does not acquire judicial poise and gravity. After all, he was only a
+soldier of political fortune, awaiting his turn for promotion. A
+reversal in the fortunes of his party might leave him without hope of
+preferment, and bind him to a profession which is a jealous mistress,
+and to which he had been none too constant. Happily, his party was now
+in power, and he was entitled to first consideration in the
+distribution of the spoils. Under somewhat exceptional circumstances
+the office of Secretary of State fell vacant in the autumn of 1840,
+and the chairman of the Democratic Central Committee entered into his
+reward.
+
+When Governor Carlin took office in 1838, he sent to the Senate the
+nomination of John A. McClernand as Secretary of State, assuming that
+the office had been vacated and that a new Governor might choose his
+advisers.[118] Precedent, it is true, militated against this theory,
+for Secretary Field had held office under three successive governors;
+but now that parties had become more sharply defined, it was deemed
+important that the Secretary of State should be of the same political
+persuasion as the Governor,--and Field was a Whig. The Senate refused
+to indorse this new theory. Whereupon the Governor waited until the
+legislature adjourned, and renewed his appointment of McClernand, who
+promptly brought action against the tenacious Field to obtain
+possession of the office. The case was argued in the Circuit Court
+before Judge Breese, who gave a decision in favor of McClernand. The
+case was then appealed. Among the legal talent arrayed on the side of
+the claimant, when the case appeared on the docket of the Supreme
+Court, was Douglas--as a matter of course. Everyone knew that this was
+not so much a case at law as an issue in politics. The decision of the
+Supreme Court reversing the judgment of the lower court was received,
+therefore, as a partisan move to protect a Whig office-holder.[119]
+
+For a time the Democrats, in control elsewhere, found themselves
+obliged to tolerate a dissident in their political family; but the
+Democratic majority in the new legislature came promptly to the aid of
+the Governor's household. Measures were set on foot to terminate
+Secretary Field's tenure of office by legislative enactment. Just at
+this juncture that gentleman prudently resigned; and Stephen A.
+Douglas was appointed to the office which he had done his best to
+vacate.[120]
+
+This appointment was a boon to the impecunious young attorney. He
+could now count on a salary which would free him from any concern
+about his financial liabilities,--if indeed they ever gave him more
+than momentary concern. Besides, as custodian of the State Library, he
+had access to the best collection of law books in the State. The
+duties of his office were not so exacting but that he could still
+carry on his law studies, and manage such incidental business as came
+his way. These were the obvious and tangible advantages which Douglas
+emphasized in the mellow light of recollection.[121] Yet there were
+other, less obvious, advantages which he omitted to mention.
+
+The current newspapers of this date make frequent mention of an
+institution popularly dubbed "the Third House," or "Lord Coke's
+Assembly."[122] The archives of state do not explain this unique
+institution. Its location was in the lobby of the State House. Like
+many another extra-legal body it kept no records of its proceedings;
+yet it wielded a potent influence. It was attended regularly by those
+officials who made the lobby a rendezvous; irregularly, by politicians
+who came to the Capitol on business; and on pressing occasions, by
+members of the legislature who wished to catch the undertone of party
+opinion. The debates in this Third House often surpassed in interest
+the formal proceedings behind closed doors across the corridor.
+Members of this house were not held to rigid account for what they
+said. Many a political _coup_ was plotted in the lobby. The grist
+which came out of the legislative mill was often ground by
+irresponsible politicians out of hearing of the Speaker of the House.
+The chance comer was quite as likely to find the Secretary of State in
+the lobby as in his office among his books.
+
+The lobby was a busy place in this winter session of 1840-41. It was
+well known that Democratic leaders had planned an aggressive
+reorganization of the Supreme Court, in anticipation of an adverse
+decision in the famous Galena alien case. The Democratic programme was
+embodied in a bill which proposed to abolish the existing Circuit
+Courts, and to enlarge the Supreme Court by the addition of five
+judges. Circuit Courts were to be held by the nine judges of the
+Supreme Court.[123] Subsequent explanations did not, and could not,
+disguise the real purpose of this chaste reform.[124]
+
+While this revolutionary measure was under fire in the legislature and
+in the Third House, the Supreme Court rendered its opinion in the
+alien case. To the amazement of the reformers, the decision did not
+touch the broad, constitutional question of the right of aliens to
+vote, but simply the concrete, particular question arising under the
+Election Law of 1829.[125] Judge Smith alone dissented and argued the
+larger issue. The admirable self-restraint of the Court, so far from
+stopping the mouths of detractors, only excited more unfavorable
+comment. The suspicion of partisanship, sedulously fed by angry
+Democrats, could not be easily eradicated. The Court was now condemned
+for its contemptible evasion of the real question at issue.
+
+Douglas made an impassioned speech to the lobby, charging the Court
+with having deliberately suppressed its decision on the paramount
+issue, in order to disarm criticism and to avert the impending
+reorganization of the bench.[126] He called loudly for the passage of
+the bill before the legislature; and the lobby echoed his sentiments.
+McClernand in the House corroborated this charge by stating, "under
+authorization," that the judges had withdrawn the opinion which they
+had prepared in June.[127] Thereupon four of the five judges made an
+unqualified denial of the charge.[128] McClernand fell back helplessly
+upon the word of Douglas. Pushed into a corner, Douglas then stated
+publicly, that he had made his charges against the Court on the
+explicit information given to him privately by Judge Smith. Six others
+testified that they had been similarly informed, or misinformed, by
+the same high authority.[129] At all events, the mischief had been
+done. Under the party whip the bill to reorganize the Supreme Court
+was driven through both houses of the legislature, and unofficially
+ratified by Lord Coke's Assembly in the lobby.
+
+Already it was noised abroad that Douglas was "slated" for one of the
+newly created judgeships. The Whig press ridiculed the suggestion but
+still frankly admitted, that if party services were to qualify for
+such an appointment, the "Generalessimo of the Loco-focos of Illinois"
+was entitled to consideration. When rumor passed into fact, and
+Douglas was nominated by the Governor, even Democrats demurred. It
+required no little generosity on the part of older men who had
+befriended the young man, to permit him to pass over their heads in
+this fashion.[130] Besides, what legal qualifications could this young
+man of twenty-seven possess for so important a post?
+
+The new judges entered upon their duties under a cloud. Almost their
+first act was to vacate the clerkship of the court, for the benefit of
+that arch-politician, Ebenezer Peck; and that, too,--so men
+said,--without consulting their Whig associates on the bench. It was
+commonly reported that Peck had changed his vote in the House just
+when one more vote was needed to pass the Judiciary Bill.[131] Very
+likely this rumor was circulated by some malicious newsmonger, but the
+appointment of Peck certainly did not inspire confidence in the newly
+organized court.
+
+Was it to make his ambition seem less odious, that Douglas sought to
+give the impression that he accepted the appointment with reluctance
+and at a "pecuniary sacrifice"; or was he, as Whigs maintained, forced
+out of the Secretaryship of State to make way for one of the
+Governor's favorites?[132] He could not have been perfectly sincere,
+at all events, when he afterward declared that he supposed he was
+taking leave of political life forever.[133] No one knew better than
+he, that a popular judge is a potential candidate for almost any
+office in the gift of the people.
+
+Before starting out on his circuit Douglas gave conspicuous proof of
+his influence in the lobby, and incidentally, as it happened, cast
+bread upon the waters. The Mormons who had recently settled in Nauvoo,
+in Hancock County, had petitioned the legislature for acts
+incorporating the new city and certain of its peculiar institutions.
+Their sufferings in Missouri had touched the people of Illinois, who
+welcomed them as a persecuted sect. For quite different reasons,
+Mormon agents were cordially received at the Capitol. Here their
+religious tenets were less carefully scrutinized than their political
+affiliations. The Mormons found little trouble in securing lobbyists
+from both parties. Bills were drawn to meet their wishes and presented
+to the legislature, where parties vied with each other in befriending
+the unfortunate refugees from Missouri.[134]
+
+Chance--or was it design?--assigned Judge Douglas to the Quincy
+circuit, within which lay Hancock County and the city of Nauvoo. The
+appointment was highly satisfactory to the Mormons, for while they
+enjoyed a large measure of local autonomy by virtue of their new
+charter, they deemed it advantageous to have the court of the vicinage
+presided over by one who had proved himself a friend. Douglas at once
+confirmed this good impression. He appointed the commander of the
+Nauvoo Legion a master in chancery; and when a case came before him
+which involved interpretation of the act incorporating this peculiar
+body of militia, he gave a constructive interpretation which left the
+Mormons independent of State officers in military affairs.[135]
+Whatever may be said of this decision in point of law, it was at least
+good politics; and the dividing line between law and politics was none
+too sharply drawn in the Fifth Judicial District.
+
+Politicians were now figuring on the Mormon vote in the approaching
+congressional election. The Whigs had rather the better chance of
+winning their support, if the election of 1840 afforded any basis for
+calculation, for the Mormons had then voted _en bloc_ for Harrison and
+Tyler.[136] Stuart was a candidate for re-election. It was generally
+believed that Ralston, whom the Democrats pitted against him, had
+small chance of success. Still, Judge Douglas could be counted on to
+use his influence to procure the Mormon vote.
+
+Undeterred by his position on the bench, Douglas paid a friendly visit
+to the Mormon city in the course of the campaign; and there
+encountered his old Whig opponent, Cyrus Walker, Esq., who was also on
+a mission. Both made public addresses of a flattering description. The
+Prophet, Joseph Smith, was greatly impressed with Judge Douglas's
+friendliness. "Judge Douglas," he wrote to the Faithful, "has ever
+proved himself friendly to this people; and interested himself to
+obtain for us our several charters, holding at the same time the
+office of Secretary of State." But what particularly flattered the
+Mormon leader, was the edifying spectacle of representatives from
+both parties laying aside all partisan motives to mingle with the
+Saints, as "brothers, citizens, and friends."[137] This touching
+account would do for Mormon readers, but Gentiles remained somewhat
+skeptical.
+
+In spite of this coquetting with the Saints, the Democratic candidate
+suffered defeat. It was observed with alarm that the Mormons held the
+balance of power in the district, and might even become a makeweight
+in the State elections, should they continue to increase in
+numbers.[138] The Democrats braced themselves for a new trial of
+strength in the gubernatorial contest. The call for a State convention
+was obeyed with alacrity;[139] and the outcome justified the high
+expectations which were entertained of this body. The convention
+nominated for governor, Adam W. Snyder, whose peculiar availability
+consisted in his having fathered the Judiciary Bill and the several
+acts which had been passed in aid of the Mormons. The practical wisdom
+of this nomination was proved by a communication of Joseph Smith to
+the official newspaper of Nauvoo. The pertinent portion of this
+remarkable manifesto read as follows: "The partisans in this county
+who expected to divide the friends of humanity and equal rights will
+find themselves mistaken,--we care not a fig for _Whig or Democrat_:
+they are both alike to us; but we shall go for our _friends_, our
+TRIED FRIENDS, and the cause of _human liberty_ which is the cause of
+God.... DOUGLASS is a _Master Spirit_, and _his friends are our
+friends_--we are willing to cast our banners on the air, and fight by
+his side in the cause of humanity, and equal rights--the cause of
+liberty and the law. SNYDER and MOORE, are _his_ friends--they are
+_ours_.... Snyder, and Moore, are _known_ to be our friends; their
+friendship is _vouched_ for by those whom we have tried. We will never
+be justly charged with the sin of ingratitude--they _have_ served us,
+and we _will_ serve them."[140]
+
+This was a discomfiting revelation to the Whigs, who had certainly
+labored as industriously as the Democrats, to placate the Saints of
+Nauvoo. From this moment the Whigs began a crusade against the
+Mormons, who were already, it is true, exhibiting the characteristics
+which had made them odious to the people of Missouri.[141] Rightly or
+wrongly, public opinion was veering; and the shrewd Duncan, who headed
+the Whig ticket, openly charged Douglas with bargaining for the Mormon
+vote.[142] The Whigs hoped that their opponents, having sowed the
+wind, would reap the whirlwind.
+
+Only three months before the August elections of 1844, the Democrats
+were thrown into consternation by the death of Snyder, their
+standard-bearer. Here was an emergency to which the convention system
+was not equal, in the days of poor roads and slow stage-coaches. What
+happened was this, to borrow the account of the chief Democratic
+organ, "A large number of Democratic citizens from almost all parts of
+the State of Illinois met together by a general and public call"--and
+nominated Judge Thomas Ford for governor.[143] It adds significance to
+this record to note that this numerous body of citizens met in the
+snug office of the _State Register_. Democrats in distant parts of the
+State were disposed to resent this action on the part of "the
+Springfield clique"; but the onset of the enemy quelled mutiny. In one
+way the nomination of Ford was opportune. It could not be said of him
+that he had showed any particular solicitude for the welfare of the
+followers of Joseph Smith.[144] The ticket could now be made to face
+both ways. Ford could assure hesitating Democrats who disliked the
+Mormons, that he had not hobnobbed with the Mormon leaders, while
+Douglas and his crew could still demonstrate to the Prophet that the
+cause of human liberty, for which he stood so conspicuously, was safe
+in Democratic hands. The game was played adroitly. Ford carried
+Hancock County by a handsome majority and was elected governor.[145]
+
+It has already been remarked that as judge, Douglas was potentially a
+candidate for almost any public office. He still kept in touch with
+Springfield politicians, planning with them the moves and
+counter-moves on the checker-board of Illinois politics. There was
+more than a grain of truth in the reiterated charges of the Whig
+press, that the Democratic party was dominated by an arbitrary
+clique.[146] It was a matter of common observation, that before
+Democratic candidates put to sea in the troubled waters of State
+politics, they took their dead-reckoning from the office of the _State
+Register_. It was noised abroad in the late fall that Douglas would
+not refuse a positive call from his party to enter national politics;
+and before the year closed, his Springfield intimates were actively
+promoting his candidacy for the United States Senate, to succeed
+Senator Young. This was an audacious move, since even if Young were
+passed over, there were older men far more justly entitled to
+consideration. Nevertheless, Douglas secured in some way the support
+of several delegations in the legislature, so that on the first ballot
+in the Democratic caucus he stood second, receiving only nine votes
+less than Young. A protracted contest followed. Nineteen ballots were
+taken. Douglas's chief competitor proved to be, not Young, but Breese,
+who finally secured the nomination of the caucus by a majority of five
+votes.[147] The ambition of Judge Douglas had overshot the mark.
+
+In view of the young man's absorbing interest in politics, his slender
+legal equipment, and the circumstances under which he received his
+appointment, one wonders whether the courts he held could have been
+anything but travesties on justice. But the universal testimony of
+those whose memories go back so far, is that justice was on the whole
+faithfully administered.[148] The conditions of life in Illinois were
+still comparatively simple. The suits instituted at law were not such
+as to demand profound knowledge of jurisprudence. The wide-spread
+financial distress which followed the crisis of 1837, gave rise to
+many processes to collect debts and to set aside fraudulent
+conveyances. "Actions of slander and trespass for assault and battery,
+engendered by the state of feeling incident to pecuniary
+embarrassment, were frequent."[149]
+
+The courts were in keeping with the meagre legal attainments of those
+who frequented them. Rude frame, or log houses served the purposes of
+bench and bar. The judge sat usually upon a platform with a plain
+table, or pine board, for a desk. A larger table below accommodated
+the attorneys who followed the judge in his circuit from county to
+county. "The relations between the Bench and the Bar were free and
+easy, and flashes of wit and humor and personal repartee were
+constantly passing from one to the other. The court rooms in those
+days were always crowded. To go to court and listen to the witnesses
+and lawyers was among the chief amusements of the frontier
+settlements."[150] In this little world, popular reputations were made
+and unmade.
+
+Judge Douglas was thoroughly at home in this primitive environment.
+His freedom from affectation and false dignity recommended him to the
+laity, while his fairness and good-nature put him in quick sympathy
+with his legal brethren and their clients. Long years afterward, men
+recalled the picture of the young judge as he mingled with the crowd
+during a recess. "It was not unusual to see him come off the bench, or
+leave his chair at the bar, and take a seat on the knee of a friend,
+and with one arm thrown familiarly around a friend's neck, have a
+friendly talk, or a legal or political discussion."[151] An attorney
+recently from the East witnessed this familiarity with dismay. "The
+judge of our circuit," he wrote, "is S.A. Douglas, a youth of 28....
+He is a Vermonter, a man of considerable talent, and, in the way of
+despatching business, is a perfect 'steam engine in breeches.' ... He
+is the most democratic judge I ever knew.... I have often thought we
+should cut a queer figure if one of our Suffolk bar should
+accidentally drop in."[152]
+
+Meantime, changes were taking place in the political map of Illinois,
+which did not escape the watchful eye of Judge Douglas. By the census
+of 1840, the State was entitled to seven, instead of four
+representatives in Congress.[153] A reapportionment act was therefore
+to be expected from the next legislature. Democrats were already at
+work plotting seven Democratic districts on paper, for, with a
+majority in the legislature, they could redistrict the State at will.
+A gerrymander was the outcome.[154] If Douglas did not have a hand in
+the reapportionment, at least his friends saw to it that a desirable
+district was carved out, which included the most populous counties in
+his circuit. Who would be a likelier candidate for Congress in this
+Democratic constituency than the popular judge of the Fifth Circuit
+Court?
+
+Seven of the ten counties composing the Fifth Congressional District
+were within the so-called "military tract," between the Mississippi
+and Illinois rivers; three counties lay to the east on the lower
+course of the Illinois. Into this frontier region population began to
+flow in the twenties, from the Sangamo country; and the organization
+of county after county attested the rapid expansion northward. Like
+the people of southern Illinois, the first settlers were of Southern
+extraction; but they were followed by Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and
+New Englanders. In the later thirties, the Northern immigration, to
+which Douglas belonged, gave a somewhat different complexion to
+Peoria, Fulton, and other adjoining counties. Yet there were diverse
+elements in the district: Peoria had a cosmopolitan population of
+Irish, English, Scotch, and German immigrants; Quincy became a city of
+refuge for "Young Germany," after the revolutionary disturbances of
+1830 in Europe.[155]
+
+No sooner had the reapportionment act passed than certain members of
+the legislature, together with Democrats who held no office, took it
+upon themselves to call a nominating convention, on a basis of
+representation determined in an equally arbitrary fashion.[156] The
+summons was obeyed nevertheless. Forty "respectable Democats"
+assembled at Griggsville, in Pike County, on June 5, 1843. It was a
+most satisfactory body. The delegates did nothing but what was
+expected of them. On the second ballot, a majority cast their votes
+for Douglas as the candidate of the party for Congress. The other
+aspirants then graciously withdrew their claims, and pledged their
+cordial support to the regular nominee of the convention.[157] Such
+machine-like precision warmed the hearts of Democratic politicians.
+The editor of the _People's Advocate_ declared the integrity of
+Douglas to be "as unspotted as the vestal's fame--as untarnished and
+as pure as the driven snow."
+
+The Griggsville convention also supplied the requisite machinery for
+the campaign: vigilant precinct committees; county committees; a
+district corresponding committee; a central district committee. The
+party now pinned its faith to the efficiency of its organization, as
+well as to the popularity of its candidate.
+
+Douglas made a show of declining the nomination on the score of
+ill-health, but yielded to the urgent solicitations of friends, who
+would fain have him believe that he was the only Democrat who could
+carry the district.[158] Secretly pleased to be overruled, Douglas
+burned his bridges behind him by resigning his office, and plunged
+into the thick of the battle. His opponent was O.H. Browning, a
+Kentuckian by birth and a Whig by choice. It was Kentucky against
+Vermont, South against North, for neither was unwilling to appeal to
+sectional prejudice. Time has obscured the political issues which they
+debated from Peoria to Macoupin and back; but history has probably
+suffered no great loss. Men, not measures, were at stake in this
+campaign, for on the only national issue which they seemed to have
+discussed--Oregon--they were in practical agreement.[159] Both
+cultivated the little arts which relieve the tedium of politics.
+Douglas talked in heart to heart fashion with his "esteemed
+fellow-citizens," inquired for the health of their families, expressed
+grief when he learned that John had the measles and that Sally was
+down with the chills and fever.[160] And if Browning was less
+successful in this gentle method of wooing voters, it was because he
+had less genuine interest in the plain common people, not because he
+despised the petty arts of the politician.
+
+The canvass was short but exhausting. Douglas addressed public
+gatherings for forty successive days; and when election day came, he
+was prostrated by a fever from which he did not fully recover for
+months.[161] Those who gerrymandered the State did their work well.
+Only one district failed to elect a Democratic Congressman. Douglas
+had a majority over Browning of four hundred and sixty-one votes.[162]
+This cheering news hastened his convalescence, so that by November he
+was able to visit his mother in Canandaigua. Member of Congress at the
+age of thirty! He had every reason to be well satisfied with himself.
+He was fully conscious that he had begun a new chapter in his career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 118: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 213-214.]
+
+[Footnote 119: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 454-455.]
+
+[Footnote 120: Why McClernand was passed over is not clear. Douglas
+entered upon the duties of his office November 30, 1840.]
+
+[Footnote 121: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]
+
+[Footnote 122: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 43.]
+
+[Footnote 123: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 217.]
+
+[Footnote 124: _Ibid._, pp. 212-222.]
+
+[Footnote 125: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 456.]
+
+[Footnote 126: Illinois _State Register_, January 29, 1841; Ford,
+History of Illinois, p. 220.]
+
+[Footnote 127: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 457-458.]
+
+[Footnote 128: _Ibid._, pp. 457-458.]
+
+[Footnote 129: Illinois _State Register_, February 5, 1841. Judge
+Smith is put in an unenviable light by contemporary historians. There
+seems to be no reason to doubt that he misinformed Douglas and others.
+See Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 458-459.]
+
+[Footnote 130: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 131: Sangamo _Journal_, March 19, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 132: Chicago _American_, February 18, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 133: Wheeler, Biographical History of Congress, p. 74.]
+
+[Footnote 134: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 263-265; Linn, Story of
+the Mormons, pp. 236-237.]
+
+[Footnote 135: Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 237-238.]
+
+[Footnote 136: _Ibid._, p. 244.]
+
+[Footnote 137: _Times and Seasons_, II, p. 414.]
+
+[Footnote 138: Illinois _State Register_, August 13, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 139: _Ibid._, September 24, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 140: _Times and Seasons_, III, p. 651.]
+
+[Footnote 141: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 269.]
+
+[Footnote 142: Illinois _State Register_, June 17, 1842. Douglas
+replied in a speech of equal tartness. See _Register_, July 1, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 143: Illinois _State Register_, June 10, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 144: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 277-278.]
+
+[Footnote 145: Gregg, History of Hancock County, p. 419.]
+
+[Footnote 146: Illinois _State Register_, November 4, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 147: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 148: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 149: Conkling, Recollections of the Bench and Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22]
+
+[Footnote 150: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar, Fergus
+Historical Series, No. 22.]
+
+[Footnote 151: Arnold, Reminiscences of the Illinois Bar.]
+
+[Footnote 152: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 698.]
+
+[Footnote 153: Statute of June 25, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 154: A sheet called _The Gerrymander_ was published in March
+1843, which contained a series of cartoons exhibiting the
+monstrosities of this apportionment. The Fifth District is called "the
+Nondescript."]
+
+[Footnote 155: Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois, Fergus
+Historical Series No. 14; Koerner, Das deutsche Element in den
+Vereinigten Staaten, pp. 245, 277; Baker, America as the Political
+Utopia of Young Germany; Peoria _Register_, June 30, 1838; Ballance,
+History of Peoria, pp. 201-202.]
+
+[Footnote 156: Illinois _State Register_, March 10, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 157: Illinois _State Register_, June 16, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 158: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 55; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 159: _Globe_, 28 Cong. 1 Sess. App. pp. 598 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 160: Alton _Telegraph_, July 20, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 161: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 56; Wheeler, Biographical History
+of Congress, p. 75; Alton _Telegraph_, August 26, 1843.]
+
+[Footnote 162: According to the returns in the office of the Secretary
+of State. The _Whig Almanac_ gives 451 as Douglas's majority.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+UNDER THE AEGIS OF ANDREW JACKSON
+
+
+In his own constituency a member of the national House of
+Representatives may be a marked man; but his office confers no
+particular distinction at the national capital. He must achieve
+distinction either by native talent or through fortuitous
+circumstance; rarely is greatness thrust upon him. A newly elected
+member labors under a peculiar and immediate necessity to acquire
+importance, since the time of his probation is very brief. The
+representative who takes his seat in December of the odd year, must
+stand for re-election in the following year. Between these termini,
+lies only a single session. During his absence eager rivals may be
+undermining his influence at home, and the very possession of office
+may weaken his chances among those disposed to consider rotation in
+office a cardinal principle of democracy. If a newly elected
+congressman wishes to continue in office, he is condemned to do
+something great.
+
+What qualities had Douglas which would single him out from the crowd
+and impress his constituents with a sense of his capacity for public
+service? What had he to offset his youth, his rawness, and his
+legislative inexperience? None of his colleagues cared a fig about his
+record in the Illinois Legislature and on the Bench. In Congress, as
+then constituted, every man had to stand on his own feet, unsupported
+by the dubious props of a local reputation.
+
+There was certainly nothing commanding in the figure of the gentleman
+from Illinois. "He had a herculean frame," writes a contemporary,
+"with the exception of his lower limbs, which were short and small,
+dwarfing what otherwise would have been a conspicuous figure.... His
+large round head surmounted a massive neck, and his features were
+symmetrical, although his small nose deprived them of dignity."[163]
+It was his massive forehead, indeed, that redeemed his appearance from
+the commonplace. Beneath his brow were deep-set, dark eyes that also
+challenged attention.[164] It was not a graceful nor an attractive
+exterior surely, but it was the very embodiment of force. Moreover,
+the Little Giant had qualities of mind and heart that made men forget
+his physical shortcomings. His ready wit, his suavity, and his
+heartiness made him a general favorite almost at once.[165] He was
+soon able to demonstrate his intellectual power.
+
+The House was considering a bill to remit the fine imposed upon
+General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans for contempt of court. It was a
+hackneyed theme. No new, extenuating circumstances could be adduced to
+clear the old warrior of high-handed conduct; but a presidential
+election was approaching and there was political capital to be made by
+defending "Old Hickory." From boyhood Douglas had idolized Andrew
+Jackson. With much the same boyish indignation which led him to tear
+down the coffin handbills in old Brandon, he now sprang to the defense
+of his hero. The case had been well threshed already. Jackson had
+been defended eloquently, and sometimes truthfully. A man of less
+audacity would have hesitated to swell this tide of eloquence, and at
+first, it seemed as though Douglas had little but vehemence to add to
+the eulogies already pronounced. There was nothing novel in the
+assertion that Jackson had neither violated the Constitution by
+declaring martial law at New Orleans, nor assumed any authority which
+was not "fully authorized and legalized by his position, his duty, and
+the unavoidable necessity of the case." The House was used to these
+dogmatic reiterations. But Douglas struck into untrodden ways when he
+contended, that even if Jackson had violated the laws and the
+Constitution, his condemnation for contempt of court was "unjust,
+irregular and illegal." Every unlawful act is not necessarily a
+contempt of court, he argued. "The doctrine of contempts only applies
+to those acts which obstruct the proceedings of the court, and against
+which the general laws of the land do not afford adequate
+protection.... It is incumbent upon those who defend and applaud the
+conduct of the judge to point out the specific act done by General
+Jackson which constituted a contempt of court. The mere declaration of
+martial law is not of that character.... It was a matter over which
+the civil tribunals had no jurisdiction, and with which they had no
+concern, unless some specific crime had been committed or injury done;
+and not even then until it was brought before them according to the
+forms of law."[166]
+
+The old hero had never had a more adroit counsel. Like a good lawyer,
+Douglas seemed to feel himself in duty bound to spar for every
+technical advantage, and to construe the law, wherever possible, in
+favor of his client. At the same time he did not forget that the House
+was the jury in this case, and capable of human emotions upon which he
+might play. At times he became declamatory beyond the point of good
+taste. In voice and manner he betrayed the school in which he had been
+trained. "When I hear gentlemen," he cried in strident tones,
+"attempting to justify this unrighteous fine upon General Jackson upon
+the ground of non-compliance with rules of court and mere formalities,
+I must confess that I cannot appreciate the force of the argument. In
+cases of war and desolation, in times of peril and disaster, we should
+look at the substance and not the shadow of things. I envy not the
+feelings of the man who can reason coolly and calmly about the force
+of precedents and the tendency of examples in the fury of the war-cry,
+when 'booty and beauty' is the watchword. Talk not to me about rules
+and forms in court when the enemy's cannon are pointed at the door,
+and the flames encircle the cupola! The man whose stoicism would
+enable him to philosophize coolly under these circumstances would
+fiddle while the Capitol was burning, and laugh at the horror and
+anguish that surrounded him in the midst of the conflagration! I claim
+not the possession of these remarkable feelings. I concede them all to
+those who think that the savior of New Orleans ought to be treated
+like a criminal for not possessing them in a higher degree. Their
+course in this debate has proved them worthy disciples of the doctrine
+they profess. Let them receive all the encomiums which such sentiments
+are calculated to inspire."[167]
+
+His closing words were marked with much the same perfervid rhetoric,
+only less objectionable because they were charged with genuine
+emotion: "Can gentlemen see nothing to admire, nothing to commend, in
+the closing scenes, when, fresh from the battlefield, the victorious
+general--the idol of his army and the acknowledged savior of his
+countrymen--stood before Judge Hall, and quelled the tumult and
+indignant murmurs of the multitude by telling him that 'the same arm
+which had defended the city from the ravages of a foreign enemy should
+protect him in the discharge of his duty?' Is this the conduct of a
+lawless desperado, who delights in trampling upon Constitution, and
+law, and right? Is there no reverence for the supremacy of the laws
+and the civil institutions of the country displayed on this occasion?
+If such acts of heroism and moderation, of chivalry and submission,
+have no charms to excite the admiration or soften the animosities of
+gentlemen in the Opposition, I have no desire to see them vote for
+this bill. The character of the hero of New Orleans requires no
+endorsement from such a source. They wish to fix a mark, a stigma of
+reproach, upon his character, and send him to his grave branded as a
+criminal. His stern, inflexible adherence to Democratic principles,
+his unwavering devotion to his country, and his intrepid opposition to
+her enemies, have so long thwarted their unhallowed schemes of
+ambition and power, that they fear the potency of his name on earth,
+even after his spirit shall have ascended to heaven."
+
+"An eloquent, sophistical speech, prodigiously admired by the slave
+Democracy of the House," was the comment of John Quincy Adams; words
+of high praise, for the veteran statesman had little patience with
+the style of oratory affected by this "homunculus."[168] A
+correspondent of a Richmond newspaper wrote that this effort had given
+Douglas high rank as a debater.[169] Evidence on every hand confirms
+the impression that by a single, happy stroke the young Illinoisan had
+achieved enviable distinction; but whether he had qualities which
+would secure an enduring reputation, was still open to question.
+
+In the long run, the confidence of party associates is the surest
+passport to real influence in the House. It might easily happen,
+indeed, that Douglas, with all his rough eloquence, would remain an
+impotent legislator. The history of Congress is strewn with oratorical
+derelicts, who have often edified their auditors, but quite as often
+blocked the course of legislation. No one knew better than Douglas,
+that only as he served his party, could he hope to see his wishes
+crystallize into laws, and his ambitions assume the guise of reality.
+His opportunity to render effective service came also in this first
+session.
+
+Four States had neglected to comply with the recent act of Congress
+reapportioning representation, having elected their twenty-one members
+by general ticket. The language of the statute was explicit: "In every
+case where a State is entitled to more than one Representative, the
+number to which each State shall be entitled under this apportionment
+shall be elected by districts composed of contiguous territory equal in
+number to the number of Representatives, to which said State may be
+entitled, no one district electing more than one Representative."[170]
+Now all but two of these twenty-one Representatives were Democrats.
+Would a Democratic majority punish this flagrant transgression of
+Federal law by unseating the offenders?
+
+In self-respect the Democratic members of the House could not do less
+than appoint a committee to investigate whether the representatives in
+question had been elected "in conformity to the Constitution and the
+law."[171] Thereupon it devolved upon the six Democratic members of
+this committee of nine to construct a theory, by which they might seat
+their party associates under cover of legality. Not that they held
+_any_ such explicit mandate from the party, nor that they deliberately
+went to work to pervert the law; they were simply under psychological
+pressure from which only men of the severest impartiality could free
+themselves. The work of drafting the majority report (it was a
+foregone conclusion that the committee would divide), fell to Douglas.
+It pronounced the law of 1842 "not a _law_ made in pursuance of the
+Constitution of the United States, and valid, operative, and binding
+upon the States." Accordingly, the representatives of the four States
+in question were entitled to their seats.
+
+By what process of reasoning had Douglas reached this conclusion? The
+report directed its criticism chiefly against the second section of
+the Act of 1842, which substituted the district for the general ticket
+in congressional elections. The Constitution provides that "the Times,
+Places, and Manner of holding elections for Senators and
+Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
+thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
+Regulations." But by the law of 1842, contended the report, Congress
+had only partially exercised its power, and had attempted "to subvert
+the entire system of legislation adopted by the several States of the
+Union, and to compel them to conform to certain rules established by
+Congress for their government." Congress "may" make or alter such
+regulations, but "the right to change State laws or to enact others
+which shall suspend them, does not imply the right to compel the State
+legislatures to make such change or new enactments." Congress may
+exercise the privilege of making such regulations, only when the State
+legislatures refuse to act, or act in a way to subvert the
+Constitution. If Congress acts at all in fixing times, places, and
+manner of elections, it must act exhaustively, leaving nothing for the
+State legislatures to do. The Act of 1842 was general in its nature,
+and inoperative without State legislation. The history of the
+Constitutional Convention of 1787 was cited to prove that it was
+generally understood that Congress would exercise this power only in a
+few specified cases.[172]
+
+Replying to the attacks which this report evoked, Douglas took still
+higher ground. He was ready to affirm that Congress had no power to
+district the States. To concede to Congress so great a power was to
+deny those reserved rights of the States, without which their
+sovereignty would be an empty title. "Congress may alter, but it
+cannot supersede these regulations [of the States] till it supplies
+others in their places, so as to leave the right of representation
+perfect."[173]
+
+The argument of the report was bold and ingenious, if not convincing.
+The minority were ready to admit that the case had been cleverly
+stated, although hardly a man doubted that political considerations
+had weighed most heavily with the chairman of the committee. Douglas
+resented the suggestion with such warmth, however, that it is
+charitable to suppose he was not conscious of the bias under which he
+had labored.
+
+Upon one auditor, who to be sure was inexpressibly bored by the whole
+discussion of the "everlasting general ticket elections," Douglas made
+an unhappy impression. John Quincy Adams recorded in his diary,--that
+diary which was becoming a sort of Rogues' Gallery: "He now raved out
+his hour in abusive invectives upon the members who had pointed out
+its slanders and upon the Whig party. His face was convulsed, his
+gesticulation frantic, and he lashed himself into such a heat that if
+his body had been made of combustible matter, it would have burnt out.
+In the midst of his roaring, to save himself from choking, he stripped
+off and cast away his cravat, and unbuttoned his waist-coat, and had
+the air and aspect of a half-naked pugilist. And this man comes from a
+judicial bench, and passes for an eloquent orator."[174]
+
+No one will mistake this for an impartial description. Nearly every
+Democrat who spoke upon this tedious question, according to Adams,
+either "raved" or "foamed at the mouth." The old gentleman was too
+wearied and disgusted with the affair to be a fair reporter. But as a
+caricature, this picture of the young man from Illinois certainly hits
+off the style which he affected, in common with most Western orators.
+
+Notwithstanding his very substantial services to his party, Douglas
+had sooner or later to face his constituents with an answer to the
+crucial question, "What have you done for us?" It is a hard, brutal
+question, which has blighted many a promising career in American
+politics. The interest which Douglas exhibited in the Western Harbors
+bill was due, in part at least, to his desire to propitiate those by
+virtue of whose suffrages he was a member of the House of
+Representatives. At the same time, he was no doubt sincerely devoted
+to the measure, because he believed profoundly in its national
+character. Local and national interests were so inseparable in his
+mind, that he could urge the improvement of the Illinois River as a
+truly national undertaking. "Through this channel, and this alone," he
+declared all aglow with enthusiasm, "we have a connected and
+uninterrupted navigation for steamboats and large vessels from the
+Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, to all the northern lakes."
+Considerations of war and defense, as well as of peace and commerce,
+counselled the proposed expenditure. "We have no fleet upon the lakes;
+we have no navy-yard there at which we could construct one, and no
+channel through which we could introduce our vessels from the
+sea-board. In times of war, those lakes must be defended, if defended
+at all, by a fleet from the naval depot and a yard on the Mississippi
+River." After the State of Illinois had expended millions on the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, was Congress to begrudge a few thousands
+to remove the sand-bars which impeded navigation in this "national
+highway by an irrevocable ordinance"?[175]
+
+This special plea for the Illinois River was prefaced by a lengthy
+exposition of Democratic doctrine respecting internal improvements,
+for it was incumbent upon every good Democrat to explain a measure
+which seemed to countenance a broad construction of the powers of the
+Federal government. Douglas was at particular pains to show that the
+bill did not depart from the principles laid down in President
+Jackson's famous Maysville Road veto-message.[176] To him Jackson
+incarnated the party faith; and his public documents were a veritable,
+political testament. In the art of reading consistency into his own,
+or the conduct of another, Douglas had no equal. To the end of his
+days he possessed in an extraordinary degree the subtle power of
+redistributing emphasis so as to produce a desired effect. It was the
+most effective and the most insidious of his many natural gifts, for
+it often won immediate ends at the permanent sacrifice of his
+reputation for candor and veracity. The immediate result of this essay
+in interpretation of Jacksonian principles, was to bring down upon
+Douglas's devoted head the withering charge, peculiarly blighting to a
+budding statesman, that he was conjuring with names to the exclusion
+of arguments. With biting sarcasm, Representative Holmes drew
+attention to the gentleman's disposition, after the fashion of little
+men, to advance to the fray under the seven-fold shield of the
+Telamon Ajax--a classical allusion which was altogether lost on the
+young man from Illinois.
+
+The appropriation for the Illinois River was stricken from the Western
+Harbors bill much to Douglas's regret.[177] Still, he had evinced a
+genuine concern for the interests of his constituents and his reward
+was even now at hand. Early in the year the Peoria _Press_ had
+recommended a Democratic convention to nominate a candidate for
+Congress.[178] The _State Register_, and other journals friendly to
+Douglas, took up the cry, giving the movement thus all the marks of
+spontaneity. The Democratic organization was found to be intact; the
+convention was held early in May at Pittsfield; and the Honorable
+Stephen A. Douglas was unanimously re-nominated for Representative to
+Congress from the Fifth Congressional District.[179]
+
+Soon after this well-ordered convention in the little Western town of
+Pittsfield, came the national convention of the Democratic party at
+Baltimore, where the unexpected happened. To Douglas, as to the rank
+and file of the party, the selection of Polk must have come as a
+surprise; but whatever predilections he may have had for another
+candidate, were speedily suppressed.[180] With the platform, at least,
+he found himself in hearty accord; and before the end of the session
+he convinced his associates on the Democratic side of the House, that
+he was no lukewarm supporter of the ticket.
+
+While the Civil and Diplomatic Appropriations bill was under
+discussion in the House, a desultory debate occurred on the politics
+of Colonel Polk. Such digressions were not unusual on the eve of a
+presidential election. Seizing the opportunity, Douglas obtained
+recognition from the Speaker and launched into a turgid speech in
+defence of Polk, "the standard-bearer of Democracy and freedom." It
+had been charged that Colonel Polk was "the industrious follower of
+Andrew Jackson." Douglas turned the thrust neatly by asserting, "He is
+emphatically a Young Hickory--the unwavering friend of Old Hickory in
+all his trials--his bosom companion--his supporter and defender on all
+occasions, in public and private, from his early boyhood until the
+present moment. No man living possessed General Jackson's confidence
+in a greater degree.... That he has been the industrious follower of
+General Jackson in those glorious contests for the defence of his
+country's rights, will not be deemed the unpardonable sin by the
+American people, so long as their hearts beat and swell with gratitude
+to their great benefactor. He is the very man for the times--a 'chip
+of the old block'--of the true hickory stump. The people want a man
+whose patriotism, honesty, ability, and devotion to democratic
+principles, have been tested and tried in the most stormy times of the
+republic, and never found wanting. That man is James K. Polk of
+Tennessee."[181]
+
+There could be no better evidence that Douglas felt sure of his own
+fences, than his willingness to assist in the general campaign outside
+of his own district and State. He not only addressed a mass-meeting of
+delegates from many Western States at Nashville, Tennessee,[182] but
+journeyed to St. Louis and back again, in the service of the
+Democratic Central Committee, speaking at numerous points along the
+way with gratifying success, if we may judge from the grateful words
+of appreciation in the Democratic press.[183] It was while he was in
+attendance on the convention in Nashville that he was brought face to
+face with Andrew Jackson. The old hero was then living in retirement
+at the Hermitage. Thither, as to a Mecca, all good Democrats turned
+their faces after the convention. Douglas received from the old man a
+greeting which warmed the cockles of his heart, and which, duly
+reported by the editor of the Illinois _State Register_, who was his
+companion, was worth many votes at the cross-roads of Illinois. The
+scene was described as follows:
+
+"Governor Clay, of Alabama, was near General Jackson, who was himself
+sitting on a sofa in the hall, and as each person entered, the
+governor introduced him to the hero and he passed along. When Judge
+Douglas was thus introduced, General Jackson raised his still
+brilliant eyes and gazed for a moment in the countenance of the judge,
+still retaining his hand. 'Are you the Mr. Douglas, of Illinois, who
+delivered a speech last session on the subject of the fine imposed on
+me for declaring martial law at New Orleans?'" asked General Jackson.
+
+"'I have delivered a speech in the House of Representatives upon that
+subject,' was the modest reply of our friend.
+
+"'Then stop,' said General Jackson; 'sit down here beside me. I desire
+to return you my thanks for that speech. You are the first man that
+has ever relieved my mind on a subject which has rested upon it for
+thirty years. My enemies have always charged me with violating the
+Constitution of my country by declaring martial law at New Orleans,
+and my friends have always admitted the violation, but have contended
+that circumstances justified me in that violation. I never could
+understand how it was that the performance of a solemn duty to my
+country--a duty which, if I had neglected, would have made me a
+traitor in the sight of God and man, could properly be pronounced a
+violation of the Constitution. I felt convinced in my own mind that I
+was not guilty of such a heinous offense; but I could never make out a
+legal justification of my course, nor has it ever been done, sir,
+until you, on the floor of Congress, at the late session, established
+it beyond the possibility of cavil or doubt. I thank you, sir, for
+that speech. It has relieved my mind from the only circumstance that
+rested painfully upon it. Throughout my whole life I never performed
+an official act which I viewed as a violation of the Constitution of
+my country; and I can now go down to the grave in peace, with the
+perfect consciousness that I have not broken, at any period of my
+life, the Constitution or laws of my country.'
+
+"Thus spoke the old hero, his countenance brightened by emotions which
+it is impossible for us to describe. We turned to look at Douglas--he
+was speechless. He could not reply, but convulsively shaking the aged
+veteran's hand, he rose and left the hall. Certainly General Jackson
+had paid him the highest compliment he could have bestowed on any
+individual."[184]
+
+When the August elections had come and gone, Douglas found himself
+re-elected by a majority of fourteen hundred votes and by a plurality
+over his Whig opponent of more than seventeen hundred.[185] He was to
+have another opportunity to serve his constituents; but the question
+was still open, whether his talents were only those of an adroit
+politician intent upon his own advancement, or those of a statesman,
+capable of conceiving generous national policies which would efface
+the eager ambitions of the individual and the grosser ends of party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 163: Poore, Reminiscences, I, pp. 316-317.]
+
+[Footnote 164: Joseph Wallace in the Illinois _State Register_, April
+19, 1885.]
+
+[Footnote 165: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, 1, p. 146.]
+
+[Footnote 166: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 167: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 45.]
+
+[Footnote 168: J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 478.]
+
+[Footnote 169: Richmond _Enquirer_, Jan. 6, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 170: Act of June 25, 1842; United States Statutes at Large,
+V, p. 491.]
+
+[Footnote 171: December 14, 1843. _Globe_, 28 Cong. I Sess. p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 172: Niles' _Register_, Vol. 65, pp. 393-396.]
+
+[Footnote 173: _Globe_, 28 Cong. I Sess. pp. 276-277.]
+
+[Footnote 174: J.Q. Adams, Memoirs, XI, p. 510.]
+
+[Footnote 175: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 549-550. For the trend
+of public opinion in the district which Douglas represented, see
+Peoria _Register,_ September 21, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 176: _Globe,_28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 527-528]
+
+[Footnote 177: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 534.]
+
+[Footnote 178: Illinois _State Register_, February 9, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 179: _Ibid._, May 17, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 180: It was intimated that he had at first aided Tyler in
+his forlorn hope of a second term.]
+
+[Footnote 181: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 598 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 182: Illinois _State Register_, August 30, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 183: _Ibid._, September 27, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 184: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 70-71.]
+
+[Footnote 185: Official returns in the office of the Secretary of
+State.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MANIFEST DESTINY
+
+
+The defeat of President Tyler's treaty in June, 1844, just on the eve
+of the presidential campaign, gave the Texas question an importance
+which the Democrats in convention had not foreseen, when they inserted
+the re-annexation plank in the platform. The hostile attitude of Whig
+senators and of Clay himself toward annexation, helped to make Texas a
+party issue. While it cannot be said that Polk was elected on this
+issue alone, there was some plausibility in the statement of President
+Tyler, that "a controlling majority of the people, and a majority of
+the States, have declared in favor of immediate annexation." At all
+events, when Congress reassembled, President Tyler promptly acted on
+this supposition. In his annual message, and again in a special
+message a fortnight later, he urged "prompt and immediate action on
+the subject of annexation." Since the two governments had already
+agreed on terms of annexation, he recommended their adoption by
+Congress "in the form of a joint resolution, or act, to be perfected
+and made binding on the two countries, when adopted in like manner by
+the government of Texas."[186] A policy which had not been able to
+secure the approval of two-thirds of the Senate was now to be endorsed
+by a majority of both houses. In short, a legislative treaty was to be
+enacted by Congress.
+
+The Hon. Stephen A. Douglas had taken his seat in the House with
+augmented self-assurance. He had not only secured his re-election and
+the success of his party in Illinois, but he had served most
+acceptably as a campaign speaker in Polk's own State. Surely he was
+entitled to some consideration in the councils of his party. In the
+appointment of standing committees, he could hardly hope for a
+chairmanship. It was reward enough to be made a member of the
+Committee of Elections and of the Committee on the Judiciary. On the
+paramount question before this Congress, he entertained strong
+convictions, which he had no hesitation in setting forth in a series
+of resolutions, while older members were still feeling their way. The
+preamble of these "Joint Resolutions for the annexation of Texas" was
+in itself a little stump speech: "Whereas the treaty of 1803 had
+provided that the people of Texas should be incorporated into the
+Union and admitted as soon as possible to citizenship, and whereas the
+present inhabitants have signified their willingness to be re-annexed;
+therefore".... Particular interest attaches to the Eighth Resolution
+which proposed to extend the Missouri Compromise line through Texas,
+"inasmuch as the compromise had been made prior to the treaty of 1819,
+by which Texas was ceded to Spain."[187] The resolutions never
+commanded any support worth mentioning, attention being drawn to the
+joint resolution of the Committee on Foreign Affairs which was known
+to have the sanction of the President. The proposal of Douglas to
+settle the matter of slavery in Texas in the act of annexation itself,
+was perhaps his only contribution to the discussion of ways and
+means. An aggressive Southern group of representatives readily caught
+up the suggestion.
+
+The debate upon the joint resolution was well under way before Douglas
+secured recognition from the Speaker. The opposition was led by
+Winthrop of Massachusetts and motived by reluctance to admit slave
+territory, as well as by constitutional scruples regarding the process
+of annexation by joint resolution. Douglas spoke largely in rejoinder
+to Winthrop. A clever retort to Winthrop's reference to "this odious
+measure devised for sinister purposes by a President not elected by
+the people," won for Douglas the good-natured attention of the House.
+It was President Adams and not President Tyler, Douglas remonstrated,
+who had first opened negotiations for annexation; but perhaps the
+gentleman from Massachusetts intended to designate his colleague, Mr.
+Adams, when he referred to "a president not elected by the
+people"![188] Moreover, it was Mr. Adams, who as Secretary of State
+had urged our claims to all the country as far as the Rio del Norte,
+under the Treaty of 1803. In spite of these just boundary claims and
+our solemn promise to admit the inhabitants of the Louisiana purchase
+to citizenship, we had violated that pledge by ceding Texas to Spain
+in 1819. These people had protested against this separation, only a
+few months after the signing of the treaty; they now asked us to
+redeem our ancient pledge. Honor and violated faith required the
+immediate annexation of Texas.[189] Had Douglas known, or taken pains
+to ascertain, who these people were, who protested against the treaty
+of 1819, he would hardly have wasted his commiseration upon them.
+Enough: the argument served his immediate purpose.
+
+To those who contended that Congress had no power to annex territory
+with a view to admitting new States, Douglas replied that the
+Constitution not only grants specific powers to Congress, but also
+general power to pass acts necessary and proper to carry out the
+specific powers. Congress may admit new States, but in the present
+instance Congress cannot exercise that power without annexing
+territory. "The annexation of Texas is a prerequisite without the
+performance of which Texas cannot be admitted."[190] The Constitution
+does not state that the President and Senate may admit new States, nor
+that they shall make laws for the acquisition of territory in order to
+enable Congress to admit new States. The Constitution declares
+explicitly, "_Congress_ may admit new States." "When the grant of
+power is to Congress, the authority to pass all laws necessary to its
+execution is also in Congress; and the treaty-making power is to be
+confined to those cases where the power is not located elsewhere by
+the Constitution."[191]
+
+With those weaklings who feared lest the extension of the national
+domain should react unfavorably upon our institutions, and who
+apprehended war with Mexico, Douglas had no patience. The States of
+the Union were already drawn closer together than the thirteen
+original States in the first years of the Union, because of the
+improved means of communication. Transportation facilities were now
+multiplying more rapidly than population. "Our federal system," he
+exclaimed, with a burst of jingoism that won a round of applause from
+Western Democrats as he resumed his seat, "Our federal system is
+admirably adapted to the whole continent; and, while I would not
+violate the laws of nations, nor treaty stipulations, nor in any
+manner tarnish the national honor, I would exert all legal and
+honorable means to drive Great Britain and the last vestiges of royal
+authority from the continent of North America, and extend the limits
+of the republic from ocean to ocean. I would make this an ocean-bound
+republic, and have no more disputes about boundaries, or 'red lines'
+upon the maps."[192]
+
+In this speech there was one notable omission. The slavery question
+was not once touched upon. Those who have eyes only to see plots
+hatched by the slave power in national politics, are sure to construe
+this silence as part of an ignoble game. It is possible that Douglas
+purposely evaded this question; but it does not by any means follow
+that he was deliberately playing into the hands of Southern leaders.
+The simple truth is, that it was quite possible in the early forties
+for men, in all honesty, to ignore slavery, because they regarded it
+either as a side issue or as no issue at all. It was quite possible to
+think on large national policies without confusing them with slavery.
+Men who shared with Douglas the pulsating life of the Northwest wanted
+Texas as a "theater for enterprise and industry." As an Ohio
+representative said, they desired "a West for their sons and daughters
+where they would be free from family influences, from associated
+wealth and from those thousand things which in the old settled country
+have the tendency of keeping down the efforts and enterprises of
+young people." The hearts of those who, like Douglas, had carved out
+their fortunes in the new States, responded to that sentiment in a way
+which neither a John Quincy Adams nor a Winthrop could understand.
+
+Yet the question of slavery in the proposed State of Texas was thrust
+upon the attention of Congress by the persistent tactics of Alexander
+H. Stephens and a group of Southern associates. They refused to accept
+all terms of annexation which did not secure the right of States
+formed south of the Missouri Compromise line to come into the Union
+with slavery, if they desired to do so.[193] Douglas met this
+opposition with the suggestion that not more than three States besides
+Texas should be created out of the new State, but that such States
+should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the
+people of each should determine, at the time of their application to
+Congress for admission. As the germ of the doctrine of Popular
+Sovereignty, this resolution has both a personal and a historic
+interest. While it failed to pass,[194] it suggested to Stephens and
+his friends a mode of adjustment which might satisfy all sides. It was
+at his suggestion that Milton Brown of Tennessee proposed resolutions
+providing for the admission of not more than four States besides
+Texas, out of the territory acquired. If these States should be formed
+south of the Missouri Compromise line, they were to be admitted with
+or without slavery, as the people of each should determine. Northern
+men demurred, but Douglas saved the situation by offering as an
+amendment, "And in such States as shall be formed north of said
+Missouri Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude, except for
+crime, shall be prohibited."[195] The amendment was accepted, and thus
+amended, the joint resolution passed by an ample margin of votes. In
+view of later developments, this extension of the Missouri Compromise
+line is a point of great significance in the career of Douglas.
+
+Not long after Douglas had voiced his vision of "an ocean-bound
+republic," he was called upon to assist one of the most remarkable
+emigrations westward, from his own State. The Mormons in Hancock
+County had become the most undesirable of neighbors to his
+constituents. Once the allies of the Democrats, they were now held in
+detestation by all Gentiles of adjoining counties, irrespective of
+political affiliations. The announcement of the doctrine of polygamy
+by the Prophet Smith had been accompanied by acts of defiance and
+followed by depredations, which, while not altogether unprovoked,
+aroused the non-Mormons to a dangerous pitch of excitement. In the
+midst of general disorder in Hancock County, Joseph Smith was
+murdered. Every deed of violence was now attributed to the Danites, as
+the members of the militant order of the Mormon Church styled
+themselves. Early in the year 1845, the Nauvoo Charter was repealed;
+and Governor Ford warned his quondam friends confidentially that they
+had better betake themselves westward, suggesting California as "a
+field for the prettiest enterprise that has been undertaken in modern
+times." Disgraceful outrages filled the summer months of 1845 in
+Hancock County. A band of Mormon-haters ravaged the county, burning
+houses, barns, and grain stacks, and driving unprotected Mormon
+settlers into Nauvoo. To put an end to this state of affairs, Governor
+Ford sent Judge Douglas and Attorney-General McDougal, with a force of
+militia under the command of General Hardin, into Hancock County.
+Public meetings in all the adjoining counties were now demanding the
+expulsion of the Mormons in menacing language.[196] While General
+Hardin issued a proclamation bidding Mormons and anti-Mormons to
+desist from further violence, and promised that his scanty force of
+four hundred would enforce the laws impartially, the commissioners
+entered into negotiations with the Mormon authorities. On the pressing
+demand of the commissioners and of a deputation from the town of
+Quincy, Brigham Young announced that the Mormons purposed to leave
+Illinois in the spring, "for some point so remote that there will not
+need to be a difficulty with the people and ourselves."
+
+There can be little doubt that Douglas's advice weighed heavily with
+the Mormons. As a judge, he had administered the law impartially
+between Mormon and non-Mormon; and this was none too common in the
+civic history of the Mormon Church. As an aspirant for office, he had
+frankly courted their suffrages; but times had changed. The reply of
+the commissioners, though not unkindly worded, contained some
+wholesome advice. "We think that steps should be taken by you to make
+it apparent that you are actually preparing to remove in the spring.
+By carrying out, in good faith, your proposition to remove, as
+submitted to us, we think you should be, and will be, permitted to
+depart peaceably next spring for your destination, west of the Rocky
+Mountains.... We recommend to you to place every possible restraint in
+your power over the members of your church, to prevent them from
+committing acts of aggression or retaliation on any citizens of the
+State, as a contrary course may, and most probably will, bring about a
+collision which will subvert all efforts to maintain the peace in this
+county; and we propose making a similar request of your opponents in
+this and the surrounding counties."[197]
+
+Announcing the result of their negotiations to the anti-Mormon people
+of Hancock County, the commissioners gave equally good advice:
+"Remember, whatever may be the aggression against you, the sympathy of
+the public may be forfeited. It cannot be denied that the burning of
+the houses of the Mormons ... was an act criminal in itself, and
+disgraceful to its perpetrators.... A resort to, or persistence in,
+such a course under existing circumstances will make you forfeit all
+the respect and sympathy of the community."
+
+Unhappily this advice was not long heeded by either side. While
+Douglas was giving his vote for men and money for the Mexican War and
+the gallant Hardin was serving his country in command of a regiment,
+"the last Mormon war" broke out, which culminated in the siege and
+evacuation of Nauvoo. Passing westward into No-man's-land, the Mormons
+became eventually the founders of one of the Territories by which
+Douglas sought to span the continent.
+
+It was only in the Northwest that the cry for the re-occupation of
+Oregon had the ring of sincerity; elsewhere it had been thought of as
+a response to the re-annexation of Texas,--more or less of a
+vote-catching device. The sentiment in Douglas's constituency was
+strongly in favor of an aggressive policy in Oregon. The first band of
+Americans to go thither, for the single purpose of settlement and
+occupation, set out from Peoria.[198] These were "young men of the
+right sort," in whom the eternal _Wanderlust_ of the race had been
+kindled by tales of returned missionaries. Public exercises were held
+on their departure, and the community sanctioned this outflow of its
+youthful strength. Dwellers in the older communities of the East had
+little sympathy with this enterprise. It was ill-timed, many hundred
+years in advance of the times. Why emigrate from a region but just
+reclaimed from barbarism, where good land was still abundant?[199]
+Perhaps it was in reply to such doubts that an Illinois rhymester bade
+his New England brother
+
+    "Scan the opening glories of the West,
+      Her boundless prairies and her thousand streams,
+    The swarming millions who will crowd her breast,
+      'Mid scenes enchanting as a poet's dreams:
+    And then bethink you of your own stern land,
+      Where ceaseless toil will scarce a pittance earn,
+    And gather quickly to a hopeful band,--
+      Say parting words,--and to the westward turn."[200]
+
+Douglas tingled to his fingers' ends with the sentiment expressed in
+these lines. The prospect of forfeiting this Oregon country,--this
+greater Northwest,--to Great Britain, stirred all the belligerent
+blood in his veins. Had it fallen to him to word the Democratic
+platform, he would not have been able to choose a better phrase than
+"re-occupation of Oregon." The elemental jealousy and hatred of the
+Western pioneer for the claim-jumper found its counterpart in his
+hostile attitude toward Great Britain. He was equally fearful lest a
+low estimate of the value of Oregon should make Congress indifferent
+to its future. He had endeavored to have Congress purchase copies of
+Greenhow's _History of the Northwest Coast of North America_, so that
+his colleagues might inform themselves about this El Dorado.[201]
+
+There was, indeed, much ignorance about Oregon, in Congress and out.
+To the popular mind Oregon was the country drained by the Columbia
+River, a vast region on the northwest coast. As defined by the
+authority whom Douglas summoned to the aid of his colleagues, Oregon
+was the territory west of the Rocky Mountains between the parallels of
+42 deg. and 54 deg. 40' north latitude.[202] Treaties between Russia and Great
+Britain, and between Russia and the United States, had fixed the
+southern boundary of Russian territory on the continent at 54 deg. 40'; a
+treaty between the United States and Spain had given the forty-second
+parallel as the northern boundary of the Spanish possessions; and a
+joint treaty of occupation between Great Britain and the United States
+in 1818,--renewed in 1827,--had established a _modus vivendi_ between
+the rival claimants, which might be terminated by either party on
+twelve months' notice. Meantime Great Britain and the United States
+were silent competitors for exclusive ownership of the mainland and
+islands between Spanish and Russian America. Whether the technical
+questions involved in these treaties were so easily dismissed, was
+something that did not concern the resolute expansionist. It was
+enough for him that, irrespective of title derived from priority of
+discovery, the United States had, as Greenhow expressed it, a stronger
+"national right," by virtue of the process by which their people were
+settling the Mississippi Valley and the great West. This was but
+another way of stating the theory of manifest destiny.
+
+No one knew better than Douglas that paper claims lost half their
+force unless followed up by vigorous action. Priority of occupation
+was a far better claim than priority of discovery. Hence, the
+government must encourage actual settlement on the Oregon. Two
+isolated bills that Douglas submitted to Congress are full of
+suggestion, when connected by this thought: one provided for the
+establishment of the territory of Nebraska;[203] the other, for the
+establishment of military posts in the territories of Nebraska and
+Oregon, to protect the commerce of the United States with New Mexico
+and California, as well as emigration to Oregon.[204] Though neither
+bill seems to have received serious consideration, both were to be
+forced upon the attention of Congress in after years by their
+persistent author.
+
+A bill had already been reported by the Committee on Territories,
+boldly extending the government of the United States over the whole
+disputed area.[205] Conservatives in both parties deprecated such
+action as both hasty and unwise, in view of negotiations then in
+progress; but the Hotspurs would listen to no prudential
+considerations. Sentiments such as those expressed by Morris of
+Pennsylvania irritated them beyond measure. Why protect this wandering
+population in Oregon? he asked. Let them take care of themselves; or
+if they cannot protect themselves, let the government defend them
+during the period of their infancy, and then let them form a republic
+of their own. He did not wish to imperil the Union by crossing
+barriers beyond which nature had intended that we should not go.
+
+This frank, if not cynical, disregard of the claims of American
+emigrants,--"wandering and unsettled" people, Morris had called
+them,--brought Douglas to his feet. Memories of a lad who had himself
+once been a wanderer from the home of his fathers, spurred him to
+resent this thinly veiled contempt for Western emigrants and the part
+which they were manfully playing in the development of the West. The
+gentleman should say frankly, retorted Douglas, that he is desirous of
+dissolving the Union. Consistency should force him to take the ground
+that our Union must be dissolved and divided up into various, separate
+republics by the Alleghanies, the Green and the White Mountains.
+Besides, to cede the territory of Oregon to its inhabitants would be
+tantamount to ceding it to Great Britain. He, for one, would never
+yield an inch of Oregon either to Great Britain or any other
+government. He looked forward to a time when Oregon would become a
+considerable member of the great American family of States. Wait for
+the issue of the negotiations now pending? When had negotiations not
+been pending! Every man in his senses knew that there was no hope of
+getting the country by negotiation. He was for erecting a government
+on this side of the Rockies, extending our settlements under military
+protection, and then establishing the territorial government of
+Oregon. Facilitate the means of communication across the Rocky
+Mountains, and let the people there know and feel that they are a part
+of the government of the United States, and under its protection; that
+was his policy.
+
+As for Great Britain: she had already run her network of possessions
+and fortifications around the United States. She was intriguing for
+California, and for Texas, and she had her eye on Cuba; she was
+insidiously trying to check the growth of republican institutions on
+this continent and to ruin our commerce. "It therefore becomes us to
+put this nation in a state of defense; and when we are told that this
+will lead to war, all I have to say is this, violate no treaty
+stipulations, nor any principle of the law of nations; preserve the
+honor and integrity of the country, but, at the same time, assert our
+right to the last inch, and then, if war comes, let it come. We may
+regret the necessity which produced it, but when it does come, I would
+administer to our citizens Hannibal's oath of eternal enmity, and not
+terminate the war until the question was settled forever. I would blot
+out the lines on the map which now mark our national boundaries on
+this continent, and make the area of liberty as broad as the continent
+itself. I would not suffer petty rival republics to grow up here,
+engendering jealousy of each other, and interfering with each other's
+domestic affairs, and continually endangering their peace. I do not
+wish to go beyond the great ocean--beyond those boundaries which the
+God of nature has marked out, I would limit myself only by that
+boundary which is so clearly defined by nature."[206]
+
+The vehemence of these words startled the House, although it was not
+the only belligerent speech on the Oregon question. Cooler heads, like
+J.Q. Adams, who feared the effect of such imprudent utterances falling
+upon British ears, remonstrated at the unseemly haste with which the
+bill was being "driven through" the House, and counselled with all the
+weight of years against the puerility of provoking war in this
+fashion. But the most that could be accomplished in the way of
+moderation was an amendment, which directed the President to give
+notice of the termination of our joint treaty of occupation with Great
+Britain. This precaution proved to be unnecessary, as the Senate
+failed to act upon the bill.
+
+No one expected from the new President any masterful leadership of the
+people as a whole or of his party. Few listened with any marked
+attention, therefore, to his inaugural address. His references to
+Texas and Oregon were in accord with the professions of the Democratic
+party, except possibly at one point, which was not noted at the time
+but afterward widely commented upon. "Our title to the country of the
+Oregon," said he, "is clear and unquestionable." The text of the
+Baltimore platform read, "Our title to the _whole_ of the territory of
+Oregon is clear and unquestionable." Did President Polk mean to be
+ambiguous at this point? Had he any reason to swerve from the strict
+letter of the Democratic creed?
+
+In his first message to Congress, President Polk alarmed staunch
+Democrats by stating that he had tried to compromise our clear and
+unquestionable claims, though he assured his party that he had done so
+only out of deference to his predecessor in office. Those inherited
+policies having led to naught, he was now prepared to reassert our
+title to the whole of Oregon, which was sustained "by irrefragable
+facts and arguments." He would therefore recommend that provision be
+made for terminating the joint treaty of occupation, for extending the
+jurisdiction of the United States over American citizens in Oregon,
+and for protecting emigrants in transit through the Indian country.
+These were strong measures. They might lead to war; but the temper of
+Congress was warlike; and a group of Democrats in both houses was
+ready to take up the programme which the President had outlined.
+"Fifty-four forty or fight" was the cry with which they sought to
+rally the Chauvinists of both parties to their standard. While Cass
+led the skirmishing line in the Senate, Douglas forged to the fore in
+the House.[207]
+
+It is good evidence of the confidence placed in Douglas by his
+colleagues that, when territorial questions of more than ordinary
+importance were pending, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on
+Territories.[208] If there was one division of legislative work in
+which he showed both capacity and talent, it was in the organization
+of our Western domain and in its preparation for statehood. The vision
+which dazzled his imagination was that of an ocean-bound republic; to
+that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any
+self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his
+imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by
+contact with actual Western conditions. Finance, the tariff, and
+similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to
+leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a
+continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness. He had
+now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be
+indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was
+made chairman of a similar committee. His career must be measured by
+the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was
+called upon to solve concerning the public domain. In this sphere he
+laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required;
+but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound
+up more or less intimately with the slavery question. Upon this
+delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to
+bear? Time only could tell. Meantime, the House Committee on
+Territories had urgent business on hand.
+
+Texas was now knocking at the door of the Union, and awaited only a
+formal invitation to become one of the family of States, as the
+chairman was wont to say cheerily. Ten days after the opening of the
+session Douglas reported from his committee a joint resolution for
+the admission of Texas, "on an equal footing with the original states
+in all respects whatever."[209] There was a certain pleonasm about
+this phrasing that revealed the hand of the chairman: the simple
+statement must be reinforced both for legal security and for
+rhetorical effect. Six days later, after but a single speech, the
+resolution went to a third reading and was passed by a large
+majority.[210] Voted upon with equal dispatch by the Senate, and
+approved by the President, the joint resolution became law, December
+29, 1845.
+
+While the belligerent spirit of Congress had abated somewhat since the
+last session, no such change had passed over the gentleman from
+Illinois. No sooner had the Texas resolution been dispatched than he
+brought in a bill to protect American settlers in Oregon, while the
+joint treaty of occupation continued. He now acquiesced, it is true,
+in the more temperate course of first giving Great Britain twelve
+months' notice before terminating this treaty; but he was just as
+averse as ever to compromise and arbitration. "For one," said he, "I
+never will be satisfied with the valley of the Columbia, nor with 49 deg.,
+nor with 54 deg. 40'; nor will I be, while Great Britain shall hold
+possession of one acre on the northwest coast of America. And, Sir, I
+never will agree to any arrangement that shall recognize her right to
+one inch of soil upon the northwest coast; and for this simple reason:
+Great Britain never did own, she never did have a valid title to one
+inch of the country."[211] He moved that the question of title should
+not be left to arbitration.[212] His countrymen, he felt sure, would
+never trust their interests to European arbitrators, prejudiced as
+they inevitably would be by their monarchical environment.[213] This
+feeling was, indeed, shared by the President and his cabinet advisers.
+
+With somewhat staggering frankness, Douglas laid bare his inmost
+motive for unflinching opposition to Great Britain. The value of
+Oregon was not to be measured by the extent of its seacoast nor by the
+quality of its soil. "The great point at issue between us and Great
+Britain is for the freedom of the Pacific Ocean, for the trade of
+China and Japan, of the East Indies, and for the maritime ascendency
+on all these waters." Oregon held a strategic position on the Pacific,
+controlling the overland route between the Atlantic and the Orient. If
+this country were yielded to Great Britain--"this power which holds
+control over all the balance of the globe,"--it would make her
+maritime ascendency complete.[214]
+
+Stripped of its rhetorical garb, Douglas's speech of January 27, 1846,
+must be acknowledged to have a substratum of good sense and the
+elements of a true prophecy. When it is recalled that recent
+developments in the Orient have indeed made the mastery of the Pacific
+one of the momentous questions of the immediate future, that the
+United States did not then possess either California or Alaska, and
+that Oregon included the only available harbors on the coast,--the
+pleas of Douglas, which rang false in the ears of his own generation,
+sound prophetic in ours. Yet all that he said was vitiated by a
+fallacy which a glance at a map of the Northwest will expose. The line
+of 49 deg. eventually gave to the United States Puget Sound with its
+ample harbors.
+
+Perhaps it was the same uncompromising spirit that prompted Douglas's
+constituents in far away Illinois to seize the moment to endorse his
+course in Congress. Early in January, nineteen delegates, defying the
+inclemency of the season, met in convention at Rushville, and
+renominated Douglas for Congress by acclamation.[215] History
+maintains an impenetrable silence regarding these faithful nineteen;
+it is enough to know that Douglas had no opposition to encounter in
+his own bailiwick.
+
+When the joint resolution to terminate the treaty of occupation came
+to a vote, the intransigeants endeavored to substitute a declaration
+to the effect that Oregon was no longer a subject for negotiation or
+compromise. It was a silly proposition, in view of the circumstances,
+yet it mustered ten supporters. Among those who passed between the
+tellers, with cries of "54 deg. 40' forever," amid the laughter of the
+House, were Stephen A. Douglas and four of his Illinois
+colleagues.[216] Against the substitute, one hundred and forty-six
+votes were recorded,--an emphatic rebuke, if only the ten had chosen
+so to regard it.
+
+While the House resolution was under consideration in the Senate, it
+was noised abroad that President Polk still considered himself free to
+compromise with Great Britain on the line of 49 deg.. Consternation fell
+upon the Ultras. In the words of Senator Hannegan, they had believed
+the President committed to 54 deg. 40' in as strong language as that
+which makes up the Holy Book. As rumor passed into certainty, the
+feelings of Douglas can be imagined, but not described. He had
+committed himself, and,--so far as in him lay,--his party, to the line
+of 54 deg. 40', in full confidence that Polk, party man that he was, would
+stubbornly contest every inch of that territory. He had called on the
+dogs of war in dauntless fashion, and now to find "the standard-bearer
+of Democracy," "Young Hickory," and many of his party, disposed to
+compromise on 49 deg.,--it was all too exasperating for words. In contrast
+to the soberer counsels that now prevailed, his impetuous advocacy of
+the whole of Oregon seemed decidedly boyish. It was greatly to his
+credit, however, that, while smarting under the humiliation of the
+moment, he imposed restraint upon his temper and indulged in no bitter
+language.
+
+Some weeks later, Douglas intimated that some of his party associates
+had proved false to the professions of the Baltimore platform. No
+Democrat, he thought, could consistently accept part of Oregon instead
+of the whole. "Does the gentleman," asked Seddon, drawing him out for
+the edification of the House, "hold that the Democratic party is
+pledged to 54 deg. 40'?" Douglas replied emphatically that he thought the
+party was thus solemnly pledged. "Does the gentleman," persisted his
+interrogator, "understand the President to have violated the
+Democratic creed in offering to compromise on 49 deg.?" Douglas replied
+that he did understand Mr. Polk in his inaugural address "as standing
+up erect to the pledge of the Baltimore Convention." And if ever
+negotiations were again opened in violation of that pledge, "sooner
+let his tongue cleave to the roof of his mouth than he would defend
+that party which should yield one inch of Oregon."[217] Evidently he
+had made up his mind to maintain his ground. Perhaps he had faint
+hopes that the administration would not compromise our claims. He
+still clung tenaciously to his bill for extending governmental
+protection over American citizens in Oregon and for encouraging
+emigration to the Pacific coast; and in the end he had the empty
+satisfaction of seeing it pass the House.[218]
+
+Meantime a war-cloud had been gathering in the Southwest. On May 11th,
+President Polk announced that war existed by act of Mexico. From this
+moment an amicable settlement with Great Britain was assured. The most
+bellicose spirit in Congress dared not offer to prosecute two wars at
+the same time. The warlike roar of the fifty-four forty men subsided
+into a murmur of mild disapprobation. Yet Douglas was not among those
+who sulked in their tents. To the surprise of his colleagues, he
+accepted the situation, and he was among the first to defend the
+President's course in the Mexico imbroglio.
+
+A month passed before Douglas had occasion to call at the White House.
+He was in no genial temper, for aside from personal grievances in the
+Oregon affair, he had been disappointed in the President's recent
+appointments to office in Illinois. The President marked his
+unfriendly air, and suspecting the cause, took pains to justify his
+course not only in the matter of the appointments, but in the Oregon
+affair. If not convinced, Douglas was at least willing to let bygones
+be bygones. Upon taking his departure, he assured the President that
+he would continue to support the administration. The President
+responded graciously that Mr. Douglas could lead the Democratic party
+in the House if he chose to do so.[219]
+
+When President Polk announced to Congress the conclusion of the Oregon
+treaty with Great Britain, he recommended the organization of a
+territorial government for the newly acquired country, at the earliest
+practicable moment. Hardly had the President's message been read, when
+Douglas offered a bill of this tenor, stating that it had been
+prepared before the terms of the treaty had been made public. His
+committee had not named the boundaries of the new Territory in the
+bill, for obvious reasons. He also stated, parenthetically, that he
+felt so keenly the humiliation of writing down the boundary of 49 deg.,
+that he preferred to leave that duty to those who had consented to
+compromise our claims. In drafting the bill, he had kept in mind the
+provisional government adopted by the people of Oregon: as they had in
+turn borrowed nearly all the statutes of Iowa, it was to be presumed
+that the people knew their own needs better than Congress.[220]
+
+Before the bill passed the House it was amended at one notable point.
+Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should ever exist in the
+Territory, following the provision in the Ordinance of 1787 for the
+Northwest Territory. Presumably Douglas was not opposed to this
+amendment,[221] though he voted against the famous Wilmot Proviso two
+days later. Already Douglas showed a disposition to escape the toils
+of the slavery question by a _laissez faire_ policy, which was
+compounded of indifference to the institution itself and of a strong
+attachment to states-rights. When Florida applied for admission into
+the Union with a constitution that forbade the emancipation of slaves
+and permitted the exclusion of free negroes, he denied the right of
+Congress to refuse to receive the new State. The framers of the
+Federal Constitution never intended that Congress should pass upon the
+propriety or expediency of each clause in the constitutions of States
+applying for admission. The great diversity of opinion resulting from
+diversity of climate, soil, pursuits, and customs, made uniformity
+impossible. The people of each State were to form their constitution
+in their own way, subject to the single restriction that it should be
+republican in character. "They are subject to the jurisdiction and
+control of Congress during their infancy, their minority; but when
+they obtain their majority and obtain admission into the Union, they
+are free from all restraints ... except such as the Constitution of
+the United States has imposed."[222]
+
+The absorbing interest of Douglas at this point in his career is
+perfectly clear. To span the continent with States and Territories, to
+create an ocean-bound republic, has often seemed a gross,
+materialistic ideal. Has a nation no higher destiny than mere
+territorial bigness? Must an intensive culture with spiritual aims be
+sacrificed to a vulgar exploitation of physical resources? Yet the
+ends which this strenuous Westerner had in view were not wholly gross
+and materialistic. To create the body of a great American Commonwealth
+by removing barriers to its continental expansion, so that the soul of
+Liberty might dwell within it, was no vulgar ambition. The conquest of
+the continent must be accounted one of the really great achievements
+of the century. In this dramatic exploit Douglas was at times an
+irresponsible, but never a weak nor a false actor.
+
+The session ended where it had begun, so far as Oregon was concerned.
+The Senate failed to act upon the bill to establish a territorial
+government; the earlier bill to protect American settlers also failed
+of adoption; and thus American caravans continued to cross the plains
+unprotected and ignored. But Congress had annexed a war.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 186: Message of December 3, 1844.]
+
+[Footnote 187: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 85.]
+
+[Footnote 188: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 189: _Ibid._, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 190: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 191: _Ibid._, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 192: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 193: _American Historical Review_, VIII, pp. 93-94.]
+
+[Footnote 194: It was voted down 107 to 96; _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 192.]
+
+[Footnote 195: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.]
+
+[Footnote 196: Linn's Story of the Mormons, Chs. 10-20, gives in great
+detail the facts connected with this Mormon emigration. I have
+borrowed freely from this account for the following episode.]
+
+[Footnote 197: Linn, Story of the Mormons, pp. 340-341.]
+
+[Footnote 198: Lyman, History of Oregon, III, p. 188.]
+
+[Footnote 199: See the letter of a New England Correspondent in the
+Peoria _Register_, May, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 200: Peoria _Register_, June 8, 1839.]
+
+[Footnote 201: _Globe_,28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 198 and 201.]
+
+[Footnote 202: Greenhow, Northwest Coast of North America, p. 200.]
+
+[Footnote 203: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 41.]
+
+[Footnote 204: _Ibid._, p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 205: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 206: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 225-226.]
+
+[Footnote 207: His capacity for leadership was already recognized. His
+colleagues conceded that he was "a man of large faculties." See
+Hilliard, Politics and Pen Pictures, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 208: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 25.]
+
+[Footnote 209: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 210: _Ibid._, p. 65.]
+
+[Footnote 211: _Ibid._, p. 259.]
+
+[Footnote 212: _Ibid._, p. 86.]
+
+[Footnote 213: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 260.]
+
+[Footnote 214: _Ibid._, pp. 258-259.]
+
+[Footnote 215: Illinois _State Register_, Jan. 15, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 216: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 347; Wheeler, History of
+Congress, pp. 114-115.]
+
+[Footnote 217: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess. p. 497.]
+
+[Footnote 218: _Ibid._, pp. 85, 189, 395, 690-691.]
+
+[Footnote 219: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 17, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 220: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1203.]
+
+[Footnote 221: He voted for a similar amendment in 1844; see _Globe_,
+28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 236.]
+
+[Footnote 222: _Globe_, 28 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 284.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+WAR AND POLITICS
+
+
+A long and involved diplomatic history preceded President Polk's
+simple announcement that "Mexico has passed the boundary of the United
+States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon
+American soil." Rightly to evaluate these words, the reader should
+bear in mind that the mission of John Slidell to Mexico had failed;
+that the hope of a peaceable adjustment of the Texas boundary and of
+American claims against Mexico had vanished; and that General Taylor
+had been ordered to the Rio Grande in disregard of Mexican claims to
+that region. One should also know that, from the beginning of his
+administration, Polk had hoped to secure from our bankrupt neighbor
+the cession of California as an indemnity.[223] A motive for
+forbearance in dealing with the distraught Mexican government was thus
+wholly absent from the mind of President Polk.
+
+Such of these facts as were known at the time, supplied the Whig
+opposition in Congress with an abundance of ammunition against the
+administration. Language was used which came dangerously near being
+unparliamentary. So the President was willing to sacrifice Oregon to
+prosecute this "illegal, unrighteous and damnable war" for Texas,
+sneered Delano. "Where did the gentleman from Illinois stand now? Was
+he still in favor of 61?" This sally brought Douglas to his feet and
+elicited one of his cleverest extempore speeches. He believed that
+such words as the gentleman had uttered could come only from one who
+desired defeat for our arms. "All who, after war is declared, condemn
+the justice of our cause, are traitors in their hearts. And would to
+God that they would commit some overt act for which they could be
+dealt with according to their deserts." Patriots might differ as to
+the expediency of entering upon war; but duty and honor forbade
+divided counsels after American blood had been shed on American soil.
+Had he foreseen the extraordinary turn of the discussion, he assured
+his auditors, he could have presented "a catalogue of aggressions and
+insults; of outrages on our national flag--on persons and property of
+our citizens; of the violation of treaty stipulations, and the murder,
+robbery, and imprisonment of our countrymen." These were all anterior
+to the annexation of Texas, and perhaps alone would have justified a
+declaration of war; but "magnanimity and forbearance toward a weak and
+imbecile neighbor" prevented hostilities. The recent outrages left the
+country no choice but war. The invasion of the country was the last of
+the cumulative causes for war.
+
+But was the invaded territory properly "our country"? This was the
+_crux_ of the whole matter. On this point Douglas was equally
+confident and explicit. Waiving the claims which the treaty of San
+Ildefonso may have given to the boundary of the Rio Grande, he rested
+the whole case upon "an immutable principle"--the Republic of Texas
+held the country on the left bank of that river by virtue of a
+successful revolution. The United States had received Texas as a State
+with all her territory, and had no right to surrender any portion of
+it.[224]
+
+The evidence which Douglas presented to confirm these claims is highly
+interesting. The right of Texas to have and to hold the territory from
+the Nueces to the Rio Grande was, in his opinion, based
+incontrovertibly on the treaty made by Santa Anna after the battle of
+San Jacinto, which acknowledged the independence of Texas and
+recognized the Rio Grande as its boundary. To an inquiry whether the
+treaty was ever ratified by the government of Mexico, Douglas replied
+that he was not aware that it had been ratified by anyone except Santa
+Anna, for the very good reason that he was the government at the time.
+"Has not that treaty with Santa Anna been since discarded by the
+Mexican government?" asked the venerable J.Q. Adams. "I presume it
+has," replied Douglas, "for I am not aware of any treaty or compact
+which that government ever entered into that has not either been
+violated or repudiated by them afterwards." But Santa Anna, as
+recognized dictator, was the _de facto_ government, and the acts of a
+_de facto_ government were binding on the nation as against foreign
+nations. "It is immaterial, therefore, whether Mexico has or has not
+since repudiated Santa Anna's treaty with Texas. It was executed at
+the time by competent authority. She availed herself of all its
+benefits." Forthwith Texas established counties beyond the Nueces,
+even to the Rio Grande, and extended her jurisdiction over that
+region, while in a later armistice Mexico recognized the Rio Grande as
+the boundary. It was in the clear light of these facts that Congress
+had passed an act extending the revenue laws of the United States
+over the country between the Rio Grande and the Nueces--the very
+country in which American soldiers had been slain by an invading
+force.
+
+All things considered, Douglas's line of argument was as well
+sustained as any presented by the supporters of the war. The absence
+of any citations to substantiate important points was of course due to
+the impromptu nature of the speech. Two years later,[225] in a
+carefully prepared speech constructed on much the same principles, he
+made good these omissions, but without adding much, it must be
+confessed, to the strength of his argument. The chain of evidence was
+in fact no stronger than its weakest link, which was the so-called
+treaty of Santa Anna with the President of the Republic of Texas.
+Nowhere in the articles, public or secret, is there an express
+recognition of the independence of the Republic, nor of the boundary.
+Santa Anna simply pledged himself to do his utmost to bring about a
+recognition of independence, and an acknowledgment of the claims of
+Texas to the Rio Grande as a boundary.[226] Did Douglas misinterpret
+these articles, or did he chance upon an unauthentic version of them?
+In the subsequent speech to which reference has been made, he cited
+specific articles which supported his contention. These citations do
+not tally with either the public or secret treaty. It may be doubted
+whether the secret articles were generally known at this time; but the
+open treaty had been published in Niles' _Register_ correctly, and had
+been cited by President Polk.[227] The inference would seem to be
+that Douglas unwittingly used an unauthenticated version, and found in
+it a conclusive argument for the claim of Texas to the disputed
+territory.
+
+Mr. John Quincy Adams had followed Douglas with the keenest interest,
+for with all the vigor which his declining strength permitted, he had
+denounced the war as an aggression upon a weaker neighbor. He had
+repeatedly interrupted Douglas, so that the latter almost insensibly
+addressed his remarks to him. They presented a striking contrast: the
+feeble, old man and the ardent, young Westerner. When Douglas alluded
+to the statement of Mr. Adams in 1819, that "our title to the Rio del
+Norte is as clear as to the island of New Orleans," the old man
+replied testily, "I never said that our title was good to the Rio del
+Norte from its mouth to its source." But the gentleman surely did
+claim the Rio del Norte in general terms as the boundary under the
+Louisiana treaty, persisted Douglas. "I have the official evidence
+over his own signature.... It is his celebrated dispatch to Don Onis,
+the Spanish minister." "I wrote that dispatch as Secretary of State,"
+responded Mr. Adams, somewhat disconcerted by evidence from his own
+pen, "and endeavored to make out the best case I could for my own
+country, as it was my duty; but I utterly deny that I claimed the Rio
+del Norte in its whole extent. I only claimed it as the line a short
+distance up, and then took a line northward, some distance from the
+river." "I have heard of this line to which the gentleman refers,"
+replied Douglas. "It followed a river near the gorge of the mountains,
+certainly more than a hundred miles above Matamoras. Consequently,
+taking the gentleman on his own claim, the position occupied by
+General Taylor opposite Matamoras, and every inch of the ground upon
+which an American soldier has planted his foot, were clearly within
+our own territory as claimed by him in 1819."[228]
+
+It seemed to an eyewitness of this encounter that the veteran
+statesman was decidedly worsted. "The House was divided between
+admiration for the new actor on the great stage of national affairs
+and reverence for the retiring chief," wrote a friend in after years,
+with more loyalty than accuracy.[229] The Whig side of the chamber was
+certainly in no mood to waste admiration on any Democrat who defended
+"Polk the Mendacious."
+
+Hardly had the war begun when there was a wild scramble among
+Democrats for military office. It seemed to the distressed President
+as though every Democratic civilian became an applicant for some
+commission. Particularly embarrassing was the passion for office that
+seized upon members of Congress. Even Douglas felt the spark of
+military genius kindling within him. His friends, too, were convinced
+that he possessed qualities which would make him an intrepid leader
+and a tactician of no mean order. The entire Illinois delegation
+united to urge his appointment as Brigadier Major of the Illinois
+volunteers. Happily for the President, his course in this instance was
+clearly marked out by a law, which required him to select only
+officers already in command of State militia.[230] Douglas was keenly
+disappointed. He even presented himself in person to overrule the
+President's objection. The President was kind, but firm. He advised
+Douglas to withdraw his application. In his judgment, Mr. Douglas
+could best serve his country in Congress. Shortly afterward Douglas
+sent a letter to the President, withdrawing his application--"like a
+sensible man," commented the relieved Executive.[231] It is not likely
+that the army lost a great commander by this decision.
+
+In a State like Illinois, which had been staunchly Democratic for many
+years, elections during a war waged by a Democratic administration
+were not likely to yield any surprises. There was perhaps even less
+doubt of the result of the election in the Fifth Congressional
+District. By the admission of his opponents Douglas was stronger than
+he had been before.[232] Moreover, the war was popular in the counties
+upon whose support he had counted in other years. He had committed no
+act for which he desired general oblivion; his warlike utterances on
+Oregon, which had cost him some humiliation at Washington, so far from
+forfeiting the confidence of his followers, seem rather to have
+enhanced his popularity. Douglas carried every county in his district
+but one, and nearly all by handsome majorities. He had been first sent
+to Congress by a majority over Browning of less than five hundred
+votes; in the following canvass he had tripled his majority; and now
+he was returned to Congress by a majority of over twenty-seven hundred
+votes.[233] He had every reason to feel gratified with this showing,
+even though some of his friends were winning military glory on Mexican
+battlefields. So long as he remained content with his seat in the
+House, there were no clouds in his political firmament. Not even the
+agitation of Abolitionists and Native Americans need cause him any
+anxiety, for the latter were wholly a negligible political quantity
+and the former practically so.[234] Everywhere but in the Seventh
+District, from which Lincoln was returned, Democratic Congressmen were
+chosen; and to make the triumph complete, a Democratic State ticket
+was elected and a Democratic General Assembly again assured.
+
+Early in the fall, on his return from a Southern trip, Douglas called
+upon the President in Washington. He was cordially welcomed, and not a
+little flattered by Polk's readiness to talk over the political
+situation before Congress met.[235] Evidently his support was
+earnestly desired for the contemplated policies of the administration.
+It was needed, as events proved. No sooner was Congress assembled than
+the opposition charged Polk with having exceeded his authority in
+organizing governments in the territory wrested from Mexico. Douglas
+sprang at once to the President's defense. He would not presume to
+speak with authority in the matter, but an examination of the
+accessible official papers had convinced him that the course of the
+President and of the commanders of the army was altogether defensible.
+"In conducting the war, conquest was effected, and the right growing
+out of conquest was to govern the subdued provinces in a temporary and
+provisional manner, until the home government should establish a
+government in another form."[236] And more to this effect, uttered in
+the heated language of righteous indignation.
+
+For thus throwing himself into the breach, Douglas was rewarded by
+further confidences. Before Polk replied to the resolution of inquiry
+which the House had voted, he summoned Douglas and a colleague to the
+White House, to acquaint them with the contents of his message and
+with the documents which would accompany it, so "that they might be
+prepared to meet any attacks." And again, with four other members of
+the House, Douglas was asked to advise the President in the matter of
+appointing Colonel Benton to the office of lieutenant-general in
+command of the armies in the field. At the same time, the President
+laid before them his project for an appropriation of two millions to
+purchase peace; _i.e._ to secure a cession of territory from Mexico.
+With one accord Douglas and his companions advised the President not
+to press Benton's appointment, but all agreed that the desired
+appropriation should be pushed through Congress with all possible
+speed.[237] Yet all knew that such a bill must run the gauntlet of
+amendment by those who had attached the Wilmot Proviso to the
+two-million-dollar bill of the last session.
+
+While Douglas was thus rising rapidly to the leadership of his party
+in the House, the Legislature of his State promoted him to the Senate.
+For six years he had been a potential candidate for the office,
+despite his comparative youth.[238] What transpired in the Democratic
+caucus which named him as the candidate of the party, history does not
+record. That there was jealousy on the part of older men, much
+heart-burning among the younger aspirants, and bargaining on all
+sides, may be inferred from an incident recorded in Polk's diary.[239]
+Soon after his election, Douglas repaired to the President's office to
+urge the appointment of Richard M. Young of Illinois as Commissioner
+of the General Land Office. This was not the first time that Douglas
+had urged the appointment, it would seem. The President now inquired
+of Senator Breese, who had accompanied Douglas and seconded his
+request, whether the appointment would be satisfactory to the Illinois
+delegation. Both replied that it would, if Mr. Hoge, a member of the
+present Congress, who had been recommended at the last session, could
+not be appointed. The President repeated his decision not to appoint
+members of Congress to office, except in special cases, and suggested
+another candidate. Neither Douglas nor Breese would consent. Polk then
+spoke of a diplomatic charge for Young, but they would not hear of it.
+
+Next morning Douglas returned to the attack, and the President, under
+pressure, sent the nomination of Young to the Senate; before five
+o'clock of the same day, Polk was surprised to receive a notification
+from the Secretary of the Senate that the nomination had been
+confirmed. The President was a good deal mystified by this unusual
+promptness, until three members of the Illinois delegation called some
+hours later, in a state of great excitement, saying that Douglas and
+Breese had taken advantage of them. They had no knowledge that Young's
+nomination was being pressed, and McClernand in high dudgeon intimated
+that this was all a bargain between Young and the two Senators.
+Douglas and Breese had sought to prevent Young from contesting their
+seats in the Senate, by securing a fat office for him. All this is _ex
+parte_ evidence against Senator Douglas; but there is nothing
+intrinsically improbable in the story. In these latter days, so
+comparatively innocent a deal would pass without comment.
+
+Immediately upon taking his seat in the Senate, Douglas was appointed
+chairman of the Committee on Territories. It was then a position of
+the utmost importance, for every question of territorial organization
+touched the peculiar interests of the South. The varying currents of
+public opinion crossed in this committee. Senator Bright of Indiana is
+well described by the hackneyed and often misapplied designation, a
+Northern Democrat with Southern principles; Butler was Calhoun's
+colleague; Clayton of Delaware was a Whig and represented a border
+State which was vacillating between slavery and freedom; while Davis
+was a Massachusetts Whig. Douglas was placed, as it appeared, in the
+very storm center of politics, where his well-known fighting qualities
+would be in demand. It was not so clear to those who knew him, that he
+possessed the not less needful qualities of patience and tact for
+occasions when battles are not won by fighting. Still, life at the
+capital had smoothed his many little asperities of manner. He had
+learned to conform to the requirements of a social etiquette to which
+he had been a stranger; yet without losing the heartiness of manner
+and genial companionableness with all men which was, indeed, his
+greatest personal charm. His genuineness and large-hearted regard for
+his friends grappled them to him and won respect even from those who
+were not of his political faith.[240]
+
+An incident at the very outset of his career in the Senate, betrayed
+some little lack of self-restraint. When Senator Cass introduced the
+so-called Ten Regiments bill, Calhoun asked that its consideration
+might be postponed, in order to give him opportunity to discuss
+resolutions on the prospective annexation of Mexico. Cass was disposed
+to yield for courtesy's sake; but Douglas resented the interruption.
+He failed to see why public business should be suspended in order to
+discuss abstract propositions. He believed that this doctrine of
+courtesy was being carried to great lengths.[241] Evidently the young
+Senator, fresh from the brisk atmosphere of the House, was restive
+under the conventional restraints of the more sedate Senate. He had
+not yet become acclimated.
+
+Douglas made his first formal speech in the Senate on February 1,
+1848. Despite his disclaimers, he had evidently made careful
+preparation, for his desk was strewn with books and he referred
+frequently to his authorities. The Ten Regiments bill was known to be
+a measure of the administration; and for this reason, if for no other,
+it was bitterly opposed. The time seemed opportune for a vindication
+of the President's policy. Douglas indignantly repelled the charge
+that the war had from the outset been a war of conquest. "It is a war
+of self-defense, forced upon us by our enemy, and prosecuted on our
+part in vindication of our honor, and the integrity of our territory.
+The enemy invaded our territory, and we repelled the invasion, and
+demanded satisfaction for all our grievances. In order to compel
+Mexico to do us justice, it was necessary to follow her retreating
+armies into her territory ... and inasmuch as it was certain that she
+was unable to make indemnity in money, we must necessarily take it in
+land. Conquest was not the motive for the prosecution of the war;
+satisfaction, indemnity, security, was the motive--conquest and
+territory the means."[242]
+
+Once again Douglas reviewed the origin of the war re-arguing the case
+for the administration. If the arguments employed were now well-worn,
+they were repeated with an incisiveness that took away much of their
+staleness. This speech must be understood as complementary to that
+which he had made in the House at the opening of hostilities. But he
+had not changed his point of view, nor moderated his contentions. Time
+seemed to have served only to make him surer of his evidence. Douglas
+exhibited throughout his most conspicuous excellencies and his most
+glaring defects. From first to last he was an attorney, making the
+best possible defense of his client. Nothing could excel his adroit
+selection of evidence, and his disposition and massing of telling
+testimony. Form and presentation were admirably calculated to disarm
+and convince. It goes without saying that Douglas's mental attitude
+was the opposite of the scientific and historic spirit. Having a
+proposition to establish, he cared only for pertinent evidence. He
+rarely inquired into the character of the authorities from which he
+culled his data.
+
+That this attitude of mind and these unscholarly habits often were his
+undoing, was inevitable. He was often betrayed by fallacies and hasty
+inferences. The speech before us illustrates this lamentable mental
+defect. With the utmost assurance Douglas pointed out that Texas had
+actually extended her jurisdiction over the debatable land between the
+Nueces and the Rio Grande, fixing by law the times of holding court in
+the counties of San Patricio and Bexar. This was in the year 1838. The
+conclusion was almost unavoidable that when Texas came into the Union,
+her actual sovereignty extended to the Rio Grande. But further
+examination would have shown Douglas, that the only inhabited portion
+of the so-called counties were the towns on the right bank of the
+Nueces: beyond, lay a waste which was still claimed by Mexico. Was he
+misinformed, or had he hastily selected the usable portion of the
+evidence? Once again, in his eagerness to show that Mexico, so
+recently as 1842, had tacitly recognized the Rio Grande as a boundary
+in her military operations, he controverted his own argument that
+Texas had been in undisturbed possession of the country. He
+corroborated the conviction of those who from the first had asserted
+that, in annexing Texas, the United States had annexed a war. This
+from the man who had formerly declared that the danger of war was
+remote, because there had been no war between Mexico and Texas for
+nine years!
+
+Before a vote could be reached on the Ten Regiments bill, the draft
+of the Mexican treaty had been sent to the Senate. What transpired in
+executive session and what part Douglas sustained in the discussion of
+the treaty, may be guessed pretty accurately by his later admissions.
+He was one of an aggressive minority who stoutly opposed the provision
+of the fifth article of the treaty, which was to this effect: "The
+boundary-line established by this article shall be religiously
+respected by each of the two republics, and no change shall ever be
+made therein except by the express and free consent of both nations,
+lawfully given by the general government of each, in conformity with
+its own Constitution." This statement was deemed a humiliating avowal
+that the United States had wrongfully warred upon Mexico, and a solemn
+pledge that we would never repeat the offense. The obvious retort was
+that certain consciences now seemed hypersensitive about the war.
+However that may be, eleven votes were recorded for conscience' sake
+against the odious article.
+
+This was not the only ground of complaint. Douglas afterward stated
+the feeling of the minority in this way: "It violated a great
+principle of public policy in relation to this continent. It pledges
+the faith of this Republic that our successors shall not do that which
+duty to the interests and honor of the country, in the progress of
+events, may compel them to do." But he hastened to add that he
+meditated no aggression upon Mexico. In short, the Republic,--such was
+his hardly-concealed thought,--might again fall out with its imbecile
+neighbor and feel called upon to administer punishment by demanding
+indemnity. There was no knowing what "the progress of events" might
+make a national necessity.[243]
+
+As yet Douglas had contributed nothing to the solution of the problem
+which lurked behind the Mexican cession; nor had he tried his hand at
+making party opinion on new issues. He seemed to have no concern
+beyond the concrete business on the calendar of the Senate. He classed
+all anticipatory discussion of future issues as idle abstraction. Had
+he no imagination? Had he no eyes to see beyond the object immediately
+within his field of vision? Had his alert intelligence suddenly become
+myopic?
+
+On the subject of Abolitionism, at least, he had positive convictions,
+which he did not hesitate to express. An exciting episode in the
+Senate drew from him a sharp arraignment of the extreme factions North
+and South. An acrimonious debate had been precipitated by a bill
+introduced by that fervid champion of Abolitionism, Senator Hale of
+New Hampshire, which purported to protect property in the District of
+Columbia against rioters. A recent attack upon the office of the
+_National Era_, the organ of Abolitionism, at the capital, as everyone
+understood, inspired the bill, and inevitably formed the real subject
+of debate.[244] It was in the heated colloquy that ensued that Senator
+Foote of Mississippi earned his sobriquet of "Hangman," by inviting
+Hale to visit Mississippi and to "grace one of the tallest trees of
+the forest, with a rope around his neck." Calhoun, too, was excited
+beyond his wont, declaring that he would as soon argue with a maniac
+from Bedlam as with the Senator from New Hampshire.
+
+With cool audacity and perfect self-possession, Douglas undertook to
+recall the Senate to its wonted composure,--a service not likely to be
+graciously received by the aggrieved parties. Douglas remarked
+sarcastically that Southern gentlemen had effected just what the
+Senator from New Hampshire, as presidential candidate of the
+Abolitionists, had desired: they had unquestionably doubled his vote
+in the free States. The invitation of the Senator from Mississippi
+alone was worth not less than ten thousand votes to the Senator from
+New Hampshire. "It is the speeches of Southern men, representing slave
+States, going to an extreme, breathing a fanaticism as wild and as
+reckless as that of the Senator from New Hampshire, which creates
+Abolitionism in the North." These were hardly the words of the
+traditional peacemaker. Senator Foote was again upon his feet
+breathing out imprecations. "I must again congratulate the Senator
+from New Hampshire," resumed Douglas, "on the accession of the five
+thousand votes!" Again a colloquy ensued. Calhoun declared Douglas's
+course "at least as offensive as that of the Senator from New
+Hampshire." Douglas was then permitted to speak uninterruptedly. He
+assured his Southern colleagues that, as one not altogether
+unacquainted with life in the slave States, he appreciated their
+indignation against Abolitionists and shared it; but as he had no
+sympathy for Abolitionism, he also had none for that extreme course of
+Southern gentlemen which was akin to Abolitionism. "We stand up for
+all your constitutional rights, in which we will protect you to the
+last.... But we protest against being made instruments--puppets--in
+this slavery excitement, which can operate only to your interest and
+the building up of those who wish to put you down."[245]
+
+Dignified silence, however, was the last thing to be expected from the
+peppery gentleman from Mississippi. He must speak "the language of
+just indignation." He gladly testified to the consideration with which
+Douglas was wont to treat the South, but he warned the young Senator
+from Illinois that the old adage--_"in medio tutissimus ibis"_--might
+lead him astray. He might think to reach the goal of his ambitions by
+keeping clear of the two leading factions and by identifying himself
+with the masses, but he was grievously mistaken.
+
+The reply of Douglas was dignified and guarded. He would not speak for
+or against slavery. The institution was local and sustained by local
+opinion; by local sentiment it would stand or fall. "In the North it
+is not expected that we should take the position that slavery is a
+positive good--a positive blessing. If we did assume such a position,
+it would be a very pertinent inquiry. Why do you not adopt this
+institution? We have moulded our institutions at the North as we have
+thought proper; and now we say to you of the South, if slavery be a
+blessing, it is your blessing; if it be a curse, it is your curse;
+enjoy it--on you rest all the responsibility! We are prepared to aid
+you in the maintenance of all your constitutional rights; and I
+apprehend that no man, South or North, has shown more consistently a
+disposition to do so than myself.... But I claim the privilege of
+pointing out to you how you give strength and encouragement to the
+Abolitionists of the North."[246]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 223: See Garrison, Westward Extension, Ch. 14.]
+
+[Footnote 224: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 815.]
+
+[Footnote 225: February 1, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 226: See Bancroft's History of Mexico, pp. 173-174 note.]
+
+[Footnote 227: Niles' _Register_, Vol. 50, p. 336.]
+
+[Footnote 228: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 816-817.]
+
+[Footnote 229: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 230: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 22, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 231: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for June 23, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 232: Even the Alton _Telegraph_, a Whig paper, and in times
+past no admirer of Douglas, spoke (May 30, 1846) of the "most
+admirable" speech of Judge Douglas in defense of the Mexican War (May
+13th).]
+
+[Footnote 233: The official returns were as follows:
+
+    Douglas          9629
+    Vandeventer      6864
+    Wilson            395
+]
+
+[Footnote 234: The Abolitionist candidate in 1846 showed no marked
+gain over the candidate in 1844; Native Americanism had no candidates
+in the field.]
+
+[Footnote 235: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for September 4, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 236: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 13-14.]
+
+[Footnote 237: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 14, 1846.]
+
+[Footnote 238: Ford, History of Illinois, p. 390.]
+
+[Footnote 239: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for January 6, 1847.]
+
+[Footnote 240: Forney, Anecdotes of Public Men, I, pp. 146-147.]
+
+[Footnote 241: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 242: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 222.]
+
+[Footnote 243: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 172.]
+
+[Footnote 244: The debate is reported in the _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., App., pp. 500 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 245: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 506.]
+
+[Footnote 246: _Ibid._, p. 507.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE MEXICAN CESSION
+
+
+When Douglas entered Washington in the fall of 1847, as junior Senator
+from Illinois, our troops had occupied the city of Mexico and
+negotiations for peace were well under way. Perplexing problems
+awaited Congress. President Polk sternly reminded the two Houses that
+peace must bring indemnity for the past and security for the future,
+and that the only indemnity which Mexico could offer would be a
+cession of territory. Unwittingly, he gave the signal for another
+bitter controversy, for in the state of public opinion at that moment,
+every accession of territory was bound to raise the question of the
+extension of slavery. The country was on the eve of another
+presidential election. Would the administration which had precipitated
+the war, prove itself equal to the legislative burdens imposed by that
+war? Could the party evolve a constructive programme and at the same
+time name a candidate that would win another victory at the polls?
+
+It soon transpired that the Democratic party was at loggerheads. Of
+all the factions, that headed by the South Carolina delegation
+possessed the greatest solidarity. Under the leadership of Calhoun,
+its attitude toward slavery in the Territories was already clearly
+stated in almost syllogistic form: the States are co-sovereigns in the
+Territories; the general government is only the agent of the
+co-sovereigns; therefore, the citizens of each State may settle in the
+Territories with whatever is recognized as property in their own
+State. The corollary of this doctrine was: Congress may not exclude
+slavery from the Territories.
+
+At the other pole of political thought, stood the supporters of the
+Wilmot Proviso, who had twice endeavored to attach a prohibition of
+slavery to all territory which should be acquired from Mexico, and who
+had retarded the organization of Oregon by insisting upon a similar
+concession to the principle of slavery-restriction in that Territory.
+Next to these Ultras were those who doubted the necessity of the
+Wilmot Proviso, believing that slavery was already prohibited in the
+new acquisitions by Mexican law. Yet not for an instant did they doubt
+the power of Congress to prohibit slavery in the Territories.
+
+Between these extremes were grouped the followers of Senator Cass of
+Michigan, who was perhaps the most conspicuous candidate for the
+Democratic nomination. In his famous Nicholson letter of December 24,
+1847, he questioned both the expediency and constitutionality of the
+Wilmot Proviso. It seemed to him wiser to confine the authority of the
+general government to the erection of proper governments for the new
+countries, leaving the inhabitants meantime to regulate their internal
+concerns in their own way. In all probability neither California nor
+New Mexico would be adapted to slave labor, because of physical and
+climatic conditions. Dickinson of New York carried this doctrine,
+which was promptly dubbed "Squatter Sovereignty," to still greater
+lengths. Not only by constitutional right, but by "inherent," "innate"
+sovereignty, were the people of the Territories vested with the power
+to determine their own concerns.
+
+Beside these well-defined groups there were others which professed no
+doctrines and no policies. Probably the rank and file of the party
+were content to drift: to be non committal was safer than to be
+doctrinaire; besides, it cost less effort. Such was the plight of the
+Democratic party on the eve of a presidential election. If harmony was
+to proceed out of this diversity, the process must needs be
+accelerated.
+
+The fate of Oregon had been a hard one. Without a territorial
+government through no fault of their own, the settlers had been
+repeatedly visited by calamities which the prompt action of Congress
+might have averted.[247] The Senate had failed to act on one
+territorial bill; twice it had rejected bills which had passed the
+House, and the only excuse for delay was the question of slavery,
+which everybody admitted could never exist in Oregon. On January 10,
+1848, for the fourth time, Douglas presented a bill to provide a
+territorial government for Oregon;[248] but before he could urge its
+consideration, he was summoned to the bed-side of his father-in-law.
+His absence left a dead-lock in the Committee on Territories:
+Democrats and Whigs could not agree on the clause in the bill which
+prohibited slavery in Oregon. What was the true inwardness of this
+unwillingness to prohibit slavery where it could never go?
+
+The Senate seemed apathetic; but its apathy was more feigned than
+real. There was, indeed, great interest in the bill, but equally great
+reluctance to act upon it. What the South feared was not that Oregon
+would be free soil,--that was conceded,--but that an unfavorable
+precedent would be established. Were it conceded that Congress might
+exclude slavery from Oregon, a similar power could not be denied
+Congress in legislating for the newly acquired Territories where
+slavery was possible.[249]
+
+As a last resort, a select committee was appointed, of which Senator
+Clayton became chairman. Within a week, a compromise was reported
+which embraced not only Oregon, but California and New Mexico as well.
+The laws of the provisional government of Oregon were to stand until
+the new legislature should alter them, while the legislatures of the
+prospective Territories of California and New Mexico were forbidden to
+make laws touching slavery. The question whether, under existing laws,
+slaves might or might not be carried into these two Territories, was
+left to the courts with right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the
+United States.[250] The Senate accepted this compromise after a
+prolonged debate, but the House laid it on the table without so much
+as permitting it to be read.[251]
+
+Douglas returned in time to give his vote for the Clayton
+compromise,[252] but when this laborious effort to adjust controverted
+matters failed, he again pressed his original bill.[253] Hoping to
+make this more palatable, he suggested an amendment to the
+objectionable prohibitory clause: "inasmuch as the said territory is
+north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30' of north latitude, usually known as
+the Missouri Compromise." It was the wish of his committee, he told
+the Senate, that "no Senator's vote on the bill should be understood
+as committing him on the great question."[254] In other words, he
+invited the Senate to act without creating a precedent; to extend the
+Missouri Compromise line without raising troublesome constitutional
+questions in the rest of the public domain; to legislate for a special
+case on the basis of an old agreement, without predicating anything
+about the future. When this amendment came to vote, only Douglas and
+Bright supported it.[255]
+
+Douglas then proposed to extend the Missouri Compromised line to the
+Pacific, by an amendment which declared the old agreement "revived ...
+and in full force and binding for the future organization of the
+Territories of the United States, in the same sense and with the same
+understanding with which it was originally adopted."[256] This was
+President Polk's solution of the question. It commended itself to
+Douglas less on grounds of equity than of expediency. It was a
+compromise which then cost him no sacrifice of principle; but though
+the Senate agreed to the proposal, the House would have none of
+it.[257] In the end, after an exhausting session, the Senate gave
+way,[258] and the Territory of Oregon was organized with the
+restrictive clause borrowed from the Ordinance of 1787. All this
+turmoil had effected nothing except ill-feeling, for the final act was
+identical with the bill which Douglas had originally introduced in the
+House.
+
+In the meantime, national party conventions for the nomination of
+presidential candidates had been held. The choice of the Democrats
+fell upon Cass; but his nomination could not be interpreted as an
+indorsement of his doctrine of squatter sovereignty. By a decisive
+vote, the convention rejected Yancey's resolution favoring
+"non-interference with the rights of property of any portion of the
+people of this confederation, be it in the States or in the
+Territories, by any other than the parties interested in them."[259]
+The action of the convention made it clear that traditional principles
+and habitual modes of political thought and action alone held the
+party together. The Whig party had no greater organic unity. The
+nomination of General Taylor, who was a doubtful Whig, was a
+confession that the party was non-committal on the issues of the hour.
+There was much opposition to both candidates. Many anti-slavery Whigs
+could not bring themselves to vote for Taylor, who was a slave-owner;
+Democrats who had supported the Wilmot Proviso, disliked the evasive
+doctrine of Cass.
+
+The disaffected of both parties finally effected a fusion in the
+Free-Soil convention, and with other anti-slavery elements nominated
+Van Buren as their presidential candidate. With the cry of "Free soil,
+free speech, free labor, and free men," the new party threatened to
+upset the calculations of politicians in many quarters of the country.
+
+The defeat of the Democratic party in the election of 1848 was
+attributed to the war of factions in New York. Had the Barnburners
+supported Cass, he would have secured the electoral vote of the State.
+They were accused of wrecking the party out of revenge. Certain it is
+that the outcome was indecisive, so far as the really vital questions
+of the hour were concerned. A Whig general had been sent to the White
+House, but no one knew what policies he would advocate. The Democrats
+were still in control of the Senate; but thirteen Free-Soilers held
+the balance of power in the House.[260]
+
+Curiosity was excited to know what the moribund administration of the
+discredited Polk would do. Douglas shared this inquisitiveness. He had
+parted with the President in August rather angrily, owing to a fancied
+grievance. On his return he called at the White House and apologized
+handsomely for his "imprudent language."[261] The President was more
+than glad to patch up the quarrel, for he could ill afford now, in
+these waning hours of his administration, to part company with one
+whom he regarded as "an ardent and active political supporter and
+friend." Cordial relations resumed, Polk read to Douglas
+confidentially such portions of his forthcoming message as related to
+the tariff, the veto power, and the establishment of territorial
+governments in California and New Mexico. In the spirit of compromise
+he was still willing to approve an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line through our new possessions. Should this prove
+unacceptable, he would give his consent to a bill which would leave
+the vexing question of slavery in the new Territories to the
+judiciary, as Clayton had proposed. Douglas was now thoroughly
+deferential. He gratified the President by giving the message his
+unqualified approval.[262]
+
+However, by the time Congress met, Douglas had made out his own
+programme; and it differed in one respect from anything that the
+President, or for that matter anyone else, had suggested. He proposed
+to admit both New Mexico and California; _i.e._ all of the territory
+acquired from Mexico, into the Union _as a State_. Some years later,
+Douglas said that he had introduced his California bill with the
+approval of the President;[263] but in this his memory was surely at
+fault. The full credit for this innovation belongs to Douglas.[264] He
+justified the departure from precedent in this instance, on the score
+of California's astounding growth in population. Besides, a
+territorial bill could hardly pass in this short session, "for reasons
+which may be apparent to all of us." Three bills had already been
+rejected.[265]
+
+Now while California had rapidly increased in population, there were
+probably not more than twenty-six thousand souls within its borders,
+and of these more than a third were foreigners.[266] One would
+naturally suppose that a period of territorial tutelage would have
+been peculiarly fitting for this distant possession. Obviously,
+Douglas did not disclose his full thought. What he really proposed,
+was to avoid raising the spectre of slavery again. If the people of
+California could skip the period of their political minority and leap
+into their majority, they might then create their own institutions: no
+one could gainsay this right, when once California should be a
+"sovereign State." This was an application of squatter sovereignty at
+which Calhoun, least of all, could mock.
+
+The President and his cabinet were taken by surprise. Frequent
+consultations were held. Douglas was repeatedly closeted with the
+President. All the members of the cabinet agreed that the plan of
+leaving the slavery question to the people of the new State was
+ingenious; but many objections were raised to a single State. In
+repeated interviews, Polk urged Douglas to draft a separate bill for
+New Mexico; but Douglas was obdurate.[267]
+
+To Douglas's chagrin, the California bill was not referred to his
+committee, but to the Committee on the Judiciary. Perhaps this course
+was in accord with precedent, but it was noted that four out of the
+five members of this committee were Southerners, and that the vote to
+refer was a sectional one.[268] An adverse report was therefore to be
+expected. Signs were not wanting that if the people of the new
+province were left to work out their own salvation, they would exclude
+slavery.[269] The South was acutely sensitive to such signs. Nothing
+of this bias, however, appeared in the report of the committee. With
+great cleverness and circumspection they chose another mode of attack.
+
+The committee professed to discover in the bill a radical departure
+from traditional policy. When had Congress ever created a State out of
+"an unorganized body of people having no constitution, or laws, or
+legitimate bond of union?" California was to be a "sovereign State,"
+yet the bill provided that Congress should interpose its authority to
+form new States out of it, and to prescribe rules for elections to a
+constitutional convention. What sort of sovereignty was this?
+Moreover, since Texas claimed a part of New Mexico, endless
+litigations would follow. In the judgment of the committee, it would
+be far wiser to organize the usual territorial governments for
+California and New Mexico.[270]
+
+To these sensible objections, Douglas replied ineffectively. The
+question of sovereignty, he thought, did not depend upon the size of a
+State: without doing violence to the sovereignty of California,
+Congress could surely carve new States out of its territory; but if
+there were doubts on this point, he would move to add the saving
+clause, "with the consent of the State." He suggested no expedient for
+the other obstacles in the way of State sovereignty. As for
+precedents, there were the first three States admitted into the
+Union,--Kentucky, Vermont, and Tennessee,--none of which had any
+organized government recognized by Congress.[271] They never furnished
+their constitutions to Congress for inspection. Here Douglas hit wide
+of the mark. No one had contended that a State must present a written
+constitution before being recognized, but only that the people must
+have some form of political organization, before they could be treated
+as constituting a State in a constitutional sense.[272]
+
+At the same time, halting as this defense was, Douglas gave ample
+proof of his disinterestedness in advocating a State government for
+California. "I think, Sir," he said, "that the only issue now
+presented, is whether you will admit California as a State, or whether
+you will leave it without government, exposed to all the horrors of
+anarchy and violence. I have no hope of a Territorial government this
+session. No man is more willing to adopt such a form of government
+than I would be; no man would work with more energy and assiduity to
+accomplish that object at this session than I would."[273] Indeed, so
+far from questioning his motives, the members of the Judiciary
+Committee quite overwhelmed Douglas by their extreme deference.[274]
+Senator Butler, the chairman, assured him that the committee was
+disposed to treat the bill with all the respect due to its author; for
+his own part, he had always intended to show marked respect to the
+Senator from Illinois.[275] Douglas responded somewhat grimly that he
+was quite at a loss to understand "why these assurances came so thick
+on this point."
+
+Most men would have accepted the situation as thoroughly hopeless; but
+Douglas was nothing if not persistent. In quick succession he framed
+two more bills, one of which provided for a division of California and
+for the admission of the western part as a State;[276] and then when
+this failed to win support, he reverted to Folk's suggestion--the
+admission of New Mexico and California as two States.[277] But the
+Senate evinced no enthusiasm for this patch-work legislation.[278]
+
+The difficulty of legislating for California was increased by the
+disaffection of the Southern wing of the Democratic party. Calhoun was
+suspected of fomenting a conspiracy to break up the Union.[279] Yet in
+all probability he contemplated only the formation of a distinctly
+Southern party based on common economic and political interests.[280]
+He not only failed in this, because Southern Whigs were not yet ready
+to break with their Northern associates; but he barely avoided
+breaking up the solidarity of Southern Democrats, and he made it
+increasingly difficult for Northern and Southern Democrats to act
+together in matters which did not touch the peculiar institution of
+the South.[281] Thenceforth, harmonious party action was possible only
+through a deference of Northern Democrats to Southern, which was
+perpetually misinterpreted by their opponents.
+
+Senator Hale thought the course of Northern representatives and
+senators pusillanimous and submissive to the last degree; and no
+considerations of taste prevented him from expressing his opinions on
+all occasions. Nettled by his taunts, and no doubt sensitive to the
+grain of truth in the charge, perplexed also by the growing
+factionalism in his party, Douglas retorted that the fanaticism of
+certain elements at the North was largely responsible for the growth
+of sectional rancor. For the first time he was moved to state publicly
+his maturing belief in the efficacy of squatter sovereignty, as a
+solvent of existing problems in the public domain.
+
+"Sir, if we wish to settle this question of slavery, let us banish
+the agitation from these halls. Let us remove the causes which produce
+it; let us settle the territories we have acquired, in a manner to
+satisfy the honor and respect the feelings of every portion of the
+Union.... Bring those territories into this Union as States upon an
+equal footing with the original States. Let the people of such States
+settle the question of slavery within their limits, as they would
+settle the question of banking, or any other domestic institution,
+according to their own will."[282]
+
+And again, he said, "No man advocates the extension of slavery over a
+territory now free. On the other hand, they deny the propriety of
+Congress interfering to restrain, upon the great fundamental principle
+that the people are the source of all power; that from the people must
+emanate all government; that the people have the same right in these
+territories to establish a government for themselves that we have to
+overthrow our present government and establish another, if we please,
+or that any other government has to establish one for itself."[283]
+
+Not the least interesting thing about these utterances, is the fact
+that even Douglas could not now avoid public reference to the slavery
+question. He could no longer point to needed legislation quite apart
+from sectional interests; he could no longer treat slavery with
+assumed indifference; he could no longer affect to rise above such
+petty, local concerns to matters of national importance. He was now
+bound to admit that slavery stood squarely in the way of national
+expansion. This change of attitude was brought about in part, at
+least, by external pressure applied by the legislature of Illinois.
+With no little chagrin, he was forced to present resolutions from his
+own State legislature, instructing him and his colleagues in Congress
+to use their influence to secure the prohibition of slavery in the
+Mexican cession.[284] It was not easy to harmonize these instructions
+with the principle of non-interference which he had just enunciated.
+
+Ten days before the close of the session, the California question
+again came to the fore. Senator Walker of Wisconsin proposed a rider
+to the appropriations bill, which would extend the Constitution and
+laws in such a way as to authorize the President to set up a
+quasi-territorial government, in the country acquired from
+Mexico.[285] It was a deliberate hold-up, justified only by the
+exigencies of the case, as Walker admitted. But could Congress thus
+extend the Constitution, by this fiat? questioned Webster. The
+Constitution extends over newly acquired territory _proprio vigore_,
+replied Calhoun.[286] Douglas declined to enter into the subtle
+questions of constitutional law thus raised. The "metaphysics" of the
+subject did not disturb him. If the Senate would not pass his
+statehood bill, he was for the Walker amendment. A fearful
+responsibility rested upon Congress. The sad fate of a family from his
+own State, which had moved to California, had brought home to him the
+full measure of his responsibility. He was not disposed to quibble
+over points of law, while American citizens in California were
+exposed to the outrages of desperadoes, and of deserters from our own
+army and navy.[287]
+
+While the Senate yielded to necessity and passed the appropriations
+bill, rider and all, the House stubbornly clung to its bill organizing
+a territorial government for California, excluding slavery.[288] The
+following days were among the most exciting in the history of
+Congress. A conference committee was unable to reach any agreement.
+Then Douglas tried to seize the psychological moment to persuade the
+Senate to accept the House bill. "I have tried to get up State bills,
+territorial bills, and all kinds of bills in all shapes, in the hope
+that some bill, in some shape, would satisfy the Senate; but thus far
+I have found their taste in relation to this matter too fastidious for
+my humble efforts. Now I wish to make another and a final effort on
+this bill, to see if the Senate are disposed to do anything towards
+giving a government to the people of California."[289]
+
+Both Houses continued in session far into the night of March 3d.
+Sectional feeling ran high. Two fist-fights occurred in the House and
+at least one in the Senate.[290] It seemed as though Congress would
+adjourn, leaving our civil and diplomatic service penniless. Douglas
+frankly announced that for his part he would rather leave our
+office-holders without salaries, than our citizens without the
+protection of law.[291] Inauguration Day was dawning when the
+dead-lock was broken. The Senate voted the appropriations bill
+without the rider, but failed to act on the House bill.[292] The
+people of California were thus left to their own devices.
+
+The outcome was disheartening to the chairman of the Committee on
+Territories. His programme had miscarried at every important point.
+Only his bill for the organization of Minnesota became law.[293] A
+similar bill for Nebraska failed to receive consideration. The future
+of California remained problematic. Indeed, political changes in
+Illinois made his own future somewhat problematic.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 247: This was Benton's opinion; see _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 804.]
+
+[Footnote 248: _Ibid._, pp. 136, 309.]
+
+[Footnote 249: See remarks of Mason of Virginia, _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1
+Sess., p. 903.]
+
+[Footnote 250: _Ibid._, p. 950. The bill is printed on pp. 1002-1005.]
+
+[Footnote 251: _Ibid._, p. 1007.]
+
+[Footnote 252: _Ibid._, p. 1002.]
+
+[Footnote 253: _Ibid._, p. 1027.]
+
+[Footnote 254: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1048.]
+
+[Footnote 255: _Ibid._, p. 1061.]
+
+[Footnote 256: _Ibid._, pp. 1061-1062.]
+
+[Footnote 257: _Ibid._, pp. 1062-1063.]
+
+[Footnote 258: Douglas voted finally to recede from his amendment,
+_Ibid._, p. 1078.]
+
+[Footnote 259: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 236.]
+
+[Footnote 260: Garrison, Westward Extension, p. 284.]
+
+[Footnote 261: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for November 13, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 262: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 263: See Douglas's Speech of December 23, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 264: Polk, MS. Diary, Entry for December 11, 1848.]
+
+[Footnote 265: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 21.]
+
+[Footnote 266: Hunt, Genesis of California's First Constitution, in
+Johns Hopkins University Studies, XIII, pp. 16, 30.]
+
+[Footnote 267: Polk, MS. Diary, Entries for December 11, 12, 13, 14,
+1848.]
+
+[Footnote 268: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 46-49.]
+
+[Footnote 269: See the petition of the people of New Mexico, _Ibid._,
+p. 33.]
+
+[Footnote 270: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 190-192.]
+
+[Footnote 271: _Ibid._, pp. 192-193.]
+
+[Footnote 272: _Ibid._, p. 196; particularly the incisive reply of
+Westcott.]
+
+[Footnote 273: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 193.]
+
+[Footnote 274: _Ibid._, p. 196.]
+
+[Footnote 275: _Ibid._, p. 194.]
+
+[Footnote 276: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 277: _Ibid._, p. 381.]
+
+[Footnote 278: _Ibid._, pp. 435, 551, 553.]
+
+[Footnote 279: Von Holst, Constitutional History of the United States,
+III, p. 418.]
+
+[Footnote 280: Calhoun, Works, VI, pp. 290-303.]
+
+[Footnote 281: Von Holst, Const. History, III, pp. 422-423.]
+
+[Footnote 282: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 208.]
+
+[Footnote 283: _Ibid._, p. 314.]
+
+[Footnote 284: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 394.]
+
+[Footnote 285: _Ibid._, p. 561.]
+
+[Footnote 286: _Ibid._, App., pp. 253 ff. The debate summarized by Von
+Holst, III, pp. 444-451.]
+
+[Footnote 287: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., App., pp. 275-276.]
+
+[Footnote 288: _Ibid._, pp. 595, 665.]
+
+[Footnote 289: _Ibid._, p. 668.]
+
+[Footnote 290: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 277.]
+
+[Footnote 291: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 685.]
+
+[Footnote 292: _Globe_, 30 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 691-692.]
+
+[Footnote 293: _Ibid._, pp. 635-637; p. 693.]
+
+
+
+
+BOOK II
+
+THE DOCTRINE OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SENATOR AND CONSTITUENCY
+
+
+When Douglas took his seat in Congress for the first time, an unknown
+man in unfamiliar surroundings, he found as his near neighbor, one
+David S. Reid, a young lawyer from North Carolina, who was of his own
+age, of his own party, and like him, serving a first term. An
+acquaintance sprang up between these young Democrats, which, in spite
+of their widely different antecedents, deepened into intimacy. It was
+a friendship that would have meant much to Douglas, even if it had not
+led to an interesting romance. Intercourse with this able young
+Southerner[294] opened the eyes of this Western Yankee to the finer
+aspects of Southern social life, and taught him the quality of that
+Southern aristocracy, which, when all has been said, was the truest
+aristocracy that America has seen. And when Reid entertained his
+friends and relatives in Washington, Douglas learned also to know the
+charm of Southern women.
+
+Among the most attractive of these visitors was Reid's cousin, Miss
+Martha Denny Martin, daughter of Colonel Robert Martin of Rockingham
+County, North Carolina. Rumor has it that Douglas speedily fell
+captive to the graces of this young woman. She was not only charming
+in manner and fair of face, but keen-witted and intelligent. In spite
+of the gay badinage with which she treated this young Westerner, she
+revealed a depth and positiveness of character, to which indeed her
+fine, broad forehead bore witness on first acquaintance. In the give
+and take of small talk she more than held her own, and occasionally
+discomfited her admirer by sallies which were tipped with wit and
+reached their mark unerringly.[295] Did she know that just such
+treatment--strange paradox--won, while it at times wounded, the heart
+of the unromantic Westerner?
+
+Colonel Robert Martin was a typical, western North Carolina planter.
+He belonged to that stalwart line of Martins whose most famous
+representative was Alexander, of Revolutionary days, six times
+Governor of the State. On the banks of the upper Dan, Colonel Martin
+possessed a goodly plantation of about eight hundred acres, upon which
+negro slaves cultivated cotton and such of the cereals as were needed
+for home consumption.[296] Like other planters, he had felt the
+competition of the virgin lands opened up to cotton culture in the
+gulf plains of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; and like his
+fellow planters, he had invested in these Western lands, on the Pearl
+River in Mississippi. This Pearl River plantation was worked by about
+one hundred and fifty negroes and was devoted to the raising of
+cotton.
+
+When Douglas accepted Reid's invitation to visit North Carolina, the
+scene of the romance begun on the Potomac shifted to the banks of the
+Dan. Southern hospitality became more than a conventional phrase on
+Douglas's lips. He enjoyed a social privilege which grew rarer as
+North and South fell apart. Intercourse like this broke down many of
+those prejudices unconsciously cherished by Northerners. Slavery in
+the concrete, on a North Carolina plantation, with a kindly master
+like Colonel Martin,[297] bore none of the marks of a direful tyranny.
+Whatever may have been his mental reservations as to slavery as a
+system of labor, Douglas could not fail to feel the injustice of the
+taunts hurled against his Southern friends by the Abolitionist press.
+As he saw the South, the master was not a monster of cruelty, nor the
+slave a victim of malevolent violence.
+
+The romance on the banks of the Dan flowed far more clearly and
+smoothly toward its goal than the waters of that turbid stream. On
+April 7, 1847, Miss Martin became the wife of the Honorable Stephen
+Arnold Douglas, who had just become Senator from the State of
+Illinois. It was in every way a fateful alliance. Next to his Illinois
+environment, no external circumstance more directly shaped his career
+than his marriage to the daughter of a North Carolina planter. The
+subtle influences of a home and a wife dominated by Southern culture,
+were now to work upon him. Constant intercourse with Southern men and
+women emancipated him from the narrowness of his hereditary
+environment.[298] He was bound to acquire an insight into the nature
+of Southern life; he was compelled to comprehend, by the most tender
+and intimate of human relationships, the meaning and responsibility
+of a social order reared upon slave labor.
+
+A year had hardly passed when the death of Colonel Martin left Mrs.
+Douglas in possession of all his property in North Carolina. It had
+been his desire to put his Pearl River plantation, the most valuable
+of his holdings, in the hands of his son-in-law. But Douglas had
+refused to accept the charge, not wishing to hold negroes. Indeed, he
+had frankly told Colonel Martin that the family already held more
+slaves than was profitable.[299] In his will, therefore, Colonel
+Martin was constrained to leave his Mississippi plantation and slaves
+to Mrs. Douglas and her children. It was characteristic of the man and
+of his class, that his concern for his dependents followed him to the
+grave. A codicil to his will provided, that if Mrs. Douglas should
+have no children, the negroes together with their increase were to be
+sent to Liberia, or to some other colony in Africa. By means of the
+net proceeds of the last crop, they would be able to reach Africa and
+have a surplus to aid them in beginning planting. "I trust in
+Providence," wrote this kindly master, "she will have children and if
+so I wish these negroes to belong to them, as nearly every head of the
+family have expressed to me a desire to belong to you and your
+children rather than go to Africa; and to set them free where they
+are, would entail on them a greater curse, far greater in my opinion,
+as well as in that of the intelligent among themselves, than to have a
+humane master whose duty it would be to see they were properly
+protected ... and properly provided for in sickness as well as in
+health."[300]
+
+The legacy of Colonel Martin gave a handle to Douglas's enemies. It
+was easy to believe that he had fallen heir to slave property. That
+the terms of the bequest were imperfectly known, did not deter the
+opposition press from malevolent insinuations which stung Douglas to
+the quick. It was fatal to his political career to allow them to go
+unchallenged. In the midsummer of 1850, while Congress was wrestling
+with the measures of compromise, Douglas wrote to his friend, the
+editor of the Illinois _State Register_," It is true that my wife does
+own about 150 negroes in Mississippi on a cotton plantation. My
+father-in-law in his lifetime offered them to me and I refused to
+accept them. _This fact is stated in his will_, but I do not wish it
+brought before the public as the public have no business with my
+private affairs, and besides anybody would see that the information
+must have come from me. My wife has no negroes except those in
+Mississippi. We have other property in North Carolina, but no negroes.
+It is our intention, however, to remove all our property to Illinois
+as soon as possible."[301] To correct the popular rumor, Douglas
+enclosed a statement which might be published editorially, or
+otherwise.
+
+The dictated statement read as follows: "The Quincy _Whig_ and other
+Whig papers are publishing an article purporting to be copied from a
+Mississippi paper abusing Judge Douglas as the owner of 100 slaves
+and at the same time accusing him of being a Wilmot Free-soiler. That
+the article originated in this State, and was sent to Mississippi for
+publication in order that it might be re-published here we shall not
+question nor take the trouble to prove. The paternity of the article,
+the malice that prompted it, and the misrepresentations it contains
+are too obvious to require particular notice. If it had been written
+by a Mississippian he would have known that the statement in regard to
+the ownership of the negroes was totally untrue. No one will pretend
+that Judge Douglas has any other property in Mississippi than that
+which was acquired in the right of his wife by inheritance upon the
+death of her father, and anyone who will take the trouble to examine
+the statutes of that State in the Secretary's office in this City will
+find that by the laws of Mississippi all the property of a married
+woman, whether acquired by will, gift or otherwise, becomes her
+separate and exclusive estate and is not subject to the control or
+disposal of her husband nor subject to his debts. We do not pretend to
+know whether the father of Mrs. Douglas at the time of his death owned
+slaves in Mississippi or not. We have heard the statement made by the
+Whigs but have not deemed it of sufficient importance to inquire into
+its truth. If it should turn out so, in no event could Judge Douglas
+become the owner or have the disposal of or be responsible for them.
+The laws of the State forbid it, and also forbid slaves under such
+circumstances from being removed without or emancipated within the
+limits of the State."
+
+Born a Yankee, bred a Westerner, wedded to the mistress of a Southern
+plantation, Douglas represented a Commonwealth whose population was
+made up of elements from all sections. The influences that shaped his
+career were extraordinarily complex. No account of his subsequent
+public life would be complete, without reference to the peculiar
+social and political characteristics of his constituency.
+
+The people of early Illinois were drawn southward by the pull of
+natural forces: the Mississippi washes the western border on its
+gulf-ward course; and the chief rivers within the State have a general
+southerly trend.[302] But quite as important historically is the
+convergence of the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee on the
+southern border of Illinois; for it was by these waterways that the
+early settlers reached the Illinois Territory from the States of
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. The apex of the
+irregular, inverted triangle of Illinois, thrust down to the 37th
+parallel of latitude, brought the first settlers well within the
+sphere of Southern influence. Two slave States flanked this southern
+end. Nearly one-half of Illinois lay south of a direct, westward
+extension of Mason and Dixon's line.
+
+In the early days, the possession by the Indians of the northern areas
+accentuated the southern connections of Illinois. At the same time the
+absence at the North of navigable waterways and passable highways
+between East and West, left the Ohio and its tributaries the only
+connecting lines of travel with the remote northern Atlantic States.
+Had Illinois been admitted into the Union with the boundaries first
+proposed, it would have been, by all those subtle influences which go
+to make public sentiment, a Southern State. But the extension of the
+northern boundary to 42 deg. 30' gave Illinois a frontage of fifty miles
+on Lake Michigan, and deflected the whole political and social history
+of the Commonwealth. This contact with the great waterways of the
+North brought to the State, in the course of time, an immense share of
+the lake traffic and a momentous connection with the northern central
+and northern Atlantic States. The passing of the Indians, the opening
+up of the great northern prairies to occupation, and the completion of
+the Illinois-Michigan canal made the northern part of Illinois fallow
+for New England seeding. Geographically, Illinois became the
+connecting link in the slender chain which bound the men of the lake
+and prairie plains with the men of the gulf plains. The inevitable
+interpenetration of Northern and Southern interests in Illinois,
+resulting from these contacts, is the most important fact in the
+social and political history of the State. It bred in Illinois
+statesmen a disposition to compromise for the sake of political
+harmony and economic progress, a passionate attachment to the Union as
+the _sine qua non_ of State unity, and a glowing nationalism. Illinois
+was in short a microcosm: the larger problems of the nation existed
+there in miniature.
+
+When Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818, all the organized
+counties lay to the south of the projected national road between Terre
+Haute and Alton, hence well within the sphere of surrounding Southern
+influences. The society of Illinois was at this time predominantly
+Southern in its origin and characteristics.[303] Social life and
+political thought were shaped by Southern life and Southern thought.
+Whatever points of contact there were with the outside world were with
+the Southern world. The movement to make Illinois a slave State was
+motived by the desire to accelerate immigration from the South.
+
+But people had already begun to come into the State who were not of
+Southern origin, and who succeeded in deflecting the current of
+Illinois politics at this critical juncture. The fertile river bottoms
+and intervening prairies of southern Illinois no longer sufficed. The
+new comers were impelled toward the great, undulating prairies which
+expand above the 39th parallel. The rise of new counties marks the
+volume of this immigration;[304] the attitude of the older settlers
+toward it, fixes sufficiently its general social character. This was
+the beginning of the "Yankee" invasion, New York and Pennsylvania
+furnishing the vanguard.
+
+As the northern prairies became accessible by the lake route and the
+stage roads, New England and New York poured a steady stream of
+homeseekers into the Commonwealth. By the middle of the century, this
+Northern immigration had begun to inundate the northern counties and
+to overflow into the interior, where it met and mingled with the
+counter-current. These Yankee settlers were viewed with hostility, not
+unmixed with contempt, by those whose culture and standards of taste
+had been formed south of Mason and Dixon's line.[305]
+
+This sectional antagonism was strengthened by the rapid commercial
+advance of northern Illinois. Yankee enterprise and thrift worked
+wonders in a decade. Governor Ford, all of whose earlier associations
+were with the people of southern Illinois, writing about the middle of
+the century, admits that although the settlers in the southern part of
+the State were twenty, thirty, forty, and fifty years in advance, on
+the score of age, they were ten years behind in point of wealth and
+all the appliances of a higher civilization.[306] The completion of
+the canal between Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, however much
+it might contribute to the general welfare of the State, seemed likely
+to profit the northern rather than the southern portion. It had been
+opposed at the outset by Southerners, who argued soberly that it would
+flood the State with Yankees;[307] and at every stage in its progress
+it had encountered Southern obstruction, though the grounds for this
+opposition were more wisely chosen.
+
+Political ideals and customs were also a divisive force in Illinois
+society. True to their earlier political training, the Southern
+settlers had established the county as a unit of local government. The
+Constitution of 1818 put the control of local concerns in the hands of
+three county commissioners, who, though elected by the people, were
+not subjected to that scrutiny which selectmen encountered in the New
+England town meeting. To the democratic New Englander, every system
+seemed defective which gave him no opportunity to discuss neighborhood
+interests publicly, and to call local officers to account before an
+assembly of the vicinage. The new comers in northern Illinois became
+profoundly dissatisfied with the autocratic board of county
+commissioners. Since the township might act as a corporate body for
+school purposes, why might they not enjoy the full measure of township
+government? Their demands grew more and more insistent, until they won
+substantial concessions from the convention which framed the
+Constitution of 1848. But all this agitation involved a more or less
+direct criticism of the system which the people of southern Illinois
+thought good enough for Yankees, if it were good enough for
+themselves.[308]
+
+In the early history of Illinois, negro slavery was a bone of
+contention between men of Northern and of Southern antecedents. When
+Illinois was admitted as a State, there were over seven hundred
+negroes held in servitude. In spite of the Ordinance of 1787, Illinois
+was practically a slave Territory. There were, to be sure, stalwart
+opponents of slavery even among those who had come from slave-holding
+communities; but taken in the large, public opinion in the Territory
+sanctioned negro slavery as it existed under a loose system of
+indenture.[309] Even the Constitution of 1818, under which Illinois
+came into the Union as a free State, continued the old system of
+indenture with slight modification.[310]
+
+It was in the famous contest over the proposed constitutional
+convention of 1824 that the influence of Northern opinion respecting
+slavery was first felt. The contest had narrowed down to a struggle
+between those who desired a convention in order to draft a
+constitution legalizing slavery and those who, from policy or
+principle, were opposed to slavery in Illinois. Men of Southern birth
+were, it is true, among the most aggressive leaders of the
+anti-convention forces, but the decisive votes against the convention
+were cast in the seven counties recently organized, in which there was
+a strong Northern element.[311]
+
+This contest ended, the anti-slavery sentiment evaporated. The "Black
+Laws" continued in force. Little or no interest was manifested in the
+fate of indentured black servants, who were to all intents and
+purposes as much slaves as their southern kindred. The leaven of
+Abolitionism worked slowly in Illinois society. By an almost unanimous
+vote, the General Assembly adopted joint resolutions in 1837 which
+condemned Abolitionism as "more productive of evil than of moral and
+political good." There were then not a half-dozen anti-slavery
+societies in the State, and these soon learned to confine their labors
+to central and northern Illinois, abandoning Egypt as hopelessly
+inaccessible to the light.[312]
+
+The issues raised by the Mexican War and the prospective acquisition
+of new territory, materially changed the temper of northern Illinois.
+Moreover, in the later forties a tide of immigration from the
+northeastern States, augmented by Germans who came in increasing
+numbers after the European agitation of 1848, was filling the
+northernmost counties with men and women who held positive convictions
+on the question of slavery extension. These transplanted New
+Englanders were outspoken advocates of the Wilmot Proviso. When they
+were asked to vote upon that article of the Constitution of 1848 which
+proposed to prevent the immigration of free negroes, the fourteen
+northern counties voted no, only to find themselves outvoted two to
+one.[313] A new factor had appeared in Illinois politics.
+
+Many and diverse circumstances contributed to the growth of
+sectionalism in Illinois. The disruptive forces, however, may be
+easily overestimated. The unifying forces in Illinois society were
+just as varied, and in the long run more potent. As in the nation at
+large so in Illinois, religious, educational, and social organizations
+did much to resist the strain of countervailing forces. But no
+organization proved in the end so enduring and effective as the
+political party. Illinois had by 1840 two well-developed party
+organizations, which enveloped the people of the State, as on a large
+scale they embraced the nation. These parties came to have an
+enduring, institutional character. Men were born Democrats and Whigs.
+Southern and Northern Whigs, Northern and Southern Democrats there
+were, of course; but the necessity of harmony for effective action
+tended to subordinate individual and group interests to the larger
+good of the whole. Parties continued to be organized on national
+lines, after the churches had been rent in twain by sectional forces.
+Of the two party organizations in Illinois, the Democratic party was
+numerically the larger, and in point of discipline, the more
+efficient. It was older; it had been the first to adopt the system of
+State and district nominating conventions; it had the advantage of
+prestige and of the possession of office. The Democratic party could
+"point with pride" to an unbroken series of victories in State and
+presidential elections. By successful gerrymanders it had secured the
+lion's share of congressional districts. Above all it had intelligent
+leadership. The retirement of Senator Breese left Stephen A. Douglas
+the undisputed leader of the party.
+
+The dual party system in Illinois, as well as in the nation, was
+seriously threatened by the appearance of a third political
+organization with hostility to slavery as its cohesive force. The
+Liberty party polled its first vote in Illinois in the campaign of
+1840, when its candidate for the presidency received 160 votes.[314]
+Four years later its total vote in Illinois was 3,469, a notable
+increase.[315] The distribution of these votes, however, is more
+noteworthy than their number, for in no county did the vote amount to
+more than thirty per cent of the total poll of all parties. The
+heaviest Liberty vote was in the northern counties. The votes cast in
+the central and southern parts of the State were indicative, for the
+most part, of a Quaker or New England element in the population.[316]
+As yet the older parties had no reason to fear for their prestige; but
+in 1848 the Liberty party gave place to the Free-Soil party, which
+developed unexpected strength in the presidential vote. It rallied
+anti-slavery elements by its cry of "Free Soil, Free Speech, Free
+Labor, and Free Men!" and for the first time broke the serried ranks
+of the older parties. Van Buren, the candidate of the Free-Soilers,
+received a vote of 15,774, concentrated in the northeastern counties,
+but reaching formidable proportions in the counties of the northwest
+and west.[317] Of the older organizations, the Whig party seemed less
+affected, Taylor having received 53,047 votes, an increase of 7,519
+over the Whig vote of 1844. The Democratic candidate, Cass, received
+only 56,300, an absolute decrease of 1,620. This was both an absolute
+and a relative decline, for the total voting population had increased
+by 24,459. Presumptive evidence points to a wholesale desertion of the
+party by men of strong anti-slavery convictions. Whither they had
+gone--whether into the ranks of Whigs or Free-Soilers,--concerned
+Democratic leaders less than the palpable fact that they had gone
+somewhere.
+
+At the close of this eventful year, the political situation in
+Illinois was without precedent. To offset Democratic losses in the
+presidential election, there were, to be sure, the usual Democratic
+triumphs in State and district elections. But the composition of the
+legislature was peculiar. On the vote for Speaker of the House, the
+Democrats showed a handsome majority: there was no sign of a third
+party vote. A few days later the following resolution was carried by a
+vote which threw the Democratic ranks into confusion: "That our
+senators in Congress be instructed, and our representatives requested,
+to use all honorable means in their power, to procure the enactment of
+such laws by Congress for the government of the countries and
+territories of the United States, acquired by the treaty of peace,
+friendship, limits, and settlement, with the republic of Mexico,
+concluded February 2, A.D. 1848; as shall contain the express
+declaration, that there shall be neither slavery, nor involuntary
+servitude in said territories, otherwise than for the punishment of
+crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted."[318]
+
+At least fifteen representatives of what had hitherto been Democratic
+constituencies, had combined with the Whigs to embarrass the
+Democratic delegation at Washington.[319] Their expectation seems to
+have been that they could thus force Senator Douglas to resign his
+seat, for he had been an uncompromising opponent of the Wilmot
+Proviso. Free-Soilers, Whigs, and Northern Democrats with anti-slavery
+leanings had voted for the instructions; only the Democrats from the
+southern counties voted solidly to sustain the Illinois delegation in
+its opposition to the Proviso.[320] While not a strict sectional vote,
+it showed plainly enough the rift in the Democratic party. A
+disruptive issue had been raised. For the moment a re-alignment of
+parties on geographical lines seemed imminent. This was precisely the
+trend in national politics at this moment.
+
+There was a traditional remedy for this sectional malady--compromise.
+It was an Illinois senator, himself a slave-owner, who had proposed
+the original Missouri proviso. Senator Douglas had repeatedly proposed
+to extend the Missouri Compromise line to the Pacific, in the same
+spirit in which compromise had been offered in 1820, but the essential
+conditions for a compromise on this basis were now wanting.
+
+It was precisely at this time, when the Illinois legislature was
+instructing him to reverse his attitude toward the Wilmot Proviso,
+that Senator Douglas began to change his policy. Believing that the
+combination against him in the legislature was largely accidental and
+momentary, he refused to resign.[321] Events amply justified his
+course; but the crisis was not without its lessons for him. The
+futility of a compromise based on an extension of the Missouri
+Compromise line was now apparent. Opposition to the extension of
+slavery was too strong; and belief in the free status of the acquired
+territory too firmly rooted in the minds of his constituents. There
+remained the possibility of reintegrating the Democratic party through
+the application of the principle of "squatter sovereignty," Was it
+possible to offset the anti-slavery sentiment of his Northern
+constituents by an insistent appeal to their belief in local
+self-government?
+
+The taproot from which squatter sovereignty grew and flourished, was
+the instinctive attachment of the Western American to local
+government; or to put the matter conversely, his dislike of external
+authority. So far back as the era of the Revolution, intense
+individualism, bold initiative, strong dislike of authority, elemental
+jealousy of the fruits of labor, and passionate attachment to the soil
+that has been cleared for a home, are qualities found in varying
+intensity among the colonists from New Hampshire to Georgia. Nowhere,
+however, were they so marked as along the Western border, where
+centrifugal forces were particularly strong and local attachments were
+abnormally developed. Under stress of real or fancied wrongs, it was
+natural for settlers in these frontier regions to meet for joint
+protest, or if the occasion were grave enough, to enter into political
+association, to resist encroachment upon what they felt to be their
+natural rights. Whenever they felt called upon to justify their
+course, they did so in language that repeated, consciously or
+unconsciously, the theory of the social contract, with which the
+political thought of the age was surcharged. In these frontier
+communities was born the political habit that manifested itself on
+successive frontiers of American advance across the continent, and
+that finally in the course of the slavery controversy found apt
+expression in the doctrine of squatter sovereignty.[322]
+
+None of the Territories carved out of the original Northwest had shown
+greater eagerness for separate government than Illinois. The isolation
+of the original settlements grouped along the Mississippi, their
+remoteness from the seat of territorial government on the Wabash, and
+the consequent difficulty of obtaining legal protection and efficient
+government, predisposed the people of Illinois to demand a territorial
+government of their own, long before Congress listened to their
+memorials. Bitter controversy and even bloodshed attended their
+efforts.[323]
+
+A generation later a similar contest occurred for the separation of
+the fourteen northern counties from the State. When Congress changed
+the northern boundary of Illinois, it had deviated from the express
+provisions of the Ordinance of 1787, which had drawn the line through
+the southern bend of Lake Michigan. This departure from the Magna
+Charta of the Northwest furnished the would-be secessionists with a
+pretext. But an editorial in the _Northwestern Gazette and Galena
+Advertiser_, January 20, 1842, naively disclosed their real motive.
+Illinois was overwhelmed with debt, while Wisconsin was "young,
+vigorous, and free from debt." "Look at the district as it is now,"
+wrote the editor fervidly, "the _fag end_ of the State of
+Illinois--its interest wholly disregarded in State legislation--in
+short, treated as a mere _province_--taxed; laid under tribute in the
+form of taxation for the benefit of the South and Middle." The right
+of the people to determine by vote whether the counties should be
+annexed to Illinois, was accepted without question. A meeting of
+citizens in Jo Daviess County resolved, that "until the Ordinance of
+1787 was altered by common consent, the free inhabitants of the region
+had, in common with the free inhabitants of the Territory of
+Wisconsin, an absolute, vested, indefeasible right to form a permanent
+constitution and State government."[324] This was the burden of many
+memorials of similar origin.
+
+The desire of the people of Illinois to control local interests
+extended most naturally to the soil which nourished them. That the
+Federal Government should without their consent dispose of lands which
+they had brought under cultivation, seemed to verge on tyranny. It
+mattered not that the settler had taken up lands to which he had no
+title in law. The wilderness belonged to him who subdued it.
+Therefore land leagues and claim associations figure largely in the
+history of the Northwest. Their object was everywhere the same, to
+protect the squatter against the chance bidder at a public land sale.
+
+The concessions made by the constitutional convention of 1847, in the
+matter of local government, gave great satisfaction to the Northern
+element in the State. The new constitution authorized the legislature
+to pass a general law, in accordance with which counties might
+organize by popular vote under a township system. This mode of
+settling a bitter and protracted controversy was thoroughly in accord
+with the democratic spirit of northern Illinois. The newspapers of the
+northern counties welcomed the inauguration of the township system as
+a formal recognition of a familiar principle. Said the _Will County
+Telegraph_:[325] "The great principle on which the new system is based
+is this: that except as to those things which pertain to State unity
+and those which are in their nature common to the whole county, it is
+right that each small community should regulate its own local matters
+without interference." It was this sentiment to which popular
+sovereignty made a cogent appeal.
+
+No man was more sensitive than Senator Douglas to these subtle
+influences of popular tradition, custom, and current sentiment. Under
+the cumulative impression of the events which have been recorded, his
+confidence in popular sovereignty as an integrating force in national
+and local politics increased, and his public utterances became more
+assured and positive.[326] By the close of the year 1850, he had the
+satisfaction of seeing the collapse of the Free-Soil party in
+Illinois, and of knowing that the joint resolutions had been repealed
+which had so nearly accomplished his overthrow. A political storm had
+been weathered. Yet the diverse currents in Illinois society might
+again roil local politics. So long as a bitter commercial rivalry
+divided northern and southern Illinois, and social differences held
+the sections apart, misunderstandings dangerous to party and State
+alike would inevitably follow. How could these diverse elements be
+fused into a true and enduring union? To this task Douglas set his
+hand. The ways and means which he employed, form one of the most
+striking episodes in his career.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 294: Reid was afterward Governor of North Carolina and
+United States Senator.]
+
+[Footnote 295: For many of the facts relating to Douglas's courtship
+and marriage, I am indebted to his son, Judge Robert Martin Douglas,
+of North Carolina.]
+
+[Footnote 296: At the death of Colonel Martin, this plantation was
+worked by some seventeen slaves, according to his will.]
+
+[Footnote 297: This impression is fully confirmed by the terms of his
+will.]
+
+[Footnote 298: He was himself fully conscious of this influence. See
+his speech at Raleigh, August 30, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 299: The facts are so stated in Colonel Martin's will, for a
+transcript of which I am indebted to Judge R.M. Douglas.]
+
+[Footnote 300: Extract from the will of Colonel Martin.]
+
+[Footnote 301: This letter, dated August 3, 1850, is in the possession
+of Mrs. James W. Patton of Springfield, Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 302: The characteristics of Illinois as a constituency in
+1850 are set forth in greater detail, in an article by the writer in
+the _Iowa Journal of History and Politics_, July, 1905.]
+
+[Footnote 303: See Patterson, Early Society in Southern Illinois in
+the Fergus Historical Series, No. 14. Also Ford, History of Illinois,
+pp. 38, 279-280; and Greene, Sectional forces in the History of
+Illinois--in the Publications of Illinois Historical Library, 1903.]
+
+[Footnote 304: Between 1818 and 1840, fifty-seven new counties were
+organized, of which fourteen lay in the region given to Illinois by
+the shifting of the northern boundary. See Publications of the
+Illinois Historical Library, No. 8, pp. 79-80.]
+
+[Footnote 305: Ford, History of Illinois, pp. 280-281.]
+
+[Footnote 306: _Ibid._, p. 280.]
+
+[Footnote 307: See Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, Chapter on
+"State Policy."]
+
+[Footnote 308: Shaw, Local Government in Illinois, in the Johns
+Hopkins University Studies, Vol. I; Newell, Township Government in
+Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 309: Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, Chapter II.]
+
+[Footnote 310: _Ibid._, Chapter III. See Article VI of the
+Constitution.]
+
+[Footnote 311: _Ibid._, Chapter IV. See also Moses, History of
+Illinois, Vol. I, p. 324.]
+
+[Footnote 312: Harris, Negro Servitude, pp. 125, 136-357]
+
+[Footnote 313: Journal of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, pp.
+453-456.]
+
+[Footnote 314: _Whig Almanac_, 1841.]
+
+[Footnote 315: _Ibid._, 1845.]
+
+[Footnote 316: Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 326-327.]
+
+[Footnote 317: Smith, Liberty and Free Soil Parties, pp. 328-329.]
+
+[Footnote 318: House Journal, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 319: All these fifteen voted for the Democratic candidate
+for Speaker of the House.]
+
+[Footnote 320: House Journal, p. 52; Senate Journal, p. 44. See also
+Harris, Negro Servitude in Illinois, p. 177.]
+
+[Footnote 321: See Speech in Senate, December 23, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 322: See the writer's article on "The Genesis of Popular
+Sovereignty" in the _Iowa Journal of History and Politics_ for
+January, 1905.]
+
+[Footnote 323: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 241-242.]
+
+[Footnote 324: _Northwestern Gazette_, March 19, 1842.]
+
+[Footnote 325: September 27, 1849.]
+
+[Footnote 326: Compare his utterances on the following dates: January
+10, 1849; January 22, 1849; October 23, 1849 at Springfield, Illinois;
+February 12, 1850; June 3, 1850.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+MEASURES OF ADJUSTMENT
+
+
+When Congress assembled in December, 1849, statesmen of the old
+school, who could agree in nothing else, were of one mind in this: the
+Union was in peril. In the impressive words of Webster, "the
+imprisoned winds were let loose. The East, the North, and the stormy
+South combined to throw the whole sea into commotion, to toss its
+billows to the skies, and disclose its profoundest depths." Clay and
+Calhoun were equally apprehensive. Yet there were younger men who
+shared none of these fears. To be sure, the political atmosphere of
+Washington was electric. The House spent weeks wrangling over the
+Speakership, so that when the serious work of legislation began, men
+were overwrought and excitable. California with a free constitution
+was knocking at the door of the Union. President Taylor gave Congress
+to understand that at no distant day the people of New Mexico would
+take similar action. And then, as though he were addressing a body of
+immortals, he urged Congress to await calmly the action of the people
+of the Territories.
+
+Douglas was among those unimpressionable younger men who would not
+believe the Union to be in danger. Perhaps by his Southern connections
+he knew better than most Northern men, the real temper of the South.
+Perhaps he did not give way to the prevailing hysteria, because he was
+diverted from the great issues by the pressing, particular interests
+of his constituents. At all events, he had this advantage over Clay,
+Webster, and Calhoun, that when he did turn his attention to schemes
+of compromise, his vision was fresh, keen, and direct. He escaped that
+subtle distortion of mental perception from which others were likely
+to suffer because of long-sustained attention. To such, Douglas must
+have seemed unemotional, unsensitive, and lacking in spiritual
+fineness.
+
+Illinois with its North and its South was also facing a crisis. To the
+social and political differences that bisected the State, was added a
+keen commercial rivalry between the sections. While the State
+legislature under northern control was appropriating funds for the
+Illinois and Michigan canal, it exhibited far less liberality in
+building railroads, which alone could be the arteries of traffic in
+southern Illinois. At a time when railroads were extending their lines
+westward from the Atlantic seaboard, and reaching out covetously for
+the produce of the Mississippi Valley, Illinois held geographically a
+commanding position. No roads could reach the great river, north of
+the Ohio at least, without crossing her borders. The avenues of
+approach were given into her keeping. To those who directed State
+policy, it seemed possible to determine the commercial destinies of
+the Commonwealth by controlling the farther course of the railroads
+which now touched the eastern boundary. Well-directed effort, it was
+thought, might utilize these railroads so as to build up great
+commercial cities on the eastern shore of the Mississippi. State
+policy required that none of these cross-roads should in any event
+touch St. Louis, and thus make it, rather than the Illinois towns now
+struggling toward commercial greatness, the entrepot between East and
+West. With its unrivalled site at the mouth of the Missouri, Alton was
+as likely a competitor for the East and West traffic, and for the
+Mississippi commerce, as St. Louis. Alton, then, must be made the
+terminus of the cross-roads.[327]
+
+The people of southern Illinois thought otherwise. Against the
+background of such distant hopes, they saw a concrete reality. St.
+Louis was already the market for their produce. From every railroad
+which should cross the State and terminate at St. Louis, they
+anticipated tangible profits. They could not see why these very real
+advantages should be sacrificed on the altar of northern interests.
+After the opening of the northern canal, they resented this exclusive
+policy with increased bitterness.
+
+Upon one point, and only one, the people of northern and southern
+Illinois were agreed: they believed that every possible encouragement
+should be given to the construction of a great central railroad, which
+should cross the State from north to south. Such a railroad had been
+projected as early as 1836 by a private corporation. Subsequently the
+State took up the project, only to abandon it again to a private
+company, after the bubble of internal improvements had been pricked.
+Of this latter corporation,--the Great Western Railroad
+Company,--Senator Breese was a director and the accredited agent in
+Congress. It was in behalf of this corporation that he had petitioned
+Congress unsuccessfully for pre-emption rights on the public
+domain.[328]
+
+Circumstances enlisted Douglas's interest powerfully in the proposed
+central railroad. These circumstances were partly private and
+personal; partly adventitious and partly of his own making. The
+growing sectionalism in Illinois gave politicians serious concern. It
+was becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the integrity of
+political parties, when sectional issues were thrust into the
+foreground of political discussion. Yankee and Southerner did not mix
+readily in the caldron of State politics. But a central railroad which
+both desired, might promote a mechanical mixture of social and
+commercial elements. Might it not also, in the course of time, break
+up provincial feeling, cause a transfusion of ideas, and in the end
+produce an organic union?
+
+In the summer of 1847, Senator-elect Douglas took up his residence in
+Chicago, and identified himself with its commercial interests by
+investing in real estate.[329] Few men have had a keener instinct for
+speculation in land.[330] By a sort of sixth sense, he foresaw the
+growth of the ugly but enterprising city on Lake Michigan. He saw that
+commercially Chicago held a strategic position, commanding both the
+lake traffic eastward, and the interior waterway gulfward by means of
+the canal. As yet, however, these advantages were far from
+realization. The city was not even included within the route of the
+proposed central railroad. Influential business men, Eastern
+capitalists, and shippers along the Great Lakes were not a little
+exercised over this neglect. In some way the claims of Chicago must be
+urged upon the promoters of the railroad. Just here Douglas could
+give invaluable aid. He pointed out that if the railroad were to
+secure a land grant, it would need Eastern votes in Congress. The old
+Cairo-Galena line would seem like a sectional enterprise, likely to
+draw trade down the Mississippi and away from the Atlantic seaports.
+But if Chicago were connected with the system, as a terminal at the
+north, the necessary congressional support might be secured.[331]
+
+During the summer, Douglas canvassed the State, speaking repeatedly in
+behalf of this larger project. For a time he hoped that Senator Breese
+would co-operate with him. Numerous conferences took place both before
+and after Congress had assembled; but Douglas found his colleague
+reluctant to abandon his pre-emption plan. Regardless of the memorials
+which poured in upon him from northern Illinois, Breese introduced his
+bill for pre-emption rights on the public domain, in behalf of the
+Holbrook Company, as the Great Western Railway Company was popularly
+called. Thereupon Douglas offered a bill for a donation of public
+lands to aid the State of Illinois in the construction of a central
+railroad from Cairo to Galena, with a branch from Centralia to
+Chicago.[332] Though Breese did not actively oppose his colleague, his
+lack of cordiality no doubt prejudiced Congress against a grant of any
+description. From the outset, Douglas's bill encountered obstacles:
+the opposition of those who doubted the constitutional power of
+Congress to grant lands for internal improvements of this sort; the
+opposition of landless States, which still viewed the public domain
+as a national asset from which revenue should be derived; and,
+finally, the opposition of the old States to the new. Nevertheless,
+the bill passed the Senate by a good majority. In the House it
+suffered defeat, owing to the undisguised opposition of the South and
+of the landless States both East and West. The Middle States showed
+distrust and uncertainty. It was perfectly clear that before such a
+project could pass the House, Eastern and Southern representatives
+would have to be won over.[333]
+
+After Congress adjourned, Douglas journeyed to the State of
+Mississippi, ostensibly on a business trip to his children's
+plantation. In the course of his travels, he found himself in the city
+of Mobile--an apparent digression; but by a somewhat remarkable
+coincidence he met certain directors of the Mobile Railroad in the
+city. Now this corporation was in straits. Funds had failed and the
+construction of the road had been arrested. The directors were casting
+about in search of relief. Douglas saw his opportunity. He offered the
+distraught officials an alliance. He would include in his Illinois
+Central bill a grant of land for their road; in return, they were to
+make sure of the votes of their senators and representatives.[334]
+Such, at least, is the story told by Douglas; and some such bargain
+may well have been made. Subsequent events give the color of veracity
+to the tale.
+
+When Douglas renewed his Illinois Central bill in a revised form on
+January 3, 1850, Senator Breese had been succeeded by Shields, who was
+well-disposed toward the project.[335] The fruits of the Mobile
+conference were at once apparent. Senator King of Alabama offered an
+amendment, proposing a similar donation of public lands to his State
+and to Mississippi, for the purpose of continuing the projected
+central railroad from the mouth of the Ohio to the port of Mobile.
+Douglas afterward said that he had himself drafted this amendment, but
+that he had thought best to have Senator King present it.[336] Be that
+as it may, the suspicion of collusion between them can hardly be
+avoided, since the amendment occasioned no surprise to the friends of
+the bill and was adopted without division.
+
+The project now before Congress was of vastly greater consequence than
+the proposed grant to Illinois. Here was a bill of truly national
+importance. It spoke for itself; it appealed to the dullest
+imagination. What this amended bill contemplated, was nothing less
+than a trunk line connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico.
+Now, indeed, as Douglas well said, "nationality had been imparted to
+the project," At the same time, it offered substantial advantages to
+the two landless States which would be traversed by the railroad, as
+well as to all the Gulf States. As thus devised, the bill seemed
+reasonably sure to win votes.
+
+Yet it must not be inferred that the bill passed smoothly to a third
+reading. There was still much shaking of heads among senators of the
+strict construction school. Many were conquered by expediency and
+threw logic to the winds; some preferred to be consistent and spoil a
+good cause. The bill did not sail on untroubled seas, even after it
+had been steered clear of constitutional shoals. It narrowly ran foul
+of that obstinate Western conviction, that the public lands belonged
+of right to the home-seeker, to whose interests all such grants were
+inimical, by reason of the increased price of adjoining sections of
+land.[337]
+
+The real battleground, however, was not the Senate, but the House. As
+before, the bill passed the upper chamber by an ample margin of
+votes.[338] In the lower house, there was no prolonged debate upon the
+bill. Constitutional scruples do not seem to have been ruffled. The
+main difficulty was to rivet the attention of the members. Several
+times the bill was pushed aside and submerged by the volume of other
+business. Finally, on the same day that it passed the last of the
+compromise measures, on the 17th of September, 1850, the House passed
+the Illinois Central Railroad bill by a vote of 101 to 75.[339]
+
+A comparison of this vote with that on the earlier bill shows a change
+of three votes in the Middle States, one in the South, ten in the Gulf
+States, and five in Tennessee and Kentucky.[340] This was a triumphant
+vindication of Douglas's sagacity, for whatever may have been the
+services of his colleagues in winning Eastern votes,[341] it was his
+bid for the vote of the Gulf States and of the landless, intervening
+States of Kentucky and Tennessee which had been most effective. But
+was all this anything more than the clever manoeuvering of an adroit
+politician in a characteristic parliamentary game? A central railroad
+through Illinois seemed likely to quell factional and sectional
+quarrels in local politics; to merge Northern and Southern interests
+within the Commonwealth; and to add to the fiscal resources of State
+and nation. It was a good cause, but it needed votes in Congress.
+Douglas became a successful procurator and reaped his reward in
+increased popularity.
+
+There is an aspect of this episode, however, which lifts it above a
+mere log-rolling device to secure an appropriation. Here and there it
+fired the imagination of men. There is abundant reason to believe that
+the senior Senator from Illinois was not so sordid in his bargaining
+for votes as he seemed. Above and apart from the commercial welfare of
+the Lake Region, the Mississippi Valley, and the Gulf Plains, there
+was an end subserved, which lay in the background of his consciousness
+and which came to expression rarely if ever. Practical men may see
+visions and dream dreams which they are reluctant to voice. There was
+genuine emotion beneath the materialism of Senator Walker's remarks
+(and he was reared in Illinois), when he said: "Anything that improves
+the connection between the North and the South is a great enterprise.
+To cross parallels of latitude, to enable the man of commerce to make
+up his assorted cargo, is infinitely more important than anything you
+can propose within the same parallels of latitude. I look upon it as a
+great chain to unite North and South."[342] Senator Shields of
+Illinois only voiced the inmost thought of Douglas, when he exclaimed,
+"The measure is too grand, too magnificent a one to meet with such a
+fate at the hands of Congress. And really, as it is to connect the
+North and South so thoroughly, it may serve to get rid of even the
+Wilmot Proviso, and tie us together so effectually that the idea of
+separation will be impossible."[343]
+
+The settlement of the West had followed parallels of latitude. The men
+of the Lake Plains were transplanted New Englanders, New Yorkers,
+Pennsylvanians; the men of the Gulf Plains came from south of Mason
+and Dixon's line,--pioneers both, aggressive, bold in initiative, but
+alienated by circumstances of tremendous economic significance. If
+ever North should be arrayed against South, the makeweight in the
+balance would be these pioneers of the Northwest and Southwest. It was
+no mean conception to plan for the "man of commerce" who would cross
+from one region to the other, with his "assorted cargo,"[344] for in
+that cargo were the destinies of two sections and his greatest
+commerce was to consist in the exchange of imponderable ideas. The
+ideal which inspired Douglas never found nobler expression, than in
+these words with which he replied to Webster's slighting reference to
+the West:
+
+"There is a power in this nation greater than either the North or the
+South--a growing, increasing, swelling power, that will be able to
+speak the law to this nation, and to execute the law as spoken. That
+power is the country known as the great West--the Valley of the
+Mississippi, one and indivisible from the gulf to the great lakes, and
+stretching, on the one side and the other, to the extreme sources of
+the Ohio and Missouri--from the Alleghanies to the Rocky mountains.
+There, Sir, is the hope of this nation--the resting place of the power
+that is not only to control, but to save, the Union. We furnish the
+water that makes the Mississippi, and we intend to follow, navigate,
+and use it until it loses itself in the briny ocean. So with the St.
+Lawrence. We intend to keep open and enjoy both of these great outlets
+to the ocean, and all between them we intend to take under our
+especial protection, and keep and preserve as one free, happy, and
+united people. This is the mission of the great Mississippi Valley,
+the heart and soul of the nation and the continent."[345]
+
+Meantime Congress was endeavoring to avert the clash of sections by
+other measures of accommodation. The veteran Clay, in his favorite
+role of peacemaker, had drafted a series of resolutions as a sort of
+legislative programme; and with his old-time vigor, was pleading for
+mutual forbearance. All wounds might be healed, he believed, by
+admitting California with her free constitution; by organizing
+territorial governments without any restriction as to slavery, in the
+region acquired from Mexico; by settling the Texas boundary and the
+Texas debt on a fair basis; by prohibiting the slave trade, but not
+slavery, in the District of Columbia; and by providing more carefully
+for the rendition of fugitive slaves. Clay, Calhoun, and Webster had
+spoken with all the weight of their years upon these propositions,
+before Douglas was free to address the Senate.
+
+It was characteristic of Douglas that he chose to speak on the
+concrete question raised by the application of California for
+admission into the Union. His opening words betrayed no elevation of
+feeling, no alarmed patriotism transcending party lines, no great
+moral uplift. He made no direct reference to the state of the public
+mind. Clay began with an invocation; Webster pleaded for a hearing,
+not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a Northern man, but as an American
+and as a Senator, with the preservation of the Union as his theme;
+Douglas sprang at once to the defense of his party. With the brush of
+a partisan, he sketched the policy of Northern Democrats in advocating
+the annexation of Texas, repudiating the insinuations of Webster that
+Texas had been sought as a slave State. He would not admit that the
+whole of Texas was bound to be a slave Territory. By the very terms of
+annexation, provision had been made for admitting free States out of
+Texas. As for Webster's "law of nature, of physical geography,--the
+law of the formation of the earth," from which the Senator from
+Massachusetts derived so much comfort, it was a pity that he could not
+have discovered that law earlier. The "law of nature" surely had not
+been changed materially since the election, when Mr. Webster opposed
+General Cass, who had already enunciated this general principle.[346]
+
+In his reply to Calhoun, Douglas emancipated himself successfully from
+his gross partisanship. Planting himself firmly upon the national
+theory of the Federal Union, he hewed away at what he termed Calhoun's
+fundamental error--"the error of supposing that his particular section
+has a right to have a 'due share of the territories' set apart and
+assigned to it." Calhoun had said much about Southern rights and
+Northern aggressions, citing the Ordinance of 1787 as an instance of
+the unfair exclusion of the South from the public domain. Douglas
+found a complete refutation of this error in the early history of
+Illinois, where slavery had for a long time existed in spite of the
+Ordinance. His inference from these facts was bold and suggestive, if
+not altogether convincing.
+
+"These facts furnish a practical illustration of that great truth,
+which ought to be familiar to all statesmen and politicians, that a
+law passed by the national legislature to operate locally upon a
+people not represented, will always remain practically a dead letter
+upon the statute book, if it be in opposition to the wishes and
+supposed interests of those who are to be affected by it, and at the
+same time charged with its execution. The Ordinance of 1787 was
+practically a dead letter. It did not make the country, to which it
+applied, practically free from slavery. The States formed out of the
+territory northwest of the Ohio did not become free by virtue of the
+ordinance, nor in consequence of it ... [but] by virtue of their own
+will."[347]
+
+Douglas was equally convinced that the Missouri Compromise had had no
+practical effect upon slavery. So far from depriving the South of its
+share of the West, that Compromise had simply "allayed an unfortunate
+excitement which was alienating the affections of different portions
+of the Union." "Slavery was as effectually excluded from the whole of
+that country, by the laws of nature, of climate, and production,
+before, as it is now, by act of Congress."[348] As for the exclusion
+of the South from the Oregon Territory, the law of 1848 "did nothing
+more than re-enact and affirm the law which the people themselves had
+previously adopted, and rigorously executed, for the period of twelve
+years." The exclusion of slavery was the deliberate act of the people
+of Oregon: "it was done in obedience to that great Democratic
+principle, that it is wiser and better to leave each community to
+determine and regulate its own local and domestic affairs in its own
+way."[349]
+
+An amendment to the Constitution to establish a permanent equilibrium
+between slave and free States, Douglas rightly characterized as "a
+moral and physical impossibility." The cause of freedom had steadily
+advanced, while slavery had receded. "We all look forward with
+confidence to the time when Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky,
+and Missouri, and probably North Carolina and Tennessee, will adopt a
+gradual system of emancipation. In the meantime," said he, with the
+exultant spirit of the exuberant West, "we have a vast territory,
+stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific, which is rapidly
+filling up with a hardy, enterprising, and industrious population,
+large enough to form at least seventeen new free States, one half of
+which we may expect to see represented in this body during our day. Of
+these I calculate that four will be formed out of Oregon, five out of
+our late acquisition from Mexico, including the present State of
+California, two out of the territory of Minnesota, and the residue out
+of the country upon the Missouri river, _including Nebraska_. I think
+I am safe in assuming, that each of these will be free territories and
+free States whether Congress shall prohibit slavery or not. Now, let
+me inquire, where are you to find the slave territory with which to
+balance these seventeen free territories, or even any one of
+them?"[350] Truer prophecy was never uttered in all the long
+controversy over the extension of slavery.
+
+With a bit of brag, which was perhaps pardonable tinder the
+circumstances, Douglas reminded the Senate of his efforts to secure
+the admission of California and of his prediction that the people of
+that country would form a free State constitution. A few months had
+sufficed to vindicate his position at the last session. And yet,
+strangely enough, the North was still fearful lest slavery should be
+extended to New Mexico and Utah. "There is no ground for apprehension
+on this point," he stoutly contended. "If there was one inch of
+territory in the whole of our acquisition from Mexico, where slavery
+could exist, it was in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin,
+within the limits of the State of California. It should be borne in
+mind, that climate regulates this matter, and that climate depends
+upon the elevation above the sea as much as upon parallels of
+latitude." Why then leave the question open for further agitation?
+Give the people of California the government to which they are
+entitled. "The country is now free by law and in fact--it is free
+according to those laws of nature and of God, to which the Senator
+from Massachusetts alluded, and must forever remain free. It will be
+free under any bill you may pass, or without any bill at all."[351]
+
+Though he did not discuss the compromise resolutions nor commit
+himself to their support, Douglas paid a noble tribute to the spirit
+in which they had been offered. He spoke feelingly of "the
+self-sacrificing spirit which prompted the venerable Senator from
+Kentucky to exhibit the matchless moral courage of standing undaunted
+between the two great hostile factions, and rebuking the violence and
+excesses of each, and pointing out their respective errors, in a
+spirit of kindness, moderation, and firmness, which made them
+conscious that he was right." Clay's example was already, he believed,
+checking the tide of popular excitement. For his part, he entertained
+no fears as to the future. "The Union will not be put in peril;
+California will be admitted; governments for the territories must be
+established; and thus the controversy will end, and I trust forever."
+A cheerful bit of Western optimism to which the country at large was
+not yet ready to subscribe.
+
+With his wonted aggressiveness Douglas had a batch of bills ready by
+March 25th, covering the controverted question of California and the
+Territories. The origin of these bills is a matter of no little
+interest. A group of Southern Whigs in the House, led by Toombs and
+Stephens of Georgia, had taken a determined stand against the
+admission of California, until assurances were given that concessions
+would be made to the South in the organization of the new
+Territories.[352]
+
+With both Toombs and Stephens, Douglas was on friendly terms, despite
+their political differences. Perhaps it was at his suggestion that
+McClernand of Illinois approached these gentlemen with an olive
+branch. At all events, a conference was arranged at the Speaker's
+house, at which Douglas was represented by his friends McClernand,
+Richardson, and Linn Boyd of Kentucky. Boyd was chairman of the House
+Committee on Territories; and Richardson a member of the committee.
+McClernand announced that he had consulted with Douglas and that they
+were in entire agreement on the points at issue. Douglas had thought
+it better not to be present in person. The Southerners stated their
+position frankly and fully. They would consent to the admission of
+California only upon condition that, in organizing the territorial
+governments, the power should be given to the people to legislate in
+regard to slavery, and to frame constitutions with or without slavery.
+Congress was to bind itself to admit them as States, without any
+restrictions upon the subject of slavery. The wording of the
+territorial bills, which would compass these ends, was carefully
+agreed upon and put in writing. On the basis of this agreement Douglas
+and McClernand drafted bills for both the Senate and the House
+Committees.[353]
+
+But the suggestion had already been made and was growing in favor,
+that a select committee should be intrusted with these and other
+delicate questions, in order to secure a basis of compromise in the
+spirit of Clay's resolutions. Believing that such a course would
+indefinitely delay, and even put in jeopardy, the measure that lay
+nearest to his heart,--the admission of California,--Douglas resisted
+the appointment of such a committee. If it seemed best to join the
+California bill with others now pending, he preferred that the Senate,
+rather than a committee, should decide the conditions. But when he was
+outvoted, Douglas adopted the sensible course of refusing to obstruct
+the work of the Committee of Thirteen by any instructions. He was
+inclined to believe the whole project a farce: well, if it was, the
+sooner it was over, the better; he was not disposed to wrangle and
+turn the farce into a tragedy.[354]
+
+Douglas was not chosen a member of the select Committee of Thirteen.
+He could hardly expect to be; but he contributed not a little to its
+labors, if a traditional story be true. In a chance conversation,
+Clay, who was chairman of the committee, told Douglas that their
+report would recommend the union of his two bills,--the California and
+the Territorial bills,--instead of a bill of their own. Clay intimated
+that the committee felt some delicacy about appropriating Douglas's
+carefully drawn measures. With a courtesy quite equal to Clay's,
+Douglas urged him to use the bills if it was deemed wise. For his
+part, he did not believe that they could pass the Senate as a single
+bill. In that event, he could then urge the original bills separately
+upon the Senate. Then Clay, extending his hand, said, "You are the
+most generous man living. I _will_ unite the bills and report them;
+but justice shall nevertheless be done you as the real author of the
+measures." A pretty story, and not altogether improbable. At all
+events, the first part of "the Omnibus Bill," reported by the
+Committee of Thirteen, consisted of Douglas's two bills joined
+together by a wafer.[355]
+
+There was one highly significant change in the territorial bills
+inside the Omnibus. Douglas's measures had been silent on the slavery
+question; these forbade the territorial legislatures to pass any
+measure in respect to African slavery, restricting the powers of the
+territorial legislatures at a vital point. Now on this question
+Douglas's instructions bound him to an affirmative vote. He was in the
+uncomfortable and hazardous position of one who must choose between
+his convictions, and the retention of political office. It was a
+situation all the more embarrassing, because he had so often asserted
+the direct responsibility of a representative to his constituents. He
+extricated himself from the predicament in characteristic fashion. He
+reaffirmed his convictions; sought to ward off the question; but
+followed instructions when he had to give his vote. He obeyed the
+letter, but violated the spirit of his instructions.
+
+In the debates on the Omnibus Bill, Douglas reiterated his theory of
+non-interference with the right of the people to legislate for
+themselves on the question of slavery. He was now forced to further
+interesting assertions by some pointed questions from Senator Davis of
+Mississippi. "The Senator says that the inhabitants of a territory
+have a right to decide what their institutions shall be. When? By what
+authority? How many of them?" Douglas replied: "Without determining
+the precise number, I will assume that the right ought to accrue to
+the people at the moment they have enough to constitute a
+government.... Your bill concedes that a representative government is
+necessary--a government founded upon the principles of popular
+sovereignty, and the right of the people to enact their own laws; and
+for this reason you give them a legislature constituted of two
+branches, like the legislatures of the different States and
+Territories of the Union; you confer upon them the right to legislate
+upon all rightful subjects of legislation, except negroes. Why except
+negroes?"[356] Forced to a further explanation, he added, "I am not,
+therefore, prepared to say that under the constitution, we have not
+the power to pass laws excluding negro slaves from the territories....
+But I do say that, if left to myself to carry out my own opinions, I
+would leave the whole subject to the people of the territories
+themselves.... I believe it is one of those rights to be conceded to
+the territories the moment they have governments and legislatures
+established for them."[357] In short, this was a policy dictated by
+expediency, and not--as yet--by any constitutional necessity. Douglas
+was not yet ready to abandon the high national ground of supreme,
+Federal control over the Territories.
+
+But the restrictive clause in the territorial bills satisfied the
+radical Southerners as little as it pleased Douglas. Berrien wished to
+make the clause more precise by forbidding the territorial
+legislatures "to establish or prohibit African slavery"; but Hale,
+with his preternatural keenness for the supposed intrigues of the
+slave power, believed that even with these restrictions the
+legislatures might still recognize slavery as an already established
+institution; and he therefore moved to add the word "allow." Douglas
+voted consistently; first against Berrien's amendment, and then, when
+it carried, for Hale's, hoping thereby to discredit the former.[358]
+Douglas's own amendment removing all restrictions, was voted
+down.[359] True to his instructions, he voted for Seward's proposition
+to impose the Wilmot Proviso upon the Territories, but he was happy to
+find himself in the minority.[360] And so the battle went on,
+threatening to end in a draw.
+
+A motion to abolish and prohibit peon slavery elicited an apparently
+spontaneous and sincere expression of detestation from Douglas of
+"this revolting system." Black slavery was not abhorrent to him; but a
+species of slavery not confined to any color or race, which might,
+because of a trifling debt, condemn the free white man and his
+posterity to an endless servitude--this was indeed intolerable. If the
+Senate was about to abolish black slavery, being unwilling to intrust
+the territorial legislature with such measures, surely it ought in all
+consistency to abolish also peonage. But the Senate preferred not to
+be consistent.[361]
+
+By the last of July, the Omnibus--in the words of Benton--had been
+overturned, and all the inmates but one spilled out. The Utah bill was
+the lucky survivor, but even it was not suffered to pass without
+material alterations. Clay now joined with Douglas to secure the
+omission of the clause forbidding the territorial legislature to touch
+the subject of slavery. In this they finally succeeded.[362] The bill
+was thus restored to its original form.[363]
+
+Everyone admitted that the compromise scheme had been wrecked. It was
+highly probable, however, that with some changes the proposals of the
+committee could be adopted, if they were considered separately. Such
+was Douglas's opinion. The eventuality had occurred which he had
+foreseen. He was ready for it. He had promptly called up his original
+California bill and had secured its consideration, when the Utah bill
+passed to a third reading. Then a bill to settle the Texan boundary
+controversy was introduced. The Senate passed many weary days
+discussing first one and then the other. The Texas question was
+disposed of on August 9th; the California bill, after weathering many
+storms, came to port four days later; and two days afterward, New
+Mexico was organized as a Territory under the same conditions as Utah.
+That is to say, the Senate handed on these bills with its approval to
+the lower house, where all were voted. It remained only to complete
+the compromise programme piece-meal, by abolishing the slave trade in
+the District of Columbia and by providing a more stringent fugitive
+slave law. By the middle of September, these measures had become law,
+and the work of Congress went to its final review before the tribunal
+of public opinion.
+
+Douglas voted for all the compromise measures but the Fugitive Slave
+Law. This was an unfortunate omission, for many a Congressman had
+sought to dodge the question.[364] The partisan press did not spare
+him, though he stated publicly that he would have voted for the bill,
+had he not been forced to absent himself. Such excuses were common and
+unconvincing. Irritated by sly thrusts on every side, Douglas at last
+resolved to give a detailed account of the circumstances that had
+prevented him from putting himself on record in the vote. This public
+vindication was made upon the floor of the Senate a year later.[365] A
+"pecuniary obligation" for nearly four thousand dollars was about to
+fall due in New York. Arrangements which he had made to pay the note
+miscarried, so that he was compelled to go to New York at once, or
+suffer the note to be protested. Upon the assurance of his fellow
+senators that the discussion of the bill would continue at least a
+week, he hastened to New York. While dining with some friends from
+Illinois, he was astounded to hear that the bill had been ordered
+engrossed for a third reading. He immediately left the city for
+Washington, but arrived too late. He was about to ask permission then
+to explain his absence, when his colleague dissuaded him. Everyone
+knew, said Shields, that he was in favor of the bill; besides, very
+probably the bill would be returned from the House with amendments.
+
+The circumstantial nature of this defense now seems quite unnecessary.
+After all, the best refutation of the charge lay in Douglas's
+reputation for courageous and manly conduct. He was true to himself
+when he said, "The dodging of votes--the attempt to avoid
+responsibility--is no part of my system of political tactics."
+
+If it is difficult to distribute the credit--or discredit--of having
+passed the compromise measures, it verges on the impossible to fix the
+responsibility on any individual. Clay fathered the scheme of
+adjustment; but he did not work out the details, and it was just this
+matter of details which aggravated the situation. Clay no longer
+coveted glory. His dominant feeling was one of thankfulness. "It was
+rather a triumph for the Union, for harmony and concord." Douglas
+agreed with him: "No man and no party has acquired a triumph, except
+the party friendly to the Union." But the younger man did covet honor,
+and he could not refrain from reminding the Senate that he had played
+"an humble part in the enactment of all these great measures."[366]
+Oddly enough, Jefferson Davis condescended to tickle the vanity of
+Douglas by testifying, "If any man has a right to be proud of the
+success of these measures, it is the Senator from Illinois."[367]
+
+Both Douglas and Toombs told their constituents that Congress had
+agreed upon a great, fundamental principle in dealing with the
+Territories. Both spoke with some degree of authority, for the two
+territorial bills had passed in the identical form upon which they had
+agreed in conference. But what was this principle? Toombs called it
+the principle which the South had unwisely compromised away in
+1820--the principle of non-interference with slavery by Congress, the
+right of the people to hold slaves in the common Territories. Douglas
+called the great principle, "the right of the people to form and
+regulate their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in
+their own way."[368] So stated the principle seems direct and simple.
+But was Toombs willing to concede that the people of a Territory might
+exclude slavery? He never said so; while Douglas conceded both the
+positive power to exclude, and the negative power to permit, slavery.
+Here was a discrepancy.[369] And it was probably because they could
+not agree on this point, that a provision was added to the territorial
+bills, providing that cases involving title to slaves might be
+appealed to the Supreme Court. Whether the people of Utah and New
+Mexico might exclude slaves, was to be left to the judiciary. In any
+case Congress was not to interfere with slavery in the Territories.
+
+One other question was raised subsequently. Was it intended that
+Congress should act on this principle in organizing future
+Territories? In other words, was the principle, newly recovered, to be
+applied retroactively? There was no answer to the question in 1850,
+for the simple reason that no one thought to ask it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 327: See the chapter on "State Policy" in Davidson and
+Stuve, History of Illinois.]
+
+[Footnote 328: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 573-574;
+Ackerman, Early Illinois Railroads, in Fergus Historical Series, p.
+32.]
+
+[Footnote 329: Letter of Breese to Douglas, Illinois _State Register_,
+February 6, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 330: Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 18-20.]
+
+[Footnote 331: Letter of Douglas to Breese, _State Register_, January
+20, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 332: _Ibid._, January 20, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 333: Sanborn, Congressional Grants of Land in Aid of
+Railways, Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, pp. 27-30.]
+
+[Footnote 334: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp.
+193-194.]
+
+[Footnote 335: Douglas renewed his bill in the short session of
+1848-1849, but did not secure action upon it.]
+
+[Footnote 336: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 195.
+There is so much brag in this account that one is disposed to distrust
+the details.]
+
+[Footnote 337: Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 31-34.]
+
+[Footnote 338: _Globe,_31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 904. The vote was 26 to
+14.]
+
+[Footnote 339: _Ibid._, p. 1838.]
+
+[Footnote 340: Sanborn, Congressional Grants, p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 341: John Wentworth, in his _Congressional Reminiscences_,
+hints at some vote-getting in the East by tariff concessions; but
+Douglas insisted that it was the Chicago branch, promising to connect
+with Eastern roads, which won votes in New York, Pennsylvania and New
+England. See Illinois _State Register_, March 13, 1851. The subject is
+discussed by Sanborn, Congressional Grants, pp. 35-36.]
+
+[Footnote 342: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 853.]
+
+[Footnote 343: _Ibid._, p. 869.]
+
+[Footnote 344: The economic significance of the Illinois Central
+Railroad appears in a letter of Vice-President McClellan to Douglas in
+1856. The management was even then planning to bring sugar from Havana
+directly to the Chicago market, and to take the wheat and pork of the
+Northwest to the West Indies _via_ New Orleans.]
+
+[Footnote 345: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 365.]
+
+[Footnote 346: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 366.]
+
+[Footnote 347: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 369-370.]
+
+[Footnote 348: _Globe,_ 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 370.]
+
+[Footnote 349: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 350: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 371. I have
+italicized one phrase because of its interesting relation to the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.]
+
+[Footnote 351: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 373.]
+
+[Footnote 352: Stephens, Const. View of the War between the States,
+II, pp. 178 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 353: For an account of this interesting episode, see
+Stephens, War Between the States, II, pp. 202-204. Boyd, not
+McClernand, was chairman of the House Committee, but the latter
+introduced the bills by agreement with Richardson.]
+
+[Footnote 354: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 662, 757.]
+
+[Footnote 355: See Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 132-134. See also Douglas's
+speech in the Senate, Dec. 23, 1851, and the testimony of Jefferson
+Davis, _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1830.]
+
+[Footnote 356: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1115.]
+
+[Footnote 357: _Ibid._, p. 1116.]
+
+[Footnote 358: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1134-1135.]
+
+[Footnote 359: _Ibid._, p. 1135.]
+
+[Footnote 360: _Ibid._, p. 1134.]
+
+[Footnote 361: _Ibid._, pp. 1143-1144.]
+
+[Footnote 362: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 305-306; also
+Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 80-81.]
+
+[Footnote 363: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 1480-1481.
+Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 364: Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp. 182-183.]
+
+[Footnote 365: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 366: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1829-1830.]
+
+[Footnote 367: _Ibid._, p. 1830.]
+
+[Footnote 368: See his speech in Chicago; Sheahan, Douglas, p. 169.]
+
+[Footnote 369: When Douglas reported the bills, he announced that
+there was a difference of opinion in the committee on some points, in
+regard to which each member reserved the right of stating his own
+opinion and of acting in accordance therewith. See _Globe_, 31 Cong.,
+1 Sess., p. 592.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+YOUNG AMERICA
+
+
+When Douglas reached Chicago, immediately after the adjournment of
+Congress, he found the city in an uproar. The strong anti-slavery
+sentiment of the community had been outraged by the Fugitive Slave
+Law. Reflecting the popular indignation, the Common Council had
+adopted resolutions condemning the act as a violation of the
+Constitution and a transgression of the laws of God. Those senators
+and representatives who voted for the bill, or "who basely sneaked
+away from their seats and thereby evaded the question," were
+stigmatized as "fit only to be ranked with the traitors, Benedict
+Arnold and Judas Iscariot." This was indeed a sorry home-coming for
+one who believed himself entitled to honors.
+
+Learning that a mass-meeting was about to indorse the action of the
+city fathers, Douglas determined to face his detractors and meet their
+charges. Entering the hall while the meeting was in progress, he
+mounted the platform, and announced that on the following evening he
+would publicly defend all the measures of adjustment. He was greeted
+with hisses and jeers for his pains; but in the end he had the
+satisfaction of securing an adjournment until his defense had been
+heard.
+
+It was infinitely to his credit that when he confronted a hostile
+audience on the next evening, he stooped to no cheap devices to divert
+resentment, but sought to approve his course to the sober
+intelligence of his hearers.[370] It is doubtful if the Fugitive Slave
+Law ever found a more skillful defender. The spirit in which he met
+his critics was admirably calculated to disarm prejudice. Come and let
+us reason together, was his plea. Without any attempt to ignore the
+most obnoxious parts of the act, he passed directly to the discussion
+of the clauses which apparently denied the writ of _habeas corpus_ and
+trial by jury to the fugitive from service. He reminded his hearers
+that this act was supplementary to the Act of 1793. No one had found
+fault with the earlier act because it had denied these rights. Both
+acts, in fact, were silent on these points; yet in neither case was
+silence to be construed as a denial of constitutional obligations. On
+the contrary, they must be assumed to continue in full force under the
+act. Misapprehension arose in these matters, because the recovery of
+the fugitive slave was not viewed as a process of extradition. The act
+provided for the return of the alleged slave to the State from which
+he had fled. Trial of the facts by jury would then follow under the
+laws of the State, just as the fugitive from justice would be tried in
+the State where the alleged crime had been committed. The testimony
+before the original court making the requisition, would necessarily be
+_ex parte_, as in the case of the escaped criminal; but this did not
+prevent a fair trial on return of the fugitive. Regarding the question
+of establishing the identity of the apprehended person with the
+fugitive described in the record, Douglas asserted that the terms of
+the act required proof satisfactory to the judge or commissioner, and
+not merely the presentment of the record. "Other and further evidence"
+might be insisted upon.
+
+At various times Douglas was interrupted by questions which were
+obviously contrived to embarrass him. To all such he replied
+courteously and with engaging frankness. "Why was it," asked one of
+these troublesome questioners, "that the law provided for a fee of ten
+dollars if the commissioner decided in favor of the claimant, and for
+a fee of only five dollars if he decided otherwise? Was this not in
+the nature of an inducement, a bribe?" "I presume," said Douglas,
+"that the reason was that he would have more labor to perform. If,
+after hearing the testimony, the commissioner decided in favor of the
+claimant, the law made it his duty to prepare and authenticate the
+necessary papers to authorize him to carry the fugitive home; but if
+he decided against him, he had no such labor to perform."
+
+After all, as Douglas said good-naturedly, all these objections were
+predicated on a reluctance to return a slave to his master under any
+circumstances. Did his hearers realize, he insisted, that refusal to
+do so was a violation of the Constitution? And were they willing to
+shatter the Union because of this feeling? At this point he was again
+interrupted by an individual, who wished to know if the provisions of
+the Constitution were not in violation of the law of God. "The divine
+law," responded Douglas, "does not prescribe the form of government
+under which we shall live, and the character of our political and
+civil institutions. Revelation has not furnished us with a
+constitution--a code of international law--and a system of civil and
+municipal jurisprudence." If this Constitution were to be repudiated,
+he begged to know, "who is to be the prophet to reveal the will of
+God, and establish a theocracy for us?"
+
+At the conclusion of his speech, Douglas offered a series of
+resolutions expressing the obligation of all good citizens to maintain
+the Constitution and all laws duly enacted by Congress in pursuance of
+the Constitution. With a remarkable revulsion of feeling, the audience
+indorsed these sentiments without a dissenting voice, and subsequently
+repudiated in express terms the resolutions of the Common
+Council.[371] The triumph of Douglas was complete. It was one of those
+rare instances where the current of popular resentment is not only
+deflected, but actually reversed, by the determination and eloquence
+of one man.
+
+There were two groups of irreconcilables to whom such appeals were
+unavailing--radical Abolitionists at the North and Southern Rights
+advocates. Not even the eloquence of Webster could make willing
+slave-catchers of the anti-slavery folk of Massachusetts. The rescue
+of the negro Shadrach, an alleged fugitive slave, provoked intense
+excitement, not only in New England but in Washington. The incident
+was deemed sufficiently ominous to warrant a proclamation by the
+President, counseling all good citizens to uphold the law. Southern
+statesmen of the radical type saw abundant evidence in this episode of
+a deliberate purpose at the North not to enforce the essential
+features of the compromise. Both Whig and Democratic leaders, with few
+exceptions, roundly denounced all attempts to nullify the Fugitive
+Slave Law.[372] None was more vehement than Douglas. He could not
+regard this Boston rescue as a trivial incident. He believed that
+there was an organization in many States to evade the law. It was in
+the nature of a conspiracy against the government. The ring-leaders
+were Abolitionists, who were exciting the negroes to excesses. He was
+utterly at a loss to understand how senators, who had sworn to obey
+and defend the Constitution, could countenance these palpable
+violations of law.[373]
+
+In spite of similar untoward incidents, the vast majority of people in
+the country North and South were acquiescing little by little in the
+settlement reached by the compromise measures. There was an evident
+disposition on the part of both Whig and Democratic leaders to drop
+the slavery issue. When Senator Sumner proposed a repeal of the
+Fugitive Slave Act, Douglas deprecated any attempt to "fan the flames
+of discord that have so recently divided this great people,"[374]
+intimating that Sumner's speech was intended to "operate upon the
+presidential election." It ill became the Senator from Illinois to
+indulge in such taunts, for no one, it may safely be said, was
+calculating his own political chances more intently. "Things look
+well," he had written to a friend, referring to his chances of
+securing the nomination, "and the prospect is brightening every day.
+All that is necessary now to insure success is that the northwest
+should unite and speak out."[375]
+
+When the Democrats of Illinois proposed Douglas's name for the
+presidency in 1848, no one was disposed to take the suggestion
+seriously, outside the immediate circle of his friends. To graybeards
+there was something almost humorous in the suggestion that five years
+of service in Congress gave a young man of thirty-five a claim to
+consideration! Within three short years, however, the situation had
+changed materially. Older aspirants for the chief magistracy were
+forced, with no little alarm, to acknowledge the rise of a really
+formidable rival. By midsummer of 1851, competent observers thought
+that Douglas had the best chance of winning the Democratic nomination.
+In the judgment of certain Whig editors, he was the strongest man. It
+was significant of his growing favor, that certain Democrats of the
+city and county of New York tendered him a banquet, in honor of his
+distinguished services to the party and his devotion to the Union
+during the past two years.
+
+Politicians of both parties shared the conviction that unless the
+Whigs could get together,--which was unlikely,--a nomination at the
+hands of a national Democratic convention was equivalent to an
+election. Consequently there were many candidates in the field. The
+preliminary canvass promised to be eager. It was indeed well under way
+long before Congress assembled in December, and it continued actively
+during the session. "The business of the session," wrote one observer
+in a cynical frame of mind, "will consist mainly in the manoeuvres,
+intrigues, and competitions for the next Presidency." Events justified
+the prediction. "A politician does not sneeze without reference to the
+Presidency," observed the same writer, some weeks after the beginning
+of the session. "Congress does little else but intrigue for the
+respective candidates."[376]
+
+Prospective candidates who sat in Congress had at least this
+advantage, over their outside competitors,--they could keep themselves
+in the public eye by making themselves conspicuous in debate. But the
+wisdom of such devices was questionable. Those who could not point
+with confident pride to their record, wisely chose to remain
+non-committal on matters of personal history. Douglas was one of those
+who courted publicity. Perhaps as a young man pitted against older
+rivals, he felt that he had everything to gain thereby and not much to
+lose. The irrepressible Foote of Mississippi gave all his colleagues a
+chance to mar their reputations, by injecting into the deliberations
+of the Senate a discussion of the finality of the compromise
+measures.[377] It speedily appeared that fidelity to the settlement of
+1850, from the Southern point of view, consisted in strict adherence
+to the Fugitive Slave Act.[378] This was the touchstone by which
+Southern statesmen proposed to test their Northern colleagues.
+Prudence whispered silence into many an ear; but Douglas for one
+refused to heed her admonitions. Within three weeks after the session
+began, he was on his feet defending the consistency of his course,
+with an apparent ingenuousness which carried conviction to the larger
+audience who read, but did not hear, his declaration of political
+faith.
+
+Two features of this speech commended it to Democrats: its
+recognition of the finality of the compromise, and its insistence upon
+the necessity of banishing the slavery question from politics. "The
+Democratic party," he asseverated, "is as good a Union party as I
+want, and I wish to preserve its principles and its organization, and
+to triumph upon its old issues. I desire no new tests--no
+interpolations into the old creed."[379] For his part, he was resolved
+never to speak again upon the slavery question in the halls of
+Congress.
+
+But this was after all a negative programme. Could a campaign be
+successfully fought without other weapons than the well-worn
+blunderbusses in the Democratic arsenal? This was a do-nothing policy,
+difficult to reconcile with the enthusiastic liberalism which Young
+America was supposed to cherish. Yet Douglas gauged the situation
+accurately. The bulk of the party wished a return to power more than
+anything else. To this end, they were willing to toot for old issues
+and preserve the old party alignment. For four years, the Democratic
+office-hunters had not tasted of the loaves and fishes within the gift
+of the executive. They expected liberality in conduct, if not
+liberalism in creed, from their next President. Douglas shared this
+political hunger. He had always been a believer in rotation in office,
+and an exponent of that unhappy, American practice of using public
+office as the spoil of party victory. In this very session, he put
+himself on record against permanence in office for the clerks of the
+Senate, holding that such positions should fall vacant at stated
+intervals.[380]
+
+But had Douglas no policy peculiarly his own, to qualify him for the
+leadership of his party? Distrustful Whigs accused him of being
+willing to offer Cuba for the support of the South.[381] Indeed, he
+made no secret of his desire to acquire the Pearl of the Antilles.
+Still, this was not the sort of issue which it was well to drag into a
+presidential campaign. Like all the other aspirants for the
+presidency, Douglas made what capital he could out of the visit of
+Kossuth and the question of intervention in behalf of Hungary. When
+the matter fell under discussion in the Senate, Douglas formulated
+what he considered should be the policy of the government:
+
+"I hold that the principle laid down by Governor Kossuth as the basis
+of his action--that each State has a right to dispose of her own
+destiny, and regulate her internal affairs in her own way, without the
+intervention of any foreign power--is an axiom in the laws of nations
+which every State ought to recognize and respect.... It is equally
+clear to my mind, that any violation of this principle by one nation,
+intervening for the purpose of destroying the liberties of another, is
+such an infraction of the international code as would authorize any
+State to interpose, which should conceive that it had sufficient
+interest in the question to become the vindicator of the laws of
+nations."[382]
+
+Cass had said much the same thing, but with less virility. Douglas
+scored on his rival in this speech: first, when he declared with a bit
+of Chauvinism, "I do not deem it material whether the reception of
+Governor Kossuth give offence to the crowned heads of Europe,
+provided it does not violate the law of nations, and give just _cause_
+of offence"; and again, scorning the suggestion of an alliance with
+England, "The peculiar position of our country requires that we should
+have an _American policy_ in our foreign relations, based upon the
+principles of our own government, and adapted to the spirit of the
+age."[383] There was a stalwart conviction in these utterances which
+gave promise of confident, masterful leadership. These are qualities
+which the people of this great democracy have always prized, but
+rarely discovered, in their Presidents.
+
+It was at this moment in the canvass that the promoters of Douglas's
+candidacy made a false move. Taking advantage of the popular
+demonstration over Kossuth and the momentary diversion of public
+attention from the slavery question to foreign politics, they sought to
+thrust Douglas upon the Democratic party as the exponent of a
+progressive foreign policy. They presumed to speak in behalf of "Young
+America," as against "Old Fogyism." Seizing upon the _Democratic
+Review_ as their organ, these progressives launched their boom by a
+sensational article in the January number, entitled "Eighteen-Fifty-Two
+and the Presidency." Beginning with an arraignment of "Webster's
+un-American foreign policy, the writer,--or writers,--called upon
+honest men to put an end to this "Quaker policy." "The time has come
+for strong, sturdy, clear-headed and honest men to act; and the
+Republic must have them, should it be compelled, as the colonies were
+in 1776, to drag the hero of the time out of a hole in a wild forest,
+[_sic_] whether in Virginia or the illimitable West." To inaugurate
+such an era, the presidential chair must be filled by a man, not of the
+last generation, but of this. He must not be "trammeled with ideas
+belonging to an anterior era, or a man of merely local fame and local
+affections, but a statesman who can bring young blood, young ideas, and
+young hearts to the councils of the Republic. He must not be a mere
+general, a mere lawyer, a mere wire-puller. "Your beaten horse, whether
+he ran for a previous presidential cup as first or second," will not
+do. He must be 'a tried civilian, not a second and third rate general.'
+"Withal, a practical statesman, not to be discomfited in argument, or
+led wild by theory, but one who has already, in the councils and
+tribunals of the nation, reared his front to the dismay of the shallow
+conservative, to the exposure of the humanitarian incendiary, and the
+discomfiture of the antiquated rhetorician."
+
+If anyone was so dense as not to recognize the portrait here painted,
+he had only to turn to an article entitled "Intervention," to find the
+name of the hero who was to usher in the new era. The author of this
+paper finds his sentiments so nearly identical with those of Stephen
+A. Douglas, that he resorts to copious extracts from his speech
+delivered in the Senate on the welcome of Kossuth, "entertaining no
+doubt that the American people, the _democracy_ of the country will
+endorse these doctrines by an overwhelming majority." Still another
+article in this formidable broadside from the editors of the
+_Democratic Review_, deprecated Foote's efforts to thrust the slavery
+issue again upon Congress, and expressed the pious wish that Southern
+delegates might join with Northern in the Baltimore convention, to
+nominate a candidate who would in future "evince the most profound
+ignorance as to the topographical bearing of that line of discord
+known as 'Mason and Dixon's.'"
+
+If all this was really the work of Douglas's friends,--and it is more
+than likely,--he had reason to pray to be delivered from them. At best
+the whole manoeuvre was clumsily planned and wretchedly executed; it
+probably did him irreparable harm. His strength was not sufficient to
+confront all his rivals; yet the almost inevitable consequence of the
+odious comparisons in the _Review_ was combinations against him. The
+leading article gave mortal offense in quarters where he stood most in
+need of support.[384] Douglas was quick to detect the blunder and
+appreciate its dangers to his prospects. His friends now began
+sedulously to spread the report that the article was a ruse of the
+enemy, for the especial purpose of spoiling his chances at Baltimore.
+It was alleged that proof sheets had been found in the possession of a
+gentleman in Washington, who was known to be hostile to Douglas.[385]
+Few believed this story: the explanation was too far-fetched.
+Nevertheless, one of Douglas's intimates subsequently declared, on the
+floor of the House, that the Judge was not responsible for anything
+that appeared in the _Review_, that he had no interest in or control
+over the magazine, and that he knew nothing about the January number
+until he saw it in print.[386]
+
+In spite of this untoward incident, Douglas made a formidable
+showing.[387] He was himself well pleased at the outlook. He wrote to
+a friend, "Prospects look well and are improving every day. If two or
+three western States will speak out in my favor the battle is over.
+Can anything be done in Iowa and Missouri? That is very important. If
+some one could go to Iowa, I think the convention in that State would
+instruct for me. In regard to our own State, I will say a word. Other
+States are appointing a large number of delegates to the convention,
+... ought not our State to do the same thing so as to ensure the
+attendance of most of our leading politicians at Baltimore?... This
+large number would exert a great moral influence on the other
+delegates."[388]
+
+Among the States which had led off in his favor was California; and it
+was a representative of California who first sounded the charge for
+Douglas's cohorts in the House. In any other place and at any other
+time, Marshall's exordium would have overshot the mark. Indeed, in
+indorsing the attack of the _Review_ on the old fogies in the party,
+he tore open wounds which it were best to let heal; but gauged by the
+prevailing standard of taste in politics, the speech was acceptable.
+It so far commended itself to the editors of the much-abused _Review_
+that it appeared in the April number, under the caption "The Progress
+of Democracy vs. Old Fogy Retrograder."
+
+To clear-headed outsiders, there was something factitious in this
+parade of enthusiasm for Douglas. "What most surprises one," wrote
+the correspondent of the New York _Tribune_, "is that these
+Congressmen, with beards and without; that verdant, flippant, smart
+detachment of Young America that has got into the House, propose to
+make a candidate for the Baltimore convention without consulting their
+masters, the people. With a few lively fellows in Congress and the aid
+of the _Democratic Review_, they fancy themselves equal to the
+achievement of a small job like this."[389] As the first of June
+approached, the older, experienced politicians grew confident that
+none of the prominent candidates could command a two-thirds vote in
+the convention. Some had foreseen this months beforehand and had been
+casting about for a compromise candidate. Their choice fell eventually
+upon General Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire. Friends were active in
+his behalf as early as April, and by June they had hatched their plot.
+It was not their plan to present his name to the convention at the
+outset, but to wait until the three prominent candidates (Cass,
+Douglas, and Buchanan) were disposed of. He was then to be put forward
+as an available, compromise candidate.[390]
+
+Was Douglas cognizant of the situation? While his supporters did not
+abate their noisy demonstrations, there is some ground to believe that
+he did not share their optimistic spirit. At all events, in spite of
+his earlier injunctions, only eleven delegates from Illinois attended
+the convention, while Pennsylvania sent fifty-five, Tennessee
+twenty-seven, and Indiana thirty-nine. Had Douglas sent home the
+intimation that the game was up? The first ballot told the story of
+his defeat. Common rumor had predicted that a large part of the
+Northwest would support him. Only fifteen of his twenty votes came
+from that quarter, and eleven of these were cast by Illinois. It was
+said that the Indiana delegates would divert their strength to him,
+when they had cast one ballot for General Lane; but Indiana cast no
+votes for Douglas. Although his total vote rose to ninety-two and on
+the thirty-first ballot he received the highest vote of any of the
+candidates, there was never a moment when there was the slightest
+prospect of his winning the prize.[391]
+
+On the thirty-fifth ballot occurred a diversion. Virginia cast fifteen
+votes for Franklin Pierce. The schemers had launched their project.
+But it was not until the forty-ninth ballot that they started the
+avalanche. Pierce then received all but six votes. Two Ohio delegates
+clung to Douglas to the bitter end. With the frank manliness which
+made men forget his less admirable qualities, Douglas dictated this
+dispatch to the convention: "I congratulate the Democratic party upon
+the nomination, and Illinois will give Franklin Pierce a larger
+majority than any other State in the Union,"--a promise which he was
+not able to redeem.
+
+If Douglas had been disposed to work out his political prospects by
+mathematical computation, he would have arrived at some interesting
+conclusions from the balloting in the convention. Indeed, very
+probably he drew some deductions in his own intuitive way, without any
+adventitious aid. Of the three rivals, Cass received the most widely
+distributed vote, although Douglas received votes from as many States.
+While they drew votes from twenty-one States, Buchanan received votes
+from only fifteen. Cass and Douglas obtained their highest percentages
+of votes from the West; Buchanan found his strongest support in the
+South. Douglas and Cass received least support in the Middle States;
+Buchanan had no votes from the West. But while Cass had, on his
+highest total, thirty per centum of the whole vote of the Middle
+States, Douglas was relatively weak in the Middle States rather than
+in the South. On the basis of these figures, it is impossible to
+justify the statement that he could expect nothing in future from New
+England and Pennsylvania, but would look to the South for support for
+the presidency.[392] On the contrary, one would say that his strong
+New England following would act as an equipoise, preventing too great
+a dip toward the Southern end of the scales. Besides, Douglas's hold
+on his own constituents and the West was contingent upon the favor of
+the strong New England element in the Northwest. If this convention
+taught Douglas anything, it must have convinced him that narrow,
+sectional policies and undue favor to the South would never land him
+in the White House. To win the prize which he frankly coveted, he must
+grow in the national confidence, and not merely in the favor of a
+single section, however powerful.[393]
+
+Pledges aside, Douglas was bound to give vigorous aid to the party
+candidates. His term as senator was about to expire. His own fortunes
+were inseparably connected with those of his party in Illinois. The
+Washington _Union_ printed a list of his campaign engagements,
+remarking with evident satisfaction that Judge Douglas was "in the
+field with his armor on." His itinerary reached from Virginia to
+Arkansas, and from New York to the interior counties of his own State.
+Stray items from a speech in Richmond suggest the tenuous quality of
+these campaign utterances. It was quite clear to his mind that General
+Scott's acceptance of the Whig nomination could not have been written
+by that manly soldier, but by _Politician_ Scott under the control of
+_General_ Seward. Was it wise to convert a good general into a bad
+president? Could it be true that Scott had promised the entire
+patronage of his administration to the Whigs? Why, "there had never
+been a Democratic administration in this Union that did not retain at
+least one-third of their political opponents in office!"[394] And yet,
+when Pierce had been elected, Douglas could say publicly, without so
+much as a blush, that Democrats must now have the offices. "For every
+Whig removed there should be a competent Democrat put in his place ...
+The best men should be selected, and everybody knows that the best men
+voted for Pierce and King."[395]
+
+The outcome of the elections in Illinois was gratifying save in one
+particular. In consequence of the redistricting of the State, the
+Whigs had increased the number of their representatives in Congress.
+But the re-election of Douglas was assured.[396] His hold upon his
+constituency was unshaken. With right good will he participated in the
+Democratic celebration at Washington. As an influential personage in
+Democratic councils he was called upon to sketch in broad lines what
+he deemed to be sound Democratic policy; but only a casual reference
+to Cuba redeemed his speech from the commonplace. "Whenever the people
+of Cuba show themselves worthy of freedom by asserting and maintaining
+independence, and apply for annexation, they ought to be annexed;
+whenever Spain is ready to sell Cuba, with the consent of its
+inhabitants, we ought to accept it on fair terms; and if Spain should
+transfer Cuba to England or any other European power, we should take
+and hold Cuba anyhow."[397]
+
+Ambition and a buoyant optimism seemed likely to make Douglas more
+than ever a power in Democratic politics, when a personal bereavement
+changed the current of his life. His young wife whom he adored, the
+mother of his two boys, died shortly after the new year. For the
+moment he was overwhelmed; and when he again took his place in the
+Senate, his colleagues remarked in him a bitterness and acerbity of
+temper which was not wonted. One hostage that he had given to Fortune
+had been taken away, and a certain recklessness took possession of
+him. He grew careless in his personal habits, slovenly in his dress,
+disregardful of his associates, and if possible more vehemently
+partisan in his public utterances.
+
+It was particularly regrettable that, while Douglas was passing
+through this domestic tragedy, he should have been drawn into a
+controversy relating to British claims in Central America. It was
+rumored that Great Britain, in apparent violation of the terms of the
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty, had taken possession of certain islands in the
+Bay of Honduras and erected them into the colony of "the Bay Islands."
+On the heels of this rumor came news that aroused widespread
+indignation. A British man-of-war had fired upon an American steamer,
+which had refused to pay port dues on entering the harbor of Greytown.
+Over this city, strategically located at the mouth of the San Juan
+River, Great Britain exercised an ill-disguised control as part of the
+Mosquito protectorate.
+
+In the midst of the excited debate which immediately followed in
+Congress, Cass astonished everybody by producing the memorandum which
+Bulwer had given Clayton just before the signing of the treaty.[398]
+In this remarkable note, the British ambassador stated that his
+government did not wish to be understood as renouncing its existing
+claims to Her Majesty's settlement at Honduras and "its dependencies."
+And Clayton seemed to have admitted the force of this reservation. For
+his part, Cass made haste to say, he wished the Senate distinctly to
+understand that when he had voted for the treaty, he believed Great
+Britain was thereby prevented from establishing any such dependency.
+His object--and he had supposed it to be the object of the treaty--was
+to sweep away all British claims to Central America.
+
+Behind this imbroglio lay an intricate diplomatic history which can
+be here only briefly recapitulated. The interest of the United States
+in the Central American States dated from the discovery of gold in
+California. The value of the control of the means of transportation
+across the isthmus at Nicaragua became increasingly clear, as the gold
+seekers sought that route to the Pacific coast. In the latter days of
+his administration, President Polk had sent one Elijah Hise to
+cultivate friendly relations with the Central American States and to
+offset the paramount influence of Great Britain in that region. Great
+Britain was already in possession of the colony of Belize and was
+exercising an ill-defined protectorate over the Mosquito Indians on
+the eastern coast of Nicaragua. In his ardor to serve American
+interests, Hise exceeded his instructions and secured a treaty with
+Nicaragua, which gave to the United States exclusive privileges over
+the route of the proposed canal, on condition that the sovereignty of
+Nicaragua were guaranteed. The incoming Whig administration would have
+nothing to do with the Hise _entente_, preferring to dispatch its own
+agent to Central America. Though Squier succeeded in negotiating a
+more acceptable treaty, the new Secretary of State, Clayton, was
+disposed to come to an understanding with Great Britain. The outcome
+of these prolonged negotiations was the famous Clayton-Bulwer treaty,
+by which both countries agreed to further the construction of a ship
+canal across the isthmus through Nicaragua, and to guarantee its
+neutrality. Other countries were invited to join in securing the
+neutrality of this and other regions where canals might be
+constructed. Both Great Britain and the United States explicitly
+renounced any "dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the Mosquito
+coast or any part of Central America."[399]
+
+The opposition would have been something less than human, if they had
+not seized upon the occasion to discredit the outgoing administration.
+Cass had already introduced a resolution reaffirming the terms of the
+famous Monroe message respecting European colonization in America, and
+thus furnishing the pretext for partisan attacks upon Secretary of
+State Clayton. But Cass unwittingly exposed his own head to a sidelong
+blow from his Democratic rival from Illinois, who affected the role of
+Young America once more.
+
+It is impossible to convey in cold print the biting sarcasm, the
+vindictive bitterness, and the reckless disregard of justice, with
+which Douglas spoke on February 14th. He sneered at this new
+profession of the Monroe Doctrine. Why keep repeating this talk about
+a policy which the United States has almost invariably repudiated in
+fact? Witness the Oregon treaty! "With an avowed policy, of thirty
+years' standing that no future European colonization is to be
+permitted in America--affirmed when there was no opportunity for
+enforcing it, and abandoned whenever a case was presented for carrying
+it into practical effect--is it now proposed to beat another retreat
+under cover of terrible threats of awful consequences when the offense
+shall be repeated? '_Henceforth_' no 'future' European colony is to be
+planted in America '_with our consent!_' It is gratifying to learn
+that the United States are never going to 'consent' to the
+repudiation of the Monroe doctrine again. No more Clayton and Bulwer
+treaties; no more British 'alliances' in Central America, New Granada,
+or Mexico; no more resolutions of oblivion to protect 'existing
+rights!' Let England tremble, and Europe take warning, if the offense
+is repeated. 'Should the attempt be made,' says the resolution, 'it
+will leave the United States _free to adopt_ such measures as an
+independent nation may justly adopt in defense of its rights and
+honor.' Are not the United States now _free_ to adopt such measures as
+an independent nation may _justly adopt_ in defense of its _rights and
+honor_? Have we not given the notice? Is not thirty years sufficient
+notice?"[400]
+
+He taunted Clayton with having suppressed the Hise treaty, which
+secured exclusive privileges for the United States over the canal
+route, in order to form a partnership with England and other
+monarchical powers of Europe. "Exclusive privileges" were sacrificed
+to lay the foundation of an alliance by which European intervention in
+American affairs was recognized as a right!
+
+It was generally known that Douglas had opposed the Clayton-Bulwer
+treaty;[401] but the particular ground of his opposition had been only
+surmised. Deeming the injunction of secrecy removed, he now
+emphatically registered his protest against the whole policy of
+pledging the faith of the Republic, not to do what in the future our
+interests, duty, and even safety, might compel us to do. The time
+might come when the United States would wish to possess some portion
+of Central America. Moreover, the agreement not to fortify any part of
+that region was not reciprocal, so long as Great Britain held Jamaica
+and commanded the entrance to the canal. He had always regarded the
+terms of the British protectorate over the Mosquito coast as
+equivocal; but the insuperable objection to the treaty was the
+European partnership to which the United States was pledged. The two
+parties not only contracted to extend their protection to any other
+practicable communications across the isthmus, whether by canal or
+railway, but invited all other powers to become parties to these
+provisions. What was the purport of this agreement, if it did not
+recognize the right of European powers to intervene in American
+affairs; what then became of the vaunted Monroe Doctrine?
+
+To the undiplomatic mind of Douglas, our proper course was as clear as
+day. Insist upon the withdrawal of Great Britain from the Bay Islands!
+"If we act with becoming discretion and firmness, I have no
+apprehension that the enforcement of our rights will lead to
+hostilities." And then let the United States free itself from
+entangling alliances by annulling the Clayton-Bulwer treaty.[402]
+Surely this was simplicity itself.
+
+The return of Clayton to the Senate, in the special session of March,
+brought the accused before his accusers. An acrimonious debate
+followed, in the course of which Douglas was forced to state his own
+position more explicitly. He took his stand upon the Hise treaty. Had
+the exclusive control of the canal been given into our hands, and the
+canal thrown open to the commerce of all nations upon our own terms,
+we would have had a right which would have been ample security for
+every nation under heaven to keep peace with the United States. "We
+could have fortified that canal at each end, and in time of war could
+have closed it against our enemies." But, suggested Clayton, European
+powers would never have consented to such exclusive control. "Well,
+Sir," said Douglas, "I do not know that they would have consented: but
+of one thing I am certain I would never have asked their
+consent."[403] And such was the temper of Young America that this
+sledge hammer diplomacy was heartily admired.
+
+It was in behalf of Young America again, that Douglas gave free rein
+to his vision of national destiny. Disclaiming any immediate wish for
+tropical expansion in the direction of either Mexico or Central
+America, he yet contended that no man could foresee the limits of the
+Republic. "You may make as many treaties as you please to fetter the
+limits of this giant Republic, and she will burst them all from her,
+and her course will be onward to a limit which I will not venture to
+prescribe." Why, then, pledge our faith never to annex any more of
+Mexico or any portion of Central America?[404]
+
+For this characteristic Chauvinism Douglas paid the inevitable
+penalty. Clayton promptly ridiculed this attitude. "He is fond of
+boasting ... that we are a _giant_ Republic; and the Senator himself
+is said to be a 'little giant;' yes, sir, quite a _giant_, and
+everything that he talks about in these latter days is gigantic. He
+has become so magnificent of late, that he cannot consent to enter
+into a partnership on equal terms with any nation on earth--not he! He
+must have the exclusive right in himself and our noble selves!"[405]
+
+It was inevitable, too, that Douglas should provoke resentment on his
+own side of the chamber. Cass was piqued by his slurs upon Old Fogyism
+and by his trenchant criticism of the policy of reasserting the Monroe
+Doctrine. Badger spoke for the other side of the house, when he
+declared that Douglas spoke "with a disregard to justice and fairness
+which I have seldom seen him exhibit." It is lamentably true that
+Douglas exhibited his least admirable qualities on such occasions.
+Hatred for Great Britain was bred in his bones. Possibly it was part
+of his inheritance from that grandfather who had fought the Britishers
+in the wars of the Revolution. Possibly, too, he had heard as a boy,
+in his native Vermont village, tales of British perfidy in the recent
+war of 1812. At all events, he was utterly incapable of anything but
+bitter animosity toward Great Britain. This unreasoning prejudice
+blinded his judgment in matters of diplomacy, and vitiated his
+utterances on questions of foreign policy.
+
+Replying to Clayton, he said contemptuously, "I do not sympathize with
+that feeling which the Senator expressed yesterday, that it was a pity
+to have a difference with a nation so friendly to us as England. Sir,
+I do not see the evidence of her friendship. It is not in the nature
+of things that she can be our friend. It is impossible that she can
+love us. I do not blame her for not loving us. Sir, we have wounded
+her vanity and humbled her pride. She can never forgive us."[406]
+
+And when Senator Butler rebuked him for this animosity, reminding him
+that England was after all our mother country, to whom we were under
+deeper obligations than to any other, Douglas retorted, "She is and
+ever has been a cruel and unnatural mother." Yes, he remembered the
+illustrious names of Hampden, Sidney, and others; but he remembered
+also that "the same England which gave them birth, and should have
+felt a mother's pride and love in their virtues and services,
+persecuted her noble sons to the dungeon and the scaffold." "He speaks
+in terms of delight and gratitude of the copious and refreshing
+streams which English literature and science are pouring into our
+country and diffusing throughout the land. Is he not aware that nearly
+every English book circulated and read in this country contains
+lurking and insidious slanders and libels upon the character of our
+people and the institutions and policy of our Government?"[407]
+
+For Europe in general, Douglas had hardly more reverence. With a
+positiveness which in such matters is sure proof of provincialism, he
+said, "Europe is antiquated, decrepit, tottering on the verge of
+dissolution. When you visit her, the objects which enlist your highest
+admiration are the relics of past greatness; the broken columns
+erected to departed power. It is one vast graveyard, where you find
+here a tomb indicating the burial of the arts; there a monument
+marking the spot where liberty expired; another to the memory of a
+great man, whose place has never been filled. The choicest products of
+her classic soil consist in relics, which remain as sad memorials of
+departed glory and fallen greatness! They bring up the memories of
+the dead, but inspire no hope for the living! Here everything is
+fresh, blooming, expanding and advancing."[408]
+
+And yet, soon after Congress adjourned, he set out to visit this vast
+graveyard. It was even announced that he proposed to spend five or six
+months in studying the different governments of Europe. Doubtless he
+regarded this study as of negative value chiefly. From the observation
+of relics of departed grandeur, a live American would derive many a
+valuable lesson. His immediate destination was the country against
+which he had but just thundered. Small wonder if a cordial welcome did
+not await him. His admiring biographer records with pride that he was
+not presented to Queen Victoria, though the opportunity was
+afforded.[409] It appears that this stalwart Democrat would not so far
+demean himself as to adopt the conventional court dress for the
+occasion. He would not stoop even to adopt the compromise costume of
+Ambassador Buchanan, and add to the plain dress of an American
+citizen, a short sword which would distinguish him from the court
+lackeys.
+
+At St. Petersburg, his objections to court dress were more
+sympathetically received. Count Nesselrode, who found this
+uncompromising American possessed of redeeming qualities, put himself
+to no little trouble to arrange an interview with the Czar. Douglas
+was finally put under the escort of Baron Stoeckle, who was a member
+of the Russian embassy at Washington, and conducted to the field where
+the Czar was reviewing the army. Mounted upon a charger of huge
+dimensions, the diminutive Douglas was brought into the presence of
+the Czar of all the Russias.[410] It is said that Douglas was the only
+American who witnessed these manoeuvres; but Douglas afterward
+confessed, with a laugh at his own expense, that the most conspicuous
+feature of the occasion for him was the ominous evolutions of his
+horse's ears, for he was too short of limb and too inexperienced a
+horseman to derive any satisfaction from the military pageant.[411]
+
+We are assured by his devoted biographer, Sheahan, that Douglas
+personally examined _all_ the public institutions of the capital
+during his two weeks' stay in St. Petersburg; and that he sought a
+thorough knowledge of the manners, laws, and government of that city
+and the Empire.[412] No doubt, with his nimble perception he saw much
+in this brief sojourn, for Russia had always interested him greatly,
+and he had read its history with more than wonted care.[413] He was
+not content to follow merely the beaten track in central and western
+Europe; but he visited also the Southeast where rumors of war were
+abroad. From St. Petersburg, he passed by carriage through the
+interior to the Crimea and to Sebastopol, soon to be the storm centre
+of war. In the marts of Syria and Asia Minor, he witnessed the contact
+of Orient and Occident. In the Balkan peninsula he caught fugitive
+glimpses of the rule of the unspeakable Turk.[414]
+
+No man with the quick apperceptive powers of Douglas could remain
+wholly untouched by the sights and sounds that crowd upon even the
+careless traveler in the East; yet such experiences are not formative
+in the character of a man of forty. Douglas was still Douglas, still
+American, still Western to the core, when he set foot on native soil
+in late October. He was not a larger man either morally or
+intellectually; but he had acquired a fund of information which made
+him a readier, and possibly a wiser, man. And then, too, he was
+refreshed in body and mind. More than ever he was bold, alert,
+persistent, and resourceful. In his compact, massive frame, were
+stored indomitable pluck and energy; and in his heart the spirit of
+ambition stirred mightily.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 370: The speech is given in part by Sheahan, Douglas, pp.
+171 ff; and at greater length by Flint, Douglas, App., pp. 3 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 371: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 186; Flint, Douglas, App., p. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 372: _Globe,_31 Cong., 2 Sess., Debate of February 21 and
+22, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 373: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 312.]
+
+[Footnote 374: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 1120.]
+
+[Footnote 375: MS. Letter dated December 30, 1851.]
+
+[Footnote 376: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, pp. 351, 358, 362.]
+
+[Footnote 377: Senator Foote introduced the subject December 2, 1851,
+by a resolution pronouncing the compromise measures a "definite
+adjustment and settlement."]
+
+[Footnote 378: Rhodes, History of the United States, 1, p. 230.]
+
+[Footnote 379: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 380: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 63. About this time he
+wrote to a friend, "I shall act on the rule of giving the offices to
+those who fight the battles."]
+
+[Footnote 381: Mann, Life of Horace Mann, p. 354.]
+
+[Footnote 382: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 70.]
+
+[Footnote 383: _Globe,_32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 70-71.]
+
+[Footnote 384: See speech by Breckinridge of Kentucky in _Globe_, 32
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 299 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 385: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 386: Statement by Richardson of Illinois in reply to J.C.
+Breckinridge of Kentucky, March 3, 1852. _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 387: "What with his Irish Organs, his Democratic reviews and
+an armful of other strings, each industriously pulled, he makes a
+formidable show." Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 115.]
+
+[Footnote 388: MS. Letter, February 25, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 389: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 118.]
+
+[Footnote 390: Burke-Pierce Correspondence, printed in _American
+Historical Review_, X, pp. 110 ff. See also Stanwood, History of the
+Presidency, p. 248, and Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+251-252.]
+
+[Footnote 391: Proceedings of Democratic National Convention of 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 392: See Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp.
+424-425.]
+
+[Footnote 393: To attribute to Douglas, from this time on, as many
+writers have done, a purpose to pander to the South, is not only to
+discredit his political foresight, but to misunderstand his position
+in the Northwest and to ignore his reiterated assertions.]
+
+[Footnote 394: Richmond _Enquirer_, quoted in Illinois _Register_,
+August 3, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 395: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 396: Washington _Union_, November 30, 1852. On a joint
+ballot of the legislature Douglas received 75 out of 95 votes. See
+Illinois _State Register_, January 5, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 397: Illinois _State Register_, December 23, 1852.]
+
+[Footnote 398: Smith, Parties and Slavery, pp. 88-93.]
+
+[Footnote 399: MacDonald, Select Documents of the History of the
+United States, No. 77.]
+
+[Footnote 400: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 170.]
+
+[Footnote 401: Douglas declined to serve on the Senate Committee on
+Foreign Affairs, because he was opposed to the policy of the majority,
+so he afterward intimated. _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 402: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 403: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 404: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 405: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 276.]
+
+[Footnote 406: _Ibid._, p. 262.]
+
+[Footnote 407: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 275.]
+
+[Footnote 408: _Globe_, 32 Cong., Special Sess., p. 273.]
+
+[Footnote 409: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 443-444.]
+
+[Footnote 410: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 444-445.]
+
+[Footnote 411: Major McConnell in the Transactions of the Illinois
+Historical Society, IV, p. 48; Linder, Early Bench and Bar of
+Illinois, pp. 80-82.]
+
+[Footnote 412: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 444.]
+
+[Footnote 413: Conversation with Judge R.M. Douglas.]
+
+[Footnote 414: Washington _Union_, and Illinois _State Register_, May
+26 and November 6, 1853.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT
+
+
+With the occupation of Oregon and of the gold fields of California,
+American colonization lost temporarily its conservative character.
+That heel-and-toe process, which had hitherto marked the occupation of
+the Mississippi Valley, seemed too slow and tame; the pace had
+lengthened and quickened. Consequently there was a great
+waste--No-man's-land--between the western boundary of Iowa, Missouri
+and Arkansas, and the scattered communities on the Pacific slope. It
+was a waste broken only by the presence of the Mormons in Utah, of
+nomadic tribes of Indians on the plains, and of tribes of more settled
+habits on the eastern border. In many cases these lands had been given
+to Indian tribes in perpetuity, to compensate for the loss of their
+original habitat in some of the Eastern States. With strange lack of
+foresight, the national government had erected a barrier to its own
+development.
+
+As early as 1844, Douglas had proposed a territorial government for
+the region of which the Platte, or Nebraska, was the central
+stream.[415] The chief trail to Oregon traversed these prairies and
+plains. If the United States meant to assert and maintain its title to
+Oregon, some sort of government was needed to protect emigrants, and
+to supply a military basis for such forces as should be required to
+hold the disputed country. Though the Secretary of War indorsed this
+view,[416] Congress was not disposed to anticipate the occupation of
+the prairies. Nebraska became almost a hobby with Douglas. He
+introduced a second bill in 1848,[417] and a third in 1852,[418] all
+designed to prepare the way for settled government.
+
+The last of these was unique. Its provisions were designed, no doubt,
+to meet the unusual conditions presented by the overland emigration to
+California. Military protection for the emigrant, a telegraph line,
+and an overland mail were among the ostensible objects. The military
+force was to be a volunteer corps, which would construct military
+posts and at the same time provide for its own maintenance by tilling
+the soil. At the end of three years these military farmers were each
+to receive 640 acres along the route, and thus form a sort of military
+colony.[419] Douglas pressed the measure with great warmth; but
+Southerners doubted the advisability of "encouraging new swarms to
+leave the old hives," not wishing to foster an expansion in which they
+could not share,[420] nor forgetting that this was free soil by the
+terms of the Missouri Compromise. All sorts of objections were trumped
+up to discredit the bill. Douglas was visibly irritated. "Sir," he
+exclaimed, "it looks to me as if the design was to deprive us of
+everything like protection in that vast region ... I must remind the
+Senate again that the pointing out of these objections, and the
+suggesting of these large expenditures show us that we are to expect
+no protection at all; they evince direct, open hostility to that
+section of the country."[421]
+
+It was the fate of the Nebraska country to be bound up more or less
+intimately with the agitation in favor of a Pacific railroad. All
+sorts of projects were in the air. Asa Whitney had advocated, in
+season and out, a railroad from Lake Michigan to some available harbor
+on the Pacific. Douglas and his Chicago friends were naturally
+interested in this enterprise. Benton, on the other hand, jealous for
+the interests of St. Louis, advocated a "National Central Highway"
+from that city to San Francisco, with branches to other points. The
+South looked forward to a Pacific railroad which should follow a
+southern route.[422] A northern or central route would inevitably open
+a pathway through the Indian country and force on the settlement and
+organization of the territory;[423] the choice of a southern route
+would in all likelihood retard the development of Nebraska.
+
+While Congress was shirking its duty toward Nebraska, the Wyandot
+Indians, a civilized tribe occupying lands in the fork of the Kansas
+and Missouri rivers, repeatedly memorialized Congress to grant them a
+territorial government.[424] Dogged perseverance may be an Indian
+characteristic, but there is reason to believe that outside
+influences were working upon them. Across the border, in Missouri,
+they had a staunch friend in ex-Senator Benton, who had reasons of his
+own for furthering their petitions. In 1850, the opposition, which had
+been steadily making headway against him, succeeded in deposing the
+old parliamentarian and electing a Whig as his successor in the
+Senate. The _coup d'etat_ was effected largely through the efforts of
+an aggressive pro-slavery faction led by Senator David E.
+Atchison.[425] It was while his fortunes were waning in Missouri, that
+Benton interested himself in the Central Highway and in the Wyandots.
+His project, indeed, contemplated grants of land along the route, when
+the Indian title should be extinguished.[426] Possibly it was Benton's
+purpose to regain his footing in Missouri politics by advocating this
+popular measure; possibly, as his opponents hinted, he looked forward
+to residing in the new Territory and some day becoming its first
+senator; at all events, he came to look upon the territorial
+organization of Nebraska as an integral part of his larger railroad
+project.
+
+In this wise, Missouri factional quarrels, Indian titles, railroads,
+territorial government for Nebraska, and land grants had become
+hopelessly tangled, when another bill for the organization of Nebraska
+came before Congress in February, 1853.[427] The measure was presented
+by Willard P. Hall, a representative from Missouri, belonging to the
+Benton faction. His advocacy of the bill in the House throws a flood
+of light on the motives actuating both friends and opponents.
+Representatives from Texas evinced a poignant concern for the rights
+of the poor Indian. Had he not been given these lands as a permanent
+home, after being driven from the hunting ground of his fathers? To be
+sure, there was a saving clause in the bill which promised to respect
+Indian claims, but zeal for the Indian still burned hotly in the
+breasts of these Texans. Finally, Hall retorted that Texas had for
+years been trying to drive the wild tribes from her borders, so as to
+make the northern routes unsafe and thus to force the tide of
+emigration through Texas.[428] "Why, everybody is talking about a
+railroad to the Pacific. In the name of God, how is the railroad to be
+made, if you will never let people live on the lands through which the
+road passes?"[429]
+
+In other words, the concern of the Missourians was less for the
+unprotected emigrant than for the great central railroad; while the
+South cared less for the Indian than for a southern railroad route.
+The Nebraska bill passed the House by a vote which suggests the
+sectional differences involved in it.[430]
+
+It was most significant that, while a bill to organize the Territory
+of Washington passed at once to a third reading in the Senate, the
+Nebraska bill hung fire. Douglas made repeated efforts to gain
+consideration for it; but the opposition seems to have been motived
+here as it was in the House.[431] On the last day of the session, the
+Senate entered upon an irregular, desultory debate, without a quorum.
+Douglas took an unwilling part. He repeated that the measure was "very
+dear to his heart," that it involved "a matter of immense
+importance," that the object in view was "to form a line of
+territorial governments extending from the Mississippi valley to the
+Pacific ocean." The very existence of the Union seemed to him to
+depend upon this policy. For eight years he had advocated the
+organization of Nebraska; he trusted that the favorable moment had
+come.[432] But his trust was misplaced. The Senate refused to consider
+the bill, the South voting almost solidly against it, though Atchison,
+who had opposed the bill in the earlier part of the session, announced
+his conversion,--for the reason that he saw no prospect of a repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise. The Territory might as well be organized now
+as ten years later.[433]
+
+Disappointed by the inaction of Congress, the Wyandots took matters
+into their own hands, and set up a provisional government.[434] Then
+ensued a contest between the Missouri factions to name the territorial
+delegate,--who was to present the claims of the new government to the
+authorities at Washington. On November 7, 1853, Thomas Johnson, the
+nominee of the Atchison faction, was elected.[435] In the meantime
+Senator Atchison had again changed his mind: he was now opposed to the
+organization of Nebraska, unless the Missouri Compromise were
+repealed.[436] The motives which prompted this recantation can only be
+surmised. Presumably, for some reason, Atchison no longer believed the
+Missouri Compromise "irremediable."
+
+The strangely unsettled condition of the great tract whose fate was
+pending, is no better illustrated than by a second election which was
+held on the upper Missouri. One Hadley D. Johnson, sometime member of
+the Iowa legislature, hearing of the proposal of the Wyandots to send
+a territorial delegate to Congress, invited his friends in western
+Iowa to cross the river and hold an election. They responded by
+choosing their enterprising compatriot for their delegate, who
+promptly set out for Washington, bearing their mandate. Arriving at
+the capital, he found Thomas Johnson already occupying a seat in the
+House in the capacity of delegate-elect. Not to be outdone, the Iowa
+Johnson somewhat surreptitiously secured his admission to the floor.
+Subsequently, "the two Johnsons," as they were styled by the members,
+were ousted, the House refusing very properly to recognize either.
+Thomas Johnson exhibited some show of temper, but was placated by the
+good sense of his rival, who proposed that they should strike for two
+Territories instead of one. Why not; was not Nebraska large enough for
+both?[437]
+
+Under these circumstances, the question of Nebraska seemed likely to
+recur. Certain Southern newspapers were openly demanding the removal
+of the slavery restriction in the new Territory.[438] Yet the chairman
+of the Senate Committee on Territories, who had just returned from
+Europe, seems to have been unaware of the undercurrents whose surface
+indications have been pointed out. He wrote confidentially on November
+11th:[439] "It [the administration] has difficulties ahead, but it
+must meet them boldly and fairly. There is a surplus revenue which
+must be disposed of and the tariff reduced to a legitimate revenue
+standard. It will not do to allow the surplus to accumulate in the
+Treasury and thus create a pecuniary revulsion that would overwhelm
+the business arrangements and financial affairs of the country. The
+River and Harbor question must be met and decided. Now in my opinion
+is the time to put those great interests on a more substantial and
+secure basis by a well devised system of Tonnage duties. I do not know
+what the administration will do on this question, but I hope they will
+have the courage to do what we all feel to be right. The Pacific
+railroad will also be a disturbing element. It will never do to
+commence making railroads by the federal government under any pretext
+of necessity. We can grant alternate sections of land as we did for
+the Central Road, but not a dollar from the National Treasury. These
+are the main questions and my opinions are foreshadowed as you are
+entitled to know them."
+
+In the same letter occurs an interesting personal allusion: "I see
+many of the newspapers are holding me up as a candidate for the next
+Presidency. I do not wish to occupy that position. I do not think I
+will be willing to have my name used. I think such a state of things
+will exist that I shall not desire the nomination. Yet I do not intend
+to do any act which will deprive me of the control of my own action. I
+shall remain entirely non-committal and hold myself at liberty to do
+whatever my duty to my principles and my friends may require when the
+time for action arrives. Our first duty is to the cause--the fate of
+individual politicians is of minor consequence. The party is in a
+distracted condition and it requires all our wisdom, prudence and
+energy to consolidate its power and perpetuate its principles. Let us
+leave the Presidency out of view for at least two years to come."
+
+These are not the words of a man who is plotting a revolution. Had
+Nebraska and the Missouri Compromise been uppermost in his thoughts,
+he would have referred to the subject, for the letter was written in
+strict confidence to friends, from whom he kept no secrets and before
+whom he was not wont to pose.
+
+Those better informed, however, believed that Congress would have to
+deal with the territorial question in the near future. The Washington
+_Union_, commonly regarded as the organ of the administration,
+predicted that next to pressing foreign affairs, the Pacific railroad
+and the Territories would occupy the attention of the
+administration.[440] And before Congress assembled, or had been long in
+session, the chairman of the Committee on Territories must have sensed
+the situation, for on December 14, 1853, Senator Dodge of Iowa
+introduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska, which was identical
+with that of the last session.[441] The bill was promptly referred to
+the Committee on Territories, and the Nebraska question entered upon
+its last phase. Within a week, Douglas's friends of the Illinois State
+_Register_ were sufficiently well informed of the thoughts and intents
+of his mind to hazard this conjecture: "We believe they [the people of
+Nebraska] may be safely left to act for themselves.... The territories
+should be admitted to exercise, as nearly as practicable, all the
+rights claimed by the States, and to adopt all such political
+regulations and institutions as their wisdom may suggest."[442] A New
+York correspondent announced on December 30th, that the committee would
+soon report a bill for three Territories on the basis of New Mexico and
+Utah; that is, without excluding or admitting slavery. "Climate and
+nature and the necessary pursuits of the people who are to occupy the
+territories," added the writer complacently, "will settle the
+question--and these will effectually exclude slavery."[443]
+
+These rumors foreshadowed the report of the committee. The problem was
+to find a mode of overcoming the opposition of the South to the
+organization of a Territory which would not only add eventually to the
+number of free States, but also open up a northern route to the
+Pacific. The price of concession from the South on the latter point
+must be some apparent concession to the South in the matter of
+slavery. The report of January 4, 1854, and the bill which accompanied
+it, was Douglas's solution of the problem.[444] The principles of the
+compromise measures of 1850 were to be affirmed and carried into
+practical operation within the limits of the new Territory of
+Nebraska. "In the judgment of your committee," read the report, "those
+measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring
+effect than the mere adjustment of the difficulties arising out of the
+recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to
+establish certain great principles ... your committee have deemed it
+their duty to incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill,
+the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other
+consideration were necessary, to render the propriety of this course
+imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the
+Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the slavery
+question, as did New Mexico and Utah, when those Territories were
+organized."[445]
+
+Just as it was a disputed point, the report argued, whether slavery
+was prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico, so it is
+questioned whether slavery is prohibited in the Nebraska country by
+_valid_ enactment. "In the opinion of those eminent statesmen, who
+hold that Congress is invested with no rightful authority to legislate
+upon the subject of slavery in the Territories, the 8th section of the
+act preparatory to the admission of Missouri is null and void; while
+the prevailing sentiment in large portions of the Union sustains the
+doctrine that the Constitution of the United States secures to every
+citizen an inalienable right to move into any of the Territories with
+his property, of whatever kind and description, and to hold and enjoy
+the same under the sanction of law. Your committee do not feel
+themselves called upon to enter upon the discussion of these
+controverted questions. They involve the same grave issues which
+produced the agitation, the sectional strife, and the fearful struggle
+of 1850." And just as Congress deemed it wise in 1850 to refrain from
+deciding the matter in controversy, so "your committee are not
+prepared now to recommend a departure from the course pursued on that
+memorable occasion either by affirming or repealing the 8th section of
+the Missouri act, or by any act declaratory of the meaning of the
+Constitution in respect to the legal points in dispute." The essential
+features of the Compromise of 1850, which should again be carried into
+practical operation, were stated as follows:
+
+"First: That all questions pertaining to slavery in the Territories,
+and in the new States to be formed therefrom, are to be left to the
+decision of the people residing therein, by their appropriate
+representatives, to be chosen by them for that purpose.
+
+"Second: That 'all cases involving title to slaves,' and 'questions of
+personal freedom,' are referred to the adjudication of the local
+tribunals, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of the United
+States.
+
+"Third: That the provision of the Constitution of the United States,
+in respect to fugitives from service, is to be carried into faithful
+execution in all 'the organized Territories,' the same as in the
+States."
+
+The substitute reported by the committee followed the Dodge bill
+closely, but contained the additional statement. "And when admitted as
+a State or States, the said Territory, or any part of the same, shall
+be received into the Union, with or without slavery, as their
+Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."[446] This
+phraseology was identical with that of the Utah and New Mexico Acts.
+The bill also made special provision for writs of error and appeals
+from the territorial court to the Supreme Court of the United States,
+in all cases involving title to slaves and personal freedom. This
+feature, too, was copied from the Utah and New Mexico Acts. As first
+printed in the Washington _Sentinel_, January 7th, the bill contained
+no reference to the Missouri Compromise and no direct suggestion that
+the territorial legislature would decide the question of slavery. The
+wording of the bill and its general tenor gave the impression that the
+prohibition of slavery would continue during the territorial status,
+unless in the meantime the courts should declare the Missouri
+Compromise null and void. Three days later, January 10th, the
+_Sentinel_ reprinted the bill with an additional section, which had
+been omitted by a "clerical error." This twenty-first section read,
+"In order to avoid all misconstruction, it is hereby declared to be
+the true intent and meaning of this act, so far as the question of
+slavery is concerned, to carry into practical operation the following
+propositions and principles, established by the compromise measures of
+one thousand eight hundred and fifty, to wit:" then followed the three
+propositions which had accompanied the report of January 4th. The last
+of these three propositions had been slightly abbreviated: all
+questions pertaining to slavery were to be left to the decision of the
+people through their appropriate representatives, the clause "to be
+chosen by them for that purpose" being omitted.
+
+This additional section transformed the whole bill. For the first time
+the people of the Territory are mentioned as the determining agents in
+respect to slavery. And the unavoidable inference followed, that they
+were not to be hampered in their choice by the restrictive feature of
+the Missouri Act of 1820. The omission of this weighty section was
+certainly a most extraordinary oversight. Whose was the "clerical
+error"? Attached to the original draft, now in the custody of the
+Secretary of the Senate, is a sheet of blue paper, in Douglas's
+handwriting, containing the crucial article. All evidence points to
+the conclusion that Douglas added this hastily, after the bill had
+been twice read in the Senate and ordered to be printed; but whether
+it was carelessly omitted by the copyist or appended by Douglas as an
+afterthought, it is impossible to say.[447] After his report of
+January 4th, there was surely no reason why Douglas should have
+hesitated to incorporate the three propositions in the bill; but it is
+perfectly obvious that with the appended section, the Nebraska bill
+differed essentially from its prototypes, though Douglas contended
+that he had only made explicit what was contained implicitly in the
+Utah bill.
+
+Two years later Douglas replied to certain criticisms from Trumbull in
+these words: "He knew, or, if not, he ought to know, that the bill in
+the shape in which it was first reported, as effectually repealed the
+Missouri restriction as it afterwards did when the repeal was put in
+express terms. The only question was whether it should be done in the
+language of the acts of 1850, or in the language subsequently
+employed, but the legal effect was precisely the same."[448] Of course
+Douglas was here referring to the original bill containing the
+twenty-first section.
+
+It has commonly been assumed that Douglas desired the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise in order to open Nebraska to slavery. This was the
+passionate accusation of his anti-slavery contemporaries; and it has
+become the verdict of most historians. Yet there is ample evidence
+that Douglas had no such wish and intent. He had said in 1850, and on
+other occasions, that he believed the prairies to be dedicated to
+freedom by a law above human power to repeal. Climate, topography, the
+conditions of slave labor, which no Northern man knew better, forbade
+slavery in the unoccupied areas of the West.[449] True, he had no such
+horror of slavery extension as many Northern men manifested; he was
+probably not averse to sacrificing some of the region dedicated by law
+to freedom, if thereby he could carry out his cherished project of
+developing the greater Northwest; but that he deliberately planned to
+plant slavery in all that region, is contradicted by the
+incontrovertible fact that he believed the area of slavery to be
+circumscribed definitely by Nature. Man might propose but physical
+geography would dispose.
+
+The regrettable aspect of Douglas's course is his attempt to nullify
+the Missouri Compromise by subtle indirection. This was the device of
+a shifty politician, trying to avert suspicion and public alarm by
+clever ambiguities. That he really believed a new principle had been
+substituted for an old one, in dealing with the Territories, does not
+extenuate the offense, for not even he had ventured to assert in 1850,
+that the compromises of that year had in any wise disturbed the status
+of the great, unorganized area to which Congress had applied the
+restrictive proviso of 1820. Besides, only so recently as 1849, he had
+said, with all the emphasis of sincerity, that the compromise had
+"become canonized in the hearts of the American people, as a sacred
+thing, which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to
+disturb." And while he then opposed the extension of the principle to
+new Territories, he believed that it had been "deliberately
+incorporated into our legislation as a solemn and sacred
+compromise."[450]
+
+By this time Douglas must have been aware of the covert purpose of
+Atchison and others to secure the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
+though he hoped that they would acquiesce in his mode of doing it. He
+was evidently not prepared for the bold move which certain of the
+senators from slave States were contemplating.[451] He was therefore
+startled by an amendment which Dixon of Kentucky offered on January
+16th, to the effect that the restrictive clause of the Act of 1820
+should not be so construed as to apply to Nebraska or any other
+Territory; "but that the citizens of the several States or territories
+shall be at liberty to take and hold their slaves within any of the
+territories of the United States or of the States to be formed
+therefrom," as if the Missouri Act had never been passed. Douglas at
+once left his seat to remonstrate with Dixon, who was on the Whig side
+of the Senate chamber. He disliked the amendment, not so much because
+it wiped out the Missouri Compromise as because it seemed
+"affirmatively to legislate slavery into the Territory."[452] Knowing
+Dixon to be a supporter of the compromise measures of 1850, Douglas
+begged him not to thwart the work of his committee, which was trying
+in good faith to apply the cardinal features of those measures to
+Nebraska. The latter part of Dixon's amendment could hardly be
+harmonized with the principle of congressional non-intervention.[453]
+
+There seems to be no reason to doubt that Dixon moved in this matter on
+his own initiative;[454] but he was a friend to Atchison and he could
+not have been wholly ignorant of the Missouri factional quarrel.[455]
+To be sure, Dixon was a Whig, but Southern Whigs and Democrats were at
+one in desiring expansion for the peculiar institution of their
+section. Pressure was now brought to bear upon Douglas to incorporate
+the direct repeal of the compromise in the Nebraska bill.[456] He
+objected strongly, foreseeing no doubt the storm of protest which would
+burst over his head in the North.[457] Still, if he could unite the
+party on the principle of non-intervention with slavery in the
+Territories, the risk of temporary unpopularity would be worth taking.
+No doubt personal ambition played its part in forming his purpose, but
+party considerations swayed him most powerfully.[458] He witnessed with
+no little apprehension the divergence between the Northern and Southern
+wings of the party; he had commented in private upon "the distracted
+condition" of the party and the need of perpetuating its principles and
+consolidating its power. Might this not be his opportunity?
+
+On Sunday morning, January 22d, just before the hour for church,
+Douglas, with several of his colleagues, called upon the Secretary of
+War, Davis, stating that the Committees on Territories of the Senate
+and House had agreed upon a bill, for which the President's approval
+was desired. They pressed for an immediate interview inasmuch as they
+desired to report the bill on the morrow. Somewhat reluctantly, Davis
+arranged an interview for them, though the President was not in the
+habit of receiving visitors on Sunday. Yielding to their request,
+President Pierce took the proposed bill under consideration, giving
+careful heed to all explanations; and when they were done, both he
+and his influential secretary promised their support.[459]
+
+What was this momentous bill to which the President thus pledged
+himself? The title indicated the most striking feature. There were now
+to be two Territories: Kansas and Nebraska. Bedded in the heart of
+Section 14, however, was a still more important provision which
+announced that the prohibition of slavery in the Act of 1820 had been
+"superseded by the principles of the legislation of eighteen hundred
+and fifty, commonly called the compromise measures," and was therefore
+"inoperative."
+
+It has been commonly believed that Douglas contemplated making one
+free and one slave State out of the Nebraska region. His own simple
+explanation is far more credible: the two Johnsons had petitioned for
+a division of the Territory along the fortieth parallel, and both the
+Iowa and Missouri delegations believed that their local interests
+would be better served by two Territories.[460]
+
+Again Pacific railroad interests seem to have crossed the path of the
+Nebraska bill. The suspicions of Delegate-elect Hadley Johnson had
+been aroused by the neglect of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to
+extinguish the claims of the Omaha Indians, whose lands lay directly
+west of Iowa. At the last session, an appropriation had been made for
+the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title to lands west of both
+Missouri and Iowa; and everyone knew that this was a preliminary step
+to settlement by whites. The appropriation had been zealously
+advocated by representatives from Missouri, who frankly admitted that
+the possession of these lands would make the Pacific railroad route
+available. Now as the Indian Commissioner, who had before shown
+himself an active partisan of Senator Atchison, rapidly pushed on the
+treaties with the Indians west of Missouri and dallied with the
+Omahas, the inference was unavoidable, that Iowa interests were being
+sacrificed to Missouri interests. Such was the story that the Iowa
+Johnson poured into the ear of Senator Douglas, to whom he was
+presented by Senator Dodge.[461] The surest way to safeguard the
+interests of Iowa was to divide the Territory of Nebraska, and give
+Iowa her natural outlet to the West.
+
+Senator Dodge had also come to this conclusion. Nebraska would be to
+Iowa, what Iowa had been to Illinois. Were only one Territory
+organized, the seat of government and leading thoroughfares would pass
+to the south of Iowa.[462] Put in the language of the promoters of the
+Pacific railroad, one Territory meant aid to the central route; two
+Territories meant an equal chance for both northern and central
+routes. As the representative of Chicago interests, Douglas was not
+blind to these considerations.
+
+On Monday, January 23d, Douglas reported the Kansas-Nebraska bill with
+a brief word of explanation. Next day Senator Dixon expressed his
+satisfaction with the amendment, which he interpreted as virtually
+repealing the Missouri Compromise. He disclaimed any other wish or
+intention than to secure the principle which the compromise measures
+of 1850 had established.[463] An editorial in the Washington _Union_
+threw the weight of the administration into the balance: "The
+proposition of Mr. Douglas is a practical execution of the principles
+of that compromise [of 1850], and therefore, cannot but be regarded by
+the administration as a test of Democratic orthodoxy."[464]
+
+While the administration publicly wheeled into line behind Douglas,
+the "Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of
+the United States" summoned the anti-slavery elements to join battle
+in behalf of the Missouri Compromise. This memorable document had been
+written by Chase of Ohio and dated January 19th, but a postscript was
+added after the revised Kansas-Nebraska bill had been reported.[465]
+It was an adroitly worded paper. History has falsified many of its
+predictions; history then controverted many of its assumptions; but it
+was colored with strong emotion and had the ring of righteous
+indignation.
+
+The gist of the appeal was contained in two clauses, one of which
+declared that the Nebraska bill would open all the unorganized
+territory of the Union to the ingress of slavery; the other arraigned
+the bill as "a gross violation of a sacred pledge; as a criminal
+betrayal of precious rights." In ominous words, fellow citizens were
+besought to observe how the blight of slavery would settle upon all
+this land, if this bill should become a law. Christians and Christian
+ministers were implored to interpose. "Let all protest, earnestly and
+emphatically, by correspondence, through the press, by memorials, by
+resolutions of public meetings and legislative bodies, and in whatever
+other mode may seem expedient, against this enormous crime." In the
+postscript Douglas received personal mention. "Not a man in Congress
+or out of Congress, in 1850, pretended that the compromise measures
+would repeal the Missouri prohibition. Mr. Douglas himself never
+advanced such a pretence until this session. His own Nebraska bill, of
+last session, rejected it. It is a sheer afterthought. To declare the
+prohibition inoperative, may, indeed, have effect in law as a repeal,
+but it is a most discreditable way of reaching the object. Will the
+people permit their dearest interests to be thus made the mere hazards
+of a presidential game, and destroyed by false facts and false
+inferences?"[466]
+
+This attack roused the tiger in the Senator from Illinois. When he
+addressed the Senate on January 30th, he labored under ill-repressed
+anger. Even in the expurgated columns of the _Congressional Globe_
+enough stinging personalities appeared to make his friends regretful.
+What excited his wrath particularly was that Chase and Sumner had
+asked for a postponement of discussion, in order to examine the bill,
+and then, in the interval, had sent out their indictment of the
+author. It was certainly unworthy of him to taunt them with having
+desecrated the Sabbath day by writing their plea. The charge was not
+only puerile but amusing, when one considers how Douglas himself was
+observing that particular Sabbath.
+
+It was comparatively easy to question and disprove the unqualified
+statement of the _Appeal_, that "the original settled policy of the
+United States was non-extension of slavery." Less convincing was
+Douglas's attempt to prove that the Missouri Compromise was expressly
+annulled in 1850, when portions of Texas and of the former Spanish
+province of Louisiana were added to New Mexico, and also a part of the
+province of Louisiana was joined to Utah. Douglas was in the main
+correct as to geographical data; but he could not, and did not, prove
+that the members of the Thirty-first Congress purposed also to revoke
+the Missouri Compromise restriction in all the other unorganized
+Territories. This contention was one of those _non-sequiturs_ of which
+Douglas, in the heat of argument, was too often guilty. Still more
+regrettable, because it seemed to convict him of sophistry, was the
+mode by which he sought to evade the charge of the _Appeal_, that the
+act organizing New Mexico and settling the boundary of Texas had
+reaffirmed the Missouri Compromise. To establish his point he had to
+assume that _all_ the land cut off from Texas north of 36 deg. 30', was
+added to New Mexico, thus leaving nothing to which the slavery
+restriction, reaffirmed in the act of 1850, could apply. But Chase
+afterward invalidated this assumption and Douglas was forced so to
+qualify his original statement as to yield the point. This was a
+damaging admission and prejudiced his cause before the country. But
+when he brought his wide knowledge of American colonization to bear
+upon the concrete problems of governmental policy, his grasp of the
+situation was masterly.
+
+"Let me ask you where you have succeeded in excluding slavery by an
+act of Congress from one inch of American soil? You may tell me that
+you did it in the northwest territory by the ordinance of 1787. I
+will show you by the history of the country that you did not
+accomplish any such thing. You prohibited slavery there by law, but
+you did not exclude it in fact.... I know of but one territory of the
+United States where slavery does exist, and that one is where you have
+prohibited it by law, and it is in this very Nebraska Territory. In
+defiance of the eighth section of the act of 1820, in defiance of
+Congressional dictation, there have been, not many, but a few slaves
+introduced.... I have no doubt that whether you organize the territory
+of Nebraska or not this will continue for some time to come.... But
+when settlers rush in--when labor becomes plenty, and therefore cheap,
+in that climate, with its productions, it is worse than folly to think
+of its being a slave-holding country.... I do not like, I never did
+like, the system of legislation on our part, by which a geographical
+line, in violation of the laws of nature, and climate, and soil, and
+of the laws of God, should be run to establish institutions for a
+people."[467]
+
+The fate of the bill was determined behind closed doors. After all,
+the Senate chamber was only a public clearing-house, where senators
+elucidated, or per-chance befogged, the issues. The real arena was the
+Democratic caucus. Under the leadership of Douglas, those high in the
+party conclaves met, morning after morning, in the endeavor to compose
+the sharp differences between the Northern and the Southern wings of
+the party.[468] On both sides, there was a disposition to agree on the
+repeal of the Missouri Compromise, though grave misgivings were felt.
+There were Southern men who believed that the repeal would be "an
+unavailing boon"; and there were Northern politicians who foresaw the
+storm of popular indignation that would break upon their heads.[469]
+Southern Democrats were disposed to follow the South Carolina theory
+to its logical extreme: as joint owners of the Territories the
+citizens of all the States might carry their property into the
+Territories without let or hindrance; only the people of the Territory
+in the act of framing a State constitution might exclude slavery.
+Neither Congress nor a territorial legislature might take away
+property in slaves. With equal pertinacity, Douglas and his supporters
+advocated the right of the people in their territorial status, to
+mould their institutions as they chose. Was there any middle ground?
+
+Prolonged discussion made certain points of agreement clear to all. It
+was found that no one questioned the right of a State, with sufficient
+population and a republican constitution, to enter the Union with or
+without slavery as it chose. All agreed that it was best that slavery
+should not be discussed in Congress. All agreed that, whether or no
+Congress had the power to exclude slavery in the Territories, it ought
+not to exercise it. All agreed that if Congress had such power, it
+ought to delegate it to the people. Here agreement ceased. Did
+Congress have such power? Clearly the law of the Constitution could
+alone determine. Then why not delegate the power to control their
+domestic institutions to the people of the Territories, subject to the
+provisions of the Constitution? "And then," said one of the
+participants later, "in order to provide a means by which the
+Constitution could govern ... we of the South, conscious that we were
+right, the North asserting the same confidence in its own doctrines,
+agreed that every question touching human slavery or human freedom
+should be appealable to the Supreme Court of the United States for its
+decision."[470]
+
+While this compromise was being reached in caucus, the bill was under
+constant fire on the floor of the Senate. The _Appeal of the
+Independent Democrats_ had bitterly arraigned the declaratory part of
+the Kansas-Nebraska bill, where the Missouri Compromise was said to
+have been superseded and therefore inoperative. Even staunch Democrats
+like Cass had taken exception to this phraseology, preferring to
+declare the Missouri Compromise null and void in unequivocal terms. To
+Douglas there was nothing ambiguous or misleading in the wording of
+the clause. What was meant was this: the acts of 1850 rendered the
+Missouri Compromise _inoperative_ in Utah and New Mexico; but so far
+as the Missouri Compromise applied to territory not embraced in those
+acts, it was _superseded_ by the great principle established in 1850.
+"Superseded by" meant "inconsistent with" the compromise of 1850.[471]
+The word "supersede," however, continued to cause offense. Cass read
+from the dictionary to prove that the word had a more positive force
+than Douglas gave to it. To supersede meant to set aside: he could
+not bring himself to assent to this statement.[472]
+
+By this time agreement had been reached in the caucus, so that Douglas
+was quite willing to modify the phraseology of the bill. "We see,"
+said he, "that the difference here is only a difference as to the
+appropriate word to be used. We all agree in the principle which we
+now propose to establish." As he was not satisfied with the phrases
+suggested, he desired some time to consult with friends of the bill,
+as to which word would best "carry out the idea which we are intending
+to put into practical operation by this bill."[473]
+
+On the following day, February 7th, Douglas reported, not merely "the
+appropriate word," but an entirely new clause, the product of the
+caucus deliberations.
+
+The eighth section of the act preparatory to the admission of Missouri
+into the Union is no longer said to be superseded, but "being
+inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with
+slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the
+legislation of 1850, (commonly called the Compromise Measures) is
+hereby declared inoperative and void, it being the true intent and
+meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or
+State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
+perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
+their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United
+States."[474]
+
+This part of the bill had now assumed its final form. _Subject only to
+the Constitution of the United States_. The words were clear; but
+what was their implication? A few days later, Douglas wrote to his
+Springfield confidant, "The Democratic party is committed in the most
+solemn manner to the principle of congressional non-interference with
+slavery in the States and Territories. The administration is committed
+to the Nebraska bill and will stand by it at all hazards.... The
+principle of this bill will form the test of parties, and the only
+alternative is either to stand with the Democracy or rally under
+Seward, John Van Buren & Co.... We shall pass the Nebraska bill in
+both Houses by decisive majorities and the party will then be stronger
+than ever, for it will be united upon principle."[475]
+
+Yet there were dissentient opinions. What was in the background of
+Southern consciousness was expressed bluntly by Brown of Mississippi,
+who refused to admit that the right of the people of a Territory to
+regulate their domestic institutions, including slavery, was a right
+to destroy. "If I thought in voting for the bill as it now stands, I
+was conceding the right of the people in the territory, during their
+territorial existence, to exclude slavery, I would withhold my
+vote.... It leaves the question where I am quite willing it should be
+left--to the ultimate decision of the courts."[476] Chase also, though
+for widely different reasons, disputed the power of the people of a
+Territory to exclude slavery, under the terms of this bill.[477] And
+Senator Clayton pointed out that non-interference was a delusion, so
+long as it lay within the power of any member of Congress to move a
+repeal of any and every territorial law which came up for approval,
+for the bill expressly provided for congressional approval of
+territorial laws.[478]
+
+Douglas was irritated by these aspersions on his cherished principle.
+He declared again, in defiant tones, that the right of the people to
+permit or exclude was clearly included in the wording of the measure.
+He was not willing to be lectured about indirectness. He had heard
+cavil enough about his amendments.[479]
+
+In the course of a debate on March 2d, another unforeseen difficulty
+loomed up in the distance. If the Missouri Compromise were repealed,
+would not the original laws of Louisiana, which legalized slavery, be
+revived? How then could the people of the Territories be free to
+legislate against slavery? It was a knotty question, testing the best
+legal minds in the Senate; and it was dispatched only by an amendment
+which stated that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise should not
+revive any antecedent law respecting slavery.[480]
+
+The objection raised by Clayton still remained: how was it possible to
+reconcile congressional non-intervention with the right of Congress to
+revise territorial laws? Now Douglas had never contended that the
+right of the people to self-government in the Territories was complete
+as against the power of Congress. He had never sought to confer upon
+them more than a relative degree of self-government--"the power to
+regulate their domestic institutions." He could not, and he did not,
+deny the truth and awkwardness of Clayton's contention. Where, then,
+demanded his critics, was the guarantee that the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+would banish the slavery controversies from Congress? This challenge
+could not go unanswered. Without other explanation, Douglas moved to
+strike out the provision requiring all territorial laws to be
+submitted to Congress.[481] But did this divest Congress of the power
+of revision? On this point Douglas preserved a discreet silence.
+
+Recognizing also the incongruity of giving an absolute veto power to a
+governor who would be appointed by the President, Douglas proposed a
+suspensive, in place of an absolute, veto power. A two-thirds vote in
+each branch of the territorial legislature would override the
+governor's negative.[482] Chase now tried to push Douglas one step
+farther on the same slippery road. "Can it be said," he asked, "that
+the people of a territory will enjoy self-government when they elect
+only their legislators and are subject to a governor, judges, and a
+secretary appointed by the Federal Executive?" He would amend by
+making all these officers elective.[483] Douglas extricated himself
+from this predicament by saying simply that these officers were
+charged with federal rather than with territorial duties.[484] The
+amendment was promptly negatived. Yet seven years later, this very
+proposition was indorsed by Douglas under peculiar circumstances. At
+this time in 1854, it would have effected nothing short of a
+revolution in American territorial policy; and it might have altered
+the whole history of Kansas.
+
+Despite asseverations to the contrary, there were Southern men in
+Congress who nourished the tacit hope that another slave State might
+be gained west of the Missouri. There was a growing conviction among
+Southern people that the possession of Kansas at least might be
+successfully contested.[485] At all events, no barrier to Southern
+immigration into the Territory was allowed to remain in the bill.
+Objection was raised to the provision, common to nearly all
+territorial bills, that aliens, who had declared their intention of
+becoming citizens, should be permitted to vote in territorial
+elections. In a contest with the North for the possession of the
+territorial government, the South would be at an obvious disadvantage,
+if the homeless aliens in the North could be colonized in Kansas, for
+there was no appreciable alien population in the Southern States.[486]
+So it was that Clayton's amendment, to restrict the right to vote and
+to hold office to citizens of the United States, received the solid
+vote of the South in the Senate. It is significant that Douglas voted
+with his section on this important issue. There can be no better proof
+of his desire that freedom should prevail in the new Territories. The
+Clayton amendment, however, passed the Senate by a close vote.[487]
+
+On the 2d of March the Kansas-Nebraska bill went to a third reading by
+a vote of twenty-nine to twelve; its passage was thus assured.[488]
+Debate continued, however, during the afternoon and evening of the
+next day. Friends of the bill had agreed that it should be brought to
+a vote on this night. The privilege of closing the debate belonged to
+the chairman of the Committee on Territories; but in view of the
+lateness of the hour, he offered to waive his privilege and let a vote
+be taken. Voices were raised in protest, however, and Douglas yielded
+to the urgent request of his friends.[489]
+
+The speech of Douglas was a characteristic performance. It abounded in
+repetitions, and it can hardly be said to have contributed much to the
+understanding of the issues. Yet it was a memorable effort, because it
+exhibited the magnificent fighting qualities of the man. He was
+completely master of himself. He permitted interruptions by his
+opponents; he invited them; indeed, at times, he welcomed them; but at
+no time was he at a loss for a reply. Dialectically he was on this
+occasion more than a match for Chase and Seward. There were no studied
+effects in his oratory. Knowing himself to be addressing a wider
+audience than the Senate chamber and its crowded galleries, he
+appealed with intuitive keenness to certain fundamental traits in his
+constituents. Americans admire self-reliance even in an opponent, and
+the spectacle of a man fighting against personal injustice is often
+likely to make them forget the principle for which he stands. So
+Seward, who surely had no love for Douglas and no respect for his
+political creed, was moved to exclaim in frank admiration, "I hope the
+Senator will yield for a moment, because I have never had so much
+respect for him as I have tonight." When Chase assured Douglas that he
+always purposed to treat the Senator from Illinois with entire
+courtesy, Douglas retorted: "The Senator says that he never intended
+to do me injustice.... Sir, did he not say in the same document to
+which I have already alluded, that I was engaged, with others, 'in a
+criminal betrayal of precious rights,' 'in an atrocious plot'?... Did
+he not say everything calculated to produce and bring upon my head all
+the insults to which I have been subjected publicly and privately--not
+even excepting the insulting letters which I have received from his
+constituents, rejoicing at my domestic bereavements, and praying that
+other and similar calamities may befall me!"[490]
+
+In much the same way, he turned upon Sumner, as the collaborator of
+the _Appeal_. Here was one who had begun his career as an Abolitionist
+in the Senate, with the words "Strike but hear me first," but who had
+helped to close the doors of Faneuil Hall against Webster, when he
+sought to speak in self-defense in 1850, and who now--such was the
+implication--was denying simple justice to another patriot.[491]
+
+Personalities aside, the burden of his speech was the reassertion of
+his principle of popular sovereignty. He showed how far he had
+traveled since the Fourth of January in no way more strikingly, than
+when he called in question the substantive character of the Missouri
+Compromise. In his discussion of the legislative history of the
+Missouri acts, he easily convicted both Chase and Seward of
+misapprehensions; but he refused to recognize the truth of Chase's
+words, that "the facts of the transaction taken together and as
+understood by the country for more than thirty years, constitute a
+compact binding in moral force," though expressed only in the terms of
+ordinary statutes. So far had Douglas gone in his advocacy of his
+measure that he had lost the measure of popular sentiment. He was so
+confident of himself and his cause, so well-assured that he had
+sacrificed nothing but an empty form, in repealing the slavery
+restriction, that he forgot the popular mind does not so readily cast
+aside its prejudices and grasp substance in preference to form. The
+combative instinct in him was strong. He had entered upon a quarrel;
+he would acquit himself well. Besides, he had supreme confidence that
+popular intelligence would slowly approve his course.
+
+Perhaps Douglas's greatest achievement on this occasion was in coining
+a phrase which was to become a veritable slogan in succeeding years.
+That which had hitherto been dubbed "squatter sovereignty," Douglas
+now dignified with the name "popular sovereignty," and provided with a
+pedigree. "This was the principle upon which the colonies separated
+from the crown of Great Britain, the principle upon which the battles
+of the Revolution were fought, and the principle upon which our
+republican system was founded.... The Revolution grew out of the
+assertion of the right on the part of the imperial government to
+interfere with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the
+colonies.... I will not weary the Senate in multiplying evidence upon
+this point. It is apparent that the Declaration of Independence had
+its origin in the violation of the great fundamental principle which
+secured to the people of the colonies the right to regulate their own
+domestic affairs in their own way; and that the Revolution resulted in
+the triumph of that principle, and the recognition of the right
+asserted by it."[492]
+
+In conclusion, Douglas said with perfect truthfulness: "I have not
+brought this question forward as a Northern man or as a Southern man.
+I am unwilling to recognize such divisions and distinctions. I have
+brought it forward as an American Senator, representing a State which
+is true to this principle, and which has approved of my action in
+respect to the Nebraska bill. I have brought it forward not as an act
+of justice to the South more than to the North. I have presented it
+especially as an act of justice to the people of those Territories,
+and of the States to be formed therefrom, now and in all time to
+come."[493]
+
+Nor did he seem to entertain a doubt as to the universal appeal which
+his principle would make: "I say frankly that, in my opinion, this
+measure will be as popular at the North as at the South, when its
+provisions and principles shall have been fully developed and become
+well understood. The people at the North are attached to the
+principles of self-government; and you cannot convince them that that
+is self-government which deprives a people of the right of legislating
+for themselves, and compels them to receive laws which are forced upon
+them by a legislature in which they are not represented."[494]
+
+The rising indignation at the North against the Kansas-Nebraska bill
+was felt much more directly in the House than in the Senate. So strong
+was the counter-current that the Senate bill was at first referred to
+the Committee of the Whole, and thus buried for weeks under a mass of
+other bills. Many believed that the bill had received a quietus for
+the session. Not so Douglas and his friend Richardson of Illinois, who
+was chairman of the Committee on Territories. With a patience born of
+long parliamentary experience, they bided their time. In the
+meantime, every possible influence was brought to bear upon
+recalcitrant Democrats. And just here the wisdom of Douglas, in first
+securing the support of the administration, was vindicated. All those
+devices were invoked which President and cabinet could employ through
+the use of the Federal patronage, so that when Richardson, on the 8th
+of May, called upon the House to lay aside one by one the eighteen
+bills which preceded the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he was assured of a
+working majority. The House bill having thus been reached, Richardson
+substituted for it the Senate bill, minus the Clayton amendment. When
+he then announced that only four days would be allowed for debate, the
+obstructionists could no longer contain themselves. Scenes of wild
+excitement followed. In the end, the friends of the bill yielded to
+the demand for longer discussion. Debate was prolonged until May 22d,
+when the bill passed by a vote of 113 to 110, in the face of bitter
+opposition.
+
+Through all these exciting days, Douglas was constantly at
+Richardson's side, cautioning and advising. He was well within the
+truth when he said, in confidential chat with Madison Cutts, "I passed
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act myself. I had the authority and power of a
+dictator throughout the whole controversy in both houses. The speeches
+were nothing. It was the marshalling and directing of men, and
+guarding from attacks, and with a ceaseless vigilance preventing
+surprises."[495]
+
+The refusal of the House to accept the Clayton amendment brought the
+Kansas-Nebraska measure again before the Senate. Knowing that a
+refusal to concur would probably defeat the measure for the session,
+Southern senators were disposed to waive their objections to allowing
+aliens to vote in the new Territories. Even Atchison was now disposed
+to think the matter of little consequence. Foreigners were not the
+pioneers in the Territories; they followed the pioneers. He did not
+complete his thought, but it is unmistakable: therefore, native
+citizens as first-comers, rather than foreigners, would probably
+decide the question of slavery in the Territories forever. And so,
+after two days of debate, Douglas again had his way: the Senate voted
+to recede from the Clayton amendment. On May 30th, the President
+signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill and it became law.[496]
+
+The outburst of wrath at the North which accompanied the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise did not augur well for the future repose of the
+country. Douglas had anticipated angry demonstrations; but even he was
+disturbed by the vehemence of the protestations which penetrated to
+the Senate chamber. Had he failed to gauge the depth of Northern
+public opinion? Senator Everett disturbed the momentary quiet of
+Congress by presenting a memorial signed by over three thousand New
+England clergymen, who, "in the name of Almighty God," protested
+against the Kansas-Nebraska Act as a great moral wrong and as a breach
+of faith. This brought Douglas to his feet. With fierce invective he
+declared this whole movement was instigated by the circulars sent out
+by the Abolition confederates in the Senate. These preachers had been
+led by an atrocious falsehood "to desecrate the pulpit, and prostitute
+the sacred desk to the miserable and corrupting influence of party
+politics." What right had these misguided men to speak in the name of
+Almighty God upon a political question? It was an attempt to establish
+in this country the doctrine that clergymen have a peculiar right to
+determine the will of God in legislative matters. This was
+theocracy.[497]
+
+Some weeks later, Douglas himself presented another protest, signed by
+over five hundred clergymen of the Northwest and accompanied by
+resolutions which denounced the Senator from Illinois for his "want of
+courtesy and reverence toward man and God."[498] His comments upon
+this protest were not calculated to restore him to favor among these
+"divinely appointed ministers for the declaration and enforcement of
+God's will." His public letter to them, however, was much more
+creditable, for in it he avoided abusive language and appealed frankly
+to the sober sense of the clergy.[499] Of the repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he said again that it was necessary, "in order to
+recognize the great principle of self-government and State equality.
+It does not vary the question in any degree, that human slavery, in
+your opinion, is a great moral wrong. If so, it is not the only wrong
+upon which the people of each of the States and Territories of this
+Union are called upon to act.... You think you are abundantly
+competent to decide this question now and forever. If you should
+remove to Nebraska, with a view of making it your permanent home,
+would you be any less competent to decide it when you should have
+arrived in the country?"[500]
+
+The obloquy which Douglas encountered in Washington was mere child's
+play, as compared with the storm of abuse that met him on his return
+to Chicago. He afterwards said that he could travel from Boston to
+Chicago by the light of his own effigies.[501] "Traitor,"
+"Arnold,"--with a suggestion that he had the blood of Benedict Arnold
+in his veins,--"Judas," were epithets hurled at him from desk and
+pulpit. He was presented with thirty pieces of silver by some
+indignant females in an Ohio village.[502] So incensed were the people
+of Chicago, that his friends advised him not to return, fearing that
+he would be assaulted.[503] But fear was a sensation that he had never
+experienced. He went to Chicago confident that he could silence
+opposition as he had done four years before.[504]
+
+Three or four days after his return, he announced that on the night of
+September 1st, he would address his constituents in front of North
+Market Hall. The announcement occasioned great excitement. The
+opposition press cautioned their readers not to be deceived by his
+sophistries, and hinted broadly at the advisability of breaking up the
+meeting.[505] Many friends of Douglas believed that personal violence
+was threatened. During the afternoon flags were hung at half mast on
+the lake boats; bells were tolled, as the crowds began to gather in
+the dusk of the evening; some public calamity seemed to impend. At a
+quarter past eight, Douglas began to address the people. He was
+greeted with hisses. He paused until these had subsided. But no sooner
+did he begin again than bedlam broke loose. For over two hours he
+wrestled with the mob, appealing to their sense of fairness; but he
+could not gain a hearing. Finally, for the first time in his career,
+he was forced to admit defeat. Drawing his watch from his pocket and
+observing that the hour was late, he shouted, in an interval of
+comparative quiet, "It is now Sunday morning--I'll go to church, and
+you may go to Hell!" At the imminent risk of his life, he went to his
+carriage and was driven through the crowds to his hotel.[506]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 415: House Bill No. 444; 28 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 416: Executive Docs., 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 417: House Bill, No. 170; 30 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 418: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1161.]
+
+[Footnote 419: _Ibid._, pp. 1684-1685.]
+
+[Footnote 420: _Ibid._, p. 1760. Clingman afterward admitted that the
+Southern opposition was motived by reluctance to admit new free
+Territories. "This feeling was felt rather than expressed in words."
+Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 334.]
+
+[Footnote 421: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1762.]
+
+[Footnote 422: See Davis, Union Pacific Railway, Chap. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 423: See Benton's remarks in the House, _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2
+Sess., p. 56.]
+
+[Footnote 424: Connelley, The Provisional Government of the Nebraska
+Territory, published by the Nebraska State Historical Society, pp.
+23-24.]
+
+[Footnote 425: Connelley, Provisional Government, p. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 426: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 56-58.]
+
+[Footnote 427: House Bill No. 353; 32 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 428: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 558.]
+
+[Footnote 429: _Ibid._, p. 560.]
+
+[Footnote 430: _Ibid._, p. 565.]
+
+[Footnote 431: _Ibid._, p. 1020.]
+
+[Footnote 432: _Globe_ 32 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1116-1117.]
+
+[Footnote 433: _Ibid._, p. 1113.]
+
+[Footnote 434: Connelley, Provisional Government, pp. 43 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 435: _Ibid._, pp. 37-41.]
+
+[Footnote 436: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 183; Connelley,
+pp. 70-77.]
+
+[Footnote 437: See Hadley D. Johnson's account in the Transactions of
+the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol. II.]
+
+[Footnote 438: Illinois _State Register_, December 22, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 439: MS. Letter to the editors of the Illinois _State
+Register_, dated November 11, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 440: Washington _Union_, December 3, 1853. See also item
+showing the interest in Nebraska, in the issue of November 26.]
+
+[Footnote 441: Senate Bill No. 22. The bounds were fixed at 43 deg. on the
+north; 36 deg. 30' on the south, except where the boundary of New Mexico
+marked the line; the western line of Iowa and Missouri on the east;
+and the Rocky Mountains on the west.]
+
+[Footnote 442: Illinois _State Register_, December 22, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 443: New York _Journal of Commerce_, December 30, 1853.]
+
+[Footnote 444: Two years later, Douglas flatly denied that he had
+brought in the bill at the dictation of Atchison or any one else; and
+I see no good ground on which to doubt his word. His own statement was
+that he first consulted with Senator Bright and one other Senator from
+the Northwest, and then took counsel with Southern friends. See
+_Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 392-393; also Rhodes, History of
+the United States, I, pp. 431-432. Mr. Rhodes is no doubt correct,
+when he says "the committee on territories was Douglas."]
+
+[Footnote 445: Senate Report No. 15, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 446: The northern boundary was extended to the 49th
+parallel.]
+
+[Footnote 447: The first twenty sections are written on white paper,
+in the handwriting of a copyist. In pencil at the end are the words:
+"Douglas reports Bill & read I & to 2 reading special report Print
+agreed." The blue paper in Douglas's handwriting covers part of these
+last words. The sheet has been torn in halves, but pasted together
+again and attached by sealing wax to the main draft. The handwriting
+betrays haste.]
+
+[Footnote 448: _Globe,_34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1374.]
+
+[Footnote 449: See his speech of March, 1850, quoted above. In a
+letter to the editor of _State Capital Reporter_ (Concord, N.H.),
+February 16, 1854, Douglas intimated as strongly as he then dared--the
+bill was still pending,--that "the sons of New England" in the West
+would exclude slavery from that region which lay in the same latitude
+as New York and Pennsylvania, and for much the same reasons that
+slavery had been abolished! in those States; see also Transactions of
+Illinois State Historical Society, 1900, pp. 48-49.]
+
+[Footnote 450: Speech before the Illinois Legislature, October 23,
+1849; see Illinois _State Register_, November 8, 1849.]
+
+[Footnote 451: The Southern Whigs were ready to support the Dixon
+Amendment, according to Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 335.]
+
+[Footnote 452: See remarks of Douglas, January 24th, _Globe_, 33
+Cong., 1 Sess., p. 240.]
+
+[Footnote 453: Letter of Dixon to Foote, September 30, 1858, in Flint,
+Douglas, pp. 138-141.]
+
+[Footnote 454: Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise.]
+
+[Footnote 455: Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in
+the _National Quarterly Review_, July, 1880.]
+
+[Footnote 456: Parker, Secret History of the Kansas-Nebraska Act; also
+Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 93; also Cox, Three Decades of
+Federal Legislation, p. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 457: _Ibid._ Dixon's account of his interview with Douglas
+is too melodramatic to be taken literally, but no doubt it reveals
+Douglas's agitation.]
+
+[Footnote 458: This was Greeley's interpretation, _Tribune_, June 1,
+1861.]
+
+[Footnote 459: Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Dixon, September 27, 1879, in
+Dixon, True History of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, pp. 457
+ff.]
+
+[Footnote 460: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 221.]
+
+[Footnote 461: Transactions of the Nebraska Historical Society, Vol.
+II, p. 90.]
+
+[Footnote 462: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 382.]
+
+[Footnote 463: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 239-240.]
+
+[Footnote 464: Washington _Union_, January 24, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 465: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 282.]
+
+[Footnote 466: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 281-282.]
+
+[Footnote 467: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 278-279.]
+
+[Footnote 468: See remarks of Senator Bell of Tennessee, May 24, 1854,
+in _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 939-940; also see statement
+of Benjamin in _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093.]
+
+[Footnote 469: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App. pp. 414-415; p. 943.]
+
+[Footnote 470: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1093. This statement by
+Senator Benjamin was corroborated by Douglas and by Hunter of
+Virginia, during the debates, see _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+224. See also the letter of A.H. Stephens, May 9, 1860, in _Globe_, 36
+Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 315-316.]
+
+[Footnote 471: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 343-344.]
+
+[Footnote 472: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 473: _Ibid._, p. 344.]
+
+[Footnote 474: _Ibid._, p. 353.]
+
+[Footnote 475: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, February 13, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 476: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 232.]
+
+[Footnote 477: _Ibid._, pp. 279-280.]
+
+[Footnote 478: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 391.]
+
+[Footnote 479: _Ibid._, pp. 287-288.]
+
+[Footnote 480: _Ibid._, p. 296.]
+
+[Footnote 481: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 296-297.]
+
+[Footnote 482: _Ibid._, p. 297.]
+
+[Footnote 483: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 484: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 485: See remarks of Bell; _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App.,
+pp. 414-415; and also later, _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p.
+937.]
+
+[Footnote 486: See remarks of Atchison, _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 487: _Ibid._, p. 298.]
+
+[Footnote 488: _Ibid._, p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 489: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 325.]
+
+[Footnote 490: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 491: _Ibid._, p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 492: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 337.]
+
+[Footnote 493: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 338.]
+
+[Footnote 494: _Ibid._, p. 338.]
+
+[Footnote 495: Cutts, Treatise on Constitutional and Party Questions,
+pp. 122-123.]
+
+[Footnote 496: That the President believed with Douglas that the
+benefits of the Act would inure to freedom, is vouched for by
+ex-Senator Clemens of Alabama. See Illinois _State Register_, April 6,
+1854.]
+
+[Footnote 497: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 618, 621.]
+
+[Footnote 498: _Ibid._, App., p. 654.]
+
+[Footnote 499: _Ibid._, App., pp. 657-661.]
+
+[Footnote 500: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 661.]
+
+[Footnote 501: Speech at Wooster, Ohio, 1859, Philadelphia _Press_,
+September 26, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 502: Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 496.]
+
+[Footnote 503: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 98.]
+
+[Footnote 504: "I speak to the people of Chicago on Friday next,
+September 1, on Nebraska. They threaten a mob but I have no fears. All
+will be right.... Come up if you can and bring our friends with you."
+MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, August 25, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 505: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, p. 640.]
+
+[Footnote 506: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 271-273. Cutts, Constitutional
+and Party Questions, pp. 98-101. New York _Times_, September 6,
+1854.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BLACK REPUBLICANISM
+
+
+The passing of the Whig party after its defeat in the election of
+1852, must be counted among the most momentous facts in our political
+history. Whatever were its errors, whatever its shortcomings, it was
+at least a national organization, with a membership that embraced
+anti-slavery Northerners and slave-holding Southerners, Easterners and
+Westerners. As events proved, there was no national organization to
+take its place. One of the two political ties had snapped that had
+held together North and South. The Democratic party alone could lay
+claim to a national organization and membership.
+
+Party has been an important factor in maintaining national unity. The
+dangers to the Union from rapid territorial expansion have not always
+been realized. The attachment of new Western communities to the Union
+has too often been taken as a matter of course. Even when the danger
+of separation was small, the isolation and provincialism of the new
+West was a real menace to national welfare. Social institutions did
+their part in integrating East and West; but the politically
+integrating force was supplied by party. Through their membership in
+national party organizations, the most remote Western pioneers were
+energized to think and act on national issues.[507] In much the same
+way, the great party organizations retarded the growth of
+sectionalism at the South. The very fact that party ties held long
+after social institutions had been broken asunder, proves their
+superior cohesion and nationalizing power. The inertia of parties
+during the prolonged slavery controversy was an element of strength.
+Because these formal organizations did not lend themselves readily to
+radical policies, they provided a frame-work, within which adjustments
+of differences were effected without danger to the Union. Had
+Abolitionists of the radical type taken possession of the organization
+of either party, can it be doubted that the Union would have been
+imperiled much earlier than it was, and very probably when it could
+not have withstood the shock?
+
+No one who views history calmly will maintain, that it would have been
+well for either the radical or the conservative to have been dominant
+permanently. If the radical were always able to give application to
+his passing, restless humors, society would lose its coherence. If the
+conservative always had his way, civilization would stagnate. It was a
+fortunate circumstance that neither the Whig nor the Democratic party
+was composed wholly either of radicals or conservatives. Party action
+was thus a resultant. If it was neither so radical as the most radical
+could desire, nor so conservative as the ultra-conservative wished, at
+least it safeguarded the Union and secured the political achievements
+of the past. Moreover, the two great party organizations had done much
+to assimilate the foreign elements injected into our population. No
+doubt the politician who cultivated "the Irish vote" or "the German
+vote," was obeying no higher law than his own interests; but his
+activities did much to promote that fusion of heterogeneous elements
+which has been one of the most extraordinary phenomena of American
+society. With the disappearance of the Whig party, one of the two
+great agencies in the disciplining and educating of the immigrant was
+lost.
+
+For a time the Native American party seemed likely to take the place
+of the moribund Whig party. Many Whigs whose loyalty had grown cold
+but who would not go over to the enemy, took refuge in the new party.
+But Native Americanism had no enduring strength. Its tenets and its
+methods were in flat contradiction to true American precedents.
+Greeley was right when he said of the new party, "It would seem as
+devoid of the elements of persistence as an anti-cholera or an
+anti-potato-rot party would be." By its avowed hostility to Catholics
+and foreigners, by its insistence upon America for Americans, and by
+its secrecy, it forfeited all real claims to succeed the Whig party as
+a national organization.
+
+After the downfall of the Whig party, then, the Democratic party stood
+alone as a truly national party, preserving the integrity of its
+national organization and the bulk of its legitimate members. But the
+events of President Pierce's administration threatened to be its
+undoing. If the Kansas-Nebraska bill served to unite outwardly the
+Northern and Southern wings of the party, it served also to
+crystallize those anti-slavery elements which had hitherto been held
+in solution. An anti-Nebraska coalition was the outcome. Out of this
+opposition sprang eventually the Republican party, which was,
+therefore, in its inception, national neither in its organization nor
+in its membership.
+
+For "Know-Nothingism," as Native Americanism was derisively called,
+Douglas had exhibited the liveliest antipathy. Shortly after the
+triumph of the Know-Nothings in the municipal elections of
+Philadelphia, he was called upon to give the Independence Day address
+in the historic Independence Square.[508] With an audacity rarely
+equalled, he seized the occasion to defend the great principle of
+self-government as incorporated in the Nebraska bill, just become law,
+and to beard Know-Nothingism in its den. Under guise of defending
+national institutions and American principles, he turned his oration
+into what was virtually the first campaign speech of the year in
+behalf of Democracy. Never before were the advantages of a party name
+so apparent. Under his skillful touch the cause of popular government,
+democracy, religious and civil liberty, became confounded with the
+cause of Democracy, the only party of the nation which stood opposed
+to "the allied forces of Abolitionism, Whigism, Nativeism, and
+religious intolerance, under whatever name or on whatever field they
+may present themselves."[509]
+
+There can be no doubt that Douglas voiced his inmost feeling, when he
+declared that "to proscribe a man in this country on account of his
+birthplace or religious faith is revolting to our sense of justice and
+right."[510] In his defense of religious toleration he rose to heights
+of real eloquence.
+
+Douglas paid dearly for this assault upon Know-Nothingism. The order
+had organized lodges also in the Northwest, and when Douglas returned
+to his own constituency after the adjournment of Congress, he found
+the enemy in possession of his own redoubts. With some show of reason,
+he afterward attributed the demonstration against him in Chicago to
+the machinations of the Know-Nothings. His experience with the mob
+left no manner of doubt in his mind that Know-Nothingism, and not
+hostility to his Kansas-Nebraska policy, was responsible for his
+failure to command a hearing.[511]
+
+But Douglas was mistaken, or he deceived himself, when he sought in
+the same fashion to explain away the opposition which he encountered
+as he traveled through the northern counties of the State. Malcontents
+from both parties, but chiefly anti-slavery Whigs, Free-Soilers, and
+Abolitionists, were drawing together in common hostility to the repeal
+of the Missouri Compromise. Mass conventions were summoned,
+irrespective of party, in various counties; and they gave no uncertain
+expression to their hatred of slavery and the slave-power. These were
+the counties most largely peopled by the New England immigrants.
+Anti-Nebraska platforms were adopted; and fusion candidates put in
+nomination for State and congressional office. In the central and
+southern counties, the fusion was somewhat less complete; but finally
+an anti-Nebraska State convention was held at Springfield, which
+nominated a candidate for State Treasurer, the only State officer to
+be elected.[512] For the first time in many years, the overthrow of
+the Democratic party seemed imminent.
+
+However much Douglas may have misjudged the causes for this fusion
+movement at the outset, he was not long blind as to its implications.
+On every hand there were symptoms of disaffection. Personal friends
+turned their backs upon him; lifelong associates refused to follow his
+lead; even the rank and file of his followers seemed infected with the
+prevailing epidemic of distrust. With the instinct of a born leader of
+men, Douglas saw that the salvation of himself and his party lay in
+action. The _elan_ of his forces must be excited by the signal to ride
+down the enemy. Sounding the charge, he plunged into the thick of the
+fray. For two months, he raided the country of the enemy in northern
+Illinois, and dashed from point to point in the central counties where
+his loyal friends were hard pressed.[513] It was from first to last a
+tempestuous conflict that exactly suited the impetuous, dashing
+qualities of "the Little Giant."
+
+In the Sixth Congressional District, Douglas found his friend Harris
+fighting desperately with his back against the wall. His opponent,
+Yates, was a candidate for re-election, with the full support of
+anti-Nebraska men like Trumbull and Lincoln, whom the passage of the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill had again drawn into politics. While the State
+Fair was in progress at Springfield, both candidates strained every
+nerve to win votes. Douglas was summoned to address the goodly body of
+Democratic yeomen, who were keenly alive to the political, as well as
+to the bucolic, opportunities which the capital afforded at this
+interesting season. Douglas spoke to a large gathering in the State
+House on October 3d. Next day the Fusionists put forward Lincoln to
+answer him; and when Lincoln had spoken for nearly four hours, Douglas
+again took the stand and held his audience for an hour and a half
+longer.[514] Those were days when the staying powers of speakers were
+equalled only by the patience of their hearers.
+
+Like those earlier encounters, whose details have passed into the haze
+of tradition, this lacks a trustworthy chronicler. It would seem,
+however, as though the dash and daring of Douglas failed to bear down
+the cool, persistent opposition of his antagonist. Douglas should have
+known that the hazards in his course were reared by his own hand.
+Whatever other barriers blocked his way, Nebraska-ism was the most
+formidable; but this he would not concede.
+
+A curious story has connected itself with this chance encounter of the
+rivals. Alarmed at the effectiveness of Lincoln's attack, so runs the
+legend, Douglas begged him not to enter the campaign, promising that
+he likewise would be silent thereafter. Aside from the palpable
+improbability of this "Peoria truce," it should be noted that Lincoln
+accepted an invitation to speak at Lacon next day, without so much as
+referring to this agreement, while Douglas continued his campaign with
+unremitting energy.[515] If Douglas exhibited fear of an adversary at
+this time, it is the only instance in his career.
+
+The outcome of the elections gave the Democrats food for thought. Five
+out of nine congressional districts had chosen anti-Nebraska or Fusion
+candidates; the other four returned Democrats to Congress by reduced
+pluralities.[516] To be sure, the Democrats had elected their
+candidate for the State Treasury; but this was poor consolation, if
+the legislature, as seemed probable, should pass from their control. A
+successor to Senator Shields would be chosen by this body; and the
+choice of an anti-Nebraska man would be as gall and wormwood to the
+senior senator. In the country at large, such an outcome would surely
+be interpreted as a vote of no confidence. In the light of these
+events, Democrats were somewhat chastened in spirit, in spite of
+apparent demonstrations of joy. Even Douglas felt called upon to
+vindicate his course at the banquet given in his honor in Chicago,
+November 9th. He was forced to admit--and for him it was an unwonted
+admission--that "the heavens were partially overcast."
+
+For the moment there was a disposition to drop Shields in favor of
+some Democrat who was not so closely identified with the Nebraska
+bill. Douglas viewed the situation with undisguised alarm. He urged
+his friends, however, to stick to Shields. "The election of any other
+man," he wrote truthfully, "would be deemed not only a defeat, but an
+ungrateful desertion of him, when all the others who have voted with
+him have been sustained."[517] It was just this fine spirit of loyalty
+that made men his lifelong friends and steadfast followers through
+thick and thin. "Our friends should stand by Shields," he continued,
+"and throw the responsibility on the Whigs of beating him _because he
+was born in Ireland_. The Nebraska fight is over, and Know-Nothingism
+has taken its place as the chief issue in the future. If therefore
+Shields shall be beaten it will [be] apparent to the people & to the
+whole country that a gallant soldier, and a faithful public servant
+has been stricken down because of the place of his birth." This was
+certainly shrewd, and, measured by the tone of American public life,
+not altogether reprehensible, politics. Douglas anticipated that the
+Whigs would nominate Lincoln and "stick to him to the bitter end,"
+while the Free-Soilers and anti-Nebraska Democrats would hold with
+equal persistence to Bissell, in which case either Bissell would
+ultimately get the Whig vote or there would be no election. Sounding
+the trumpet call to battle, Douglas told his friends to nail Shields'
+flag to the mast and never to haul it down. "We are sure to triumph in
+the end on the great issue. Our policy and duty require us to stand
+firm by the issues in the late election, and to make no bargains, no
+alliances, no concessions to any of the _allied isms_."
+
+When the legislature organized in January, the Democrats, to their
+indescribable alarm, found the Fusion forces in control of both
+houses. The election was postponed until February. Meantime Douglas
+cautioned his trusty lieutenant in no event to leave Springfield for
+even a day during the session.[518] On the first ballot for senator,
+Shields received 41 votes; Lincoln 45; Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska
+Democrat, 5; while three Democrats and five Fusionists scattered
+their votes. On the seventh ballot, Shields fell out of the running,
+his place being taken by Matteson. On the tenth ballot, Lincoln having
+withdrawn, the Whig vote concentrated on Trumbull, who, with the aid
+of his unyielding anti-Nebraska following, received the necessary 51
+votes for an election. This result left many heart-burnings among both
+Whigs and Democrats, for the former felt that Lincoln had been
+unjustly sacrificed and the latter looked upon Trumbull as little
+better than a renegade.[519]
+
+The returns from the elections in other Northern States were equally
+discouraging, from the Democratic point of view. Only seven out of
+forty-two who had voted for the Kansas-Nebraska bill were re-elected.
+In the next House, the Democrats would be in a minority of
+seventy-five.[520] The anti-Nebraska leaders were not slow in claiming
+a substantial victory. Indeed, their demonstrations of satisfaction
+were so long and loud, when Congress reassembled for the short
+session, that many Democrats found it difficult to accept defeat
+good-naturedly. Douglas, for one, would not concede defeat, despite
+the face of the returns. Men like Wade of Ohio, who enjoyed chaffing
+their discomfited opponents, took every occasion to taunt the author
+of the bill which had been the undoing of his party. Douglas met their
+gibes by asking whether there was a single, anti-Nebraska candidate
+from the free States who did not receive the Know-Nothing vote. For
+every Nebraska man who had suffered defeat, two anti-Nebraska
+candidates were defeated by the same causes. "The fact is, and the
+gentleman knows it, that in the free States there has been an
+alliance, I will not say whether holy or unholy, at the recent
+elections. In that alliance they had a crucible into which they poured
+Abolitionism, Maine liquor-lawism, and what there was left of Northern
+Whigism, and then the Protestant feeling against the Catholic, and the
+native feeling against the foreigner. All these elements were melted
+down in that crucible, and the result was what was called the Fusion
+party. That crucible ... was in every instance, a Know-Nothing
+Lodge."[521]
+
+There was, indeed, enough of confusion in some States to give color to
+such assertions. Taken collectively, however, the elections indicated
+unmistakably a widespread revulsion against the administration of
+President Pierce; and it was folly to contend that the Kansas-Nebraska
+bill had not been the prime cause of popular resentment. Douglas was
+so constituted temperamentally that he both could not, and would not,
+confront the situation fairly and squarely. This want of sensitiveness
+to the force of ethical convictions stirring the masses, is the most
+conspicuous and regrettable aspect of his statecraft. Personally
+Douglas had a high sense of honor and duty; in private affairs he was
+scrupulously honest; and if at times he was shifty in politics, he
+played the game with quite as much fairness as those contemporary
+politicians who boasted of the integrity of their motives. He
+preferred to be frank; he meant to deal justly by all men. Even so, he
+failed to understand the impelling power of those moral ideals which
+border on the unattainable. For the transcendentalist in politics and
+philanthropy, he had only contempt. The propulsive force of an idea in
+his own mind depended wholly upon its appeal to his practical
+judgment. His was the philosophy of the attainable. Results that were
+approximately just and fair satisfied him. He was not disposed to
+sacrifice immediate advantage to future gain. His Celtic temperament
+made him think rapidly; and what imagination failed to supply, quick
+wit made good.
+
+When, then, under the pressure of conditions for which he was not
+responsible, he yielded to the demand for a repeal of the Missouri
+Compromise, he failed to foresee that revulsion of moral sentiment
+that swept over the North. It was perfectly clear to his mind, that
+historically the prohibition of slavery by Federal law had had far
+less practical effect than the North believed. He was convinced that
+nearly all, if not all, of the great West was dedicated to freedom by
+a law which transcended any human enactment. Why, then, hold to a mere
+form, when the substance could be otherwise secured? Why should
+Northerner affront Southerner by imperious demands, when the same end
+might be attained by a compromise which would not cost either dear?
+Possibly he was not unwilling to let New Mexico become slave
+Territory, if the greater Northwest should become free by the
+operation of the same principle. Besides, there was the very tangible
+advantage of holding his party together by a sensible agreement, for
+the sake of which each faction yielded something.
+
+Douglas was not blind to the palpable truth that the masses are swayed
+more by sentiment than logic: indeed, he knew well enough how to run
+through the gamut of popular emotions. What did escape him was the
+almost religious depth of the anti-slavery sentiment in that very
+stock from which he himself had sprung. It was not a sentiment that
+could be bargained away. There was much in it of the inexorable
+obstinacy of the Puritan faith. Verging close upon fanaticism at
+times, it swept away considerations of time and place, and overwhelmed
+appeals to expediency. Even where the anti-slavery spirit did not take
+on this extreme form, those whom it possessed were reluctant to yield
+one jot or tittle of the substantial gains which freedom had made.
+
+It is probable that with the growing sectionalism, North and South
+would soon have been at odds over the disposition of the greater
+Northwest. Sooner or later, the South must have demanded the repeal of
+the Missouri Compromise, or have sought large concessions elsewhere.
+But it is safe to say that no one except Douglas could have been found
+in 1854, who possessed the requisite parliamentary qualities, the
+personal following, the influence in all sections,--and withal, the
+audacity, to propose and carry through the policy associated with the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. The responsibility for this measure rested in a
+peculiar sense upon his shoulders.
+
+It was in the course of this post-election discussion of February 23d,
+that Wade insinuated that mercenary motives were the key to Douglas's
+conduct. "Have the people of Illinois forgotten that injunction of
+more than heavenly wisdom, that 'Where a man's treasure is, there will
+his heart be also'?" To this unwarranted charge, which was current in
+Abolitionist circles, Douglas made a circumstantial denial. "I am not
+the owner of a slave and never have been, nor have I ever received,
+and appropriated to my own use, one dollar earned by slave-labor." For
+the first time, he spoke of the will of Colonel Martin and of the
+property which he had bequeathed to his daughter and to her children.
+With very genuine emotion, which touched even his enemies, he added,
+"God forbid that I should be understood by anyone as being willing to
+cast from me any responsibility that now does, or has ever attached to
+any member of my family. So long as life shall last--and I shall
+cherish with religious veneration the memories and virtues of the
+sainted mother of my children--so long as my heart shall be filled
+with parental solicitude for the happiness of those motherless
+infants, I implore my enemies who so ruthlessly invade the domestic
+sanctuary, to do me the favor to believe, that I have no wish, no
+aspiration, to be considered purer or better than she, who was, or
+they, who are, slaveholders."[522]
+
+When the new Congress met in the fall of 1855, the anti-Nebraska men
+drew closer together and gradually assumed the name "Republican."
+Their first victory was the election of their candidate for the
+Speakership. They were disciplined by astute leaders under the
+pressure of disorders in Kansas. Before the session closed, they
+developed a remarkable degree of cohesion, while the body of their
+supporters in the Northern States assumed alarming proportions. The
+party was not wholly, perhaps not mainly, the product of humanitarian
+sentiment. The adherence of old-line Whig politicians like Seward
+suggests that there was some alloy in the pure gold of Republicanism.
+Such leaders were willing to make political capital out of the
+breakdown of popular sovereignty in Kansas.[523] They were too shrewd
+to stake the fortune of the nascent party on a bold, constructive
+policy. They preferred to play a waiting game. Events in Kansas came
+to their aid in ways that they could not have anticipated.
+
+While this re-alignment of parties was in progress, the presidential
+year drew on apace. It behooved the Democrats to gather their
+scattered forces. The advantage of organization was theirs; but they
+suffered from desertions. The morale of the party was weakened. To
+check further desertions and to restore confidence, was the aim of the
+party whips. No one had more at stake than Douglas. He was on trial
+with his party. Conscious of his responsibilities, he threw himself
+into the light skirmishing in Congress which always precedes a
+presidential campaign. In this partisan warfare he was clever, but not
+altogether admirable. One could wish that he had been less
+uncharitable and less denunciatory; but political victories are seldom
+won by unaided virtue.
+
+From the outset his anti-Nebraska colleague was the object of his
+bitterest gibes, for Trumbull typified the deserter, who was causing
+such alarm in the ranks of the Democrats. "I understand that my
+colleague has told the Senate," said Douglas contemptuously, "that he
+comes here as a Democrat. Sir, that fact will be news to the Democracy
+of Illinois. I undertake to assert there is not a Democrat in Illinois
+who will not say that such a statement is a libel upon the Democracy
+of that State. When he was elected he received every Abolition vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. He received every Know-Nothing vote in
+the Legislature of Illinois. So far as I am advised and believe, he
+received no vote except from persons allied to Abolitionism or
+Know-Nothingism. He came here as the Know-Nothing-Abolition candidate,
+in opposition to the united Democracy of his State, and to the
+Democratic candidate."[524]
+
+When to desertion was added association with "Black Republicans,"
+Douglas found his vocabulary inadequate to express his scorn. Like
+most Democrats he was sensitive on the subject of party
+nomenclature.[525] "Republican" was a term which had associations with
+the very father of Democracy, though the party had long since dropped
+the hyphenated title. But this new, so-called Republican party had
+wisely dropped the prefix "national," suggested Douglas, because "it
+is a purely sectional party, with a platform which cannot cross the
+Ohio river, and a creed which inevitably brings the North and South
+into hostile collision." In view of the emphasis which their platform
+put upon the negro, Douglas thought that consistency required the
+substitution of the word "Black" for "National." The Democratic party,
+on the other hand, had no sympathy with those who believed in making
+the negro the social and political equal of the white man. "Our people
+are a white people; our State is a white State; and we mean to
+preserve the race pure, without any mixture with the negro. If you,"
+turning to his Republican opponents, "wish your blood and that of the
+African mingled in the same channel, we trust that you will keep at a
+respectful distance from us, and not try to force that on us as one of
+your domestic institutions."[526] In such wise, Douglas labored to
+befog and discredit the issues for which the new party stood. The
+demagogue in him overmastered the statesman.
+
+Douglas believed himself--and with good reason--to be the probable
+nominee of his party in the approaching presidential election. Several
+State conventions had already declared for him. There was no other
+Democrat, save President Pierce, whose name was so intimately
+associated with the policy of the party as expressed in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill. Yet, while both were in favor at the South,
+neither Pierce nor Douglas was likely to secure the full party vote at
+the North. This consideration led to a diversion in favor of James
+Buchanan, of Pennsylvania. The peculiar availability of this
+well-known Democrat consisted in his having been on a foreign mission
+when the Kansas-Nebraska bill was under fire. Still, Buchanan was
+reported "sound" on the essential features of this measure. Before the
+national convention met, a well-organized movement was under way to
+secure the nomination of the Pennsylvanian.[527] Equally
+well-organized and even more noisy and demonstrative was the following
+of Douglas, as the delegates began to assemble at Cincinnati during
+the first week in June.
+
+The first ballot in the convention must have been a grievous
+disappointment to Douglas and his friends. While Buchanan received
+135 votes and Pierce 122, he could muster only 33. Only the Missouri
+and Illinois delegations cast their full vote for him. Of the slave
+States, only Missouri and Kentucky gave him any support. As the
+balloting continued, however, both Buchanan and Douglas gained at the
+expense of Pierce. After the fourteenth ballot, Pierce withdrew, and
+the bulk of his support was turned over to Douglas. Cass, the fourth
+candidate before the convention, had been from the first out of the
+running, his highest vote being only seven. On the sixteenth ballot,
+Buchanan received 168 and Douglas 122. Though Buchanan now had a
+majority of the votes of the convention, he still lacked thirty of the
+two-thirds required for a nomination.[528]
+
+It was at this juncture that Douglas telegraphed to his friend
+Richardson, who was chairman of the Illinois delegation and a
+prominent figure in the convention, instructing him to withdraw his
+name. The announcement was received with loud protestations. The
+dispatch was then read: "If the withdrawal of my name will contribute
+to the harmony of our party or the success of our cause, I hope you
+will not hesitate to take the step ... if Mr. Pierce or Mr. Buchanan,
+or any other statesman who is faithful to the great issues involved in
+the contest, shall receive a majority of the convention, I earnestly
+hope that all my friends will unite in insuring him two-thirds, and
+then making his nomination unanimous. Let no personal considerations
+disturb the harmony or endanger the triumph of our principles."[529]
+Very reluctantly the supporters of Douglas obeyed their chief, and on
+the seventeenth ballot, James Buchanan received the unanimous vote of
+the convention. For the second time Douglas lost the nomination of his
+party.
+
+Douglas bore himself admirably. At a mass-meeting in Washington,[530]
+he made haste to pledge his support to the nominee of the convention.
+His generous words of commendation of Buchanan, as a man possessing
+"wisdom and nerve to enforce a firm and undivided execution, of the
+laws" of the majority of the people of Kansas, were uttered without
+any apparent misgivings. Prophetic they certainly were not. Douglas
+could approve the platform unqualifiedly, for it was a virtual
+indorsement of the principle which he had proclaimed from the
+housetops for the greater part of two years. "The American Democracy,"
+read the main article in the newly adopted resolutions, "recognize and
+adopt the principles contained in the organic laws establishing the
+Territories of Nebraska and Kansas as embodying the only sound and
+safe solution of the slavery question, upon which the great national
+idea of the people of this whole country can repose in its determined
+conservation of the Union, and non-interference of Congress with
+slavery in the Territories or in the District of Columbia."[531]
+Douglas deemed it a cause for profound rejoicing that the party was
+at last united upon principles which could be avowed everywhere,
+North, South, East, and West. As the only national party in the
+Republic, the Democracy had a great mission to perform, for in his
+opinion "no less than the integrity of the Constitution, the
+preservation and perpetuity of the Union," depended upon the result of
+this election.[532]
+
+No man could have been more magnanimous under defeat and so little
+resentful at a personal slight. His manly conduct received favorable
+comment on all sides.[533] He was still the foremost figure in the
+Democratic party. To be sure, James Buchanan was the titular leader,
+but he stood upon a platform erected by his rival. His letter of
+acceptance left no doubt in the minds of all readers that he indorsed
+the letter and the spirit of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.[534]
+
+A fortnight later the Republican national convention met at
+Philadelphia, and with great enthusiasm adopted a platform declaring
+it to be the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories "those
+twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." Even in this new
+party, availability dictated the choice of a presidential candidate.
+The real leaders of the party were passed over in favor of John C.
+Fremont, whose romantic career was believed to be worth many votes.
+Pitted against Buchanan and Fremont, was Millard Fillmore who had been
+nominated months before by the American party, and who subsequently
+received the indorsement of what was left of the moribund Whig
+party.[535]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 507: This aspect of party has been treated at greater length
+in an article by the writer entitled "The Nationalizing Influence of
+Party," _Tale Review_, November; 1906.]
+
+[Footnote 508: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 264-265.]
+
+[Footnote 509: _Ibid._, p. 271.]
+
+[Footnote 510: _Ibid._, p. 269.]
+
+[Footnote 511: Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 98-99.]
+
+[Footnote 512: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 641-643.]
+
+[Footnote 513: See items scattered through the Illinois _State
+Register_ for these exciting weeks.]
+
+[Footnote 514: See Illinois State _Register_, October 6, 1854, and
+subsequent issues.]
+
+[Footnote 515: Nearly every biographer of Lincoln has noted this
+apparent breach of agreement on the part of Douglas, but none has
+questioned the accuracy of the story, though the unimaginative Lamon
+betrays some misgivings, as he records Lincoln's course after the
+"Peoria truce." See Lamon, Lincoln, p. 358. The statement of Irwin (in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 329) does not seem credible, in the
+light of all the attendant circumstances.]
+
+[Footnote 516: _Whig Almanac_ 1855.]
+
+[Footnote 517: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 518: MS. Letter, Douglas to Lanphier, December 18, 1854.]
+
+[Footnote 519: Davidson and Stuve, History of Illinois, pp. 689-690;
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 275-276.]
+
+[Footnote 520: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 521: _Globe_, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 216.]
+
+[Footnote 522: Globe, 33 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 330.]
+
+[Footnote 523: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 97-98,
+130, 196.]
+
+[Footnote 524: _Globe_, 34 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 655.]
+
+[Footnote 525: _Ibid._, App., p. 391.]
+
+[Footnote 526: _Globe,_34 Cong., 1 Sess., App. p. 392.]
+
+[Footnote 527: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 169-171.]
+
+[Footnote 528: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 265. Douglas
+received 73 votes from the slave States and Buchanan 47; Buchanan
+received 28 votes in New England, Douglas 13; Buchanan received 41
+votes from the Northwest, Douglas 19. The loss of Buchanan in the
+South was more than made good by his votes from the Middle Atlantic
+States.]
+
+[Footnote 529: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 448-449; Proceedings of the
+National Democratic Convention, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 530: Washington _Union_, June 7, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 531: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 267.]
+
+[Footnote 532: Washington _Union_, June 7, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 533: Correspondent to Cincinnati _Enquirer_, June 12, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 534: The letter read, "This legislation is founded upon
+principles as ancient as free government itself, and in accordance
+with them has simply declared that the people of a Territory like
+those of a State, shall decide for themselves whether slavery shall or
+shall not exist within their limits. The Kansas-Nebraska Act does no
+more than give the force of law to this elementary principle of
+self-government, declaring it to be 'the true intent and meaning of
+this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to
+exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free
+to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way,
+subject only to the Constitution of the United States.' How vain and
+illusory would any other principle prove in practice in regard to the
+Territories," etc. Cincinnati _Enquirer_, June 22, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 535: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 269-274.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE TESTING OF POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
+
+
+The author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill doubtless anticipated a gradual
+and natural occupation of the new Territories by settlers like those
+home-seekers who had taken up government lands in Iowa and other
+States of the Northwest. In the course of time, it was to be expected,
+such communities would form their own social and political
+institutions, and so determine whether they would permit or forbid
+slave-labor. By that rapid, and yet on the whole strangely
+conservative, American process the people of the Territories would
+become politically self-conscious and ready for statehood. Not all at
+once, but gradually, a politically self-sufficient entity would come
+into being. Such had been the history of American colonization; it
+seemed the part of wise statesmanship to follow the trend of that
+history.
+
+Theoretically popular sovereignty, as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act, was not an advance over the doctrine of Cass and Dickinson. It
+professed to be the same which had governed Congress in organizing
+Utah and New Mexico. Nevertheless, popular sovereignty had an
+artificial quality which squatter sovereignty lacked. The relation
+between Congress and the people of the Territories, in the matter of
+slavery, was now to be determined not so much by actual conditions as
+by an abstract principle. Federal policy was indoctrinated.
+
+There was, too, this vital difference between squatter sovereignty in
+Utah and New Mexico and popular sovereignty in Nebraska and Kansas:
+the former were at least partially inhabited and enjoyed some degree
+of social and political order; the latter were practically
+uninhabited. It was one thing to grant control over all domestic
+concerns to a population _in esse_, and another and quite different
+thing to grant control to a people _in posse_. In the Kansas-Nebraska
+Act hypothetical communities were endowed with the capacity of
+self-government, and told to decide for themselves a question which
+would become a burning issue the very moment that the first settlers
+set foot in the Territories. Congress attempted thus to solve an
+equation without a single known quantity.
+
+Moreover, slavery was no longer a matter of local concern. Doubtless
+it was once so regarded; but the time had passed when the conscience
+of the North would acquiesce in a _laissez faire_ policy. By force of
+circumstances slavery had become a national issue. Ardent haters of
+the institution were not willing that its extension or restriction
+should be left to a fraction of the nation, artificially organized as
+a Territory. The Kansas-Nebraska Act prejudiced the minds of many
+against the doctrine, however sound in theory it may have seemed, by
+unsettling what the North regarded as its vested right in the free
+territory north of the line of the Missouri Compromise. The Act made
+the political atmosphere electric. The conditions for obtaining a
+calm, dispassionate judgment on the domestic concern of chief
+interest, were altogether lacking.
+
+It was everywhere conceded that Nebraska would be a free Territory.
+The eyes of the nation were focused upon Kansas, which was from the
+first debatable ground. A rush of settlers from the Northwest joined
+by pioneers from Kentucky and Missouri followed the opening up of the
+new lands. As Douglas had foretold, the tide of immigration held back
+by Indian treaties now poured in. The characteristic features of
+American colonization seemed about to repeat themselves. So far the
+movement of population was for the most part spontaneous. Land-hunger,
+not the political destiny of the West, drove men to locate their
+claims on the Kansas and the Missouri. By midsummer colonists of a
+somewhat different stripe appeared. Sent out under the auspices of the
+Emigrant Aid Company, they were to win Kansas for freedom at the same
+time that they subdued the wilderness. It was a species of assisted
+emigration which was new in the history of American colonization,
+outside the annals of missionary effort. The chief promoter of this
+enterprise was a thrifty, Massachusetts Yankee, who saw no reason why
+crusading and business should not go hand in hand. Kansas might be
+wrested from the slave-power at the same time that returns on invested
+funds were secured.
+
+The effect of these developments upon the aggressive pro-slavery
+people of Missouri is not easy to describe. Hitherto they had assumed
+that Kansas would become a slave Territory in the natural order of
+events. This was the prevailing Southern opinion. At once the people
+of western Missouri were put upon the defensive. Blue lodges were
+formed for the purpose of carrying slavery into Kansas. Appeals were
+circulated in the slave-holding States for colonists and funds.
+Passions were inflamed by rumors which grew as they stalked abroad.
+The peaceful occupation of Kansas was at an end. Popular sovereignty
+was to be tested under abnormal conditions.
+
+When the election of territorial delegates to Congress occurred, in
+the late fall, a fatal defect in the organic law was disclosed, to
+which many of the untoward incidents of succeeding months may be
+ascribed. The territorial act conferred the right of voting at the
+first elections upon all free, white, male inhabitants, twenty-one
+years of age and actually resident in the Territory.[536] Here was an
+unfortunate ambiguity. What was actual residence? Every other act
+organizing a territorial government was definite on this point,
+permitting only those to vote who were living in the proposed
+Territory, at the time of the passage of the act. The omission in the
+case of Kansas and Nebraska is easily accounted for. Neither had legal
+residents when the act was passed. Indeed, this defect bears witness
+to the fact that Congress was legislating, not for actual, but for
+hypothetical communities. The consequences were far-reaching, for at
+the very first election, it was charged that frauds were practiced by
+bands of Missourians, who had crossed the border only to aid the
+pro-slavery cause. Not much was made of these charges, as no
+particular interest attached to the election.
+
+Far different was the election of members of the territorial
+legislature in the following spring. On all hands it was agreed that
+this legislature would determine whether Kansas should be slave or
+free soil. It was regrettable that Governor Reeder postponed the
+taking of the census until February, since by mid-winter many
+settlers, who had staked their claims, returned home for the cold
+season, intending to return with their families in the early spring.
+This again was a characteristic feature of frontier history.[537] In
+March, the governor issued his proclamation of election, giving only
+three weeks' notice. Of those who had returned home, only residents of
+Missouri and Iowa were able to participate in the election of March
+30th, by hastily recrossing into Kansas. Governor Reeder did his best
+to guard against fraud. In his instructions to the judges of election,
+he warned them that a voter must be "an actual resident"; that is,
+"must have commenced an active inhabitancy, which he actually intends
+to continue permanently, and must have made the Territory his dwelling
+place to the exclusion of any other home."[538] Still, it was not to
+be expected that _bona fide_ residents could be easily ascertained in
+communities which had sprung up like mushrooms. A hastily constructed
+shack served all the purposes of the would-be voter; and, in last
+analysis, judges of elections had to rest content with declarations of
+intentions. Those who crossed into Kansas after the governor's
+proclamation and endeavored to continue actual inhabitancy, were with
+difficulty distinguished from those who now crossed for the first
+time, under a similar pretext. As Douglas subsequently contended with
+much force, the number of votes cast in excess of the census returns
+did not in itself prove wholesale fraud.[539]
+
+Under such liability to deception and misjudgment, the territorial
+authorities held the election which was likely to determine the status
+of Kansas with respect to slavery. Both parties were playing for great
+stakes; passion and violence were the almost inevitable outcome. Both
+parties contained desperadoes, who invariably come to the surface in
+the general mixing which occurs on the frontier. Both parties committed
+frauds at the polls. But the most serious gravamina have been laid at
+the door of those Blue Lodges of Missouri which deliberately sought to
+secure the election of pro-slavery candidates by fair means or foul.
+The people of western Missouri had come to believe that the fate of
+slavery in their own Commonwealth hinged upon the future of Kansas. It
+was commonly believed that after Kansas, Missouri would be
+abolitionized. It was, therefore, with the fierce, unreasoning energy
+of defenders of their own institutions, that Blue Lodges organized
+their crusade for Kansas.[540] On election day armed bands of
+Missourians crossed into Kansas and polled a heavy vote for the
+pro-slavery candidates, in the teeth of indignant remonstrances.[541]
+
+The further history of popular sovereignty in Kansas must be lightly
+touched upon, for it is the reflex action in the halls of Congress
+that interests the student of Douglas's career. Twenty-eight of the
+thirty-nine members of the first territorial legislature were men of
+pronounced pro-slavery views; eleven were anti-slavery candidates. In
+seven districts, where protests had been filed, the governor ordered
+new elections. Three of those first elected were returned, six were
+new men of anti-slavery proclivities. But when the legislature met,
+these new elections were set aside and I the first elections were
+declared valid.[542]
+
+In complete control of the legislature, the pro-slavery party
+proceeded to write slavery into the law of the Territory. In their
+eagerness to establish slavery permanently, these legislative Hotspurs
+quite overshot the mark, creating offenses and affixing penalties of
+doubtful constitutionality.[543] Meanwhile the census of February
+reported but one hundred ninety-two slaves in a total population of
+eight thousand six hundred.[544] Those who had migrated from the
+South, were not as a rule of the slave-holding class. Those who
+possessed slaves shrank from risking their property in Kansas, until
+its future were settled.[545] Eventually, the climate was to prove an
+even greater obstacle to the transplantation of the slave-labor system
+into Kansas.
+
+Foiled in their hope of winning the territorial legislature, the
+free-State settlers in Kansas resolved upon a hazardous course.
+Believing the legislature an illegal body, they called a convention to
+draft a constitution with which they proposed to apply for admission
+to the Union as a free State. Robinson, the leader of the free-State
+party, was wise in such matters by reason of his experience in
+California. Reeder, who had been displaced as governor and had gone
+over to the opposition, lent his aid to the project; and
+ex-Congressman Lane, formerly of Indiana, gave liberally of his
+vehement energy to the cause. After successive conventions in which
+the various free-State elements were worked into a fairly consistent
+mixture, the Topeka convention launched a constitution and a
+free-State government. Unofficially the supporters of the new
+government took measures for its defense. In the following spring,
+Governor Robinson sent his first message to the State legislature in
+session at Topeka; and Reeder and Lane were chosen senators for the
+inchoate Commonwealth.[546]
+
+Meantime Governor Shannon had succeeded Reeder as executive of the
+territorial government at Shawnee Mission. The aspect of affairs was
+ominous. Popular sovereignty had ended in a dangerous dualism. Two
+governments confronted each other in bitter hostility. There were
+untamed individuals in either camp, who were not averse to a decision
+by wager of battle.[547]
+
+Such was the situation in Kansas, when Douglas reached Washington in
+February, after a protracted illness.[548] The President had already
+discussed the Kansas imbroglio in a special message; but the
+Democratic majority in the Senate showed some reluctance to follow the
+lead of the administration. From the Democrats in the House not much
+could be expected, because of the strength of the Republicans. The
+party awaited its leader. Upon his appearance, all matters relating to
+Kansas were referred to the Committee on Territories. The situation
+called for unusual qualities of leadership. How would the author of
+the Kansas-Nebraska Act face the palpable breakdown of his policy?
+
+With his customary dispatch, Douglas reported on the 12th of
+March.[549] The majority report consumed two hours in the reading;
+Senator Collamer stated the position of the minority in half the
+time.[550] Evidently the chairman was aware where the burden of proof
+lay. Douglas took substantially the same ground as that taken by the
+President in his special message, but he discussed the issues boldly
+in his own vigorous way. No one doubted that he had reached his
+conclusions independently.
+
+The report began with a constitutional argument in defense of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act. As a contribution to the development of the
+doctrine of popular sovereignty, the opening paragraphs deserve more
+than passing notice. The distinct advance in Douglas's thought
+consisted in this: that he explicitly refused to derive the power to
+organize Territories from that provision of the Constitution which
+gave Congress "power to dispose of and make all needful rules and
+regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to
+the United States." The word "territory" here was used in its
+geographical sense to designate the public domain, not to indicate a
+political community. Rather was the power to be derived from the
+authority of Congress to adopt necessary and proper means to admit new
+States into the Union. But beyond the necessary and proper
+organization of a territorial government with reference to ultimate
+statehood, Congress might not go. Clearly, then, Congress might not
+impose conditions and restrictions upon a Territory which would
+prevent its entering the Union on an equality with the other States.
+From the formation of the Union, each State had been left free to
+decide the question of slavery for itself. Congress, therefore, might
+not decide the question for prospective States. Recognizing this, the
+framers of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had relegated the discussion of the
+slavery question to the people, who were to form a territorial
+government under cover of the organic act.[551]
+
+This was an ingenious argument. It was in accord with the utterances
+of some of the weightiest intellects in our constitutional history.
+But it was not in accord with precedent. There was hardly a
+territorial act that had emerged from Douglas's committee room, which
+had not imposed restrictions not binding on the older Commonwealths.
+
+Having given thus a constitutional sanction to the principle of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, the report unhesitatingly denounced that "vast
+moneyed corporation," created for the purpose of controlling the
+domestic institutions of a distinct political community fifteen
+hundred miles away.[552] This was as flagrant an act of intervention
+as though France or England had interfered for a similar purpose in
+Cuba, for "in respect to everything which affects its domestic policy
+and internal concerns, each State stands in the relation of a foreign
+power to every other State." The obvious retort to this extraordinary
+assertion was, that Kansas was only a Territory, and not a State.
+Douglas then made this "mammoth moneyed corporation" the scapegoat for
+all that had happened in Kansas. The Missouri Blue Lodges were
+defensive organizations, called into existence by the fear that the
+"abolitionizing" of Kansas was the prelude to a warfare upon slavery
+in Missouri. The violence and bloodshed in Kansas were "the natural
+and inevitable consequences of such extraordinary systems of
+emigration."[553]
+
+Such _ex post facto_ assertions did not mend matters in Kansas,
+however much they may have relieved the author of the report. It
+remained to deal with the existing situation. The report took the
+ground that the legislature of Kansas was a legal body and had been so
+recognized by Governor Reeder. Neither the alleged irregularity of the
+elections, nor other objections, could diminish its legislative
+authority. Pro-tests against the election returns had been filed in
+only seven out of eighteen districts. Ten out of thirteen councilmen,
+and seventeen out of twenty-six representatives, held their seats by
+virtue of the governor's certificate. Even if it were assumed that the
+second elections in the seven districts were wrongly invalidated by
+the legislature, its action was still the action of a lawful
+legislature, possessing in either house a quorum of duly certificated
+members. This was a lawyer's plea. Technically it was unanswerable.
+
+Having taken this position, Douglas very properly refused to pass
+judgment on the laws of the legislature. By the very terms of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act, Congress had confided the power to enact local
+laws to the people of the Territories. If the validity of these laws
+should be doubted, it was for the courts of justice and not for
+Congress to decide the question.[554]
+
+Throughout the report, the question was not once raised, whether the
+legislature really reflected the sentiment of a majority of the
+settlers of Kansas. Douglas assumed that it was truly representative.
+This attitude is not surprising, when one recalls his predilections
+and the conflict of evidence on essential points in the controversy.
+Nevertheless, this attitude was unfortunate, for it made him unfair
+toward the free-State settlers, with whom by temper and training he
+had far more in common than with the Missouri emigrants. Could he have
+cut himself loose from his bias, he would have recognized the
+free-State men as the really trustworthy builders of a Commonwealth.
+But having taken his stand on the legality of the territorial
+legislature, he persisted in regarding the free-State movement as a
+seditious combination to subvert the territorial government
+established by Congress. To the free-State men he would not accord any
+inherent, sovereign right to annul the laws and resist the authority
+of the territorial government.[555] The right of self-government was
+derived only from the Constitution through the organic act passed by
+Congress. And then he used that expression which was used with telling
+effect against the theory of popular sovereignty: "The sovereignty of
+a Territory remains in abeyance, suspended in the United States, in
+trust for the people, until they shall be admitted into the Union as a
+State."[556] If this was true, then popular sovereignty after all
+meant nothing more than local self-government, the measure of which
+was to be determined by Congress. If Congress left slavery to local
+determination, it was only for expediency's sake, and not by reason of
+any constitutional obligation.
+
+Douglas found a vindication of his Kansas-Nebraska Act in the peaceful
+history of Nebraska, "to which the emigrant aid societies did not
+extend their operations, and into which the stream of emigration was
+permitted to flow in its usual and natural channels."[557] He fixed
+the ultimate responsibility for the disorders in Kansas upon those who
+opposed the principle of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and who, "failing to
+accomplish their purpose in the halls of Congress, and under the
+authority of the Constitution, immediately resorted in their
+respective States to unusual and extraordinary means to control the
+political destinies and shape the domestic institutions of Kansas, in
+defiance of the wishes and regardless of the rights of the people of
+that Territory as guaranteed by their organic law."[558]
+
+A practical recommendation accompanied the report. It was proposed to
+authorize the territorial legislature to provide for a constitutional
+convention to frame a State constitution, as soon as a census should
+indicate that there were ninety-three thousand four hundred and twenty
+inhabitants.[559] This bill was in substantial accord with the
+President's recommendations.
+
+The minority report was equally positive as to the cause of the
+trouble in Kansas and the proper remedy. "Repeal the act of 1854,
+organize Kansas anew as a free Territory and all will be put right."
+But if Congress was bent on continuing the experiment, then the
+Territory must be reorganized with proper safeguards against illegal
+voting. The only alternative was to admit the Territory as a State
+with its free constitution.
+
+The issue could not have been more sharply drawn. Popular sovereignty
+as applied in the Kansas-Nebraska Act was put upon the defensive.
+Republican senators made haste to press their advantage. Sumner
+declared that the true issue was smothered in the majority report, but
+stood forth as a pillar of fire in the report of the minority.
+Trumbull forced the attack, while Douglas was absent, without waiting
+for the printing of the reports. It needed only this apparent
+discourtesy to bring Douglas into the arena. An unseemly wrangle
+between the Illinois senators followed, in the course of which Douglas
+challenged his colleague to resign and stand with him for re-election
+before the next session of the legislature.[560] Trumbull wisely
+declined to accept the risk.
+
+On the 20th of March, Douglas addressed the Senate in reply to
+Trumbull.[561] Nothing that he said shed any new light on the
+controversy. He had not changed his angle of vision. He had only the
+old arguments with which to combat the assertion that "Kansas had been
+conquered and a legislature imposed by violence." But the speech
+differed from the report, just as living speech must differ from the
+printed page. Every assertion was pointed by his vigorous intonations;
+every argument was accentuated by his forceful personality. The report
+was a lawyer's brief; the speech was the flexible utterance of an
+accomplished debater, bent upon a personal as well as an argumentative
+victory.
+
+Even hostile critics were forced to yield to a certain admiration for
+"the Little Giant." The author of _Uncle Tom's Cabin_ watched him from
+her seat in the Senate gallery, with intense interest; and though
+writing for readers, who like herself hated the man for his supposed
+servility to the South, she said with unwonted objectivity, "This
+Douglas is the very ideal of vitality. Short, broad, and thick-set,
+every inch of him has its own alertness and motion. He has a good head
+and face, thick black hair, heavy black brows and a keen eye. His
+figure would be an unfortunate one were it not for the animation which
+constantly pervades it; as it is, it rather gives poignancy to his
+peculiar appearance; he has a small, handsome hand, moreover, and a
+graceful as well as forcible mode of using it.... He has two
+requisites of a debater--a melodious voice and a clear, sharply
+defined enunciation.... His forte in debating is his power of
+mystifying the point. With the most off-hand assured airs in the
+world, and a certain appearance of honest superiority, like one who
+has a regard for you and wishes to set you right on one or two little
+matters, he proceeds to set up some point which is _not_ that in
+question, but only a family connection of it, and this point he
+attacks with the very best of logic and language; he charges upon it
+horse and foot, runs it down, tramples it in the dust, and then turns
+upon you with--'Sir, there is your argument! Did not I tell you so?
+You see it is all stuff;' and if you have allowed yourself to be so
+dazzled by his quickness as to forget that the routed point is not,
+after all, the one in question, you suppose all is over with it.
+Moreover, he contrives to mingle up so many stinging allusions to so
+many piquant personalities that by the time he has done his
+mystification a dozen others are ready and burning to spring on their
+feet to repel some direct or indirect attack, all equally wide of the
+point."[562]
+
+Douglas paid dearly for some of these personal shots. He had never
+forgiven Sumner for his share in "the Appeal of the Independent
+Democrats." He lost no opportunity to attribute unworthy motives to
+this man, whose radical views on slavery he never could comprehend.
+More than once he insinuated that the Senator from Massachusetts and
+other Black Republicans were fabricating testimony relating to Kansas
+for political purposes. When Sumner, many weeks later, rose to address
+the Senate on "the Crime against Kansas," he labored under the double
+weight of personal wrongs and the wrongs of a people. The veteran Cass
+pronounced his speech "the most un-American and unpatriotic that ever
+grated on the ears of the members of this high body."[563] Even
+Sumner's friends listened to him with surprise and regret. Of Douglas
+he had this to say:
+
+"As the Senator from South Carolina is the Don Quixote, the Senator
+from Illinois is the squire of slavery, its very Sancho Panza, ready
+to do all its humiliating offices. This Senator in his labored
+address, vindicating his labored report--piling one mass of elaborate
+error upon another mass--constrained himself, as you will remember, to
+unfamiliar decencies of speech.... I will not stop to repel the
+imputations which he cast upon myself.... Standing on this floor, the
+Senator issued his rescript, requiring submission to the Usurped Power
+of Kansas; and this was accompanied by a manner--all his own--such as
+befits the tyrannical threat.... He is bold. He shrinks from nothing.
+Like Danton, he may cry, _'l'audace! l'audace! tonjours l'audace!'_
+but even his audacity cannot compass this work. The Senator copies the
+British officer, who, with boastful swagger, said that with the hilt
+of his sword he would cram the 'stamps' down the throats of the
+American people, and he will meet a similar failure."[564]
+
+The retort of Douglas was not calculated to turn away wrath. He called
+attention to the fact that these gross insults were not uttered in the
+heat of indignation, but "conned over, written with cool, deliberate
+malignity, repeated from night to night in order to catch the
+appropriate grace." He ridiculed the excessive self-esteem of Sumner
+in words that moved the Senate to laughter; and then completed his
+vindictive assault by charging Sumner with perfidy. Had he not sworn
+to obey the Constitution, and then, forsooth, refused to support the
+enforcement of the Fugitive Slave law?[565]
+
+Sumner replied in a passion, "Let the Senator remember hereafter that
+the bowie-knife and bludgeon are not the proper emblems of senatorial
+debate. Let him remember that the swagger of Bob Acres and the
+ferocity of the Malay cannot add dignity to this body.... No person
+with the upright form of a man can be allowed, without violation of
+all decency, to switch out from his tongue the perpetual stench of
+offensive personality. Sir, that is not a proper weapon of debate, at
+least, on this floor. The noisome, squat, and nameless animal, to
+which I refer, is not a proper model for an American Senator. Will the
+Senator from Illinois take notice?" And upon Douglas's unworthy
+retort that he certainly would not imitate the Senator in that
+capacity, Stunner said insultingly, "Mr. President, again the Senator
+has switched his tongue, and again he fills the Senate with its
+offensive odor."[566]
+
+Two days later Brooks made his assault on Sumner in the Senate
+chamber. Sumner's recollection was, that on recovering consciousness,
+he recognized among those about him, but offering no assistance,
+Senators Douglas and Toombs, and between them, his assailant.[567] It
+was easy for ill-disposed persons to draw unfortunate inferences from
+this sick-bed testimony. Douglas felt that an explanation was expected
+from him. In a frank, explicit statement he told his colleagues that
+he was in the reception room of the Senate when the assault occurred.
+Hearing what was happening, he rose immediately to his feet to enter
+the chamber and put an end to the affray. But, on second thought, he
+realized that his motives would be misconstrued if he entered the
+hall. When the affair was over, he went in with the crowd. He was not
+near Brooks at any time, and he was not with Senator Toombs, except
+perhaps as he passed him on leaving the chamber. He did not know that
+any attack upon Mr. Sumner was purposed "then or at any other time,
+here or at any other place."[568] Still, it is to be regretted that
+Douglas did not act on his first, manly instincts and do all that lay
+in his power to end this brutal assault, regardless of possible
+misconstructions.
+
+Disgraceful as these scenes in Congress were, they were less ominous
+than events which were passing in Kansas. Clashes between pro-slavery
+and free-State settlers had all but resulted in civil war in the
+preceding fall. An unusually severe winter had followed, which not
+only cooled the passions of all for a while, but convinced many a
+slave-holder of the futility of introducing African slaves into a
+climate, where on occasion the mercury would freeze in the
+thermometer. In the spring hostilities were resumed. Under cover of
+executing certain writs in Lawrence, Sheriff Jones and a posse of
+ruffians took revenge upon that stronghold of the Emigrant Aid
+Society, by destroying the newspaper offices, burning some public
+buildings, and pillaging the town. Three days after the sack of
+Lawrence, and just two days after the assault upon Sumner in the
+Senate, John Brown and his sons executed the decree of Almighty God,
+by slaying in cold blood five pro-slavery settlers on the
+Pottawatomie. Civil war had begun in Kansas.[569]
+
+If remedial measures for Kansas were needed at the beginning of
+Congress, much more were they needed now. The bill reported by Douglas
+for the eventual admission of Kansas had commended itself neither to
+the leaders, nor to the rank and file, of the party. There was a
+general disposition to await the outcome of the national party
+conventions, before legislating for Kansas. Douglas made repeated
+efforts to expedite his bill, but his failure to secure the Democratic
+nomination seemed to weaken his leadership. Pressure from without
+finally spurred the Democratic members of Congress to action. The
+enthusiasm of the Republicans in convention and their confident
+expectation of carrying many States at the North, warned the
+Democrats that they must make some effort to allay the disturbances in
+Kansas. The initiative was taken by Senator Toombs, who drafted a bill
+conceding far more to Northern sentiment than any yet proposed. It
+provided that, after a census had been taken, delegates to a
+constitutional convention should be chosen on the date of the
+presidential election in November. Five competent persons, appointed
+by the President with the consent of the Senate, were to supervise the
+census and the subsequent registration of voters. The convention thus
+chosen was to assemble in December to frame a State constitution and
+government.[570]
+
+The Toombs bill, with several others, and with numerous amendments,
+was referred to the Committee on Territories. Frequent conferences
+followed at Douglas's residence, in which the recognized leaders of
+the party participated.[571] It was decided to support the Toombs bill
+in a slightly amended form and to make a party measure of it.[572]
+Prudence warned against attempting to elect Buchanan on a policy of
+merely negative resistance to the Topeka movement.[573] The Republican
+members of Congress were to be forced to make a show of hands on a
+measure which promised substantial relief to the people of Kansas.
+
+In his report of June 30th, Douglas discussed the various measures
+that had been proposed by Whigs and Republicans, but found the Toombs
+bill best adapted to "insure a fair and impartial decision of the
+questions at issue in Kansas, in accordance with the wishes of the
+_bona fide_ inhabitants." A single paragraph from this report ought to
+have convinced those who subsequently doubted the sincerity of
+Douglas's course, that he was partner to no plots against the free
+expression of public opinion in the Territory. "In the opinion of your
+committee, whenever a constitution shall be formed in any Territory,
+preparatory to its admission into the Union as a State, justice, the
+genius of our institutions, the whole theory of our republican system
+imperatively demand that the voice of the people shall be fairly
+expressed, and their will embodied in that fundamental law, without
+fraud or violence, or intimidation, or any other improper or unlawful
+influence, and subject to no other restrictions than those imposed by
+the Constitution of the United States."[574]
+
+The Toombs bill caused Republicans grave misgivings, even while they
+conceded its ostensible liberality. Could an administration that had
+condoned the frauds already practiced in Kansas be trusted to appoint
+disinterested commissioners? Would a census of the present population
+give a majority in the proposed convention to the free-State party in
+Kansas? Everyone knew that many free-State people had been driven away
+by the disorders. Douglas endeavored to reassure his opponents on
+these points; but his words carried no weight on the other side of the
+chamber. No better evidence of his good faith in the matter, however,
+could have been asked than he offered, by an amendment which extended
+the right of voting at the elections to all who had been _bona fide_
+residents and voters, but who had absented themselves from the
+Territory, provided they should return before October 1st.[575] If,
+as Republicans asserted, many more free-State settlers than
+pro-slavery squatters had been driven out, then here was a fair
+concession. But what they wanted was not merely an equal chance for
+freedom in Kansas, but precedence. To this end they were ready even to
+admit Kansas under the Topeka constitution, which, by the most
+favorable construction, was the work of a faction.[576]
+
+It was afterwards alleged that Douglas had wittingly suppressed a
+clause in the original Toombs bill, which provided for a submission of
+the constitution to a popular vote. The circumstances were such as to
+make the charge plausible, and Douglas, in his endeavor to clear
+himself, made hasty and unqualified statements which were manifestly
+incorrect. In his own bill for the admission of Kansas, Douglas
+referred explicitly to "the election for the adoption of the
+Constitution."[577] The wording of the clause indicates that he
+regarded the popular ratification of the constitution to be a matter
+of course. The original Toombs bill had also referred explicitly to a
+ratification of the constitution by the people;[578] but when it was
+reported from Douglas's committee in an amended form, it had been
+stripped of this provision. Trumbull noted at the time that this
+amended bill made no provision for the submission of the constitution
+to the vote of the people and deplored the omission, though he
+supposed, as did most men, that such a ratification would be
+necessary.[579] Subsequently he accused Douglas not only of having
+intentionally omitted the referendum clause, but of having prevented a
+popular vote, by adding the clause, "and until the complete execution
+of this Act, no other election shall be held in said Territory."[580]
+
+Douglas cleared himself from the latter charge, by pointing out that
+this clause had been struck out upon his own motion, and replaced by
+the clause which read, "all other elections in said Territory are
+hereby postponed until such time as said convention shall
+appoint."[581] As to the other charge, Douglas said in 1857, that he
+knew the Toombs bill was silent on the matter of submission, but he
+took the fair construction to be that powers not delegated were
+reserved, and that of course the constitution would be submitted to
+the people. "That I was a party, either by private conferences at my
+house or otherwise, to a plan to force a constitution on the people of
+Kansas without submission, is not true."[582]
+
+Still, there was the ugly fact that the Toombs bill had gone to his
+committee with the clause, and had emerged shorn of it. Toombs himself
+threw some light on the matter by stating that the clause had been
+stricken out because there was no provision for a second election, and
+therefore no proper safeguards for such a popular vote.[583] The
+probability is that Douglas, and in fact most men, deemed it
+sufficient at that time to provide a fair opportunity for the
+election of a convention.[584] When Trumbull preferred his charges in
+detail in the campaign of 1858, Douglas at first flatly denied that
+there was a submission clause in the original Toombs bill. Both
+Trumbull and Lincoln then convicted Douglas of error, and thus put him
+in the light of one who had committed an offense and had sought to
+save himself by prevaricating.
+
+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.
+
+To nine-tenths of his devoted followers, he was still "Judge" Douglas.
+It was odd that the title, so quickly earned and so briefly worn,
+should have stuck so persistently to him. In legal attainments he fell
+far short of many of his colleagues in the Senate. Had he but chosen
+to apply himself, he might have been a conspicuous leader of the
+American bar; but law was ever to him the servant of politics, and he
+never cared to make the servant greater than his lord. That he would
+have developed judicial qualities, may well be doubted; advocate he
+was and advocate he remained, to the end of his days. So it was that
+when a legal question arose, with far-reaching implications for
+American politics, the lawyer and politician, rather than the judge,
+laid hold upon the points of political significance.
+
+The inauguration of James Buchanan and the Dred Scott decision of the
+Supreme Court, two days later, marked a turning point in the career of
+Judge Douglas. Of this he was of course unaware. He accepted the
+advent of his successful rival with composure, and the opinion of the
+Court, with comparative indifference. In a speech before the Grand
+Jury of the United States District Court at Springfield, three months
+later, he referred publicly for the first time to the Dred Scott case.
+Senator, and not Judge, Douglas was much in evidence. He swallowed the
+opinion of the majority of the court without wincing--the _obiter
+dictum_ and all. Nay, more, he praised the Court for passing, like
+honest and conscientious judges, from the technicalities of the case
+to the real merits of the questions involved. The material,
+controlling points of the case were: first, that a negro descended
+from slave parents could not be a citizen of the United States;
+second, that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and void
+from the beginning, and thus could not extinguish a master's right to
+his slave in any Territory. "While the right continues in full force
+under ... the Constitution," he added, "and cannot be divested or
+alienated by an act of Congress, it necessarily remains a barren and
+worthless right, unless sustained, protected, and enforced by
+appropriate police regulations and local legislation, prescribing
+adequate remedies for its violation. These regulations and remedies
+must necessarily depend entirely upon the will and wishes of the
+people of the Territory, as they can only be prescribed by the local
+legislatures." Hence the triumphant conclusion that "the great
+principle of popular sovereignty and self-government is sustained and
+firmly established by the authority of this decision."[620]
+
+There were acute legal minds who thought that they detected a false
+note in this paean. Was this a necessary implication from the Dred
+Scott decision? Was it the intention of the Court to leave the
+principle of popular sovereignty standing upright? Was not the
+decision rather fatal to the great doctrine--the shibboleth of the
+Democratic party?
+
+On this occasion Douglas had nothing to add to his exposition of the
+Dred Scott case, further than to point out the happy escape of white
+supremacy from African equality. And here he struck the note which put
+him out of accord with those Northern constituents with whom he was
+otherwise in complete harmony. "When you confer upon the African race
+the privileges of citizenship, and put them on an equality with white
+men at the polls, in the jury box, on the bench, in the Executive
+chair, and in the councils of the nation, upon what principle will you
+deny their equality at the festive board and in the domestic circle?"
+In the following year, he received his answer in the homely words of
+Abraham Lincoln: "I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 592: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 442-443; Iglehart, History of the
+Douglas Estate in Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 593: Letter in Chicago _Times_, August 30, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 594: _Globe_, 29 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 749-750.]
+
+[Footnote 595: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 870.]
+
+[Footnote 596: _Ibid._, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 597: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 266.]
+
+[Footnote 598: _Ibid._, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 350-351.]
+
+[Footnote 599: _Ibid._, p. 769.]
+
+[Footnote 600: _Globe_, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 951.]
+
+[Footnote 601: _Ibid._, p. 952.]
+
+[Footnote 602: Letter to Governor Matteson, January 2, 1854, in
+Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 358 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 603: MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, November 11,
+1853.]
+
+[Footnote 604: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.]
+
+[Footnote 605: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 953.]
+
+[Footnote 606: _Ibid._, p. 1050.]
+
+[Footnote 607: Chicago _Times_, January 27, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 608: _Globe_, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 132.]
+
+[Footnote 609: Mrs. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, p. 68;
+Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 610: Letter of Mrs. Lippincott ("Grace Greenwood") to the
+writer.]
+
+[Footnote 611: Conversation with Stephen A. Douglas, Esq., of
+Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 612: The marriage took place November 20, 1856.]
+
+[Footnote 613: See Philadelphia _Press_, June 8, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 614: Letter of J.H. Roberts, Esq., of Chicago to the writer;
+also letter of Mrs. Lippincott to the writer.]
+
+[Footnote 615: See Philadelphia _Press_, November 17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 616: For a copy of this letter, I am indebted to J.H.
+Roberts, Esq., of Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 617: Conversation with Henry Greenbaum, Esq., of Chicago.]
+
+[Footnote 618: Major G.M. McConnell in the Transactions of the
+Illinois Historical Society, 1900; see also Forney, Anecdotes of
+Public Men, I, p. 147.]
+
+[Footnote 619: Schuyler Colfax in the South Bend _Register,_ June,
+1861; Forney in his Eulogy, 1861; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 359.]
+
+[Footnote 620: The New York _Times_, June 23, 1857, published this
+speech of June 12th, in full.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE REVOLT OF DOUGLAS
+
+
+Had anyone prophesied at the close of the year 1856, that within a
+twelvemonth Douglas would be denounced as a traitor to Democracy, he
+would have been thought mad. That Douglas of all men should break with
+his party under any circumstances was almost unthinkable. His whole
+public career had been inseparably connected with his party. To be
+sure, he had never gone so far as to say "my party right or wrong";
+but that was because he had never felt obliged to make a moral choice.
+He was always convinced that his party was right. Within the
+circumference of party, he had always found ample freedom of movement.
+He had never lacked the courage of his convictions, but hitherto his
+convictions had never collided with the dominant opinion of Democracy.
+He undoubtedly believed profoundly in the mission of his party, as an
+organization standing above all for popular government and the
+preservation of the Union. No ordinary circumstances would justify him
+in weakening the influence or impairing the organization of the
+Democratic party. Paradoxical as it may seem, his partisanship was
+dictated by a profound patriotism. He believed the maintenance of the
+Union to be dependent upon the integrity of his party. So thinking and
+feeling he entered upon the most memorable controversy of his career.
+
+When President Buchanan asked Robert J. Walker of Mississippi to
+become governor of Kansas, the choice met with the hearty approval of
+Douglas. Not all the President's appointments had been acceptable to
+the Senator from Illinois. But here was one that he could indorse
+unreservedly. He used all his influence to persuade Walker to accept
+the uncoveted mission. With great reluctance Walker consented, but
+only upon the most explicit understanding with the administration as
+to the policy to be followed in Kansas. It was well understood on both
+sides that a true construction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act required the
+submission to popular vote of any constitution which the prospective
+convention might adopt. This was emphatically the view of Douglas,
+whom Governor Walker took pains to consult on his way through
+Chicago.[621]
+
+The call for an election of delegates to a constitutional convention
+had already been issued, when Walker reached Kansas. The free-State
+people were incensed because the appointment of delegates had been
+made on the basis of a defective census and registration; and even the
+assurance of the governor, in his inaugural, that the constitution
+would be submitted to a popular vote, failed to overcome their
+distrust. They therefore took no part in the election of delegates.
+This course was unfortunate, for it gave the control of the convention
+wholly into the hands of the pro-slavery party, with consequences that
+were far-reaching for Kansas and the nation.[622] But by October the
+free-State party had abandoned its policy of abstention from
+territorial politics, so far as to participate in the election of a
+new territorial legislature. The result was a decisive free-State
+victory. The next legislature would have an ample majority of
+free-State men in both chambers. It was with the discomfiting
+knowledge, then, that they represented only a minority of the
+community that the delegates of the constitutional convention began
+their labors.[623] It was clear to the dullest intelligence that any
+pro-slavery constitution would be voted down, if it were submitted
+fairly to the people of Kansas. Gloom settled down upon the hopes of
+the pro-slavery party.
+
+When the document which embodied the labors of the convention was made
+public, the free-State party awoke from its late complacence to find
+itself tricked by a desperate game. The constitution was not to be
+submitted to a full and fair vote; but only the article relating to
+slavery. The people of Kansas were to vote for the "Constitution with
+slavery" or for the "Constitution with no slavery." By either
+alternative the constitution would be adopted. But should the
+constitution with no slavery be ratified, a clause of the schedule
+still guaranteed "the right of property in slaves now in this
+Territory."[624] The choice offered to an opponent of slavery in
+Kansas was between a constitution sanctioning and safeguarding all
+forms of slave property,[625] and a constitution which guaranteed the
+full possession of slaves then in the Territory, with no assurances
+as to the status of the natural increase of these slaves. Viewed in
+the most charitable light, this was a gambler's device for securing
+the stakes by hook or crook. Still further to guard existing property
+rights in slaves, it was provided that if the constitution should be
+amended after 1864, no alteration should be made to affect "the rights
+of property in the ownership of slaves."[626]
+
+The news from Lecompton stirred Douglas profoundly. In a peculiar
+sense he stood sponsor for justice to bleeding Kansas, not only
+because he had advocated in abstract terms the perfect freedom of the
+people to form their domestic institutions in their own way, but
+because he had become personally responsible for the conduct of the
+leader of the Lecompton party. John Calhoun, president of the
+convention, had been appointed surveyor general of the Territory upon
+his recommendation. Governor Walker had retained Calhoun in that
+office because of Douglas's assurance that Calhoun would support the
+policy of submission.[627] Moreover, Governor Walker had gone to his
+post with the assurance that the leaders of the administration would
+support this course.
+
+Was it likely that the pro-slavery party in Kansas would take this
+desperate course, without assurance of some sort from Washington?
+There were persistent rumors that President Buchanan approved the
+Lecompton constitution,[628] but Douglas was loth to give credence to
+them. The press of Illinois and of the Northwest voiced public
+sentiment in condemning the work of the Lecomptonites.[629] Douglas
+was soon on his way to Washington, determined to know the President's
+mind; his own was made up.
+
+The interview between President Buchanan and Douglas, as recounted by
+the latter, takes on a dramatic aspect.[630] Douglas found his worst
+fears realized. The President was clearly under the influence of an
+aggressive group of Southern statesmen, who were bent upon making
+Kansas a slave State under the Lecompton constitution. Laboring under
+intense feeling, Douglas then threw down the gauntlet: he would oppose
+the policy of the administration publicly to the bitter end. "Mr.
+Douglas," said the President rising to his feet excitedly, "I desire
+you to remember that no Democrat ever yet differed from an
+administration of his own choice without being crushed. Beware of the
+fate of Tallmadge and Rives." "Mr. President" rejoined Douglas also
+rising, "I wish you to remember that General Jackson is dead."
+
+The Chicago _Times_, reporting the interview, intimated that there had
+been a want of agreement, but no lack of courtesy or regard on either
+side. Douglas was not yet ready to issue an ultimatum. The situation
+might be remedied. On the night following this memorable encounter,
+Douglas was serenaded by friends and responded with a brief speech,
+but he did not allude to the Kansas question.[631] It was generally
+expected that he would show his hand on Monday, the opening day of
+Congress. The President's message did not reach Congress, however,
+until Tuesday. Immediately upon its reading, Douglas offered the usual
+motion to print the message, adding, as he took his seat, that he
+totally dissented from "that portion of the message which may fairly
+be construed as approving of the proceedings of the Lecompton
+convention." At an early date he would state the reasons for his
+dissent.[632]
+
+On the following day, December 9th, Douglas took the irrevocable step.
+For three hours he held the Senate and the audience in the galleries
+in rapt attention, while with more than his wonted gravity and
+earnestness he denounced the Lecompton constitution.[633] He began
+with a conciliatory reference to the President's message. He was happy
+to find, after a more careful examination, that the President had
+refrained from making any recommendation as to the course which
+Congress should pursue with regard to the constitution. And so, he
+added adroitly, the Kansas question is not to be treated as an
+administration measure. He shared the disappointment of the President
+that the constitution had not been submitted fully and freely to the
+people of Kansas; but the President, he conceived, had made a
+fundamental error in supposing that the Nebraska Act provided for the
+disposition of the slavery question apart from other local matters.
+The direct opposite was true. The main object of the Act was to remove
+an odious restriction by which the people had been prevented from
+deciding the slavery question for themselves, like all other local and
+domestic concerns. If the President was right in thinking that by the
+terms of the Nebraska bill the slavery question must be submitted to
+the people, then every other clause of the constitution should be
+submitted to them. To do less would be to reduce popular sovereignty
+to a farce.
+
+But Douglas could not maintain this conciliatory attitude. His sense
+of justice was too deeply outraged. He recalled facts which every
+well-informed person knew. "I know that men, high in authority and in
+the confidence of the territorial and National Government, canvassed
+every part of Kansas during the election of delegates, and each one of
+them pledged himself to the people that no snap judgment was to be
+taken. Up to the time of the meeting of the convention, in October
+last, the pretense was kept up, the profession was openly made, and
+believed by me, and I thought believed by them, that the convention
+intended to submit a constitution to the people, and not to attempt to
+put a government in operation without such submission."[634] How was
+this pledge redeemed? All men, forsooth, must vote for the
+constitution, whether they like it or not, in order to be permitted to
+vote for or against slavery! This would be like an election under the
+First Consul, when, so his enemies averred, Napoleon addressed his
+troops with the words: "Now, my soldiers, you are to go to the
+election and vote freely just as you please. If you vote for Napoleon,
+all is well; vote against him, and you are to be instantly shot." That
+was a fair election! "This election," said Douglas with bitter irony,
+"is to be _equally fair!_ All men in favor of the constitution may
+vote for it--all men against it shall not vote at all! Why not let
+them vote against it? I have asked a very large number of the
+gentlemen who framed the constitution ... and I have received the same
+answer from every one of them.... They say if they allowed a negative
+vote the constitution would have been voted down by an overwhelming
+majority, and hence the fellows shall not be allowed to vote at all."
+
+"Will you force it on them against their will," he demanded, "simply
+because they would have voted it down if you had consulted them? If
+you will, are you going to force it upon them under the plea of
+leaving them perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+institutions in their own way? Is that the mode in which I am called
+upon to carry out the principle of self-government and popular
+sovereignty in the Territories?" It is no answer, he argued, that the
+constitution is unobjectionable. "You have no right to force an
+unexceptionable constitution on a people." The pro-slavery clause was
+not the offense in the constitution, to his mind. "If Kansas wants a
+slave-State constitution she has a right to it, if she wants a
+free-State constitution she has a right to it. It is none of my
+business which way the slavery clause is decided. I care not whether
+it is voted up or down." The whole affair looked to him "like a system
+of trickery and jugglery to defeat the fair expression of the will of
+the people."[635]
+
+The vehemence of his utterance had now carried Douglas perhaps farther
+than he had meant to go.[636] He paused to plead for a fair policy
+which would redeem party pledges:
+
+     "Ignore Lecompton, ignore Topeka; treat both those party
+     movements as irregular and void; pass a fair bill--the one
+     that we framed ourselves when we were acting as a unit; have
+     a fair election--and you will have peace in the Democratic
+     party, and peace throughout the country, in ninety days. The
+     people want a fair vote. They never will be satisfied
+     without it. They never should be satisfied without a fair
+     vote on their Constitution....
+
+     "Frame any other bill that secures a fair, honest vote, to
+     men of all parties, and carries out the pledge that the
+     people shall be left free to decide on their domestic
+     institutions for themselves, and I will go with you with
+     pleasure, and with all the energy I may possess. But if this
+     Constitution is to be forced down our throats, in violation
+     of the fundamental principle of free government, under a
+     mode of submission that is a mockery and insult, I will
+     resist it to the last. I have no fear of any party
+     associations being severed. I should regret any social or
+     political estrangement, even temporarily; but if it must be,
+     if I can not act with you and preserve my faith and my
+     honor, I will stand on the great principle of popular
+     sovereignty, which declares the right of all people to be
+     left perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
+     institutions in their own way. I will follow that principle
+     wherever its logical consequences may take me, and I will
+     endeavor to defend it against assault from any and all
+     quarters. No mortal man shall be responsible for my action
+     but myself. By my action I will compromit no man."[637]
+
+The speech made a profound impression. No one could mistake its
+import. The correspondent of the New York _Tribune_ was right in
+thinking that it "marked an important era in our political
+history."[638] Douglas had broken with the dominant pro-slavery
+faction of his party. How far he would carry his party with him,
+remained to be seen. But that a battle royal was imminent, was
+believed on all sides. "The struggle of Douglas with the slave-power
+will be a magnificent spectacle to witness," wrote one who had
+hitherto evinced little admiration for the author of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act.[639]
+
+Douglas kept himself well in hand throughout his speech. His manner
+was at times defiant, but his language was restrained. At no time did
+he disclose the pain which his rupture with the administration cost
+him, except in his closing words. What he had to expect from the
+friends of the administration was immediately manifest. Senator Bigler
+of Pennsylvania sprang to the defense of the President. In an
+irritating tone he intimated that Douglas himself had changed his
+position on the question of submission, alluding to certain private
+conferences at Douglas's house; but as though bound by a pledge of
+secrecy, Bigler refrained from making the charge in so many words.
+Douglas, thoroughly aroused, at once absolved, him from any pledges,
+and demanded to know when they had agreed not to submit the
+constitution to the people. The reply of Bigler was still allusive and
+evasive. "Does he mean to say," insisted Douglas excitedly, "that I
+ever was, privately or publicly, in my own house or any other, in
+favor of a constitution without its being submitted to the people?" "I
+have made no such allegation," was the reply. "You have allowed it to
+be inferred," exclaimed Douglas in exasperated tones.[640] And then
+Green reminded him, that in his famous report of January 4, 1854, he
+had proposed to leave the slavery question to the decision of the
+people "by their appropriate representatives chosen by them for that
+purpose," with no suggestion of a second, popular vote. Truly, his
+most insidious foes were now those of his own political household.
+
+Anti-slavery men welcomed this revolt of Douglas without crediting him
+with any but self-seeking motives. They could not bring themselves to
+believe other than ill of the man who had advocated the repeal of the
+Missouri Compromise. Republicans accepted his aid in their struggle
+against the Lecompton fraud, but for the most part continued to regard
+him with distrust. Indeed, Douglas made no effort to placate them. He
+professed to care nothing for the cause of the slave which was nearest
+their hearts. Hostile critics, then, were quick to point out the
+probable motives from which he acted. His senatorial term was drawing
+to a close. He was of course desirous of a re-election. But his
+nominee for governor had been defeated at the last election, and the
+State had been only with difficulty carried for the national
+candidates of the party. The lesson was plain: the people of Illinois
+did not approve the Kansas policy of Senator Douglas. Hence the
+weathercock obeyed the wind.
+
+In all this there was a modicum of truth. Douglas would not have been
+the power that he was, had he not kept in touch with his constituency.
+But a sense of honor, a desire for consistency, and an abiding faith
+in the justice of his great principle, impelled him in the same
+direction. These were thoroughly honorable motives, even if he
+professed an indifference as to the fate of the negro. He had pledged
+his word of honor to his constituents that the people of Kansas should
+have a fair chance to pronounce upon their constitution. Nothing short
+of this would have been consistent with popular sovereignty as he had
+expounded it again and again. And Douglas was personally a man of
+honor. Yet when all has been said, one cannot but regret that the
+sense of fair play, which was strong in him, did not assert itself in
+the early stages of the Kansas conflict and smother that lawyer's
+instinct to defend, a client by the technicalities of the law. Could
+he only have sought absolute justice for the people of Kansas in the
+winter of 1856, the purity of his motives would not have been
+questioned in the winter of 1858.
+
+Even those colleagues of Douglas who doubted his motives, could not
+but admire his courage. It did, indeed, require something more than
+audacity to head a revolt against the administration. No man knew
+better the thorny road that he must now travel. No man loved his party
+more. No man knew better the hazard to the Union that must follow a
+rupture in the Democratic party. But if Douglas nursed the hope that
+Democratic senators would follow his lead, he was sadly disappointed.
+Three only came to his support--Broderick of California, Pugh of Ohio,
+and Stuart of Michigan,--while the lists of the administration were
+full. Green, Bigler, Fitch, in turn were set upon him.
+
+Douglas bitterly resented any attempt to read him out of the party by
+making the Lecompton constitution the touchstone of genuine Democracy;
+yet each day made it clearer that the administration had just that end
+in view. Douglas complained of a tyranny not consistent with free
+Democratic action. One might differ with the President on every
+subject but Kansas, without incurring suspicion. Every pensioned
+letter writer, he complained, had been intimating for the last two
+weeks that he had deserted the Democratic party and gone over to the
+Black Republicans. He demanded to know who authorized these
+tales.[641] Senator Fitch warned him solemnly that the Democratic
+party was the only political link in the chain which now bound the
+States together. "None ... will hold that man guiltless, who abandons
+it upon a question having in it so little of practical importance ...
+and by seeking its destruction, thereby admits his not unwillingness
+that a similar fate should be visited on the Union, perhaps, to
+subserve his selfish purpose."[642] These attacks roused Douglas to
+vehement defiance. More emphatically than ever, he declared the
+Lecompton constitution "a trick, a fraud upon the rights of the
+people."
+
+If Douglas misjudged the temper of his colleagues, he at least gauged
+correctly the drift of public sentiment in Illinois and the Northwest.
+Of fifty-six Democratic newspapers in Illinois, but one ventured to
+condone the Lecompton fraud.[643] Mass meetings in various cities of
+the Northwest expressed confidence in the course of Senator Douglas.
+
+He now occupied a unique position at the capital. Visitors were quite
+as eager to see the man who had headed the revolt as to greet the
+chief executive.[644] His residence, where Mrs. Douglas dispensed a
+gracious hospitality, was fairly besieged with callers.[645]
+Washington society was never gayer than during this memorable
+winter.[646] None entertained more lavishly than Senator and Mrs.
+Douglas. Whatever unpopularity he incurred at the Capitol, she more
+than offset by her charming and gracious personality. Acknowledged as
+the reigning queen of the circle in which she moved, Mrs. Douglas
+displayed a social initiative that seconded admirably the independent,
+self-reliant attitude of her husband. When Adele Cutts Douglas chose
+to close the shutters of her house at noon, and hold a reception by
+artificial light every Saturday afternoon, society followed her lead.
+There were no more brilliant affairs in Washington than these
+afternoon receptions and hops at the Douglas residence in Minnesota
+Block.[647] In contrast to these functions dominated by a thoroughly
+charming personality, the formal precision of the receptions at the
+White House was somewhat chilling and forbidding. President Buchanan,
+bachelor, with his handsome but somewhat self-contained niece, was not
+equal to this social rivalry.[648] Moreover, the cares of office
+permitted the perplexed, wearied, and timid executive no respite day
+or night.
+
+Events in Kansas gave heart to those who were fighting Lecomptonism.
+At the election appointed by the convention, the "constitution with
+slavery" was adopted by a large majority, the free-State people
+refusing to vote; but the legislature, now in the control of the
+free-State party, had already provided for a fair vote on the whole
+constitution. On this second vote the majority was overwhelmingly
+against the constitution. Information from various sources
+corroborated the deductions which unprejudiced observers drew from the
+voting. It was as clear as day that the people of Kansas did not
+regard the Lecompton constitution as a fair expression of their
+will.[649]
+
+Ignoring the light which made the path of duty plain, President
+Buchanan sent the Lecompton constitution to Congress with a message
+recommending the admission of Kansas.[650] To his mind, the Lecompton
+convention was legally constituted and had exercised its powers
+faithfully. The organic act did not bind the convention to submit to
+the people more than the question of slavery. Meantime the Supreme
+Court had handed down its famous decision in the Dred Scott case.
+Fortified by this dictum, the President told Congress that slavery
+existed in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the United States.
+"Kansas is, at this moment, as much a slave State as Georgia or South
+Carolina"! Slavery, then, could be prohibited only by constitutional
+provision; and those who desired to do away with slavery would most
+speedily compass their ends, if they admitted Kansas at once under
+this constitution.
+
+The President's message with the Lecompton constitution was referred
+to the Committee on Territories and gave rise to three reports:
+Senator Green of Missouri presented the majority report, recommending
+the admission of Kansas under this constitution; Senators Collamer and
+Wade united on a minority report, leaving Douglas to draft another
+expressing his dissent on other grounds.[651] Taken all in all, this
+must be regarded as the most satisfactory and convincing of all
+Douglas's committee reports. It is strong because it is permeated by
+a desire for justice, and reinforced at every point by a consummate
+marshalling of evidence. Barely in his career had his conspicuous
+qualities as a special pleader been put so unreservedly at the service
+of simple justice. He planted himself firmly, at the outset, upon the
+incontrovertible fact that there was no satisfactory evidence that the
+Lecompton constitution was the act and deed of the people of
+Kansas.[652]
+
+It had been argued that, because the Lecompton convention had been
+duly constituted, with full power to ordain a constitution and
+establish a government, consequently the proceedings of the convention
+must be presumed to embody the popular will. Douglas immediately
+challenged this assumption. The convention had no more power than the
+territorial legislature could confer. By no fair construction of the
+Kansas-Nebraska Act could it be assumed that the people of the
+Territory were authorized, "at their own will and pleasure, to resolve
+themselves into a sovereign power, and to abrogate and annul the
+organic act and territorial government established by Congress, and to
+ordain a constitution and State government upon their ruins, without
+the consent of Congress." Surely, then, a convention which the
+territorial legislature called into being could not abrogate or impair
+the authority of that territorial government established by Congress.
+Hence, he concluded, the Lecompton constitution, formed without the
+consent of Congress, must be considered as a memorial or petition,
+which Congress may accept or reject. The convention was the creature
+of the territorial legislature. "Such being the case, whenever the
+legislature ascertained that the convention whose existence depended
+upon its will, had devised a scheme to force a constitution upon the
+people without their consent, and without any authority from Congress,
+... it became their imperative duty to interpose and exert the
+authority conferred upon them by Congress in the organic act, and
+arrest and prevent the consummation of the scheme before it had gone
+into operation."[653] This was an unanswerable argument.
+
+In the prolonged debate upon the admission of Kansas, Douglas took
+part only as some taunt or challenge brought him to his feet. While
+the bill for the admission of Minnesota, also reported by the
+Committee on Territories, was under fire, Senator Brown of Mississippi
+elicited from Douglas the significant concession, that he did not deem
+an enabling act absolutely essential, so long as the constitution
+clearly embodied the will of the people. Neither did he think a
+submission of the constitution always essential; it was, however, a
+fair way of ascertaining the popular will, when that will was
+disputed." Satisfy me that the constitution adopted by the people of
+Minnesota is their will, and I am prepared to adopt it. Satisfy me
+that the constitution adopted, or said to be adopted, by the people of
+Kansas, is their will, and I am prepared to take it.... I will never
+apply one rule to a free State and another to a slave-holding
+State."[654] Nevertheless, even his Democratic colleagues continued to
+believe that slavery had something to do with his opposition. In the
+classic phraseology of Toombs, "there was a 'nigger' in it."
+
+The opposition of Douglas began to cause no little uneasiness. Brown
+paid tribute to his influence, when he declared that if the Senator
+from Illinois had stood with the administration, "there would not have
+been a ripple on the surface." "Sir, the Senator from Illinois gives
+life, he gives vitality, he gives energy, he lends the aid of his
+mighty genius and his powerful will to the Opposition on this
+question."[655] But Douglas paid a fearful price for this power. Every
+possible ounce of pressure was brought to bear upon him. The party
+press was set upon him. His friends were turned out of office. The
+whole executive patronage was wielded mercilessly against his
+political following. The Washington _Union_ held him up to execration
+as a traitor, renegade, and deserter.[656] "We cannot affect
+indifference at the treachery of Senator Douglas," said a Richmond
+paper. "He was a politician of considerable promise. Association with
+Southern gentlemen had smoothed down the rugged vulgarities of his
+early education, and he had come to be quite a decent and well-behaved
+person."[657] To political denunciation was now to be added the sting
+of mean and contemptible personalities.
+
+Small wonder that even the vigorous health of "the Little Giant"
+succumbed to these assaults. For a fortnight he was confined to his
+bed, rising only by sheer force of will to make a final plea for
+sanity, before his party took its suicidal plunge. He spoke on the 22d
+of March under exceptional conditions. In the expectation that he
+would speak in the forenoon, people thronged the galleries at an
+early hour, and refused to give up their seats, even when it was
+announced that the Senator from Illinois would not address the Senate
+until seven o 'clock in the evening. When the hour came, crowds still
+held possession of the galleries, so that not even standing room was
+available. The door-keepers wrestled in vain with an impatient throng
+without, until by motion of Senator Gwin, ladies were admitted to the
+floor of the chamber. Even then, Douglas was obliged to pause several
+times, for the confusion around the doors to subside.[658] He spoke
+with manifest difficulty, but he was more defiant than ever. His
+speech was at once a protest and a personal vindication. Denial of the
+right of the administration to force the Lecompton constitution upon
+the people of Kansas, went hand in hand with a defense of his own
+Democracy. Sentences culled here and there suggest not unfairly the
+stinging rebukes and defiant challenges that accentuated the none too
+coherent course of his speech:
+
+     "I am told that this Lecompton constitution is a party test,
+     a party measure; that no man is a Democrat who does not
+     sanction it ... Sir, who made it a party test? Who made it a
+     party measure?... Who has interpolated this Lecompton
+     constitution into the party platform?... Oh! but we are told
+     it is an Administration measure. Because it is an
+     Administration measure, does it therefore follow that it is
+     a party measure?" ... "I do not recognize the right of the
+     President or his Cabinet ... to tell me my duty in the
+     Senate Chamber." "Am I to be told that I must obey the
+     Executive and betray my State, or else be branded as a
+     traitor to the party, and hunted down by all the newspapers
+     that share the patronage of the government, and every man
+     who holds a petty office in any part of my State to have the
+     question put to him, 'Are you Douglas's enemy? if not, your
+     head comes off.'" "I intend to perform my duty in
+     accordance with my own convictions. Neither the frowns of
+     power nor the influence of patronage will change my action,
+     or drive me from my principles. I stand firmly, immovably
+     upon those great principles of self-government and state
+     sovereignty upon which the campaign was fought and the
+     election won.... If, standing firmly by my principles, I
+     shall be driven into private life, it is a fate that has no
+     terrors for me. I prefer private life, preserving my own
+     self-respect and manhood, to abject and servile submission
+     to executive will. If the alternative be private life or
+     servile obedience to executive will, I am prepared to
+     retire. Official position has no charms for me when deprived
+     of that freedom of thought and action which becomes a
+     gentleman and a senator.'"[659]
+
+On the following day, the Senate passed the bill for the admission of
+Kansas under the Lecompton constitution, having rejected the amendment
+of Crittenden to submit that constitution to a vote of the people of
+Kansas. A similar amendment, however, was carried in the House. As
+neither chamber would recede from its position, a conference committee
+was appointed to break the deadlock.[660] It was from this committee,
+controlled by Lecomptonites, that the famous English bill emanated.
+Stated briefly, the substance of this compromise measure--for such it
+was intended to be--was as follows: Congress was to offer to Kansas a
+conditional grant of public lands; if this land ordinance should be
+accepted by a popular vote, Kansas was to be admitted to the Union
+with the Lecompton constitution by proclamation of the President; if
+it should be rejected, Kansas was not to be admitted until the
+Territory had a population equal to the unit of representation
+required for the House of Representatives.
+
+Taken all in all, the bill was as great a concession as could be
+expected from the administration. Not all were willing to say that the
+bill provided for a vote on the constitution, but Northern adherents
+could point to the vote on the land ordinance as an indirect vote upon
+the constitution. It is not quite true to say that the land grant was
+a bribe to the voters of Kansas. As a matter of fact, the amount of
+land granted was only equal to that usually offered to the
+Territories, and it was considerably less than the area specified in
+the Lecompton constitution. Moreover, even if the land ordinance were
+defeated in order to reject the constitution, the Territory was pretty
+sure to secure as large a grant at some future time. It was rather in
+the alternative held out, that the English bill was unsatisfactory to
+those who loved fair play. Still, under the bill, the people of
+Kansas, by an act of self-denial, could defeat the Lecompton
+constitution. To that extent, the supporters of the administration
+yielded to the importunities of the champion of popular sovereignty.
+
+Under these circumstances it would not be strange if Douglas
+"wavered."[661] Here was an opportunity to close the rift between
+himself and the administration, to heal party dissensions, perhaps to
+save the integrity of the Democratic party and the Union. And the
+price which he would have to pay was small. He could assume, plausibly
+enough,--as he had done many times before in his career,--that the
+bill granted all that he had ever asked. He was morally sure that the
+people of Kansas would reject the land grant to rid themselves of the
+Lecompton fraud. Why hesitate then as to means, when the desired end
+was in clear view?
+
+Douglas found himself subjected to a new pressure, harder even to
+resist than any he had yet felt. Some of his staunch supporters in the
+anti-Lecompton struggle went over to the administration, covering
+their retreat by just such excuses as have been suggested. Was he
+wiser and more conscientious than they? A refusal to accept the
+proffered olive branch now meant,--he knew it well,--the
+irreconcilable enmity of the Buchanan faction. And he was not asked to
+recant, but only to accept what he had always deemed the very essence
+of statesmanship, a compromise. His Republican allies promptly evinced
+their distrust. They fully expected him to join his former associates.
+From them he could expect no sympathy in such a dilemma.[662] His
+political ambitions, no doubt, added to his perplexity. They were
+bound up in the fate of the party, the integrity of which was now
+menaced by his revolt. On the other hand, he was fully conscious that
+his Illinois constituency approved of his opposition to Lecomptonism
+and would regard a retreat across this improvised political bridge as
+both inglorious and treacherous. Agitated by conflicting emotions,
+Douglas made a decision which probably cost him more anguish than any
+he ever made; and when all has been said to the contrary, love of fair
+play would seem to have been his governing motive.[663]
+
+When Douglas rose to address the Senate on the English bill, April
+29th, he betrayed some of the emotion under which he had made his
+decision. He confessed an "anxious desire" to find such provisions as
+would permit him to support the bill; but he was painfully forced to
+declare that he could not find the principle for which he had
+contended, fairly carried out. He was unable to reconcile popular
+sovereignty with the proposed intervention of Congress in the English
+bill. "It is intervention with inducements to control the result. It
+is intervention with a bounty on the one side and a penalty on the
+other."[664] He frankly admitted that he did not believe there was
+enough in the bounty nor enough in the penalty to influence materially
+the vote of the people of Kansas; but it involved "the principle of
+freedom of election and--the great principle of self-government upon
+which our institutions rest." And upon this principle he took his
+stand. "With all the anxiety that I have had," said he with deep
+feeling, "to be able to arrive at a conclusion in harmony with the
+overwhelming majority of my political friends in Congress, I could not
+bring my judgment or conscience to the conclusion that this was a
+fair, impartial, and equal application of the principle."[665]
+
+As though to make reconciliation with the administration impossible,
+Douglas went on to express his distrust of the provision of the bill
+for a board of supervisors of elections. Instead of a board of four,
+two of whom should represent the Territory and two the Federal
+government, as the Crittenden bill had provided, five were to
+constitute the board, of whom three were to be United States
+officials. "Does not this change," asked Douglas significantly, "give
+ground for apprehension that you may have the Oxford, the Shawnee, and
+the Delaware Crossing and Kickapoo frauds re-enacted at this
+election?"[666] The most suspicions Republican could hardly have dealt
+an unkinder thrust.
+
+There could be no manner of doubt as to the outcome of the English
+bill in the Senate. Douglas, Stuart, and Broderick were the only
+Democrats to oppose its passage, Pugh having joined the majority. The
+bill passed the House also, nine of Douglas's associates in the
+anti-Lecompton fight going over to the administration.[667] Douglas
+accepted this defection with philosophic equanimity, indulging in no
+vindictive feelings.[668] Had he not himself felt misgivings as to his
+own course?
+
+By midsummer the people of Kansas had recorded nearly ten thousand
+votes against the land ordinance and the Lecompton constitution. The
+administration had failed to make Kansas a slave State. Yet the
+Supreme Court had countenanced the view that Kansas was legally a
+slave Territory. What, then, became of the great fundamental principle
+of popular sovereignty? This was the question which Douglas was now
+called upon to answer.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 621: Report of the Covode Committee, pp. 105-106; Cutts,
+Constitutional and Party Questions, p. 111; Speech of Douglas at
+Milwaukee, Wis., October 14, 1860, Chicago _Times and Herald_, October
+17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 622: Spring, Kansas, p. 213; Rhodes, History of the United
+States, II, p. 274.]
+
+[Footnote 623: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 277-278.]
+
+[Footnote 624: _Ibid._, pp. 278-279; Spring, Kansas, p. 223.]
+
+[Footnote 625: See Article VII, of the Kansas constitution, Senate
+Reports, No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 626: Schedule Section 14.]
+
+[Footnote 627: Covode Report, p. 111.]
+
+[Footnote 628: Chicago _Times_, November 19, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 629: Chicago _Times_, November 20 and 21, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 630: Speech at Milwaukee, October 14, 1860, Chicago _Times
+and Herald_, October 17, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 631: New York _Tribune_, December 3, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 632: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 633: Chicago _Times_, December 19, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 634: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 17.]
+
+[Footnote 635: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 17-18.]
+
+[Footnote 636: "I spoke rapidly, without preparation," he afterward
+said. _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 47.]
+
+[Footnote 637: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 638: New York _Tribune_, December 9, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 639: New York _Tribune_, December 10, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 640: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 21-22.]
+
+[Footnote 641: _Globe_, 5 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 642: _Ibid._, p. 137.]
+
+[Footnote 643: Chicago _Times_, December 24, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 644: _Ibid._, December 23, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 645: Correspondent to Cleveland _Plaindealer_, quoted in
+Chicago _Times_, January 29, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 646: Mrs. Jefferson Davis to Mrs. Pierce, MS. Letter, April
+4, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 647: Mrs. Roger Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War, pp.
+69-70.]
+
+[Footnote 648: _Ibid._, Chapter 4.]
+
+[Footnote 649: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 289.]
+
+[Footnote 650: Message of February 2, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 651: Senate Report No. 82, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., February 18,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 652: Minority Report, p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 653: Minority Report, p. 64.]
+
+[Footnote 654: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 502.]
+
+[Footnote 655: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 572-573.]
+
+[Footnote 656: Washington _Union_, February 26, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 657: Richmond _South_, quoted in Chicago _Times_, December
+18, 1857.]
+
+[Footnote 658: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 328; _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess.,
+App., pp. 193-194.]
+
+[Footnote 659: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 194-201,
+_passim._]
+
+[Footnote 660: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 297-299.]
+
+[Footnote 661: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 563.]
+
+[Footnote 662: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, II, pp.
+566-567.]
+
+[Footnote 663: This cannot, of course, be demonstrated, but it accords
+with his subsequent conduct.]
+
+[Footnote 664: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1869.]
+
+[Footnote 665: _Ibid._, p. 1870.]
+
+[Footnote 666: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1870.]
+
+[Footnote 667: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 300.]
+
+[Footnote 668: Cox, Three Decades of Federal Legislation, p. 58.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE JOINT DEBATES WITH LINCOLN
+
+
+National politics made strange bed-fellows in the winter of 1857-8.
+Douglas consorting with Republicans and flouting the administration,
+was a rare spectacle. There was a moment in this odd alliance when it
+seemed likely to become more than a temporary fusion of interests. The
+need of concerted action brought about frequent conferences, in which
+the distrust of men like Wilson and Colfax was, in a measure,
+dispelled by the engaging frankness of their quondam opponent.[669]
+Douglas intimated that in all probability he could not act with his
+party in future.[670] He assured Wilson that he was in the fight to
+stay--in his own words, "he had checked his baggage and taken a
+through ticket."[671] There was an odd disposition, too, on the part
+of some Republicans to indorse popular sovereignty, now that it seemed
+likely to exclude slavery from the Territories.[672] There was even a
+rumor afloat that the editor of the New York _Tribune_ favored Douglas
+for the presidency.[673] On at least two occasions, Greeley was in
+conference with Senator Douglas at the latter's residence. To the
+gossiping public this was evidence enough that the rumor was correct.
+And it may well be that Douglas dallied with the hope that a great
+Constitutional Union party might be formed.[674] But he could hardly
+have received much encouragement from the Republicans, with whom he
+was consorting, for so far from losing their political identity, they
+calculated upon bringing him eventually within the Republican
+fold.[675]
+
+A Constitutional Union party, embracing Northern and Southern
+Unionists of Whig or Democratic antecedents, might have supplied the
+gap left by the old Whig party. That such a party would have exercised
+a profound nationalizing influence can scarcely be doubted. Events
+might have put Douglas at the head of such a party. But, in truth,
+such an outcome of the political chaos which then reigned, was a
+remote possibility.
+
+The matter of immediate concern to Douglas was the probable attitude
+of his allies toward his re-election to the Senate. There was a wide
+divergence among Republican leaders; but active politicians like
+Greeley and Wilson, who were not above fighting the devil with his own
+weapons, counselled their Illinois brethren not to oppose his
+return.[676] There was no surer way to disrupt the Democratic party.
+In spite of these admonitions, the Republicans of Illinois were bent
+upon defeating Douglas. He had been too uncompromising and bitter an
+opponent of Trumbull and other "Black Republicans" to win their
+confidence by a few months of conflict against Lecomptonism. "I see
+his tracks all over our State," wrote the editor of the Chicago
+_Tribune_, "they point only in one direction; not a single toe is
+turned toward the Republican camp. Watch him, use him, but do not
+trust him--not an inch."[677] Moreover, a little coterie of
+Springfield politicians had a candidate of their own for United States
+senator in the person of Abraham Lincoln.[678]
+
+The action of the Democratic State convention in April closed the door
+to any reconciliation with the Buchanan administration. Douglas
+received an unqualified indorsement. The Cincinnati platform was
+declared to be "the only authoritative exposition of Democratic
+doctrine." No power on earth except a similar national convention had
+a right "to change or interpolate that platform, or to prescribe new
+or different tests." By sound party doctrine the Lecompton
+constitution ought to be "submitted to the direct vote of the actual
+inhabitants of Kansas at a fair election."[679] Could any words have
+been more explicit? The administration responded by a merciless
+proscription of Douglas office-holders and by unremitting efforts to
+create an opposition ticket. Under pressure from Washington,
+conventions were held to nominate candidates for the various State
+offices, with the undisguised purpose of dividing the Democratic vote
+for senator.[680]
+
+On the 16th of June, the Republicans of Illinois threw advice to the
+winds and adopted the unusual course of naming Lincoln as "the first
+and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States
+Senate." It was an act of immense political significance. Not only did
+it put in jeopardy the political life of Douglas, but it ended for all
+time to come any coalition between his following and the Republican
+party.
+
+The subsequent fame of Lincoln has irradiated every phase of his early
+career. To his contemporaries in the year 1858, he was a lawyer of
+recognized ability, an astute politician, and a frank aspirant for
+national honors. Those who imagine him to have been an unambitious
+soul, upon whom honors were thrust, fail to understand the Lincoln
+whom Herndon, his partner, knew. Lincoln was a seasoned politician. He
+had been identified with the old Whig organization; he had repeatedly
+represented the Springfield district in the State legislature; and he
+had served one term without distinction in Congress. Upon the passage
+of the Kansas-Nebraska Act he had taken an active part in fusing the
+opposing elements into the Republican party. His services to the new
+party made him a candidate for the senatorship in 1855, and received
+recognition in the national Republican convention of 1856, when he was
+second on the list of those for whom the convention balloted for
+Vice-president. He was not unknown to Republicans of the Northwest,
+though he was not in any sense a national figure. Few men had a keener
+insight into political conditions in Illinois. None knew better the
+ins and outs of political campaigning in Illinois.
+
+Withal, Lincoln was rated as a man of integrity. He had strong
+convictions and the courage of his convictions. His generous instincts
+made him hate slavery, while his antecedents prevented him from loving
+the negro. His anti-slavery sentiments were held strongly in check by
+his sound sense of justice. He had the temperament of a humanitarian
+with the intellect of a lawyer. While not combative by nature, he
+possessed the characteristic American trait of measuring himself by
+the attainments of others. He was solicitous to match himself with
+other men so as to prove himself at least their peer. Possessed of a
+cause that enlisted the service of his heart as well as his head,
+Lincoln was a strong advocate at the bar and a formidable opponent on
+the stump. Douglas bore true witness to Lincoln's powers when he said,
+on hearing of his nomination, "I shall have my hands full. He is the
+strong man of his party--full of wit, facts, dates--and the best stump
+speaker, with his droll ways and dry jokes, in the West. He is as
+honest as he is shrewd; and if I beat him, my victory will be hardly
+won."[681]
+
+The nomination of Lincoln was so little a matter of surprise to him
+and his friends, that at the close of the convention he was able to
+address the delegates in a carefully prepared speech. Wishing to sound
+a dominant note for the campaign, he began with these memorable words:
+
+"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we
+could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into
+the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with the avowed object,
+and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under
+the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased,
+but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease, until
+a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against
+itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
+permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be
+dissolved--I do not expect the house to fall--but I do expect it will
+cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.
+Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it,
+and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is
+in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it
+forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as
+well as new--North as well as South."[682]
+
+All evidence, continued Lincoln, pointed to a design to make slavery
+national. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, the popular indorsement of
+Buchanan, and the Dred Scott decision, were so many parts of a plot.
+Only one part was lacking; _viz._ another decision declaring it
+unconstitutional for a State to exclude slavery. Then the fabric would
+be complete for which Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James had each
+wrought his separate piece with artful cunning. It was impossible not
+to believe that these Democratic leaders had labored in concert. To
+those who had urged that Douglas should be supported, Lincoln had only
+this to say: Douglas could not oppose the advance of slavery, for he
+did not care whether slavery was voted up or down. His avowed purpose
+was to make the people care nothing about slavery. The Republican
+cause must not be intrusted to its adventitious allies, but to its
+undoubted friends.
+
+A welcome that was truly royal awaited Douglas in Chicago. On his way
+thither, he was met by a delegation which took him a willing captive
+and conducted him on a special train to his destination. Along the
+route there was every sign of popular enthusiasm. He entered the city
+amid the booming of cannon; he was conveyed to his hotel in a
+carriage drawn by six horses, under military escort; banners with
+flattering inscriptions fluttered above his head; from balconies and
+windows he heard the shouts of thousands.[683]
+
+Even more flattering if possible was the immense crowd that thronged
+around the Tremont House in the early evening to hear his promised
+speech. Not only the area in front of the hotel, but the adjoining
+streets were crowded. Illuminations and fireworks cast a lurid light
+on the faces which were upturned to greet the "Defender of Popular
+Sovereignty," as he appeared upon the balcony. A man of far less
+vanity would have been moved by the scene. Just behind the speaker but
+within the house, Lincoln was an attentive listener.[684] The presence
+of his rival put Douglas on his mettle. He took in good part a rather
+discourteous interruption by Lincoln, and referred to him in generous
+terms, as "a kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen,
+and an honorable opponent."[685]
+
+The address was in a somewhat egotistical vein--pardonably egotistical,
+considering the extraordinary circumstances. Douglas could not refrain
+from referring to his career since he had confronted that excited crowd
+in Chicago eight years before, in defense of the compromise measures.
+To his mind the events of those eight years had amply vindicated the
+great principle of popular sovereignty. Knowing that he was in a
+Republican stronghold, he dwelt with particular complacency upon the
+manful way in which the Republican party had come to the support of
+that principle, in the recent anti-Lecompton fight. It was this
+fundamental right of self-government that he had championed through
+good and ill report, all these years. It was this, and this alone,
+which had governed his action in regard to the Lecompton fraud. It was
+not because the Lecompton constitution was a slave constitution, but
+because it was not the act and deed of the people of Kansas that he had
+condemned it. "Whenever," said he, "you put a limitation upon the right
+of a people to decide what laws they want, you have destroyed the
+fundamental principle of self-government."
+
+With Lincoln's house-divided-against-itself proposition, he took issue
+unqualifiedly. "Mr. Lincoln asserts, as a fundamental principle of
+this government, that there must be uniformity in the local laws and
+domestic institutions of each and all the States of the Union, and he
+therefore invites all the non-slaveholding States to band together,
+organize as one body, and make war upon slavery in Kentucky, upon
+slavery in Virginia, upon slavery in the Carolinas, upon slavery in
+all of the slave-holding States in this Union, and to persevere in
+that war until it shall be exterminated. He then notifies the
+slave-holding States to stand together as a unit and make an
+aggressive war upon the free States of this Union with a view of
+establishing slavery in them all; of forcing it upon Illinois, of
+forcing it upon New York, upon New England, and upon every other free
+State, and that they shall keep up the warfare until it has been
+formally established in them all. In other words, Mr. Lincoln
+advocates boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the North
+against the South, of the free States against the slave States--a war
+of extermination--to be continued relentlessly until the one or the
+other shall be subdued, and all the States shall either become free or
+become slave."[686]
+
+But such uniformity in local institutions would be possible only by
+blotting out State Sovereignty, by merging all the States in one
+consolidated empire, and by vesting Congress with plenary power to
+make all the police regulations, domestic and local laws, uniform
+throughout the Republic. The framers of our government knew well
+enough that differences in soil, in products, and in interests,
+required different local and domestic regulations in each locality;
+and they organized the Federal government on this fundamental
+assumption.[687]
+
+With Lincoln's other proposition Douglas also took issue. He refused
+to enter upon any crusade against the Supreme Court. "I do not choose,
+therefore, to go into any argument with Mr. Lincoln in reviewing the
+various decisions which the Supreme Court has made, either upon the
+Dred Scott case, or any other. I have no idea of appealing from the
+decision of the Supreme Court upon a constitutional question to the
+decision of a tumultuous town meeting."[688]
+
+Neither could Douglas agree with his opponent in objecting to the
+decision of the Supreme Court because it deprived the negro of the
+rights, privileges, and immunities of citizenship, which pertained
+only to the white race. Our government was founded on a white basis.
+"It was made by the white man, for the benefit of the white man, to be
+administered by white men." To be sure, a negro, an Indian, or any
+other man of inferior race should be permitted to enjoy all the
+rights, privileges, and immunities consistent with the safety of
+society; but each State should decide for itself the nature and extent
+of these rights.
+
+On the next evening, Republican Chicago greeted its protagonist with
+much the same demonstrations, as he took his place on the balcony from
+which Douglas had spoken. Lincoln found the flaw in Douglas's armor at
+the outset. "Popular sovereignty! Everlasting popular sovereignty!
+What is popular sovereignty"? How could there be such a thing in the
+original sense, now that the Supreme Court had decided that the people
+in their territorial status might not prohibit slavery? And as for the
+right of the people to frame a constitution, who had ever disputed
+that right? But Lincoln, evidently troubled by Douglas's vehement
+deductions from the house-divided-against-itself proposition, soon
+fell back upon the defensive, where he was at a great disadvantage. He
+was forced to explain that he did not favor a war by the North upon
+the South for the extinction of slavery; nor a war by the South upon
+the North for the nationalization of slavery. "I only said what I
+expected would take place. I made a prediction only,--it may have been
+a foolish one, perhaps. I did not even say that I desired that slavery
+should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now,
+however."[689] He _believed_ that slavery had endured, because until
+the Nebraska Act the public mind had rested in the conviction that
+slavery would ultimately disappear. In affirming that the opponents of
+slavery would arrest its further extension, he only meant to say that
+they would put it where the fathers originally placed it. He was not
+in favor of interfering with slavery where it existed in the States.
+As to the charge that he was inviting people to resist the Dred Scott
+decision, Lincoln responded rather weakly--again laying himself open
+to attack--"We mean to do what we can to have the court decide the
+other way."[690]
+
+Lincoln also betrayed his fear lest Douglas should draw Republican
+votes. Knowing the strong anti-slavery sentiment of the region, he
+asked when Douglas had shown anything but indifference on the subject
+of slavery. Away with this quibbling about inferior races! "Let us
+discard all these things and unite as one people throughout this land,
+until we shall once more stand up declaring that all men are created
+equal."[691]
+
+From Chicago Douglas journeyed like a conquering hero to Bloomington.
+At every station crowds gathered to see his gaily decorated train and
+to catch a glimpse of the famous senator. A platform car bearing a
+twelve-pound gun was attached to the train and everywhere "popular
+sovereignty," as the cannon was dubbed, heralded his arrival.[692] On
+the evening of July 16th he addressed a large gathering in the open
+air; and again he had among his auditors, Abraham Lincoln, who was hot
+upon his trail.[693] The county and district in which Bloomington was
+situated had once been strongly Whig; but was now as strongly
+Republican. With the local conditions in mind, Douglas made an artful
+plea for support. He gratefully acknowledged the aid of the
+Republicans in the recent anti-Lecompton fight, and of that worthy
+successor of the immortal Clay, John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. After
+all, was it not a common principle for which they had been contending?
+"My friends," said Douglas with engaging ingenuousness, "when I am
+battling for a great principle, I want aid and support from whatever
+quarter I can get it." Pity, then, that Republican politicians, in
+order to defeat him, should form an alliance with Lecompton men and
+thus betray the cause![694]
+
+Douglas called attention to Lincoln's explanation of his
+house-divided-against-itself argument. It still seemed to him to
+invite a war of sections. Mr. Lincoln had said that he had no wish to
+see the people _enter into_ the Southern States and interfere with
+slavery: for his part, he was equally opposed to a sectional agitation
+to control the institutions of other States.[695] Again, Mr. Lincoln
+had said that he proposed, so far as in him lay, to secure a reversal
+of the Dred Scott decision. How, asked Douglas, will he accomplish
+this? There can be but one way: elect a Republican President who will
+pack the bench with Republican justices. Would a court so constituted
+command respect?[696]
+
+As to the effect of the Dred Scott decision upon slavery in the
+Territories, Douglas had only this to say: "With or without that
+decision, slavery will go just where the people want it, and not one
+inch further." "Hence, if the people of a Territory want slavery, they
+will encourage it by passing affirmatory laws, and the necessary
+police regulations, patrol laws, and slave code; if they do not want
+it they will withhold that legislation, and by withholding it slavery
+is as dead as if it was prohibited by a constitutional prohibition,
+especially if, in addition, their legislation is unfriendly, as it
+would be if they were opposed to it. They could pass such local laws
+and police regulations as would drive slavery out in one day, or one
+hour, if they were opposed to it, and therefore, so far as the
+question of slavery in the Territories is concerned, so far as the
+principle of popular sovereignty is concerned, in its practical
+operation, it matters not how the Dred Scott case may be decided with
+reference to the Territories."[697]
+
+The closing words of the speech approached dangerously near to bathos.
+Douglas pictured himself standing beside the deathbed of Clay and
+pledging his life to the advocacy of the great principle expressed in
+the compromise measures of 1850, and later in the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
+Strangely enough he had given the same pledge to "the god-like
+Webster."[698] This filial reverence for Clay and Webster, whom
+Douglas had fought with all the weapons of partisan warfare, must have
+puzzled those Whigs in his audience who were guileless enough to
+accept such statements at their face value.
+
+Devoted partisans accompanied Douglas to Springfield, on the following
+day. In spite of the frequent downpours of rain and the sultry
+atmosphere, their enthusiasm never once flagged. On board the same
+train, surrounded by good-natured enemies, was Lincoln, who was also
+to speak at the capital.[699] Douglas again found a crowd awaiting
+him. He had much the same things to say. Perhaps his arraignment of
+Lincoln's policy was somewhat more severe, but he turned the edges of
+his thrusts by a courteous reference to his opponent, "with whom he
+anticipated no personal collision." For the first time he alluded to
+Lincoln's charge of conspiracy, but only to remark casually, "If Mr.
+Lincoln deems me a conspirator of that kind, all I have to say is that
+I do not think so badly of the President of the United States, and the
+Supreme Court of the United States, the highest judicial tribunal on
+earth, as to believe that they were capable in their actions and
+decision of entering into political intrigues for partisan
+purposes."[700]
+
+Meantime Lincoln, addressing a Republican audience, was relating his
+recent experiences in the enemy's camp. Believing that he had
+discovered the line of attack, he sought to fortify his position. He
+did not contemplate the abolition of State legislatures, nor any such
+radical policy, any more than the fathers of the Republic did, when
+they sought to check the spread of slavery by prohibiting it in the
+Territories.[701] He did not propose to resist the Dred Scott decision
+except as a rule of political action.[702] Here in Sangamon County, he
+was somewhat less insistent upon negro equality. The negro was not the
+equal of the white man in all respects, to be sure; "still, in the
+right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have earned,
+he is the equal of every other man, white or black."[703]
+
+As matters stood, Douglas had the advantage of Lincoln, since with his
+national prominence and his great popularity, he was always sure of
+an audience, and could reply as he chose to the attacks of his
+antagonist. Lincoln felt that he must come to close terms with Douglas
+and extort from him admissions which would discredit him with
+Republicans. With this end in view, Lincoln suggested that they
+"divide time, and address the same audiences the present
+canvass."[704] It was obviously to Douglas's interest to continue the
+campaign as he had begun. He had already mapped out an extensive
+itinerary. He therefore replied that he could not agree to such an
+arrangement, owing to appointments already made and to the possibility
+of a third candidate with whom Lincoln might make common cause. He
+intimated, rather unfairly, that Lincoln had purposely waited until he
+was already bound by his appointments. However, he would accede to the
+proposal so far as to meet Lincoln in a joint discussion in each
+congressional district except the second and sixth, in which both had
+already spoken.[705]
+
+It was not such a letter as one would expect from a generous opponent.
+But politics was no pastime to the writer. He was sparring now in
+deadly earnest, for every advantage. Not unnaturally Lincoln resented
+the imputation of unfairness; but he agreed to the proposal of seven
+joint debates. Douglas then named the times and places; and Lincoln
+agreed to the terms, rather grudgingly, for he would have but three
+openings and closings to Douglas's four.[706] Still, as he had
+followed Douglas in Chicago, he had no reason to complain.
+
+The next three months may be regarded as a prolonged debate,
+accentuated by the seven joint discussions. The rival candidates
+traversed much the same territory, and addressed much the same
+audiences on successive days. At times, chance made them
+fellow-passengers on the same train or steamboat. Douglas had already
+begun his itinerary, when Lincoln's last note reached him in Piatt
+County.[707] He had just spoken at Clinton, in De Witt County, and
+again he had found Lincoln in the audience.
+
+No general ever planned a military campaign with greater regard to the
+topography of the enemy's country, than Douglas plotted his campaign
+in central Illinois. For it was in the central counties that the
+election was to be won or lost. The Republican strength lay in the
+upper, northern third of the State; the Democratic strength, in the
+southern third. The doubtful area lay between Ottawa on the north and
+Belleville on the south; Oquawka on the northwest and Paris on the
+east. Only twice did Douglas make any extended tour outside this area:
+once to meet his appointment with Lincoln at Freeport; and once to
+engage in the third joint debate at Jonesboro.
+
+The first week in August found Douglas speaking at various points
+along the Illinois River to enthusiastic crowds. Lincoln followed
+closely after, bent upon weakening the force of his opponent's
+arguments by lodging an immediate demurrer against them. On the whole,
+Douglas drew the larger crowds; but it was observed that Lincoln's
+audiences increased as he proceeded northward. Ottawa was the
+objective point for both travelers, for there was to be held the first
+joint debate on August 21st.
+
+An enormous crowd awaited them. From sunrise to mid-day men, women,
+and children had poured into town, in every sort of conveyance. It was
+a typical midsummer day in Illinois. The prairie roads were thoroughly
+baked by the sun, and the dust rose, like a fine powder, from beneath
+the feet of horses and pedestrians, enveloping all in blinding clouds.
+A train of seventeen cars had brought ardent supporters of Douglas
+from Chicago. The town was gaily decked; the booming of cannon
+resounded across the prairie; bands of music added to the excitement
+of the occasion. The speakers were escorted to the public square by
+two huge processions. So eager was the crowd that it was with much
+difficulty, and no little delay, that Lincoln and Douglas, the
+committee men, and the reporters, were landed on the platform.[708]
+
+For the first time in the campaign, the rival candidates were placed
+side by side. The crowd instinctively took its measure of the two men.
+They presented a striking contrast:[709] Lincoln, tall, angular, and
+long of limb; Douglas, short, almost dwarfed by comparison,
+broad-shouldered and thick-chested. Lincoln was clad in a frock coat
+of rusty black, which was evidently not made for his lank, ungainly
+body. His sleeves did not reach his wrists by several inches, and his
+trousers failed to conceal his huge feet. His long, sinewy neck
+emerged from a white collar, drawn over a black tie. Altogether, his
+appearance bordered upon the grotesque, and would have provoked mirth
+in any other than an Illinois audience, which knew and respected the
+man too well to mark his costume. Douglas, on the contrary, presented
+a well-groomed figure. He wore a well-fitting suit of broadcloth; his
+linen was immaculate; and altogether he had the appearance of a man of
+the world whom fortune had favored.
+
+The eyes of the crowd, however, sought rather the faces of the rival
+candidates. Lincoln looked down upon them with eyes in which there was
+an expression of sadness, not to say melancholy, until he lost himself
+in the passion of his utterance. There was not a regular feature in
+his face. The deep furrows that seamed his countenance bore
+unmistakable witness to a boyhood of grim poverty and grinding toil.
+Douglas surveyed the crowd from beneath his shaggy brows, with bold,
+penetrating gaze. Every feature of his face bespoke power. The
+deep-set eyes; the dark, almost sinister, line between them; the mouth
+with its tightly-drawn lips; the deep lines on his somewhat puffy
+cheeks--all gave the impression of a masterful nature, accustomed to
+bear down opposition. As men observed his massive brow with its mane
+of abundant, dark hair; his strong neck; his short, compact body; they
+instinctively felt that here was a personality not lightly to be
+encountered. He was "the very embodiment of force, combativeness, and
+staying power."[710]
+
+When Douglas, by agreement, opened the debate, he was fully conscious
+that he was addressing an audience which was in the main hostile to
+him. With the instinct of a born stump speaker, he sought first to
+find common ground with his hearers. Appealing to the history of
+parties, he pointed out the practical agreement of both Whig and
+Democratic parties on the slavery question down to 1854. It was when,
+in accordance with the Compromise of 1850, he brought in the
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, that Lincoln and Trumbull entered into an
+agreement to dissolve the old parties in Illinois and to form an
+Abolition party under the pseudonym "Republican." The terms of the
+alliance were that Lincoln should have Senator Shields' place in the
+Senate, and that Trumbull should have Douglas's, when his term should
+expire.[711] History, thus interpreted, made not Douglas, but his
+opponent, the real agitator in State politics.
+
+Douglas then read from the first platform of the Black Republicans.
+"My object in reading these resolutions," he said, "was to put the
+question to Abraham Lincoln this day, whether he now stands and will
+stand by each article in that creed and carry it out. I desire to know
+whether Mr. Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, in favor of the
+unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave law. I desire him to answer
+whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did in 1854, against the
+admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the people
+want them. I want to know whether he stands pledged against the
+admission of a new State into the Union with such a Constitution as
+the people of that State may see fit to make. I want to know whether
+he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District
+of Columbia. I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the
+prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. I desire
+to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the
+Territories of the United States, North as well as South of the
+Missouri Compromise line. I desire him to answer whether he is opposed
+to the acquisition of any more territory, unless slavery is prohibited
+therein."[712]
+
+In all this there was a rude vehemence and coarse insinuation that was
+regrettable; yet Douglas sought to soften the asperity of his manner,
+by adding that he did not mean to be disrespectful or unkind to Mr.
+Lincoln. He had known Mr. Lincoln for twenty-five years. While he was
+a school-teacher, Lincoln was a flourishing grocery-keeper. Lincoln
+was always more successful in business; Lincoln always did well
+whatever he undertook; Lincoln could beat any of the boys wrestling or
+running a foot-race; Lincoln could ruin more liquor than all the boys
+of the town together. When in Congress, Lincoln had distinguished
+himself by his opposition to the Mexican War, taking the side of the
+enemy against his own country.[713] If this disparagement of an
+opponent seems mean and ungenerous, let it be remembered that in the
+rough give-and-take of Illinois politics, hard hitting was to be
+expected. Lincoln had invited counter-blows by first charging Douglas
+with conspiracy. No mere reading of cold print can convey the virile
+energy with which Douglas spoke. The facial expression, the animated
+gesture, the toss of the head, and the stamp of the foot, the full,
+resonant voice--all are wanting.
+
+To a man of Lincoln's temperament, this vigorous invective was
+indescribably irritating. Rather unwisely he betrayed his vexation in
+his first words. His manner was constrained. He seemed awkward and ill
+at ease, but as he warmed to his task, his face became more animated,
+he recovered the use of his arms, and he pointed his remarks with
+forceful gestures. His voice, never pleasant, rose to a shrill treble
+in moments of excitement. After the familiar manner of Western
+speakers of that day, he was wont to bend his knees and then rise to
+his full height with a jerk, to enforce some point.[714] Yet with all
+his ungraceful mannerisms, Lincoln held his hearers, impressing most
+men with a sense of the honesty of his convictions.
+
+Instead of replying categorically to Douglas's questions, Lincoln read
+a long extract from a speech which he had made in 1854, to show his
+attitude then toward the Fugitive Slave Act. He denied that he had had
+anything to do with the resolutions which had been read. He believed
+that he was not even in Springfield at the time when they were
+adopted.[715] As for the charge that he favored the social and
+political equality of the black and white races, he said, "Anything
+that argues me into his idea of perfect social and political equality
+with the negro, is but a specious and fantastic arrangement of words,
+by which a man can prove a horse-chestnut to be a chestnut horse.... I
+have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the
+white and the black races. There is a physical difference between the
+two, which, in my judgment, will probably forever forbid their living
+together upon the footing of perfect equality ... notwithstanding all
+this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to
+all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of
+Independence,--the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness."[716] Slavery had always been, and would always be, "an
+apple of discord and an element of division in the house." He
+disclaimed all intention of making war upon Southern institutions, yet
+he was still firm in the belief that the public mind would not be easy
+until slavery was put where the fathers left it. He reminded his
+hearers that Douglas had said nothing to clear himself from the
+suspicion of having been party to a conspiracy to nationalize slavery.
+Judge Douglas was not always so ready as now to yield obedience to
+judicial decisions, as anyone might see who chose to inquire how he
+earned his title.[717]
+
+In his reply, Douglas endeavored to refresh Lincoln's memory in
+respect to the resolutions. They were adopted while he was in
+Springfield, for it was the season of the State Fair, when both had
+spoken at the Capitol. He had not charged Mr. Lincoln with having
+helped to frame these resolutions, but with having been a responsible
+leader of the party which had adopted them as its platform. Was Mr.
+Lincoln trying to dodge the questions? Douglas refused to allow
+himself to be put upon the defensive in the matter of the alleged
+conspiracy, since Lincoln had acknowledged that he did not know it to
+be true. He would brand it as a lie and let Lincoln prove it if he
+could.[718]
+
+At the conclusion of the debate, two young farmers, in their exuberant
+enthusiasm, rushed forward, seized Lincoln in spite of his
+remonstrances, and carried him off upon their stalwart shoulders. "It
+was really a ludicrous sight," writes an eye-witness,[719] "to see
+the grotesque figure holding frantically to the heads of his
+supporters, with his legs dangling from their shoulders, and his
+pantaloons pulled up so as to expose his underwear almost to his
+knees." Douglas was not slow in using this incident to the
+discomfiture of his opponent. "Why," he said at Joliet, "the very
+notice that I was going to take him down to Egypt made him tremble in
+his knees so that he had to be carried from the platform. He laid up
+seven days, and in the meantime held a consultation with his political
+physicians,"[720] etc. Strangely enough, Lincoln with all his sense of
+humor took this badinage seriously, and accused Douglas of telling a
+falsehood.[721]
+
+The impression prevailed that Douglas had cornered Lincoln by his
+adroit use of the Springfield resolutions of 1854. Within a week,
+however, an editorial in the Chicago _Press and Tribune_ reversed the
+popular verdict, by pronouncing the resolutions a forgery. The
+Republicans were jubilant. "The Little Dodger" had cornered himself.
+The Democrats were chagrined. Douglas was thoroughly nonplussed. He
+had written to Lanphier for precise information regarding these
+resolutions, and he had placed implicit confidence in the reply of his
+friend. It now transpired that they were the work of a local
+convention in Kane County.[722] Could any blunder have been more
+unfortunate?
+
+When the contestants met at Freeport, far in the solid Republican
+counties of the North, Lincoln was ready with his answers to the
+questions propounded by Douglas at Ottawa. In most respects Lincoln
+was clear and explicit. While not giving an unqualified approval of
+the Fugitive Slave Law, he was not in favor of its repeal; while
+believing that Congress possessed the power to abolish slavery in the
+District of Columbia, he favored abolition only on condition that it
+should be gradual, acceptable to a majority of the voters of the
+District, and compensatory to unwilling owners; he would favor the
+abolition of the slave-trade between the States only upon similar
+conservative principles; he believed it, however, to be the right and
+duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the Territories; he was
+not opposed to the honest acquisition of territory, provided that it
+would not aggravate the slavery question. The really crucial
+questions, Lincoln did not face so unequivocally. Was he opposed to
+the admission of more slave States? Would he oppose the admission of a
+new State with such a constitution as the people of that State should
+see fit to make?
+
+Lincoln answered hesitatingly: "In regard to the other question, of
+whether I am pledged to the admission of any more slave States into
+the Union, I state to you very frankly that I would be exceedingly
+sorry ever to be put in a position of having to pass upon that
+question. I should be exceedingly glad to know that there would never
+be another slave State admitted into the Union; but I must add, that
+if slavery shall be kept out of the Territories during the territorial
+existence of any one given Territory, and then the people shall,
+having a fair chance and a clear field, when they come to adopt the
+Constitution, do such an extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave
+Constitution, uninfluenced by the actual presence of the institution
+among them, I see no alternative, if we own the country, but to admit
+them into the Union."[723]
+
+It was now Lincoln's turn to catechise his opponent. He had prepared
+four questions, the second of which caused his friends some
+misgivings.[724] It read: "Can the people of a United States
+Territory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the
+United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation
+of a State Constitution?"
+
+Lincoln knew well enough that Douglas held to the power of the people
+practically to exclude slavery, regardless of the decision of the
+Supreme Court; Douglas had said as much in his hearing at Bloomington.
+What he desired to extort from Douglas was his opinion of the legality
+of such action in view of the Dred Scott decision. Should Douglas
+answer in the negative, popular sovereignty would become an empty
+phrase; should he answer in the affirmative, he would put himself, so
+Lincoln calculated, at variance with Southern Democrats, who claimed
+that the people of a Territory were now inhibited from any such power
+over slave property. In the latter event, Lincoln proposed to give
+such publicity to Douglas's reply as to make any future evasion or
+retraction impossible.[725]
+
+Douglas faced the critical question without the slightest hesitation.
+"It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide as to
+the abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a
+Territory under the Constitution, the people have the lawful means to
+introduce it or exclude it as they please, for the reason that slavery
+cannot exist a day or an hour anywhere, unless it is supported by
+local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
+established by the local legislature; and if the people are opposed to
+slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who will by
+unfriendly legislation effectually prevent the introduction of it into
+their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their legislation
+will favor its extension. Hence, no matter what the decision of the
+Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
+people to make a slave Territory or a free Territory is perfect and
+complete under the Nebraska Bill. I hope Mr. Lincoln deems my answer
+satisfactory on that point"[726]
+
+The other three questions involved less risk for the advocate of
+popular sovereignty. He would vote to admit Kansas without the
+requisite population for representation in Congress, if the people
+should frame an unobjectionable constitution. He would prefer a
+general rule on this point, but since Congress had decided that Kansas
+had enough people to form a slave State, she surely had enough to
+constitute a free State. He scouted the imputation in the third
+question, that the Supreme Court could so far violate the Constitution
+as to decide that a State could not exclude slavery from its own
+limits. He would always vote for the acquisition of new territory,
+when it was needed, irrespective of the question of slavery.[727]
+
+Smarting under Lincoln's animadversions respecting the Springfield
+resolutions, Douglas explained his error by quoting from a copy of the
+Illinois _State Register_, which had printed the resolutions as the
+work of the convention at the capital. He gave notice that he would
+investigate the matter, "when he got down to Springfield." At all
+events there was ample proof that the resolutions were a faithful
+exposition of Republican doctrine in the year 1854. Douglas then read
+similar resolutions adopted by a convention in Rockford County. One
+Turner, who was acting as one of the moderators, interrupted him at
+this point, to say that he had drawn those very resolutions and that
+they were the Republican creed exactly. "And yet," exclaimed Douglas
+triumphantly, "and yet Lincoln denies that he stands on them. Mr.
+Turner says that the creed of the Black Republican party is the
+admission of no more slave States, and yet Mr. Lincoln declares that
+he would not like to be placed in a position where he would have to
+vote for them. All I have to say to friend Lincoln is, that I do not
+think there is much danger of his being placed in such a position....
+I propose, out of mere kindness, to relieve him from any such
+necessity."[728]
+
+As he continued, Douglas grew offensively denunciatory. His opponents
+were invariably Black Republicans; Lincoln was the ally of rank
+Abolitionists like Giddings and Fred Douglass; of course those who
+believed in political and social equality for blacks and whites would
+vote for Lincoln. Lincoln had found fault with the resolutions because
+they were not adopted on the right spot. Lincoln and his friends were
+great on "spots." Lincoln had opposed the Mexican War because
+American blood was not shed on American soil in the right spot.
+Trumbull and Lincoln were like two decoy ducks which lead the flock
+astray. Ambition, personal ambition, had led to the formation of the
+Black Republican party. Lincoln and his friends were now only trying
+to secure what Trumbull had cheated them out of in 1855, when the
+senatorship fell to Trumbull. Under this savage attack the crowd grew
+restive. As Douglas repeated the epithet "Black" Republican, he was
+interrupted by indignant cries of "White," "White." But Douglas
+shouted back defiantly, "I wish to remind you that while Mr. Lincoln
+was speaking there was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard enough to
+interrupt him," and browbeat his hearers into quiet again.[729]
+
+Realizing, perhaps, the immense difficulty of exposing the fallacy of
+Douglas's reply to his questions, in the few moments at his disposal,
+Lincoln did not refer to the crucial point. He contented himself with
+a defense of his own consistency. His best friends were dispirited,
+when the half-hour ended. They could not shake off the impression that
+Douglas had saved himself from defeat by his adroit answers to
+Lincoln's interrogatories.[730]
+
+The next joint debate occurred nearly three weeks later down in Egypt.
+By slow stages, speaking incessantly at all sorts of meetings, Douglas
+and Lincoln made their several ways through the doubtful central
+counties to Jonesboro in Union County. This was the enemy's country
+for Lincoln; and by reason of the activities of United States Marshal
+Dougherty, a Buchanan appointee, the county was scarcely less hostile
+to Douglas. The meeting was poorly attended. Those who listened to the
+speakers were chary of applause and appeared politically
+apathetic.[731]
+
+Douglas opened the debate by a wild, unguarded appeal to partisan
+prejudices. Knowing his hearers, he was personally vindictive in his
+references to Black Republicans in general and to Lincoln in
+particular. He reiterated his stock arguments, giving new vehemence to
+his charge of corrupt bargain between Trumbull and Lincoln by quoting
+Matheny, a Republican and "Mr. Lincoln's especial and confidential
+friend for the last twenty years."[732]
+
+Lincoln begged leave to doubt the authenticity of this new evidence,
+in view of the little episode at Ottawa, concerning the Springfield
+resolutions. At all events the whole story was untrue, and he had
+already declared it to be such.[733] Why should Douglas persist in
+misrepresenting him? Brushing aside these lesser matters, however,
+Lincoln addressed himself to what had now come to be known as
+Douglas's Freeport doctrine. "I hold," said he, "that the proposition
+that slavery cannot enter a new country without police regulations is
+historically false.... There is enough vigor in slavery to plant
+itself in a new country even against unfriendly legislation. It takes
+not only law but the enforcement of law to keep it out." Moreover, the
+decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case had created
+constitutional obligations. Now that the right of property in slaves
+was affirmed by the Constitution, according to the Court, how could a
+member of a territorial legislature, who had taken the oath to
+support the Constitution, refuse to give his vote for laws necessary
+to establish slave property? And how could a member of Congress keep
+his oath and withhold the necessary protection to slave property in
+the Territories?[734]
+
+Of course Lincoln was well aware that Douglas held that the Court had
+decided only the question of jurisdiction in the Dred Scott case; and
+that all else was a mere _obiter dictum_. Nevertheless, "the Court did
+pass its opinion.... If they did not decide, they showed what they
+were ready to decide whenever the matter was before them. They used
+language to this effect: That inasmuch as Congress itself could not
+exercise such a power [_i.e._, pass a law prohibiting slavery in the
+Territories], it followed as a matter of course that it could not
+authorize a Territorial Government to exercise it; for the Territorial
+Legislature can do no more than Congress could do."[735]
+
+The only answer of Douglas to this trenchant analysis was a reiterated
+assertion: "I assert that under the Dred Scott decision [taking
+Lincoln's view of that decision] you cannot maintain slavery a day in
+a Territory where there is an unwilling people and unfriendly
+legislation. If the people are opposed to it, our right is a barren,
+worthless, useless right; and if they are for it, they will support
+and encourage it."[736]
+
+Douglas made much of Lincoln's evident unwillingness to commit himself
+on the question of admitting more slave States. In various ways he
+sought to trip his adversary, believing that Lincoln had pledged
+himself to his Abolitionist allies in 1855 to vote against the
+admission of more slave States, if he should be elected senator. "Let
+me tell Mr. Lincoln that his party in the northern part of the State
+hold to that Abolition platform [no more slave States], and if they do
+not in the South and in the center, they present the extraordinary
+spectacle of a house-divided-against-itself."[737]
+
+Douglas turned the edge of Lincoln's thrust at the duties of
+legislators under the Dred Scott decision by saying, "Well, if you are
+not going to resist the decision, if you obey it, and do not intend to
+array mob law against the constituted authorities, then, according to
+your own statement, you will be a perjured man if you do not vote to
+establish slavery in these Territories."[738] And it did not save
+Lincoln from the horns of this uncomfortable dilemma to repeat that he
+did not accept the Dred Scott decision as a rule for political action,
+for he had just emphasized the moral obligation of obeying the law of
+the Constitution.
+
+From the darkness of Egypt, Douglas and Lincoln journeyed northward
+toward Charleston in Coles County, where the fourth debate was to be
+held. Both paused _en route_ to visit the State Fair, then in full
+blast at Centralia. Curious crowds followed them around the fair
+grounds, deeming the rival candidates quite as worthy of close
+scrutiny as the other exhibits.[739] Ten miles from Charleston, they
+left the train to be escorted by rival processions along the dusty
+highway to their destination. From all the country-side people had
+come to town to cheer on their respective champions.[740] This
+twenty-fifth district, comprising Coles and Moultrie counties, had
+been carried by the Democrats in 1856, but was now regarded as
+doubtful. The uncertainty added piquancy to the debate.
+
+It was Lincoln's turn to open the joust. At the outset he tried to
+allay misapprehensions regarding his attitude toward negro equality.
+"I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the
+white and black races; that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of
+making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold
+office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in
+addition to this, that there is a physical difference between the
+white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two
+races living together on terms of social and political equality. And
+inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there
+must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any
+other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the
+white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because
+the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be
+denied everything. I do not understand that because I do not want a
+negro woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. My
+understanding is that I can just let her alone."[741] This was by far
+the most explicit statement that he had yet made on the hazardous
+subject.
+
+Lincoln then turned upon his opponent, with more aggressiveness than,
+he had hitherto exhibited, to drive home the charge which Trumbull had
+made earlier in the campaign. Prompted by Trumbull, probably, Lincoln
+reviewed the shadowy history of the Toombs bill and Douglas's still
+more enigmatical connection with it. The substance of the indictment
+was, that Douglas had suppressed that part of the original bill which
+provided for a popular vote on the constitution to be drafted by the
+Kansas convention. In replying to Trumbull, Douglas had damaged his
+own case by denying that the Toombs bill had ever contained such a
+provision. Lincoln proved the contrary by the most transparent
+testimony, convicting Douglas not only of the original offense but of
+an untruth in connection with it.[742]
+
+This was not a vague charge of conspiracy which could be treated with
+contempt, but an indictment, accompanied by circumstantial evidence.
+While a dispassionate examination of the whole incident will acquit
+Douglas of any part in a plot to prevent the fair adoption of a
+constitution by the people of Kansas, yet he certainly took a most
+unfortunate and prejudicial mode of defending himself.[743] His
+personal retorts were so vindictive and his attack upon Trumbull so
+full of venom, that his words did not carry conviction to the minds of
+his hearers. It was a matter of common observation that Democrats
+seemed ill at ease after the debate.[744] "Judge Douglas is playing
+cuttle-fish," remarked Lincoln, noting with satisfaction the very
+evident discomfiture of his opponent, "a small species of fish that
+has no mode of defending itself when pursued except by throwing out a
+black fluid, which makes the water so dark the enemy cannot see it,
+and thus it escapes."[745]
+
+Douglas, however, did his best to recover his ground by accusing
+Lincoln of shifting his principles as he passed from the northern
+counties to Egypt; the principles of his party in the north were
+"jet-black," in the center, "a decent mulatto," and in lower Egypt
+"almost white." Lincoln then dared him to point out any difference
+between his speeches. Blows now fell thick and fast, both speakers
+approaching dangerously near the limit of parliamentary language.
+Reverting to his argument that slavery must be put in the course of
+ultimate extinction, Lincoln made this interesting qualification: "I
+do not mean that when it takes a turn toward ultimate extinction it
+will be in a day, nor in a year, nor in two years. I do not suppose
+that in the most peaceful way ultimate extinction would occur in less
+than a hundred years at least; but that it will occur in the best way
+for both races, in God's own good time, I have no doubt."[746]
+
+Douglas was now feeling the full force of the opposition within his
+own party. The Republican newspapers of the State had seized upon his
+Freeport speech to convince the South and the administration that he
+was false to their creed. The Washington _Union_ had from the first
+denounced him as a renegade, with whom no self-respecting Democrat
+would associate.[747] Slidell was active in Illinois, spending money
+freely to defeat him.[748] The Danites in the central counties plotted
+incessantly to weaken his following. Daniel S. Dickinson of New York
+sent "a Thousand Greetings" to a mass-meeting of Danites in
+Springfield,--a liberal allowance, commented some Douglasite, as each
+delegate would receive about ten greetings.[749] Yet the dimensions of
+this movement were not easily ascertained. The declination of
+Vice-President Breckinridge to come to the aid of Douglas was a rebuff
+not easily laughed down, though to be sure, he expressed a guarded
+preference for Douglas over Lincoln. The coolness of Breckinridge was
+in a measure offset by the friendliness of Senator Crittenden, who
+refused to aid Lincoln, because he believed Douglas's re-election
+"necessary as a rebuke to the administration and a vindication of the
+great cause of popular rights and public justice."[750] The most
+influential Republican papers in the East gave Lincoln tardy support,
+with the exception of the New York _Times_.[751]
+
+Unquestionably Douglas drew upon resources which Lincoln could not
+command. The management of the Illinois Central Railroad was naturally
+friendly toward him, though there is no evidence that it countenanced
+any illegitimate use of influence on his behalf. If Douglas enjoyed
+special train service, which Lincoln did not, it was because he drew
+upon funds that exceeded Lincoln's modest income. How many thousands
+of dollars Douglas devoted from his own exchequer to his campaign,
+can now only be conjectured. In all probability, he spent all that
+remained from the sale of his real estate in Chicago, and more which
+he borrowed in New York by mortgaging his other holdings in Cook
+County.[752] And not least among his assets was the constant
+companionship of Mrs. Douglas, whose tact, grace, and beauty placated
+feelings which had been ruffled by the rude vigor of "the Little
+Giant."[753]
+
+When the rivals met three weeks later at Galesburg, they were disposed
+to drop personalities. Indeed, both were aware that they were about to
+address men and women who demanded an intelligent discussion of the
+issues of the hour. Lincoln had the more sympathetic hearing, for Knox
+County was consistently Republican; and the town with its academic
+atmosphere and New England traditions shared his hostility to slavery.
+Vast crowds braved the cold, raw winds of the October day to listen
+for three hours to this debate.[754] From a platform on the college
+campus, Douglas looked down somewhat defiantly upon his hearers,
+though his words were well-chosen and courteous. The circumstances
+were much the same as at Ottawa; and he spoke in much the same vein.
+He rang the changes upon his great fundamental principle; he defended
+his course in respect to Lecomptonism; he denounced the Republican
+party as a sectional organization whose leaders were bent upon
+"outvoting, conquering, governing, and controlling the South."
+Douglas laid great stress upon this sectional aspect of Republicanism,
+which made its southward extension impossible. "Not only is this
+Republican party unable to proclaim its principles alike in the North
+and in the South, in the free States and in the slave States, but it
+cannot even proclaim them in the same forms and give them the same
+strength and meaning in all parts of the same State. My friend Lincoln
+finds it extremely difficult to manage a debate in the center part of
+the State, where there is a mixture of men from the North and the
+South."[755]
+
+Here Douglas paused to read from Lincoln's speeches at Chicago and at
+Charleston, and to ask his hearers to reconcile the conflicting
+statements respecting negro equality. He pronounced Lincoln's
+doctrine, that the negro and the white man are made equal by the
+Declaration of Independence and Divine Providence, "a monstrous
+heresy."
+
+Lincoln protested that nothing was farther from his purpose than to
+"advance hypocritical and deceptive and contrary views in different
+portions of the country." As for the charge of sectionalism, Judge
+Douglas was himself fast becoming sectional, for his speeches no
+longer passed current south of the Ohio as they had once done.
+"Whatever may be the result of this ephemeral contest between Judge
+Douglas and myself, I see the day rapidly approaching when his pill of
+sectionalism, which he has been thrusting down the throats of
+Republicans for years past, will be crowded down his own throat."[756]
+
+And Lincoln again scored on his opponent, when he pointed out that
+his political doctrine rested upon the major premise, that there was
+no wrong in slavery. "If you will take the Judge's speeches, and
+select the short and pointed sentences expressed by him,--as his
+declaration that he 'don't care whether slavery is voted up or
+down'--you will see at once that this is perfectly logical, if you do
+not admit that slavery is wrong.... Judge Douglas declares that if any
+community wants slavery they have a right to have it. He can say that
+logically, if he says that there is no wrong in slavery; but if you
+admit that there is a wrong in it, he cannot logically say that
+anybody has a right to do wrong."[757]
+
+Those who now read these memorable debates dis-passionately, will
+surely acquit Lincoln of inconsistency in his attitude toward the
+negro. His speech at Charleston supplements the speech at Chicago; at
+Galesburg, he made an admirable re-statement of his position.
+Nevertheless, there was a marked difference in point of emphasis
+between his utterances in Northern and in Southern Illinois. Even the
+casual reader will detect subtle omissions which the varying character
+of his audience forced upon Lincoln. In Chicago he said nothing about
+the physical inferiority of the negro; he said nothing about the
+equality of the races in the Declaration of Independence, when he
+spoke at Charleston. Among men of anti-slavery leanings, he had much
+to say about the moral wrong of slavery; in the doubtful counties,
+Lincoln was solicitous that he should not be understood as favoring
+social and political equality between whites and blacks.
+
+Feeling keenly this diplomatic shifting of emphasis, Douglas persisted
+in accusing Lincoln of inconsistency: "He has one set of principles
+for the Abolition counties and another set for the counties opposed to
+Abolitionism." If Lincoln had said in Coles County what he has to-day
+said in old Knox, Douglas complained, "it would have settled the
+question between us in that doubtful county."[758] And in this Douglas
+was probably correct.
+
+At Quincy, Douglas was in his old bailiwick. Three times the Democrats
+of this district had sent him to Congress; and though the bounds of
+the congressional district had since been changed, Adams County was
+still Democratic by a safe majority. Among the people who greeted the
+speakers, however, were many old-time Whigs, for whose special benefit
+the Republicans of the city carried on a pole, at the head of their
+procession, a live raccoon. With a much keener historic sense, the
+Democrats bore aloft a dead raccoon, suspended by its tail.[759]
+
+Lincoln again harked back to his position that slavery was "a moral, a
+social, and a political wrong" which the Republican party proposed to
+prevent from growing any larger; and that "the leading man--I think I
+may do my friend Judge Douglas the honor of calling him
+such--advocating the present Democratic policy, never himself says it
+is wrong."[760]
+
+The consciousness that he was made to seem morally obtuse, cut Douglas
+to the quick. Even upon his tough constitution this prolonged campaign
+was beginning to tell. His voice was harsh and broken; and he gave
+unmistakable signs of nervous irritability, brought on by physical
+fatigue. When he rose to reply to Lincoln, his manner was offensively
+combative. At the outset, he referred angrily to Lincoln's "gross
+personalities and base insinuations."[761] In his references to the
+Springfield resolutions and to his mistake, or rather the mistake of
+his friends at the capital, he was particularly denunciatory. "When I
+make a mistake," he boasted, "as an honest man, I correct it without
+being asked to, but when he, Lincoln, makes a false charge, he sticks
+to it and never corrects it."[762]
+
+But Douglas was too old a campaigner to lose control of himself, and
+no doubt the rude charge and counter-charge were prompted less by
+personal ill-will than by controversial exigencies. Those who have
+conceived Douglas as the victim of deep-seated and abiding resentment
+toward Lincoln, forget the impulsive nature of the man. There is not
+the slightest evidence that Lincoln took these blows to heart. He had
+himself dealt many a vigorous blow in times past. It was part of the
+game.
+
+Douglas found fault with Lincoln's answers to the Ottawa questions: "I
+ask you again, Lincoln, will you vote to admit New Mexico, when she
+has the requisite population with such a constitution as her people
+adopt, either recognizing slavery or not, as they shall determine!" He
+was well within the truth when he asserted that Lincoln's answer had
+been purposely evasive and equivocal, "having no reference to any
+territory now in existence."[763] Of Lincoln's Republican policy of
+confining slavery within its present limits, by prohibiting it in the
+Territories, he said, "When he gets it thus confined, and surrounded,
+so that it cannot spread, the natural laws of increase will go on
+until the negroes will be so plenty that they cannot live on the soil.
+He will hem them in until starvation seizes them, and by starving them
+to death, he will put slavery in the course of ultimate
+extinction."[764] A silly argument which Douglas's wide acquaintance
+with Southern conditions flatly contradicted and should have kept him
+from repeating.
+
+To the charge of moral obliquity on the slavery question, Douglas made
+a dignified and worthy reply. "I hold that the people of the
+slave-holding States are civilized men as well as ourselves; that they
+bear consciences as well as we, and that they are accountable to God
+and their posterity, and not to us. It is for them to decide,
+therefore, the moral and religious right of the slavery question for
+themselves within their own limits."[765]
+
+On the following day both Lincoln and Douglas took passage on a river
+steamer for Alton. The county of Madison had once been Whig in its
+political proclivities. In the State legislature it was now
+represented by two representatives and a senator who were Native
+Americans; and in the present campaign, the county was classed as
+doubtful. In Alton and elsewhere there was a large German vote which
+was likely to sway the election.
+
+Douglas labored under a physical disadvantage. His voice was painful
+to hear, while Lincoln's betrayed no sign of fatigue.[766] Both fell
+into the argument _ad hominem_. Lincoln advocated holding the
+Territories open to "free white people" the world over--to "Hans,
+Baptiste, and Patrick." Douglas contended that the equality referred
+to in the Declaration of Independence, was the equality of white
+men--"men of European birth and European descent." Both conjured with
+the revered name of Clay. Douglas persistently referred to Lincoln as
+an Abolitionist, knowing that his auditors had "strong sympathies
+southward," as Lincoln shrewdly guessed; while Lincoln sought to
+unmask that "false statesmanship that undertakes to build up a system
+of policy upon the basis of caring nothing about the very thing that
+everybody does care the most about."[767]
+
+Douglas made a successful appeal to the sympathy of the crowd, when he
+said of his conduct in the Lecompton fight, "Most of the men who
+denounced my course on the Lecompton question objected to it, not
+because I was not right, but because they thought it expedient at that
+time, for the sake of keeping the party together, to do wrong. I never
+knew the Democratic party to violate any one of its principles, out of
+policy or expediency, that it did not pay the debt with sorrow. There
+is no safety or success for our party unless we always do right, and
+trust the consequences to God and the people. I chose not to depart
+from principle for the sake of expediency on the Lecompton question,
+and I never intend to do it on that or any other question."[768]
+
+Both at Quincy and at Alton, Douglas paid his respects to the
+"contemptible crew" who were trying to break up the party and defeat
+him. At first he had avoided direct attacks upon the administration;
+but the relentless persecution of the Washington _Union_ made him
+restive. Lincoln derived great satisfaction from this intestine
+warfare in the Democratic camp. "Go it, husband! Go it, bear!" he
+cried.
+
+In this last debate, both sought to summarize the issues. Said
+Lincoln, "You may turn over everything in the Democratic policy from
+beginning to end, ... it everywhere carefully excludes the idea that
+there is anything wrong in it [slavery].
+
+"That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this
+country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be
+silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles--right
+and wrong--throughout the world.... I was glad to express my gratitude
+at Quincy, and I re-express it here, to Judge Douglas,--_that he looks
+to no end of the institution of slavery_. That will help the people to
+see where the struggle really is."[769]
+
+To the mind of Douglas, the issue presented itself in quite another
+form. "He [Lincoln] says that he looks forward to a time when slavery
+shall be abolished everywhere. I look forward to a time when each
+State shall be allowed to do as it pleases. If it chooses to keep
+slavery forever, it is not my business, but its own; if it chooses to
+abolish slavery, it is its own business,--not mine. I care more for
+the great principle of self-government, the right of the people to
+rule, than I do for all the negroes in Christendom. I would not
+endanger the perpetuity of this Union, I would not blot out the great
+inalienable rights of the white men, for all the negroes that ever
+existed."[770]
+
+With this encounter at Alton, the joint debates, but not the campaign
+closed. Douglas continued to speak at various strategic points, in
+spite of inclement weather and physical exhaustion, up to the eve of
+the election.[771] The canvass had continued just a hundred days,
+during which Douglas had made one hundred and thirty speeches.[772]
+During the last weeks of the campaign, election canards designed to
+injure Douglas were sedulously circulated, adding no little
+uncertainty to the outcome in doubtful districts. The most damaging of
+these stories seems to have emanated from Senator John Slidell of
+Louisiana, whose midsummer sojourn in Illinois has already been noted.
+A Chicago journal published the tale that Douglas's slaves in the
+South were "the subjects of inhuman and disgraceful treatment--that
+they were hired out to a factor at fifteen dollars per annum
+each--that he, in turn, hired them out to others in lots, and that
+they were ill-fed, over-worked, and in every way so badly treated that
+they were spoken of in the neighborhood where they are held as a
+disgrace to all slave-holders and the system they support." The
+explicit denial of the story came from Slidell some weeks after the
+election, when the slander had accomplished the desired purpose.[773]
+
+All signs pointed to a heavy vote for both tickets. As the campaign
+drew to a close, the excitement reached a pitch rarely equalled even
+in presidential elections. Indeed, the total vote cast exceeded that
+of 1856 by many thousands,--an increase that cannot be wholly
+accounted for by the growth of population in these years.[774] The
+Republican State ticket was elected by less than four thousand votes
+over the Democratic ticket. The relative strength of the rival
+candidates for the senatorship, however, is exhibited more fully in
+the vote for the members of the lower house of the State legislature..
+The avowed Douglas candidates polled over 174,000, while the Lincoln
+men received something over 190,000. Administration candidates
+received a scant vote of less than 2,000. Notwithstanding this popular
+majority, the Republicans secured only thirty-five seats, while the
+Democratic minority secured forty. Out of fifteen contested senatorial
+seats, the Democrats won eight with a total of 44,826 votes, while the
+Republicans cast 53,784 votes and secured but seven. No better proof
+could be offered of Lincoln's contention that the State was
+gerrymandered in favor of the Democrats. Still, this was part of the
+game; and had the Republicans been in office, they would have
+undoubtedly used an advantage which has proved too tempting for the
+virtue of every American party.
+
+When the two houses of the Illinois Legislature met in joint session,
+January 6, 1859, not a man ventured, or desired, to record his vote
+otherwise than as his party affiliations dictated. Douglas received
+fifty-four votes and Lincoln forty-six. "Glory to God and the Sucker
+Democracy," telegraphed the editor of the _State Register_ to his
+chief. And back over the wires from Washington was flashed the laconic
+message, "Let the voice of the people rule." But had the _will_ of the
+people ruled?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 669: Hollister, Life of Colfax pp. 119 ff; Wilson, Rise and
+Fall of the Slave Power, II, p. 567.]
+
+[Footnote 670: Hollister, Colfax, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 671: Wilson, p. 567.]
+
+[Footnote 672: Bancroft, Life of Seward, I, pp. 449-450.]
+
+[Footnote 673: Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, p. 403.]
+
+[Footnote 674: Hollister, Colfax, p. 119.]
+
+[Footnote 675: _Ibid._, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 676: Wilson, II, p 567; Greeley, Recollections of a Busy
+Life, p. 397.]
+
+[Footnote 677: Hollister, Colfax, p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 678: Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, pp. 59 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 679: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 394.]
+
+[Footnote 680: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 681: Forney, Anecdotes, II, p. 179.]
+
+[Footnote 682: Lincoln-Douglas Debates (Edition of 1860), p. 1.]
+
+[Footnote 683: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 398-400.]
+
+[Footnote 684: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 400; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Life of Lincoln, II, p. 93.]
+
+[Footnote 685: Debates, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 686: Debates, p. 9.]
+
+[Footnote 687: _Ibid._, p. 10.]
+
+[Footnote 688: _Ibid._, p. 11.]
+
+[Footnote 689: Debates, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 690: Debates, p. 20.]
+
+[Footnote 691: _Ibid._, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 692: Flint, Douglas, pp. 114-117; Chicago _Times_, July 18,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 693: Debates, p. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 694: Debates, p. 27.]
+
+[Footnote 695: _Ibid._, p. 30.]
+
+[Footnote 696: _Ibid._, pp. 33-34.]
+
+[Footnote 697: Debates, p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 698: _Ibid._, p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 699: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 417; Chicago _Times_, July 21,
+1858.]
+
+[Footnote 700: Debates, p. 44.]
+
+[Footnote 701: _Ibid._, p. 60.]
+
+[Footnote 702: _Ibid._, p. 61.]
+
+[Footnote 703: _Ibid._, p. 63.]
+
+[Footnote 704: Debates, p. 64.]
+
+[Footnote 705: _Ibid._, pp. 64-65.]
+
+[Footnote 706: _Ibid._, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 707: Debates, p. 66.]
+
+[Footnote 708: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+104-105.]
+
+[Footnote 709: For the following description I have drawn freely from
+the narratives of eye-witnesses. I am particularly indebted to the
+graphic account by Mr. Carl Schurz in _McClure's Magazine_, January,
+1907.]
+
+[Footnote 710: Mr. Schurz in _McClure's_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 711: Debates, p. 67.]
+
+[Footnote 712: Debates, p. 68.]
+
+[Footnote 713: _Ibid._, p. 69.]
+
+[Footnote 714: Herndon in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp. 76-77; Mr.
+Carl Schurz in _McClure's_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 715: Debates, p. 73.]
+
+[Footnote 716: Debates, p. 75.]
+
+[Footnote 717: _Ibid._, p. 82.]
+
+[Footnote 718: _Ibid._, p. 86.]
+
+[Footnote 719: Henry Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 93; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 108.]
+
+[Footnote 720: Debates, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 721: _Ibid._, p. 130.]
+
+[Footnote 722: Holland, Lincoln, p. 185; Tarbell, Lincoln, _McClure's
+Magazine_, VII, pp. 408-409.]
+
+[Footnote 723: Debates, p. 89.]
+
+[Footnote 724: Holland, Lincoln, pp. 188-189; Mr. Horace White in
+Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.]
+
+[Footnote 725: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 109.]
+
+[Footnote 726: Debates, p. 95.]
+
+[Footnote 727: Debates, pp. 94-97.]
+
+[Footnote 728: Debates, pp. 100-101.]
+
+[Footnote 729: Debates, p. 101.]
+
+[Footnote 730: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 110.]
+
+[Footnote 731: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 118.]
+
+[Footnote 732: Debates, pp. 113-114.]
+
+[Footnote 733: _Ibid._, p. 120.]
+
+[Footnote 734: Debates, p. 127.]
+
+[Footnote 735: _Ibid._, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 736: _Ibid._, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 737: Debates, p. 133. Lamon is authority for the statement
+that Lincoln pledged himself to Lovejoy and his faction to favor the
+exclusion of slavery from all the territory of the United States.
+Douglas did not know of this pledge, but suspected an understanding to
+this effect. If Lamon may be believed, this statement explains the
+persistence of Douglas on this point and the evasiveness of Lincoln.
+See Lamon, Lincoln, pp. 361-365.]
+
+[Footnote 738: _Ibid._, p. 135.]
+
+[Footnote 739: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 119.]
+
+[Footnote 740: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 121.]
+
+[Footnote 741: Debates, p. 136.]
+
+[Footnote 742: Debates, pp. 137-143.]
+
+[Footnote 743: See above pp. 303-304.]
+
+[Footnote 744: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, p. 122.]
+
+[Footnote 745: Debates, p. 159.]
+
+[Footnote 746: _Ibid._, p. 157.]
+
+[Footnote 747: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 342.]
+
+[Footnote 748: Foote, Casket of Reminiscences, p. 135; Herndon-Weik,
+Lincoln, II, p. 127.]
+
+[Footnote 749: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 129.]
+
+[Footnote 750: Coleman, Life of Crittenden, II, p. 163.]
+
+[Footnote 751: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 341.]
+
+[Footnote 752: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 338, note
+3. The record of the Circuit Court of Cook County, December term,
+1867, states that the entire lien upon the estate in 1864 exceeded
+$94,000. The mortgages were held by Fernando Wood and others of New
+York.]
+
+[Footnote 753: Villard, Memoirs, I, p. 92.]
+
+[Footnote 754: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 123.]
+
+[Footnote 755: Debates p. 173.]
+
+[Footnote 756: _Ibid._, p. 180.]
+
+[Footnote 757: Debates, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 758: Debates, p. 188.]
+
+[Footnote 759: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+123-124.]
+
+[Footnote 760: Debates, p. 198.]
+
+[Footnote 761: Debates, p. 199; _McClure's Magazine_, January, 1907.]
+
+[Footnote 762: Debates, p. 201.]
+
+[Footnote 763: _Ibid._, p. 201.]
+
+[Footnote 764: Debates, p. 204.]
+
+[Footnote 765: _Ibid._, p. 209.]
+
+[Footnote 766: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 767: Debates, p. 231.]
+
+[Footnote 768: _Ibid._, p. 218.]
+
+[Footnote 769: Debates, p. 234.]
+
+[Footnote 770: _Ibid._, p. 238.]
+
+[Footnote 771: Sheahan, Douglas, p. 432.]
+
+[Footnote 772: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, II, p. 146 note.]
+
+[Footnote 773: Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 439-442; Herndon-Weik, Lincoln,
+II, p. 128.]
+
+[Footnote 774: It has not been generally observed that the Democrats
+gained more than their opponents over the State contest of 1856. The
+election returns were as follows:
+
+    Democratic ticket in 1856, 106,643; in 1858, 121,609; gain, 14,966.
+    Republican ticket in 1856, 111,375; in 1858, 125,430; gain, 14,055.
+]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+THE AFTERMATH
+
+
+Douglas had achieved a great personal triumph. Not even his Republican
+opponents could gainsay it. In the East, the Republican newspapers
+applauded him undisguisedly, not so much because they admired him or
+lacked sympathy with Lincoln, as because they regarded his re-election
+as a signal condemnation of the Buchanan administration. Moreover,
+there was a general expectation in anti-slavery circles to which
+Theodore Parker gave expression when he wrote, "Had Lincoln succeeded,
+Douglas would be a ruined man.... But now in place for six years more,
+with his own personal power unimpaired and his positional influence
+much enhanced, he can do the Democratic party a world of damage."[775]
+There was cheer in this expectation even for those who deplored the
+defeat of Lincoln.
+
+As Douglas journeyed southward soon after the November elections, he
+must have felt the poignant truth of Lincoln's shrewd observation that
+he was himself becoming sectional. Though he was received with seeming
+cordiality at Memphis and New Orleans, he could not but notice that
+his speeches, as Lincoln predicted, "would not go current south of the
+Ohio River as they had formerly." Democratic audiences applauded his
+bold insistence upon the universality of the principles of the party
+creed, but the tone of the Southern press was distinctly unfriendly
+to him and his Freeport doctrine.[776] He told his auditors at Memphis
+that he indorsed the decision of the Supreme Court; he believed that
+the owners of slaves had the same right to take them into the
+Territories as they had to take other property; but slaves once in the
+Territory were then subject to local laws for protection, on an equal
+footing with all other property. If no local laws protecting slave
+property were passed, slavery would be practically excluded.
+"Non-action is exclusion." It was a matter of soil, climate,
+interests, whether a Territory would permit slavery or not. "You come
+right back to the principle of dollars and cents ... If old Joshua E.
+Giddings should raise a colony in Ohio and settle down in Louisiana,
+he would be the strongest advocate of slavery in the whole South; he
+would find when he got there, his opinion would be very much modified;
+he would find on those sugar plantations that it was not a question
+between the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the
+crocodile." "The Almighty has drawn the line on this continent, on one
+side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor; on the other
+by white labor."[777]
+
+At New Orleans, he repeated more emphatically much the same thought.
+"There is a line, or belt of country, meandering through the valleys
+and over the mountain tops, which is a natural barrier between free
+territory and slave territory, on the south of which are to be found
+the productions suitable to slave labor, while on the north exists a
+country adapted to free labor alone.... But in the great central
+regions, where there may be some doubt as to the effect of natural
+causes, who ought to decide the question except the people residing
+there, who have all their interests there, who have gone there to live
+with their wives and children!"[778]
+
+It was characteristic of the man that he thought politics even when he
+was in pursuit of health. Advised to take an ocean voyage, he decided
+to visit Cuba so that even his recreative leisure might be politically
+profitable, for the island was more than ever coveted by the South and
+he wished to have the advantage of first-hand information about this
+unhappy Spanish province. Landing in New York upon his return, he was
+given a remarkable ovation by the Democracy of the city; and he was
+greeted with equal warmth in Philadelphia and Baltimore.[779] Even a
+less ambitious man might have been tempted to believe in his own
+capacity for leadership, in the midst of these apparently spontaneous
+demonstrations of regard. At the capital, however, he was less
+cordially welcomed. He was not in the least surprised, for while he
+was still in the South, the newspapers had announced his deposition
+from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. He knew well
+enough what he had to expect from the group of Southern Democrats who
+had the ear of the administration.[780] Nevertheless, his removal from
+a position which he had held ever since he entered the Senate was a
+bitter pill.
+
+For the sake of peace Douglas smothered his resentment, and, for a
+brief time at least, sought to demonstrate his political orthodoxy in
+matters where there was no conflict of opinion. As a member of the
+Committee on Foreign Affairs, he cordially supported the bill for the
+purchase of Cuba, even though the chairman, Slidell, had done more to
+injure him in the recent campaign than any other man. There were those
+who thought he demeaned himself by attending the Democratic caucus and
+indorsing the Slidell project.[781]
+
+It was charged that the proposed appropriation of $30,000,000 was to
+be used to bribe Spanish ministers to sell Cuba; that the whole
+project was motived by the desire of the South to acquire more slave
+territory; and that Douglas was once more cultivating the South to
+secure the presidency in 1860. The first of these charges has never
+been proved; the second is probably correct; but the third is surely
+open to question. As long ago as Folk's administration, Douglas had
+expressed his belief that the Pearl of the Antilles must some day fall
+to us; and on various occasions he had advocated the annexation of
+Cuba, with the consent of Spain and the inhabitants. At New Orleans,
+he had been called upon to express his views regarding the acquisition
+of the island; and he had said, without hesitation, "It is folly to
+debate the acquisition of Cuba. It naturally belongs to the American
+continent. It guards the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is the
+heart of the American continent and the body of the American nation."
+At the same time he was careful to add that he was no filibuster: he
+desired Cuba only upon terms honorable to all concerned.[782]
+
+Subsequent events acquit Douglas of truckling to the South at this
+time. No doubt he would have been glad to let bygones be bygones, to
+close up the gap of unpleasant memories between himself and the
+administration, and to restore Democratic harmony. For Douglas loved
+his party and honored its history. To him the party of Jefferson and
+Jackson was inseparably linked with all that made the American
+Commonwealth the greatest of democracies. Yet where men are acutely
+conscious of vital differences of opinion, only the hourly practice of
+self-control can prevent clashing. Neither Douglas nor his opponents
+were prepared to undergo any such rigid self-discipline.
+
+On February 23d, the pent-up feeling broke through all barriers and
+laid bare the thoughts and intents of the Democratic factions. The
+Kansas question once more recurring, Brown of Mississippi now demanded
+adequate protection for property; that is, "protection sufficient to
+protect animate property." Any other protection would be a delusion
+and a cheat. If the territorial legislature refused such protection,
+he for one would demand it of Congress. He dissented altogether from
+the doctrine of the Senator from Illinois, that by non-action, or
+unfriendly legislation a Territory could annul a decision of the
+Supreme Court and exclude slavery. That was mistaking power for right.
+"What I want to know is, whether you will interpose against power and
+in favor of right.... If the Territorial Legislature refuses to act,
+will you act?... If it pass laws hostile to slavery, will you annul
+them, and substitute laws favoring slavery in their stead?" "What I
+and my people ask is action; positive, unqualified action. Our
+understanding of the doctrine of non-intervention was, that you were
+not to intervene against us, but I never understood that we could have
+any compromise or understanding here which could release Congress from
+an obligation imposed on it by the Constitution of the United
+States."[783]
+
+Reluctant as Douglas must have been to accentuate the differences
+between himself and the Southern Democrats, he could not remain
+silent, for silence would be misconstrued. With all the tact which he
+could muster out of a not too abundant store, he sought to conciliate,
+without yielding his own opinions. It was a futile effort. At the very
+outset he was forced to deny the right of slave property to other
+protection than common property. Thence he passed with wider and wider
+divergence from the Southern position over the familiar ground of
+popular sovereignty. To the specific demands which Brown had voiced,
+he replied that Congress had never passed an act creating a criminal
+code for any organized Territory, nor any law protecting any species
+of property. Congress had left these matters to the territorial
+legislatures. Why, then, make an exception of slave property? The
+Supreme Court had made no such distinction. "I know," said Douglas, in
+a tone little calculated to soothe the feelings of his opponents, "I
+know that some gentlemen do not like the doctrine of non-intervention
+as well as they once did. It is now becoming fashionable to talk
+sneeringly of 'your doctrine of non-intervention,' Sir, that doctrine
+has been a fundamental article in the Democratic creed for years."
+"If you repudiate the doctrine of non-intervention and form a slave
+code by act of Congress, when the people of a Territory refuse it, you
+must step off the Democratic platform.... I tell you, gentlemen of the
+South, in all candor, I do not believe a Democratic candidate can ever
+carry any one Democratic State of the North on the platform that it is
+the duty of the Federal government to force the people of a Territory
+to have slavery when they do not want it."[784]
+
+What Brown had asserted with his wonted impulsiveness, was then
+reaffirmed more soberly by his colleague, Jefferson Davis, upon whom
+more than any other Southerner the mantle of Calhoun had fallen. State
+sovereignty was also his major premise. The Constitution was a
+compact. The Territories were common property of the States. The
+territorial legislatures were mere instruments through which the
+Congress of the United States "executed its trust in relation to the
+Territories." If, as the Senator from Illinois insisted, Congress had
+granted full power to the inhabitants of the Territories to legislate
+on all subjects not inconsistent with the Constitution, then Congress
+had exceeded its authority. Turning to Douglas, Davis said, "Now, the
+senator asks, will you make a discrimination in the Territories? I
+say, yes, I would discriminate in the Territories wherever it is
+needful to assert the right of citizens.... I have heard many a
+siren's song on this doctrine of non-intervention; a thing shadowy and
+fleeting, changing its color as often as the chameleon."[785]
+
+When Douglas could again get the floor, he retorted sharply, "The
+senator from Mississippi says, if I am not willing to stand in the
+party on his platform, I can go out. Allow me to inform him that I
+stand on the platform, and those that jump off must go out of the
+party."
+
+Hot words now passed between them. Davis spoke disdainfully of men who
+seek to build up a political reputation by catering to the prejudice
+of a majority, to exclude the property of the minority. And Douglas
+retorted, "I despise to see men from other sections of the Union
+pandering to a public sentiment against what I conceive to be common
+rights under the Constitution." "Holding the views that you do," said
+Davis, "you would have no chance of getting the vote of Mississippi
+to-day." The senator has "confirmed me in the belief that he is now as
+full of heresy as he once was of adherence to the doctrine of popular
+sovereignty, correctly construed; that he has gone back to his first
+love of squatter sovereignty, a thing offensive to every idea of
+conservatism and sound government."
+
+Davis made repeated efforts to secure an answer to the question
+whether, in the event that slavery should be excluded by the people of
+a Territory and the Supreme Court should decide against such action,
+Douglas would maintain the rights of the slave-holders. Douglas
+replied, somewhat evasively, that when the Supreme Court should decide
+upon the constitutionality of the local laws, he would abide by the
+decision. "That is not the point," rejoined Davis impatiently;
+"Congress must compel the Territorial Legislature to perform its
+proper functions"; _i.e._ actively protect slave property. "Well,"
+said Douglas with exasperating coolness, "on that point, the Senator
+and I differ. If the Territorial Legislature will not pass such laws
+as will encourage mules, I will not force them to have them." Again
+Davis insisted that his question had not been answered. Douglas
+repeated, "I will vote against any law by Congress attempting to
+interfere with a regulation made by the Territories, with respect to
+any kind of property whatever, whether horses, mules, negroes, or
+anything else."[786]
+
+But there was a flaw in Douglas's armor which Green of Missouri
+detected. Had the Senator from Illinois not urged the intervention of
+Congress to prevent polygamy in Utah? "Not at all," replied Douglas;
+"the people of that Territory were in a state of rebellion against the
+Federal authorities." What he had urged was the repeal of the organic
+act of the Territory, so that the United States might exercise
+absolute jurisdiction and protect property in that region. "But if the
+people of a Territory took away property in slaves, were they not also
+defying the Federal authorities?" persisted Green. Unquestionably
+Congress might revoke the Kansas-Nebraska Act, Douglas admitted; but
+it should be remembered that the act was bottomed upon an agreement.
+There was a distinct understanding that the question whether
+territorial laws affecting the right of property in slaves were
+constitutional, should be referred to the Supreme Court. "If
+constitutional, they were to remain in force until repealed by the
+Territorial Legislature; if not, they were to become void not by
+action of Congress but by the decision of the court."[787] And Douglas
+quoted at length from a speech by Senator Benjamin in 1856, to prove
+his point. But it was precisely this agreement of 1854, which was now
+being either repudiated or construed in the interest of the South.
+Jefferson Davis frankly deprecated the "great hazard" which
+representatives from his section ran in 1854; but, he added, "I take
+it for granted my friends who are about me must have understood at
+that time clearly that this was the mere reference of a right; and
+that if decided in our favor, congressional legislation would follow
+in its train, and secure to us the enjoyment of the right thus
+defined."[788]
+
+The wide divergence of purpose and opinion which this debate revealed,
+dashed any hope of a united Democratic party in 1860. Men who looked
+into the future were sobered by the prospect. If the Democratic party
+were rent in twain,--the only surviving national party,--if
+Northerners and Southerners could no longer act together within a
+party of such elastic principles, what hope remained for the Union?
+The South was already boldly facing the inevitable. Said Brown,
+passionately, "If I cannot obtain the rights guaranteed to me and my
+people under the Constitution, as expounded by the Supreme Court,
+then, Sir, I am prepared to retire from the concern.... When our
+constitutional rights are denied us, we _ought_ to retire from the
+Union.... If you are going to convert the Union into a masked battery
+from behind which to make war on me and my property, in the name of
+all the gods at once, why should I not retire from it?"[789]
+
+After the 23d of February, Douglas neither gave nor expected quarter
+from the Southern faction led by Jefferson Davis. So far from avoiding
+conflict, he seems rather to have forced the fighting. He flaunted his
+views in the faces of the fire-eaters. Prudence would have suggested
+silence, when a convention of Southern States met at Vicksburg and
+resolved that "all laws, State and Federal, prohibiting the African
+slave-trade, ought to be repealed,"[790] but Douglas, who knew
+something of the dimensions which this illicit traffic had already
+assumed, at once declared himself opposed to it. He said privately in
+a conversation, which afterwards was reported by an anonymous
+correspondent to the New York _Tribune_, that he believed fifteen
+thousand Africans were brought into the country last year. He had seen
+"with his own eyes three hundred of those recently imported miserable
+beings in a slave-pen at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and also large
+numbers at Memphis, Tennessee."[791]
+
+In a letter which speedily became public property, Douglas said that
+he would not accept the nomination of the Democratic party, if the
+convention should interpolate into the party creed "such new issues as
+the revival of the African slave-trade, or a congressional slave code
+for the Territories."[792] And to leave no doubt as to his attitude he
+wrote a second letter, devoted exclusively to this subject; it also
+found its way, as the author probably intended it should, into the
+newspapers. He opposed the revival of the African slave-trade because
+it was abolished by one of the compromises which had made the Federal
+Union and the Constitution. "In accordance with this compromise, I am
+irreconcilably opposed to the revival of the African slave-trade, in
+any form and under any circumstances."[793] How deeply this
+unequivocal condemnation lacerated the feelings of the South, will
+never be known until the economic necessities and purposes of the
+large plantation owners are more clearly revealed.
+
+The captious criticism of the Freeport doctrine by Southerners of the
+Calhoun-Jefferson Davis school was less damaging, from a legal point
+of view, than the sober analysis of Lincoln. The emphasis in Lincoln's
+famous question at Freeport fell upon the word _lawful_: "Can the
+people of a United States Territory, in any lawful way," etc. Douglas
+had replied to the question of legal right by an assertion of the
+power of the people of the Territories. This answer, as Lincoln
+pointed out subsequently, was equivalent to saying that "a thing may
+be lawfully driven away from where it has the lawful right to
+be."[794] As a prediction, Douglas's simple statement, that if the
+people of a Territory wanted slavery they would have it, and if they
+did not, they would not let it be forced on them, was fully justified
+by the facts of American history. It has been characteristic of the
+American people that, without irreverence for law, they have not
+allowed it to stand in the way of their natural development: they have
+not, as a rule, driven rough-shod over law, but have quietly allowed
+undesirable laws to fall into innocuous desuetude.
+
+But such an answer was unworthy of a man who prided himself upon his
+fidelity to the obligation of the Constitution and the laws. Feeling
+the full force of Lincoln's inexorable logic,[795] but believing that
+it was bottomed on a false premise, Douglas endeavored to give his
+Freeport doctrine its proper constitutional setting. During the
+summer, he elaborated an historical and constitutional defense of
+popular sovereignty. The editors of _Harper's Magazine_ so far
+departed from the traditions of that popular periodical as to publish
+this long and tedious essay in the September number. Douglas probably
+calculated that through this medium better than almost any other, he
+would reach those readers to whom Lincoln made his most effective
+appeal.[796]
+
+The essay bore the title "The Dividing Line between Federal and Local
+Authority," with the sub-caption, "Popular Sovereignty in the
+Territories." In his interpretation of history, the author proved
+himself rather a better advocate than historian. He had traversed much
+the same ground in his speeches--and with far more vivacity and force.
+Douglas searched the colonial records, and found--one is tempted to
+say, to find--our fathers contending unremittingly for "the
+inalienable right, when formed into political communities, to
+exercise exclusive power of legislation in their local legislatures in
+respect to all things affecting their internal polity--slavery not
+excepted."[797]
+
+Douglas took issue with the fundamental postulate of Lincoln's
+syllogism--that a Territory is the mere creature of Congress and
+cannot be clothed with powers not possessed by the creator. He denied
+that such an inference could be drawn from that clause in the
+Constitution which permits Congress to dispose of, and make all
+needful rules for, the territory or other property belonging to the
+United States. Names were deceptive. The word "territory" in this
+connection was not used in a political, but in a geographical sense.
+The power of Congress to organize governments for the Territories must
+be inferred rather from the power to admit new States into the Union.
+The Federal government possessed only expressly delegated powers; and
+the absence of any explicit authority to interfere in local
+territorial affairs must be held to inhibit any exercise of such
+power. It was on these grounds that the Supreme Court had ruled that
+Congress was not authorized by the Constitution to prohibit slavery in
+the Territories.
+
+It had been erroneously held by some, continued the essayist, that the
+Court decided in the Dred Scott case that a territorial legislature
+could not legislate in respect to slave property like other property.
+He understood the Court to speak only of forbidden powers--powers
+denied to Congress, to State legislatures and to territorial
+legislatures alike. But if ever slavery should be decided to be one of
+these forbidden subjects of legislation, then the conclusion would be
+inevitable that the Constitution established slavery in the
+Territories beyond the power of the people to control it by law, and
+guaranteed to every citizen the right to go there and be protected in
+the enjoyment of his slave property; then every member of Congress
+would be in duty bound to supply adequate protection, if the rights of
+property should be invaded. Not only so, but another conclusion would
+follow,--if the Constitution should be held to establish slavery in
+the Territories beyond the power of the people to control
+it,--Congress would be bound to provide adequate protection for slave
+property everywhere, _in the States_ as well as in the Territories.
+
+Douglas immediately went on to show that such was not the decision of
+the Court in the Dred Scott case. The Court had held that "the right
+of property in slaves is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the
+Constitution." Yes, but where? Why in that provision which speaks of
+persons "held to service or labor in one State, under the laws
+thereof"; not under the Constitution, not under the laws of Congress,
+Douglas emphasized, but _under the laws of the particular State where
+such service is due._ And so, when the Court declared that "the
+government, in express terms, is pledged to protect it [slave
+property] in all future time," it added "if the slave escapes from his
+owner." "This is the only contingency," Douglas maintained, "in which
+the Federal Government is authorized, required, or permitted to
+interfere with slavery in the States or Territories; and in that case
+only for the purpose of 'guarding and protecting the owner in his
+rights' to reclaim his slave property." Slave-owners, therefore, who
+moved with their property to a Territory, must hold it like all other
+property, subject to local law, and look to local authorities for its
+protection.
+
+One other question remained: was the word "State," as used in the
+clause just cited, intended to include Territories? Douglas so
+contended. Otherwise, "the Territories must become a sanctuary for all
+fugitives from service and justice." In numerous clauses in the
+Constitution, the Territories were recognized as _States_.
+
+Clever as this reasoning was, it clearly was not a fair exposition of
+the opinion of the Court in the case of Dred Scott. If the Court did
+not deny the right of a territorial legislature to interfere with
+slave property, it certainly left that proposition open to fair
+inference by the phrasing and emphasis of the critical passages. It
+should be noted that Douglas, in quoting the decision, misplaced the
+decisive clause so as to bring it in juxtaposition to the reference to
+the fugitive slave clause of the Constitution, thus redistributing the
+emphasis and confusing the real significance of the foregoing
+paragraph.[798] Douglas stated subsequently that he did not believe
+the decision of the Court reached the power of a territorial
+legislature, because there was no territorial legislature in the
+record nor any allusion to one; because there was no territorial
+enactment before the Court; and because there was no fact in the case
+alluding to or connected with territorial legislation.[799] All this
+was perfectly true. The opinion of the Court was _obiter dicens_; but
+the Court expressed its opinion nevertheless. As Lincoln said, men
+knew what to expect of the Court when a territorial act prohibiting
+slavery came before it. Yet this was what Douglas would not concede.
+He would not admit the inference. Congress could confer powers upon a
+territorial legislature which it could not itself exercise. The
+dividing line between Federal and local authority was so drawn as to
+permit Congress to institute governments with legislative, judicial,
+and executive functions but without permitting Congress to exercise
+those functions itself. From Douglas's point of view, a Territory was
+not a dependency of the Federal government, but an inchoate
+Commonwealth, endowed with many of the attributes of sovereignty
+possessed by the full-fledged States.
+
+So unusual an event as a political contribution by a prominent
+statesman to a popular magazine, created no little excitement.[800]
+Attorney-General Black came to the defense of the South with an
+unsigned contribution to the Washington _Constitution_, the organ of
+the administration.[801] And Douglas, who had meantime gone to Ohio to
+take part in the State campaign, replied caustically to this critique
+in his speech at Wooster, September 16th. Black rejoined in a pamphlet
+under his own name. Whereupon Douglas returned to the attack with a
+slashing pamphlet, which he sent to the printer in an unfinished form
+and which did him little credit.[802]
+
+This war of pamphlets was productive of no results. Douglas and Black
+were wide apart upon their major premises, and diverged inevitably in
+their conclusions. Holding fast to the premise that a Territory was
+not sovereign but a "subordinate dependency," Black ridiculed the
+attempts of Douglas to clothe it, not with complete sovereignty but
+with "the attributes of sovereignty."[803] Then Douglas denounced in
+scathing terms the absurdity of Black's assumption that property in
+the Territories would be held by the laws of the State from which it
+came, while it must look for redress of wrongs to the law of its new
+domicile.[804]
+
+The Ohio campaign attracted much attention throughout the country, not
+only because the gubernatorial candidates were thoroughgoing
+representatives of the Republican party and of Douglas Democracy, but
+because both Lincoln and Douglas were again brought into the
+arena.[805] While the latter did not meet in joint debate, their
+successive appearance at Columbus and Cincinnati gave the campaign the
+aspect of a prolongation of the Illinois contest. Lincoln devoted no
+little attention to the _Harper's Magazine_ article, while Douglas
+defended himself and his doctrine against all comers. There was a
+disposition in many quarters to concede that popular sovereignty,
+whether theoretically right or wrong, would settle the question of
+slavery in the Territories.[806] Apropos of Douglas's speech at
+Columbus, the New York _Times_ admitted that at least his principles
+were "definite" and uttered in a "frank, gallant and masculine"
+spirit;[807] and his speeches were deemed of enough importance to be
+printed entire in the columns of this Republican journal. "He means to
+go to Charleston," guessed the editor shrewdly, "as the unmistakable
+representative of the Democratic party of the North and to bring this
+influence to bear upon Southern delegates as the only way to secure
+their interests against anti-slavery sentiment represented by the
+Republicans. He will claim that not a single Northern State can be
+carried on a platform more pro-slavery than his. The Democrats of the
+North have yielded all they will."[808]
+
+While Douglas was in Ohio, he was saddened by the intelligence that
+Senator Broderick of California, his loyal friend and staunch
+supporter in the Lecompton fight, had fallen a victim to the animosity
+of the Southern faction in his State. The Washington _Constitution_
+might explain his death as an affair of honor--he was shot in a
+duel--but intelligent men knew that Broderick's assailant had desired
+to rid Southern "chivalry" of a hated political opponent.[809] A month
+later, on the night of October 16th, John Brown of Kansas fame
+marshalled his little band of eighteen men and descended upon the
+United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry. What did these events
+portend?
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 775: Weiss, Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, II,
+p. 243.]
+
+[Footnote 776: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 355.]
+
+[Footnote 777: Memphis _Avalanche_, November 30, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago _Times_, December 8, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 778: New Orleans _Delta_, December 8, 1858, quoted by
+Chicago _Times_, December 19, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 779: Rhodes, History of United States, II, p. 355.]
+
+[Footnote 780: See reported conversation of Douglas with the editor of
+the Chicago _Press and Tribune_, Hollister, Life of Colfax, p. 123.]
+
+[Footnote 781: Letcher to Crittenden; Coleman. Life of John J.
+Crittenden, II, p. 171; Hollister, Colfax, p. 124.]
+
+[Footnote 782: New Orleans _Delta_, December 8, 1858.]
+
+[Footnote 783: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1243.]
+
+[Footnote 784: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2: Sess., p. 1245.]
+
+[Footnote 785: _Ibid._, pp. 1247-1248.]
+
+[Footnote 786: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1259.]
+
+[Footnote 787: _Ibid._, p. 1258.]
+
+[Footnote 788: _Globe_, 35 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1256.]
+
+[Footnote 789: _Ibid._, p. 1243.]
+
+[Footnote 790: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 371.]
+
+[Footnote 791: _Ibid._, pp. 369-370.]
+
+[Footnote 792: Letter to J.B. Dorr, June 22, 1859; Flint, Douglas, pp.
+168-169.]
+
+[Footnote 793: Letter to J.L. Peyton, August 2, 1859; Sheahan,
+Douglas, pp. 465-466.]
+
+[Footnote 794: Speech at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859; see Debates,
+p. 250.]
+
+[Footnote 795: On his return to Washington after the debates, Douglas
+said to Wilson, "He [Lincoln] is an able and honest man, one of the
+ablest of the nation. I have been in Congress sixteen years, and there
+is not a man in the Senate I would not rather encounter in debate."
+Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 577.]
+
+[Footnote 796: It does not seem likely that Douglas hoped to reach the
+people of the South through _Harper's Magazine_, as it never had a
+large circulation south of Mason and Dixon's line. See Smith, Parties
+and Slavery, p. 292.]
+
+[Footnote 797: _Harper's Magazine_, XIX, p. 527.]
+
+[Footnote 798: Compare the quotation in _Harper's_, p. 531, with the
+opinion of the Court, U.S. Supreme Court Reports, 19 How., p. 720. The
+clause beginning "And if the Constitution recognizes" is taken from
+its own paragraph and put in the middle of the following paragraph.]
+
+[Footnote 799: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2152. This statement was
+confirmed by Reverdy Johnson, who was one of the lawyers that argued
+the case. See the speech of Reverdy Johnson, June 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 800: Rhodes, History of the United States, II., p. 374.]
+
+[Footnote 801: Washington _Constitution_, September 10, 1859. The
+article was afterward published in a collection of his essays and
+speeches.]
+
+[Footnote 802: Flint, Douglas, p. 181.]
+
+[Footnote 803: One of the most interesting commentaries on Black's
+argument is his defense of the people of Utah, many years later,
+against the Anti-Polygamy Laws, when he used Douglas's argument
+without the slightest qualms. See Essays and Speeches, pp. 603, 604,
+609.]
+
+[Footnote 804: Flint, Douglas, pp. 172-181 gives extracts from these
+pamphlets.]
+
+[Footnote 805: Rhodes History of United States, II, p. 381.]
+
+[Footnote 806: _Ibid._, p. 382.]
+
+[Footnote 807: New York _Times_, September 9, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 808: _Ibid._, September 9, 1859.]
+
+[Footnote 809: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp.
+374-379.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+THE CAMPAIGN OF 1860
+
+
+Deeds of violence are the inevitable precursors of an approaching war.
+They are so many expressions of that estrangement which is at the root
+of all sectional conflicts. The raid of John Brown upon Harper's
+Ferry, like his earlier lawless acts in Kansas, was less the crime of
+an individual than the manifestation of a deep social unrest.
+Occurring on the eve of a momentous presidential election, it threw
+doubts upon the finality of any appeal to the ballot. The antagonism
+between North and South was such as to make an appeal to arms seem a
+probable last resort. The political question of the year 1860 was
+whether the law-abiding habit of the American people and the
+traditional mode of effecting changes in governmental policy, would be
+strong enough to withstand the primitive instinct to decide the
+question of right by an appeal to might. To actors in the drama the
+question assumed this simple, concrete form: could the national
+Democratic party maintain its integrity and achieve another victory
+over parties which were distinctly sectional?
+
+The passions aroused by the Harper's Ferry episode had no time to cool
+before Congress met. They were again inflamed by the indorsement of
+Helper's "Impending Crisis" by influential Republicans. As the author
+was a poor white of North Carolina who hated slavery and desired to
+prove that the institution was inimical to the interests of his
+class, the book was regarded by slave-holders as an incendiary
+publication, conceived in the same spirit as John Brown's raid. The
+contest for the Speakership of the House turned upon the attitude of
+candidates toward this book. At the North "The Impending Crisis" had
+great vogue, passing through many editions. All events seemed to
+conspire to prevent sobriety of judgment and moderation in speech.
+
+From a legislative point of view, this exciting session of Congress
+was barren of results. The paramount consideration was the approaching
+party conventions. What principles and policies would control the
+action of the Democratic convention at Charleston, depended very
+largely upon who should control the great body of delegates. Early in
+January various State conventions in the Northwest expressed their
+choice. Illinois took the lead with a series of resolutions which rang
+clear and true on all the cardinal points of the Douglas creed.[810]
+Within the next sixty days every State in the greater Northwest had
+chosen delegates to the national Democratic convention, pledged to
+support the nomination of Stephen A. Douglas.[811] It was with the
+knowledge, then, that he spoke for the Democracy of the Northwest that
+Douglas took issue with those Southern senators who plumed themselves
+on their party orthodoxy.
+
+In a debate which was precipitated by a resolution of Senator Pugh,
+the old sores were rent open. Senator Davis of Mississippi was
+particularly irritating in his allusions to the Freeport, and other
+recent, heresies of the Senator from Illinois. In the give and take
+which followed, Douglas was beset behind and before. But his fighting
+blood was up and he promised to return blow for blow, with interest.
+Let every man make his assault, and when all were through, he would
+"fire into the lump."[812] "I am not seeking a nomination," he
+declared, "I am willing to take one provided I can assume it on
+principles that I believe to be sound; but in the event of your making
+a platform that I could not conscientiously execute in good faith if I
+were elected, I will not stand upon it and be a candidate." For his
+part he would like to know "who it is that has the right to say who is
+in the party and who not?" He believed that he was backed by
+two-thirds of the Democracy of the United States. Did one-third of the
+Democratic party propose to read out the remaining two-thirds? "I have
+no grievances, but I have no concessions. I have no abandonment of
+position or principle; no recantation to make to any man or body of
+men on earth."[813]
+
+Some days later Douglas made it equally clear that he had no
+recantation to make for the sake of Republican support. Speaking of
+the need of some measure by which the States might be protected
+against acts of violence like the Harper's Ferry affair, he roundly
+denounced that outrage as "the natural, logical, inevitable result of
+the doctrines and teachings of the Republican party, as explained and
+enforced in their platform, their partisan presses, their pamphlets
+and books, and especially in the speeches of their leaders in and out
+of Congress."[814] True, they disavowed the _act_ of John Brown, but
+they should also repudiate and denounce the doctrines and teachings
+which produced the act. Fraternal peace was possible only upon "that
+good old golden principle which teaches all men to mind their own
+business and let their neighbors' alone." When men so act, the Union
+can endure forever as the fathers made it, composed of free and slave
+States.[815] "Then the senator is really indifferent to slavery, as he
+is reported to have said?" queried Fessenden. "Sir," replied Douglas,
+"I hold the doctrine that a statesman will adapt his laws to the
+wants, conditions, and interests of the people to be governed by them.
+Slavery may be very essential in one climate and totally useless in
+another. If I were a citizen of Louisiana I would vote for retaining
+and maintaining slavery, because I believe the good of the people
+would require it. As a citizen of Illinois I am utterly opposed to it,
+because our interests would not be promoted by it."[816]
+
+The lines upon which the Charleston convention would divide, were
+sharply drawn by a series of resolutions presented to the Senate by
+Jefferson Davis. They were intended to serve as an ultimatum, and they
+were so understood by Northern Democrats. They were deliberately
+wrought out in conference as the final expression of Southern
+conviction. In explicit language the right of either Congress or a
+territorial legislature to impair the constitutional right of property
+in slaves, was denied. In case of unfriendly legislation, it was
+declared to be the duty of Congress to provide adequate protection to
+slave property. Popular sovereignty was completely discarded by the
+assertion that the people of a Territory might pass upon the question
+of slavery only when they formed a State constitution.[817]
+
+As the delegates to the Democratic convention began to gather in the
+latter part of April, the center of political interest shifted from
+Washington to Charleston. Here the battle between the factions was to
+be fought out, but without the presence of the real leaders. The
+advantages of organization were with the Douglas men. The delegations
+from the Northwest were devoted, heart and soul, to their chief. As
+they passed through the capital on their journey to the South, they
+gathered around him with noisy demonstrations of affection; and when
+they continued on their way, they were more determined than ever to
+secure his nomination.[818] From the South, too, every Douglas man who
+was likely to carry weight in his community, was brought to Charleston
+to labor among the Ultras of his section.[819] The Douglas
+headquarters in Hibernian Hall bore witness to the business-like way
+in which his candidacy was being promoted. Not the least striking
+feature within the committee rooms was the ample supply of Sheahan's
+_Life of Stephen A. Douglas_, fresh from the press.[820]
+
+Recognized leader of the Douglas forces was Colonel Richardson of
+Illinois, a veteran in convention warfare, seasoned by years of
+congressional service and by long practice in managing men.[821] It
+was he who had led the Douglas cohorts in the Cincinnati convention.
+The memory of that defeat still rankled, and he was not disposed to
+yield to like contingencies. Indeed, the spirit of the delegates from
+the Northwest,--and they seemed likely to carry the other Northern
+delegates with them,--was offensively aggressive; and their
+demonstrations of enthusiasm assumed a minatory aspect, as they
+learned of the presence of Slidell, Bigler, and Bright, and witnessed
+the efforts of the administration to defeat the hero of the Lecompton
+fight.[822]
+
+Those who observed the proceedings of the convention could not rid
+themselves of the impression that opposing parties were wrestling for
+control, so bitter and menacing was the interchange of opinion. It was
+matter of common report that the Southern delegations would withdraw
+if Douglas were nominated.[823] Equally ominous was the rumor that
+Richardson was authorized to withdraw the name of Douglas, if the
+platform adopted should advocate the protection of slavery in the
+Territories.[824] The temper of the convention was such as to preclude
+an amicable agreement, even if Douglas withdrew.
+
+The advantages of compact organization and conscious purpose were
+apparent in the first days of the convention. At every point the
+Douglas men forced the fighting. On the second day, it was voted that
+where a delegation had not been instructed by a State convention how
+to give its vote, the individual delegates might vote as they pleased.
+This rule would work to the obvious advantage of Douglas.[825] On the
+third day, the convention refused to admit the contesting delegations
+from New York and Illinois, represented by Fernando Wood and Isaac
+Cook respectively.[826]
+
+Meantime the committee on resolutions, composed of one delegate from
+each State, was in the throes of platform-making. Both factions had
+agreed to frame a platform before naming a candidate. But here, as in
+the convention, the possibility of amiable discussion and mutual
+concession was precluded. The Southern delegates voted in caucus to
+hold to the Davis resolutions; the Northern, with equal stubbornness,
+clung to the well-known principles of Douglas. On the fifth day of the
+convention, April 27th, the committee presented a majority report and
+two minority reports. The first was essentially an epitome of the
+Davis resolutions; the second reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform, at
+the same time pledging the party to abide by the decisions of the
+Supreme Court on those questions of constitutional law which should
+affect the rights of property in the States or Territories; and the
+third report simply reaffirmed the Cincinnati platform without
+additional resolutions.[827] The defense of the main minority report
+fell to Payne of Ohio. In a much more conciliatory spirit than Douglas
+men had hitherto shown, he assured the Southern members of the
+convention that every man who had signed the report felt that "upon
+the result of our deliberations and the action of this convention, in
+all human probability, depended the fate of the Democratic party and
+the destiny of the Union." The North was devoted to the principle of
+popular sovereignty, but "we ask nothing for the people of the
+territories but what the Constitution allows them."[828] The argument
+of Payne was cogent and commended itself warmly to Northern delegates;
+but it struck Southern ears as a tiresome reiteration of arguments
+drawn from premises which they could not admit.
+
+It was Yancey of Alabama, chief among fire-eaters, who, in the
+afternoon of the same day, warmed the cockles of the Southern heart.
+Gifted with all the graces of Southern orators, he made an eloquent
+plea for Southern rights. Protection was what the South demanded:
+protection in their constitutional rights and in their sacred rights
+of property. The proposition contained in the minority report would
+ruin the South. "You acknowledged that slavery did not exist by the
+law of nature or by the law of God--that it only existed by State law;
+that it was wrong, but that you were not to blame. That was your
+position, and it was wrong. If you had taken the position directly
+that slavery was right, and therefore ought to be ... you would have
+triumphed, and anti-slavery would now have been dead in your midst....
+I say it in no disrespect, but it is a logical argument that your
+admission that slavery is wrong has been the cause of all this
+discord."[829]
+
+These words brought Senator Pugh to his feet. Wrought to a dangerous
+pitch of excitement, he thanked God that a bold and honest man from
+the South had at last spoken, and had told the whole of the Southern
+demands. The South demanded now nothing less than that Northern
+Democrats should declare slavery to be right. "Gentlemen of the
+South," he exclaimed, "you mistake us--you mistake us--we will not do
+it."[830] The convention adjourned before Pugh had finished; but in
+the evening he told the Southern delegates plainly that Northern
+Democrats were not children at the bidding of the South. If the
+gentlemen from the South could stay only on the terms they proposed,
+they must go. For once the hall was awed into quiet, for Senator Pugh
+stood close to Douglas and the fate of the party hung in the
+balance.[831]
+
+Sunday intervened, but the situation remained unchanged. Gloom settled
+down upon the further deliberations of the convention. On Monday, the
+minority report (the Douglas platform) was adopted by a vote of 165 to
+138. Thereupon the chairman of the Alabama delegation protested and
+announced the formal withdrawal of his State from the convention. The
+crisis had arrived. Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida,
+Texas, and Arkansas followed in succession, with valedictories which
+seemed directed less to the convention than to the Union. Indeed, more
+than one face blanched at the probable significance of this secession.
+Southerners of the Yancey following, however, were jubilant and had
+much to say about an independent Southern Republic.[832]
+
+On the following day, what Yancey scornfully dubbed the "Rump
+Convention," proceeded to ballot, having first voted that two-thirds
+of the full vote of the convention should be necessary to nominate. On
+the first ballot, Douglas received 145-1/2, Hunter of Virginia 42,
+Guthrie of Kentucky 35-1/2; and the remaining thirty were divided
+among several candidates. As 202 votes were necessary for a choice,
+the hopelessness of the outlook was apparent to all. Nevertheless, the
+balloting continued, the vote of Douglas increasing on four ballots to
+152-1/2. After the thirty-sixth ballot, he failed to command more than
+151-1/2. In all, fifty-seven ballots were taken.[833] On the tenth day
+of the convention, it was voted to adjourn to meet at Baltimore, on
+the 18th of June.
+
+The followers of Douglas left Charleston with wrath in their hearts.
+Chagrin and disappointment alternated with bitterness and resentment
+toward their Southern brethren. Moreover, contact with the South, so
+far from having lessened their latent distrust of its culture and
+institutions, had widened the gulf between the sections. Such speeches
+as that of Goulden of Georgia, who had boldly advocated the re-opening
+of the African slave-trade, saying coarsely that "the African
+slave-trade man is the Union man--the Christian man," caused a certain
+ethical revolt in the feelings of men, hitherto not particularly
+susceptible to moral appeals on the slavery question.[834] Added to
+all these cumulative grievances was the uncomfortable probability,
+that the next President was about to be nominated in the Republican
+convention at Chicago.
+
+What were the feelings of the individual who had been such a divisive
+force in the Charleston convention? The country was not long left in
+doubt. Douglas was quite ready to comment upon the outcome; and it
+needed only the bitter arraignment of his theories by Davis, to bring
+him armed _cap-a-pie_ into the arena.
+
+Aided by his friend Pugh, who read long extracts from letters and
+speeches, Douglas made a systematic review of Democratic principles
+and policy since 1848. His object, of course, was to demonstrate his
+own consistency, and at the same time to convict his critics of
+apostasy from the party creed. There was, inevitably, much tiresome
+repetition in all this. It was when he directed his remarks to the
+issues at Charleston that Douglas warmed to his subject. He refused to
+recognize the right of a caucus of the Senate or of the House, to
+prescribe new tests, to draft party platforms. That was a task
+reserved, under our political system, for national conventions, made
+up of delegates chosen by the people. Tried by the standard of the
+only Democratic organization competent to pronounce upon questions of
+party faith, he was no longer a heretic, no longer an outlaw from the
+Democratic party, no longer a rebel against the Democratic
+organization. "The party decided at Charleston also, by a majority of
+the whole electoral college, that I was the choice of the Democratic
+party of America for the Presidency of the United States, giving me a
+majority of fifty votes over all other candidates combined; and yet my
+Democracy is questioned!" "But," he added, and there is no reason to
+doubt his sincerity, "my friends who know me best know that I have no
+personal desire or wish for the nomination;... know that my name never
+would have been presented at Charleston, except for the attempt to
+proscribe me as a heretic, too unsound to be the chairman of a
+committee in this body, where I have held a seat for so many years
+without a suspicion resting on my political fidelity. I was forced to
+allow my name to go there in self-defense; and I will now say that
+had any gentleman, friend or foe, received a majority of that
+convention over me, the lightning would have carried a message
+withdrawing my name from the convention."[835]
+
+Douglas was ready to acquit his colleagues in the Senate of a purpose
+to dissolve the Union, but he did not hesitate to assert that such
+principles as Yancey had advocated at Charleston would lead "directly
+and inevitably" to a dissolution of the Union. Why was the South so
+eager to repudiate the principle of non-intervention? By it they had
+converted New Mexico into slave Territory; by it, in all probability,
+they would extend slavery into the northern States of Mexico, when
+that region should be acquired. "Why," he asked, "are you not
+satisfied with these practical results? The only difference of opinion
+is on the judicial question, about which we agreed to differ--which we
+never did decide; because, under the Constitution, no tribunal on
+earth but the Supreme Court could decide it." To commit the Democratic
+party to intervention was to make the party sectional and to invite
+never-ceasing conflict. "Intervention, North or South, means disunion;
+non-intervention promises peace, fraternity, and perpetuity to the
+Union, and to all our cherished institutions."[836]
+
+The challenge contained in these words was not permitted to pass
+unanswered. Davis replied with offensive references to the "swelling
+manner" and "egregious vanity" of the Senator from Illinois. He
+resented such dictation.[837] On the following day, May 17th, an
+exciting passage-at-arms occurred between these representatives of
+the Northwest and the Southwest. Douglas repeated his belief that
+disunion was the prompting motive which broke up the Charleston
+convention. Davis resented the insinuation, with fervent protestations
+of affection for the Union of the States. It was the Senator from
+Illinois, who, in his pursuit of power, had prevented unanimity, by
+trying to plant his theory upon the party. The South would have no
+more to do with the "rickety, double-construed platform" of 1856. "The
+fact is," said Davis, "I have a declining respect for platforms. I
+would sooner have an honest man on any sort of a rickety platform you
+could construct, than to have a man I did not trust on the best
+platform which could be made. A good platform and an honest man on it
+is what we want."[838] Douglas reminded his opponent sharply that the
+bolters at Charleston seceded, not on the candidate, but on the
+platform. "If the platform is not a matter of much consequence, why
+press that question to the disruption of the party? Why did you not
+tell us in the beginning of this debate that the whole fight was
+against the man, and not upon the platform?"[839]
+
+In the interval between the Charleston and the Baltimore conventions,
+the Davis resolutions were pressed to a vote in the Senate, with the
+purpose of shaping party opinion. They passed by votes which gave a
+deceptive appearance of Democratic unanimity. Only Senator Pugh parted
+company with his Democratic colleagues on the crucial resolution; yet
+he represented the popular opinion at the North.[840] The futility of
+these resolutions, so far as practical results were concerned, was
+demonstrated by the adoption of Clingman's resolution, that the
+existing condition of the Territories did not require the intervention
+of Congress for the protection of property in slaves.[841] In other
+words, the South was insisting upon rights which were barren of
+practical significance. Slave-holders were insisting upon the right to
+carry their slaves where local conditions were unfavorable, and where
+therefore they had no intention of going.[842]
+
+The nomination of Lincoln rather than Seward, at the Republican
+convention in Chicago, was a bitter disappointment to those who felt
+that the latter was the real leader of the party of moral ideas, and
+that the rail-splitter was simply an "available" candidate.[843] But
+Douglas, with keener insight into the character of Lincoln, said to a
+group of Republicans at the Capitol, "Gentlemen, you have nominated a
+very able and a very honest man."[844] For the candidate of the new
+Constitutional Union party, which had rallied the politically
+unattached of various opinions in a convention at Baltimore, Douglas
+had no such words of praise, though he recognized John Bell as a
+Unionist above suspicion and as an estimable gentleman.
+
+These nominations rendered it still less prudent for Northern
+Democrats to accept a candidate with stronger Southern leanings than
+Douglas. No Northern Democrat could carry the Northern States on a
+Southern platform; and no Southern Democrat would accept a nomination
+on the Douglas platform. Unless some middle ground could be
+found,--and the debates in the Senate had disclosed none,--the
+Democrats of the North were bound to adhere to Douglas as their first
+and only choice in the Baltimore convention.
+
+When the delegates reassembled in Baltimore, the factional quarrel had
+lost none of its bitterness. Almost immediately the convention fell
+foul of a complicated problem of organization. Some of the original
+delegates, who had withdrawn at Charleston, desired to be re-admitted.
+From some States there were contesting delegations, notably from
+Louisiana and Alabama, where the Douglas men had rallied in force.
+Those anti-Douglas delegates who were still members of the convention,
+made every effort to re-admit the delegations hostile to him. The
+action of the convention turned upon the vote of the New York
+delegation, which would be cast solidly either for or against the
+admission of the contesting delegations. For three days the fate of
+Douglas was in the hands of these thirty-five New Yorkers, in whom the
+disposition to bargain was not wanting.[845] It was at this juncture
+that Douglas wrote to Dean Richmond, the _Deus ex machina_ in the
+delegation,[846] "If my enemies are determined to divide and destroy
+the Democratic party, and perhaps the country, rather than see me
+elected, and if the unity of the party can be preserved, and its
+ascendancy perpetuated by dropping my name and uniting upon some
+reliable non-intervention and Union-loving Democrat, I beseech you, in
+consultation with my friends, to pursue that course which will save
+the country, without regard to my individual interests. I mean all
+this letter implies. Consult freely and act boldly for the
+right."[847]
+
+It was precisely the "if's" in this letter that gave the New Yorkers
+most concern. Where was the candidate who possessed these
+qualifications and who would be acceptable to the South? On the fifth
+day of the convention, the contesting Douglas delegations were
+admitted. The die was cast. A portion of the Virginia delegation then
+withdrew, and their example was followed by nearly all the delegates
+from North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Maryland. If the first
+withdrawal at Charleston presaged the secession of the cotton States
+from the Union, this pointed to the eventual secession of the border
+States.
+
+On June 23d, the convention proceeded to ballot. Douglas received
+173-1/2 votes; Guthrie 10; and Breckinridge 5; scattering 3. On the
+second ballot, Douglas received all but thirteen votes; whereupon it
+was moved and carried unanimously with a tremendous shout that
+Douglas, having received "two-thirds of all votes given in this
+convention," should be the nominee of the party.[848] Colonel
+Richardson then begged leave to have the Secretary read a letter from
+Senator Douglas. He had carried it in his pocket for three days, but
+the course of the bolters, he said, had prevented him from using
+it.[849] The letter was of the same tenor as that written to Dean
+Richmond. There is little likelihood that an earlier acquaintance with
+its contents would have changed the course of events, since so long
+as the platform stood unaltered, the choice of Douglas was a logical
+and practical necessity. Douglas and the platform were one and
+inseparable.
+
+Meantime the bolters completed their destructive work by organizing a
+separate convention in Baltimore, by adopting the report of the
+majority in the Charleston convention as their platform, and by
+nominating John C. Breckinridge as their candidate for the presidency.
+Lane of Oregon was named for the second place on the ticket for much
+the same reason that Fitzpatrick of Alabama, and subsequently Herschel
+V. Johnson of Georgia, was put upon the Douglas ticket. Both factions
+desired to demonstrate that they were national Democrats, with
+adherents in all sections. In his letter of acceptance Douglas rang
+the changes on the sectional character of the doctrine of intervention
+either for or against slavery. "If the power and duty of Federal
+interference is to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be
+the inevitable result--the one inflaming the passions and ambitions of
+the North, the other of the South."[850] Indeed, his best,--his
+only,--chance of success lay in his power to appeal to conservative,
+Union-loving men, North and South. This was the secret purpose of his
+frequent references to Clay and Webster, who were invoked as
+supporters of "the essential, living principle of 1850"; _i.e._ his
+own doctrine of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the
+Territories. But the Constitutional Union party was quite as likely to
+attract the remnant of the old Whig party of Clay and Webster.
+
+Douglas began his campaign in excellent spirits. His only regret was
+that he had been placed in a position where he had to look on and see
+a fight without taking a hand in it.[851] The New York _Times_, whose
+editor followed the campaign of Douglas with the keenest interest,
+without indorsing him, frankly conceded that popular sovereignty had a
+very strong hold upon the instinct of nine-tenths of the American
+people.[852] Douglas wrote to his Illinois confidant in high spirits
+after the ratification meeting in New York.[853] Conceding South
+Carolina and possibly Mississippi to Breckinridge, and the border
+slave States to Bell, he expressed the firm conviction that he would
+carry the rest of the Southern States and enough free States to be
+elected by the people. Richardson had just returned from New England,
+equally confident that Douglas would carry Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode
+Island, and Connecticut. If the election should go to the House of
+Representatives, Douglas calculated that Lincoln, Bell, and he would
+be the three candidates. In any event, he was sure that Breckinridge
+and Lane had "no show." He enjoined his friends everywhere to treat
+the Bell and Everett men in a friendly way and to cultivate good
+relations with them, "for they are Union men." But, he added, "we can
+have no partnership with the Bolters." "Now organize and rally in
+Illinois and the Northwest. The chances in our favor are immense in
+the East. Organize the State!"
+
+Buoyed up by these sanguine expectations, Douglas undertook a tour
+through New England, not to make stump speeches, he declared, but to
+visit and enhearten his followers. Yet at every point on the way to
+Boston, he was greeted with enthusiasm; and whenever time permitted he
+responded with brief allusions to the political situation. As the
+guest of Harvard University, at the alumni dinner, he was called upon
+to speak--not, to be sure, as a candidate for the presidency, but as
+one high in the councils of the nation, and as a generous contributor
+to the founding of an educational institution in Chicago.[854] A visit
+to Bunker Hill suggested the great principle for which our
+Revolutionary fathers fought and for which all good Democrats were now
+contending.[855] At Springfield, too, he harked back to the Revolution
+and to the beginnings of the great struggle for control of domestic
+concerns.[856]
+
+Along the route from Boston to Saratoga, he was given ovations, and
+his diffidence about making stump speeches lessened perceptibly.[857]
+At Troy, he made a political speech in his own vigorous style,
+remarking apologetically that if he did not return home soon, he would
+"get to making stump speeches before he knew it."[858] Passing through
+Vermont, he visited the grave of his father and the scenes of his
+childhood; and here and there, as he told the people of Concord with a
+twinkle in his eye, he spoke "a little just for exercise." Providence
+recalled the memory of Roger Williams and the principles for which he
+suffered--principles so nearly akin to those for which Democrats
+to-day were laboring. By this time the true nature of this pilgrimage
+was apparent to everybody. It was the first time in our history that a
+presidential candidate had taken the stump in his own behalf. There
+was bitter criticism on the part of those who regretted the departure
+from decorous precedent.[859] When Douglas reached Newport for a brief
+sojourn, the expectation was generally entertained that he would
+continue in retirement for the remainder of the campaign.
+
+Except for this anomaly of a candidate canvassing in his own behalf,
+the campaign was devoid of exciting incidents. The personal canvass of
+Douglas was indeed almost the only thing that kept the campaign from
+being dull and spiritless.[860] Republican politicians were somewhat
+at a loss to understand why he should manoeuvre in a section devoted
+beyond question to Lincoln. Indeed, a man far less keen than Douglas
+would have taken note of the popular current in New England. Why,
+then, this expenditure of time and effort! In all probability Douglas
+gauged the situation correctly. He is said to have conceded frankly
+that Lincoln would be elected.[861] His contest was less with
+Republicans and Constitutional Unionists now, than with the followers
+of Breckinridge. He hoped to effect a reorganization of the Democratic
+party by crushing the disunion elements within it. With this end in
+view he could not permit the organization to go to pieces in the
+North. A listless campaign on his part would not only give the
+election to Lincoln, but leave his own followers to wander leaderless
+into other organizations. For the sake of discipline and future
+success, he rallied Northern Democrats for a battle that was already
+lost.[862]
+
+Well assured that Lincoln would be elected, Douglas determined to go
+South and prepare the minds of the people for the inevitable.[863] The
+language of Southern leaders had grown steadily more menacing as the
+probability of Republican success increased. It was now proclaimed
+from the house-tops that the cotton States would secede, if Lincoln
+were elected. Republicans might set these threats down as Southern
+gasconade, but Douglas knew the animus of the secessionists better
+than they.[864] This determination of Douglas was warmly applauded
+where it was understood.[865] Indeed, that purpose was dictated now
+alike by politics and patriotism.
+
+On August 25th, Douglas spoke at Norfolk, Virginia. In the course of
+his address, an elector on the Breckinridge ticket interrupted him
+with two questions. Though taken somewhat by surprise, Douglas with
+unerring sagacity detected the purpose of his interrogator and
+answered circumstantially.[866] "First, If Abraham Lincoln be elected
+President of the United States, will the Southern States be justified
+in seceding from the Union?" "To this I emphatically answer no. The
+election of a man to the presidency by the American people in
+conformity with the Constitution of the United States _would not
+justify any attempt at dissolving this glorious confederacy_."
+"Second, If they secede from the Union upon the inauguration of
+Abraham Lincoln, before an overt act against their constitutional
+rights, will you advise or vindicate resistance to the decision!" "I
+answer emphatically, that it is the duty of the President of the
+United States and of all others in authority under him, to enforce the
+laws of the United States, passed by Congress and as the Courts
+expound them; and I, as in duty bound by my oath of fidelity to the
+Constitution, _would do all in my power to aid the government of the
+United States in maintaining the supremacy of the laws against all
+resistance to them, come from whatever quarter it might_.... I hold
+that the Constitution has a remedy for every grievance that may arise
+within the limits of the Union.... The mere inauguration of a
+President of the United States, whose political opinions were, in my
+judgment, hostile to the Constitution and safety of the Union, without
+an overt act on his part, without striking a blow at our institutions
+or our rights, is not such a grievance as would justify revolution or
+secession." But for the disunionists at the South, Douglas went on to
+say, "I would have beaten Lincoln in every State but Vermont and
+Massachusetts. As it is I think I will beat him in almost all of them
+yet."[867] And now these disunionists come forward and ask aid in
+dissolving the Union. "I tell them 'no--never on earth!'"
+
+Widely quoted, this bold defiance of disunion made a profound
+impression through the South. At Raleigh, North Carolina, Douglas
+entered into collusion with a friend, in order to have the questions
+repeated.[868] And again he stated his attitude in unequivocal
+language. "I am in favor of executing, in good faith, every clause and
+provision of the Constitution, and of protecting every right under it,
+and then hanging every man who takes up arms against it. Yes, my
+friends, I would hang every man higher than Haman who would attempt to
+resist by force the execution of any provision of the Constitution
+which our fathers made and bequeathed to us."[869]
+
+He touched many hearts when he reminded his hearers that in the great
+Northwest, Northerners and Southerners met and married, bequeathing
+the choice gifts of both sections to their children. "When their
+children grow up, the child of the same parents has a grandfather in
+North Carolina and another in Vermont, and that child does not like to
+hear either of those States abused.... He will never consent that this
+Union shall be dissolved so that he will be compelled to obtain a
+passport and get it _vised_ to enter a foreign land to visit the
+graves of his ancestors. You cannot sever this Union unless you cut
+the heart strings that bind father to son, daughter to mother, and
+brother to sister, in all our new States and territories." And the
+heart of the speaker went out to his kindred and his boys, who were
+almost within hearing of his voice. "I love my children," he
+exclaimed, "but I do not desire to see them survive this Union."
+
+At Richmond, Douglas received an ovation which recalled the days when
+Clay was the idol of the Whigs;[870] but as he journeyed northward he
+felt more and more the hostility of Breckinridge men, and marked the
+disposition of many of his own supporters to strike an alliance with
+them. Unhesitatingly he threw the weight of his personal influence
+against fusion. At Baltimore, he averred that while Breckinridge was
+not a disunionist, every disunionist was a Breckinridge man.[871] And
+at Reading, he said, "For one, I can never fuse, and never will fuse
+with a man who tells me that the Democratic creed is a dogma, contrary
+to reason and to the Constitution.... I have fought twenty-seven
+pitched battles, since I entered public life, and never yet traded
+with nominations or surrendered to treachery."[872] With equal
+pertinacity he refused to countenance any attempts at fusion in North
+Carolina.[873] Even more explicitly he declared against fusion in a
+speech at Erie: "No Democrat can, without dishonor, and a forfeiture
+of self-respect and principle, fuse with anybody who is in favor of
+intervention, either for or against slavery.... As Democrats we can
+never fuse either with Northern Abolitionists or Southern Bolters and
+Secessionists."[874]
+
+In spite of these protests and admonitions, Douglas men in several of
+the doubtful States entered into more or less definite agreement with
+the supporters of Breckinridge. The pressure put upon him in New York
+by those to whom he was indebted for his nomination, was almost too
+strong to be resisted. Yet he withstood all entreaties, even to
+maintain a discreet silence and let events take their course. Hostile
+newspapers expressed his sentiments when they represented him as
+opposed to fusion, "all the way from Maine to California."[875]
+"Douglas either must have lost his craft as a politician," commented
+Raymond, in the editorial columns of the _Times_, "or be credited with
+steadfast convictions."[876]
+
+Adverse comment on Douglas's personal canvass had now ceased. Wise men
+recognized that he was preparing the public mind for a crisis, as no
+one else could. He set his face westward, speaking at numerous
+points.[877] Continuous speaking had now begun to tell upon him. At
+Cincinnati, he was so hoarse that he could not address the crowds
+which had gathered to greet him, but he persisted in speaking on the
+following day at Indianapolis. He paused in Chicago only long enough
+to give a public address, and then passed on into Iowa.[878] Among his
+own people he unbosomed himself as he had not done before in all these
+weeks of incessant public speaking. "I am no alarmist. I believe that
+this country is in more danger now than at any other moment since I
+have known anything of public life. It is not personal ambition that
+has induced me to take the stump this year. I say to you who know me,
+that the presidency has no charms for me. I do not believe that it is
+my interest as an ambitious man, to be President this year if I could.
+But I do love this Union. There is no sacrifice on earth that I would
+not make to preserve it."[879]
+
+While Douglas was in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, he received a dispatch from
+his friend, Forney, announcing that the Republicans had carried
+Pennsylvania in the October State election. Similar intelligence came
+from Indiana. The outcome in November was thus clearly foreshadowed.
+Recognizing the inevitable, Douglas turned to his Secretary with the
+laconic words, "Mr. Lincoln is the next President. We must try to save
+the Union. I will go South."[880] He at once made appointments to
+speak in Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia, as soon as he should have
+met his Western engagements. His friends marvelled at his powers of
+endurance. For weeks he had been speaking from hotel balconies, from
+the platform of railroad coaches, and in halls to monster
+mass-meetings.[881] Not infrequently he spoke twice and thrice a day,
+for days together. It was often said that he possessed the
+constitution of the United States; and he caught up the jest with
+delight, remarking that he believed he had. Small wonder if much that
+he said was trivial and unworthy of his attention;[882] in and through
+all his utterance, nevertheless, coursed the passionate current of his
+love for the Union, transfiguring all that was paltry and commonplace.
+From Iowa he passed into Wisconsin and Michigan, finally entering
+upon his Southern mission at St. Louis, October 19th. "I am not here
+to-night," he told his auditors, with a shade of weariness in his
+voice, "to ask your votes for the presidency. I am not one of those
+who believe that I have any more personal interest in the presidency
+than any other good citizen in America. I am here to make an appeal to
+you in behalf of the Union and the peace of the country."[883]
+
+It was a courageous little party that left St. Louis for Memphis and
+the South. Mrs. Douglas was still with her husband, determined to
+share all the hardships that fell to his lot; and besides her, there
+was only James B. Sheridan, Douglas's devoted secretary and
+stenographer. The Southern press had threatened Douglas with personal
+violence, if he should dare to invade the South with his political
+heresies.[884] But Luther bound for Worms was not more indifferent to
+personal danger than this modern intransigeant. His conduct earned the
+hearty admiration of even Republican journals, for no one could now
+believe that he courted the South in his own behalf. Nor was there any
+foolish bravado in this adventure. He was thoroughly sobered by the
+imminence of disunion. When he read, in a newspaper devoted to his
+interests, that it was "the deep-seated fixed determination on the
+part of the leading Southern States to go out of the Union, peaceably
+and quietly," he knew that these words were no cheap rhetoric, for
+they were penned by a man of Northern birth and antecedents.[885]
+
+The history of this Southern tour has never been written. It was the
+firm belief of Douglas that at least one attempt was made to wreck his
+train. At Montgomery, while addressing a public gathering, he was made
+the target for nameless missiles.[886] Yet none of these adventures
+were permitted to find their way into the Northern press. And only his
+intimates learned of them from his own lips after his return.
+
+The news of Mr. Lincoln's election overtook Douglas in Mobile. He was
+in the office of the Mobile _Register_, one of the few newspapers
+which had held to him and his cause through thick and thin. It now
+became a question what policy the paper should pursue. The editor
+asked his associate to read aloud an article which he had just
+written, advocating a State convention to deliberate upon the course
+of Alabama in the approaching crisis. Douglas opposed its publication;
+but he was assured that the only way to manage the secession movement
+was to appear to go with it, and by electing men opposed to disunion,
+to control the convention. With his wonted sagacity, Douglas remarked
+that if they could not prevent the calling of a convention, they could
+hardly hope to control its action. But the editors determined to
+publish the article, "and Douglas returned to his hotel more hopeless
+than I had ever seen him before," wrote Sheridan.[887]
+
+On his return to the North, Douglas spoke twice, at New Orleans and at
+Vicksburg, urging acquiescence in the result of the election.[888] He
+put the case most cogently in a letter to the business men of New
+Orleans, which was widely published. No one deplored the election of an
+Abolitionist as President more than he. Still, he could not find any
+just cause for dissolving the Federal Union in the mere election of any
+man to the presidency, in accordance with the Constitution. Those who
+apprehended that the new President would carry out the aggressive
+policy of his party, failed to observe that his party was in a
+minority. Even his appointments to office would have to be confirmed by
+a hostile Senate. Any invasion of constitutional rights would be
+resented in the North, as well as in the South. In short, the election
+of Mr. Lincoln could only serve as a pretext for those who purposed to
+break up the Union and to form a Southern Confederacy.[889]
+
+On the face of the election returns, Douglas made a sorry showing; he
+had won the electoral vote of but a single State, Missouri, though
+three of the seven electoral votes of New Jersey fell to him as the
+result of fusion. Yet as the popular vote in the several States was
+ascertained, defeat wore the guise of a great personal triumph. Leader
+of a forlorn hope, he had yet received the suffrages of 1,376,957
+citizens, only 489,495 less votes than Lincoln had polled. Of these
+163,525 came from the South, while Lincoln received only 26,430, all
+from the border slave States. As compared with the vote of
+Breckinridge and Bell at the South, Douglas's vote was insignificant;
+but at the North, he ran far ahead of the combined vote of both.[890]
+It goes without saying that had Douglas secured the full Democratic
+vote in the free States, he would have pressed Lincoln hard in many
+quarters. From the national standpoint, the most significant aspect of
+the popular vote was the failure of Breckinridge to secure a majority
+in the slave States.[891] Union sentiment was still stronger than the
+secessionists had boasted. The next most significant fact in the
+history of the election was this: Abraham Lincoln had been elected to
+the presidency by the vote of a section which had given over a million
+votes to his rival, the leader of a faction of a disorganized party.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 810: Flint, Douglas, pp. 205-207.]
+
+[Footnote 811: _Ibid._, pp. 207-209.]
+
+[Footnote 812: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 421.]
+
+[Footnote 813: _Ibid._, pp. 424-425.]
+
+[Footnote 814: _Ibid._, p. 553.]
+
+[Footnote 815: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 554-555.]
+
+[Footnote 816: _Ibid._, p. 559.]
+
+[Footnote 817: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 658. For the final
+version, see p. 935.]
+
+[Footnote 818: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 59.]
+
+[Footnote 819: _Ibid._, p. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 820: _Ibid._, p. 5.]
+
+[Footnote 821: _Ibid._, pp. 9 and 20.]
+
+[Footnote 822: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 12-13.]
+
+[Footnote 823: _Ibid._, p. 8.]
+
+[Footnote 824: _Ibid._, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 825: Especially in securing votes from the delegations of
+Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the influence of the
+administration was strong. Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860,
+pp. 25-28.]
+
+[Footnote 826: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 36.]
+
+[Footnote 827: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, pp. 283-288.]
+
+[Footnote 828: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 446.]
+
+[Footnote 829: _Ibid._, p. 448.]
+
+[Footnote 830: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 49.]
+
+[Footnote 831: _Ibid._, p. 50.]
+
+[Footnote 832: _Ibid._, pp. 74-75.]
+
+[Footnote 833: Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, pp.
+46-53.]
+
+[Footnote 834: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, p. 78.]
+
+[Footnote 835: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 313.]
+
+[Footnote 836: _Ibid._, p. 316.]
+
+[Footnote 837: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2120.]
+
+[Footnote 838: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2155.]
+
+[Footnote 839: _Ibid._, p. 2156.]
+
+[Footnote 840: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 456.]
+
+[Footnote 841: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 2344.]
+
+[Footnote 842: See Wise, Life of Henry A. Wise, pp. 264-265.]
+
+[Footnote 843: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 472.]
+
+[Footnote 844: _Ibid._, p. 472.]
+
+[Footnote 845: Halstead, Political Conventions of 1860, pp. 227-228.]
+
+[Footnote 846: _Ibid._, pp. 194-195.]
+
+[Footnote 847: The letter was written at Washington, June 22d, at 9:30
+a.m.]
+
+[Footnote 848: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 286; Halstead,
+Political Conventions of 1860, p. 211.]
+
+[Footnote 849: Halstead, p. 216.]
+
+[Footnote 850: Flint, Douglas, pp. 213-215.]
+
+[Footnote 851: New York _Times_, July 3, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 852: _Ibid._, June 26.]
+
+[Footnote 853: MS. letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, July 5, 1860. He
+wrote in a similar vein to a friend in Missouri, July 4, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 854: New York _Times_, July 20, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 855: _Ibid._, July 21.]
+
+[Footnote 856: _Ibid._, July 21.]
+
+[Footnote 857: _Ibid._, July 24.]
+
+[Footnote 858: _Ibid._, July 28.]
+
+[Footnote 859: New York _Times_, July. 24.]
+
+[Footnote 860: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 482-483.]
+
+[Footnote 861: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 699.]
+
+[Footnote 862: This was the view of a well-informed correspondent of
+the New York _Times_, August 10, 14, 16, 1860. From this point of
+view, Douglas's tour through Maine in August takes on special
+significance.]
+
+[Footnote 863: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, 699.]
+
+[Footnote 864: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, pp. 487,
+489.]
+
+[Footnote 865: New York _Times_, August 16, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 866: _Ibid._, August 29, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 867: This can hardly be regarded as a sober opinion.
+Clingman had become convinced by conversation with Douglas that he was
+not making the canvass in his own behalf, but in order to weaken and
+divide the South, so as to aid Lincoln. Clingman, Speeches and
+Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 868: Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 869: North Carolina _Standard_, September 5, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 870: Correspondent to New York _Times_, September 5, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 871: _Ibid._, September 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 872: New York _Tribune_, September 10, 1860. Greeley did
+Douglas an injustice when he accused him of courting votes by favoring
+a protective tariff in Pennsylvania. The misapprehension was doubtless
+due to a garbled associated press dispatch.]
+
+[Footnote 873: Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 513.]
+
+[Footnote 874: New York _Times_, September 27, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 875: New York _Times_, September 13, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 876: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 877: His movements were still followed by the New York
+_Times_, which printed his list of appointments.]
+
+[Footnote 878: Chicago _Times_ and _Herald_, October 9, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 879: Chicago _Times and Herald_, October 6, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 880: Wilson, Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America,
+II, p. 700; see also Forney's Eulogy of Douglas, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 881: Rhodes, History of the United States, II, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 882: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 883: Chicago _Times and Herald_, October 24, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 884: Philadelphia _Press_, October 29, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 885: Savannah (Ga.) _Express_, quoted by Chicago _Times and
+Herald_, October 25, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 886: There was a bare reference to the Montgomery incident
+in the Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 12, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 887: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 700.]
+
+[Footnote 888: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 13, 1860;
+Philadelphia _Press_, November 28, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 889: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 19, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 890: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 297.]
+
+[Footnote 891: Douglas and Bell polled 135,057 votes more than
+Breckinridge; see Greeley, American Conflict, I, p. 328.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT
+
+
+On the day after the election, the palmetto and lone star flag was
+thrown out to the breeze from the office of the Charleston _Mercury_
+and hailed with cheers by the populace. "The tea has been thrown
+overboard--the revolution of 1860 has been initiated," said that
+ebullient journal next morning.[892] On the 10th of November, the
+legislature of South Carolina called a convention of the people to
+consider the relations of the Commonwealth "with the Northern States
+and the government of the United States." The instantaneous approval
+of the people of Charleston, the focus of public opinion in the State,
+left no doubt that South Carolina would secede from the Union soon
+after the 17th of December, when the convention was to assemble. On
+November 23d, Major Robert Anderson, in command of Fort Moultrie in
+Charleston harbor, urged the War Department to reinforce his garrison
+and to occupy also Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney, saying, "I need
+not say how anxious I am--indeed, determined, so far as honor will
+permit--to avoid collision with the citizens of South Carolina.
+Nothing, however, will be better calculated to prevent bloodshed than
+our being found in such an attitude that it would be madness and folly
+to attack us." "That there is a settled determination," he continued,
+"to leave the Union, and to obtain possession of this work, is
+apparent to all."[893] No sane man could doubt that a crisis was
+imminent. Unhappily, James Buchanan was still President of the United
+States.
+
+To those who greeted Judge Douglas upon his return to Washington, he
+seemed to be in excellent health, despite rumors to the contrary.[894]
+Demonstrative followers insisted upon hearing his voice immediately
+upon his arrival, and he was not unwilling to repeat what he had said
+at New Orleans, here within hearing of men of all sections. The burden
+of his thought was contained in a single sentence: "Mr. Lincoln,
+having been elected, must be inaugurated in obedience to the
+Constitution." "Fellow citizens," he said, in his rich, sonorous
+voice, sounding the key-note of his subsequent career, "I beseech you,
+with reference to former party divisions, to lay aside all political
+asperities, all personal prejudices, to indulge in no criminations or
+recriminations, but to unite with me, and all Union-loving men, in a
+common effort to save the country from the disasters which threaten
+it."[895]
+
+In the midst of forebodings which even the most optimistic shared,
+Congress reassembled. Feeling was tense in both houses, but it was
+more noticeable in the Senate, where, hitherto, political differences
+had not been a barrier to social intercourse. Senator Iverson put into
+words what all felt: "Look at the spectacle exhibited on this floor.
+How is it? There are Republican Northern senators upon that side. Here
+are Southern senators on this side. How much social intercourse is
+there between us? You sit upon your side, silent and gloomy; we sit
+upon ours with knit brows and portentous scowls.... Here are two
+hostile bodies on this floor; and it is but a type of the feeling that
+exists between the two sections."[896]
+
+Southern senators hastened to lay bare their grievances. However much
+they might differ in naming specific, tangible ills, they all agreed
+upon the great cause of their apprehension and uneasiness. Davis
+voiced the common feeling when he said, "I believe the true cause of
+our danger to be that a sectional hostility has been substituted for a
+general fraternity."[897] And his colleague confirmed this opinion.
+Clingman put the same thought more concretely when he declared that
+the South was apprehensive, not because a dangerous man had been
+elected to the presidency; but because a President had been elected
+who was known to be a dangerous man and who had declared his purpose
+to war upon the social system of the South.[898]
+
+With the utmost boldness, Southern senators announced the impending
+secession of their States. "We intend," said Iverson of Georgia
+speaking for his section, "to go out peaceably if we can, forcibly if
+we must.... In this state of feeling, divided as we are by interests,
+by a geographical feeling, by everything that makes two people
+separate and distinct, I ask why we should remain in the same Union
+together?"[899]
+
+No Northern senator had better reason than Douglas to believe that
+these were not merely idle threats. The knowledge sobered him. In this
+hour of peril, his deep love for the Union welled up within him,
+submerging the partisan and the politician. "I trust," he said,
+rebuking a Northern senator, "we may lay aside all party grievances,
+party feuds, partisan jealousies, and look to our country, and not to
+our party, in the consequences of our action. Sir, I am as good a
+party man as anyone living, when there are only party issues at stake,
+and the fate of political parties to be provided for. But, Sir, if I
+know myself, I do not desire to hear the word party, or to listen to
+any party appeal, while we are considering and discussing the
+questions upon which the fate of the country now hangs."[900]
+
+In this spirit Douglas welcomed from the South the recital of special
+grievances. "Give us each charge and each specification.... I hold
+that there is no grievance growing out of a nonfulfillment of
+constitutional obligations, which cannot be remedied under the
+Constitution and within the Union."[901] And when the Personal Liberty
+Acts of Northern States were cited as a long-standing grievance, he
+heartily denounced them as in direct violation of the letter and the
+spirit of the Constitution. At the same time he contended that these
+acts existed generally in the States to which few fugitives ever fled,
+and that the Fugitive Slave Act was enforced nineteen out of twenty
+times. It was the twentieth case that was published abroad through the
+press, misleading the South. In fact, the present excitement was, to
+his mind, due to the inability of the extremes of North and South to
+understand each other. "Those of us that live upon the border, and
+have commercial intercourse and social relations across the line, can
+live in peace with each other." If the border slave States and the
+border free States could arbitrate the question of slavery, the Union
+would last forever.[902]
+
+Arbitration and compromise--these were the words with which the
+venerable Crittenden of Kentucky, successor to Clay, now endeavored to
+rally Union-loving men. He was seconded by his colleague, Senator
+Powell, who had already moved the appointment of a special committee
+of thirteen, to consider the grievances between the slave-holding and
+non-slave-holding States. Douglas put himself unreservedly at the
+service of the party of compromise. It seemed, for the moment, as
+though the history of the year 1850 were to be repeated. Now, as then,
+the initiative was taken by a senator from the border-State of
+Kentucky. Again a committee of thirteen was to prepare measures of
+adjustment. The composition of the committee was such as to give
+promise of a settlement, if any were possible. Seward, Collamer, Wade,
+Doolittle, and Grimes, were the Republican members; Douglas, Rice, and
+Bigler represented the Democracy of the North. Davis and Toombs
+represented the Gulf States; Powell, Crittenden, and Hunter, the
+border slave States.[903]
+
+On the 22d of December, the committee took under consideration the
+Crittenden resolutions, which proposed six amendments to the
+Constitution and four joint resolutions. The crucial point was the
+first amendment, which would restore the Missouri Compromise line "in
+all the territory of the United States now held, or hereafter
+acquired." Could this disposition of the vexing territorial question
+have been agreed upon, the other features of the compromise would
+probably have commanded assent. But this and all the other proposed
+amendments were defeated by the adverse vote of the Republican members
+of the committee.[904]
+
+The outcome was disheartening. Douglas had firmly believed that
+conciliation, or concession, alone could save the country from civil
+war.[905] When the committee first met informally[906] the news was
+already in print that the South Carolina convention had passed an
+ordinance of secession. Under the stress of this event, and of others
+which he apprehended, Douglas had voted for all the Crittenden
+amendments and resolutions, regardless of his personal predilections.
+"The prospects are gloomy," he wrote privately, "but I do not yet
+despair of the Union. _We can never acknowledge the right of a State
+to secede and cut us off from the ocean and the world, without our
+consent._ But in view of impending civil war with our brethren in
+nearly one-half of the States of the Union, I will not consider the
+question of force and war until all efforts at peaceful adjustment
+have been made and have failed. The fact can no longer be disguised
+that many of the Republican leaders desire war and disunion under
+pretext of saving the Union. They wish to get rid of the Southern
+senators in order to have a majority in the Senate to confirm
+Lincoln's appointments; and many of them think they can hold a
+permanent Republican ascendancy in the Northern States, but not in
+the whole Union. For partisan reasons, therefore, they are anxious to
+dissolve the Union, if it can be done without making them responsible
+before the people. I am for the Union, and am ready to make any
+reasonable sacrifice to save it. No adjustment will restore and
+preserve peace _which does not banish the slavery question from
+Congress forever_ and place it beyond the reach of Federal
+legislation. Mr. Crittenden's proposition to extend the Missouri line
+accomplishes this object, and hence I can accept it now for the same
+reasons that I proposed it in 1848. I prefer our own plan of
+non-intervention and popular sovereignty, however."[907]
+
+The propositions which Douglas laid before the committee proved to be
+even less acceptable than the Crittenden amendments. Only a single,
+insignificant provision relating to the colonizing of free negroes in
+distant lands, commended itself to a majority of the committee.[908]
+All hope of an agreement had now vanished. Sad at heart, Douglas voted
+to report the inability of the committee to agree upon any general
+plan of adjustment.[909] Yet he did not abandon all hope; he was not
+yet ready to admit that the dread alternative must be accepted. He
+joined with Crittenden in replying to a dispatch from the South: "We
+have hopes that the rights of the South, and of every State and
+section, may be protected within the Union. Don't give up the ship.
+Don't despair of the Republic."[910] And when Crittenden proposed to
+the Senate that the people at large should be allowed to express their
+approval, or disapproval, of his amendments by a vote, Douglas
+cordially indorsed the suggested referendum in a speech of great
+power.
+
+There was dross mingled with the gold in this speech of January 3d.
+Not all his auditors by any means were ready to admit that the attempt
+of the Federal government to control the slavery question in the
+Territories, regardless of the wishes of the inhabitants, was the real
+cause of Southern discontent. Nor were all willing to concede that
+"whenever Congress had refrained from such interference, harmony and
+fraternal feeling had been restored."[911] The history of Kansas was
+still too recent. Yet from these premises, Douglas drew the conclusion
+"that the slavery question should be banished forever from the Halls
+of Congress and the arena of Federal politics by an irrepealable
+constitutional provision."[912]
+
+The immediate occasion for revolution in the South was no doubt the
+outcome of the presidential election; but that it furnished a just
+cause for the dissolution of the Union, he would not for an instant
+admit. No doubt Mr. Lincoln's public utterances had given some ground
+for apprehension. No one had more vigorously denounced these
+dangerous, revolutionary doctrines than he; but neither Mr. Lincoln
+nor his party would have the power to injure the South, if the
+Southern States remained in the Union and maintained full delegations
+in Congress. "Besides," he added, "I still indulge the hope that when
+Mr. Lincoln shall assume the high responsibilities which will soon
+devolve upon him, he will be fully impressed with the necessity of
+sinking the politician in the statesman, the partisan in the patriot,
+and regard the obligations which he owes to his country as paramount
+to those of his party."[913]
+
+No one brought the fearful alternatives into view, with such
+inexorable logic, as Douglas in this same speech. While he denounced
+secession as "wrong, unlawful, unconstitutional, and criminal," he was
+bound to recognize the fact of secession. "South Carolina had no right
+to secede; _but she has done it_. The rights of the Federal government
+remain, but possession is lost. How can possession be regained, by
+arms or by a peaceable adjustment of the matters in controversy? _Are
+we prepared for war?_ I do not mean that kind of preparation which
+consists of armies and navies, and supplies, and munitions of war; but
+are we prepared IN OUR HEARTS for war with our own brethren and
+kindred? I confess I am not."[914]
+
+These were not mere words for oratorical effect. They were expressions
+wrung from a tortured heart, bound by some of the tenderest of human
+affections to the people of the South. Buried in the land of her birth
+rested the mother of his two boys, whom he had loved tenderly and
+truly. There in the Southland were her kindred, the kindred of his two
+boys, and many of his warmest personal friends. The prospect of war
+brought no such poignant grief to men whose associations for
+generations had been confined to the North.
+
+Returning to the necessity of concession and compromise, he frankly
+admitted that he had thrown consistency to the winds. The preservation
+of the Union was of more importance than party platforms or individual
+records. "I have no hesitation in saying to senators on all sides of
+this Chamber, that I am prepared to act on this question with
+reference to the present exigencies of the case, as if I had never
+given a vote, or uttered a word, or had an opinion upon the
+subject."[915]
+
+Nor did he hesitate to throw the responsibility for disagreement in
+the Committee of Thirteen upon the Republican members. In the name of
+peace he pled for less of party pride and the pride of individual
+opinion. "The political party which shall refuse to allow the people
+to determine for themselves at the ballot-box the issue between
+revolution and war on the one side, and obstinate adherence to a party
+platform on the other, will assume a fearful responsibility. A war
+upon a political issue, waged by the people of eighteen States against
+the people and domestic institutions of fifteen sister-States, is a
+fearful and revolting thought."[916] But Republican senators were deaf
+to all warnings from so recent a convert to non-partisan politics.
+
+While the Committee of Thirteen was in session, Major Anderson moved
+his garrison from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor,
+urging repeatedly the need of reinforcements. At the beginning of the
+new year, President Buchanan was inspired to form a good resolution.
+He resolved that Anderson should not be ordered to return to Moultrie
+but should be reinforced. On the 5th of January, the "Star of the
+West," with men, arms and ammunition, was dispatched to Charleston
+harbor. On the 9th the steamer was fired upon and forced to return
+without accomplishing its mission. Then came the news of the secession
+of Mississippi. In rapid succession Florida, Alabama, and Georgia
+passed ordinances of secession.[917] Louisiana and Texas were sure to
+follow the lead of the other cotton States.
+
+In spite of these untoward events, the Republican senators remained
+obdurate. Their answer to the Crittenden referendum proposition was
+the Clark resolution, which read, "The provisions of the Constitution
+are ample for the preservation of the Union, and the protection of all
+the material interests of the country; it needs to be obeyed rather
+than amended."[918] On the 21st of the month, the senators of the
+seceding States withdrew; yet Douglas could still say to anxious Union
+men at the South, "There is hope of adjustment, and the prospect has
+never been better than since we first assembled."[919] And Senator
+Crittenden concurred in this view. On what could they have grounded
+their hopes?
+
+Douglas still believed in the efficacy of compromise to preserve the
+Union. Through many channels he received intelligence from the South,
+and he knew well that the leaders of public opinion were not of one
+mind. Some, at least, regarded the proposed Southern confederacy as a
+means of securing a revision of the Constitution. Men like Benjamin of
+Louisiana were still ready to talk confidentially of a final
+adjustment.[920] Moreover, there was a persistent rumor that Seward
+was inclining to the Crittenden Compromise; and Seward, as the
+prospective leader of the incoming administration, would doubtless
+carry many Republicans with him. Something, too, might be expected
+from the Peace Convention, which was to meet on February 4th, in
+Washington.
+
+Meantime Douglas lent his aid to such legislative labors as the
+exigencies of the hour permitted. Once again, he found himself acting
+with the Republicans to do justice to Kansas, for Kansas was now a
+suppliant for admission into the Union with a free constitution. Again
+specious excuses were made for denying simple justice. Toward the
+obstructionists, his old enemies, Douglas showed no rancor: there was
+no time to lose in personalities. "The sooner we close up this
+controversy the better, if we intend to wipe out the excited and
+irritated feelings that have grown out of it. It will have a tendency
+to restore good feelings."[921] But not until the Southern senators
+had withdrawn, was Kansas admitted to the Union of the States, which
+was then hanging in the balance.
+
+Whenever senators from the slave States could be induced to name
+their tangible grievances, and not to dwell merely upon anticipated
+injuries, they were wont to cite the Personal Liberty Acts. In spite
+of his good intentions, Douglas was drawn into an altercation with
+Mason of Virginia, in which he cited an historic case where Virginia
+had been the offender. Recovering himself, he said ingenuously, "I
+hope we are not to bandy these little cases backwards and forwards for
+the purpose of sectional irritation. Let us rather meet the question,
+and give the Constitution the true construction, and allow all
+criminals to be surrendered according to the law of the State where
+the offense was committed."[922]
+
+As evidence of his desire to remove this most tangible of Southern
+gravamina, Douglas introduced a supplementary fugitive slave bill on
+January 28th.[923] Its notable features were the provision for jury
+trial in a Federal court, if after extradition a fugitive should
+persist in claiming his freedom; and the provisions for the payment of
+damages to the claimant, if he should lose through violence a fugitive
+slave to whom he had a valid title. The Federal government in turn
+might bring suit against the county where the rescue had occurred, and
+the county might reimburse itself by suing the offenders to the full
+amount of the damages paid.[924] Had this bill passed, it would have
+made good the most obvious defects in the much-defamed legislation of
+1850; but the time had long since passed, when such concessions would
+satisfy the South.
+
+Douglas had to bear many a gibe for his publicly expressed hopes of
+peace. Mason denounced his letter to Virginia gentlemen as a "puny,
+pusillanimous attempt to hoodwink" the people of Virginia. But Douglas
+replied with an earnest reiteration of his expectations. Yet all
+depended, he admitted, on the action of Virginia and the border
+States. For this reason he deprecated the uncompromising attitude of
+the senator from Virginia, when he said, "We want no concessions."
+Equally deplorable, he thought, was the spirit evinced by the senator
+from New Hampshire who applauded that regrettable remark. "I never
+intend to give up the hope of saving this Union so long as there is a
+ray left," he cried.[925] Why try to force slavery to go where
+experience has demonstrated that climate is adverse and where the
+people do not want it? Why prohibit slavery where the government
+cannot make it exist? "Why break up the Union upon an abstraction?"
+Let the one side give up its demand for protection and the other for
+prohibition; and let them unite upon an amendment to the Constitution
+which shall deny to Congress the power to legislate upon slavery
+everywhere, except in the matter of fugitive slaves and the African
+slave-trade. "Do that, and you will have peace; do that, and the Union
+will last forever; do that, and you do not extend slavery one inch,
+nor circumscribe it one inch; you do not emancipate a slave, and do
+not enslave a free-man."[926]
+
+In the course of his eloquent plea for mutual concession, Douglas was
+repeatedly interrupted by Wigfall of Texas, whose State was at the
+moment preparing to leave the Union. In ironical tones, Wigfall
+begged to be informed upon what ground the senator based his hope and
+belief that the Union would be preserved. Douglas replied, "I see
+indications every day of a disposition to meet this question now and
+consider what is necessary to save the Union." And then, anticipating
+the sneers of his interrogator, he said sharply, "If the senator will
+just follow me, instead of going off to Texas; sit here, and act in
+concert with us Union men, we will make him a very efficient agent in
+accomplishing that object."[927] But to the obdurate mind of Wigfall
+this Union talk was "the merest balderdash." Compromise on the basis
+of non-intervention, he pronounced "worse than 'Sewardism,' for it had
+hypocrisy and the other was bold and open." There was, unhappily, only
+too much truth in his pithy remark that "the apple of discord is
+offered to us as the fruit of peace."
+
+It was a sad commentary on the state of the Union that while the six
+cotton States were establishing the constitution and government of a
+Southern Confederacy, the Federal Senate was providing for the
+territorial organization of that great domain whose acquisition had
+been the joint labor of all the States. Three Territories were
+projected. In one of these, Colorado, a provisional government had
+already been set up by the mining population of the Pike's Peak
+country. To the Colorado bill Douglas interposed serious objections.
+By its provisions, the southern boundary cut off a portion of New
+Mexico, which was slave Territory, and added it to Colorado. At the
+same time a provision in the bill prevented the territorial
+legislature from passing any law to destroy the rights of private
+property. Was the new Territory of Colorado to be free or slave?
+Another provision debarred the territorial legislature from condemning
+private property for public uses. How, then, could Colorado construct
+even a public road? Still another provision declared that there should
+be no discrimination in the rate of taxation between different kinds
+of property. How, then, could Colorado make those necessary exemptions
+which were to be found on all statute books?[928]
+
+In his encounter with Senator Green, who had succeeded him as chairman
+of the Committee on Territories, Douglas did not appear to good
+advantage. It was easy to prove his first objection idle, as there was
+no slave property in northern New Mexico. As for the other
+objectionable provisions, all--by your leave!--were to be found in the
+Washington Territory Act, which had passed through Douglas's committee
+without comment.[929]
+
+Douglas proposed a substitute for the Colorado bill, nevertheless,
+which, besides rectifying these errors,--for such he still deemed them
+to be,--proposed that the people of the Territory should elect their
+own officers. He reminded the Senate that the Kansas-Nebraska bill had
+been sharply criticised, because while professing to recognize popular
+sovereignty, it had withheld this power. At that time, however, the
+governor was also an Indian agent and a Federal officer; now, the two
+functions were separated. He proposed that, henceforth, the President
+and Senate should appoint only such officers as performed Federal
+duties.[930] When Senator Wade suggested that Douglas had experienced
+a conversion on this point, because he happened to be in opposition to
+the incoming administration, which would appoint the new territorial
+officers, Douglas referred to his utterances in the last session, as
+proof of his disinterestedness in the matter.[931]
+
+Even in his role of peace-maker, Douglas could not help remarking that
+the bill contained not a word about slavery. "I am rejoiced," he said,
+somewhat ironically, "to find that the two sides of the House,
+representing the two sides of the 'irrepressible conflict,' find it
+impossible when they get into power, to practically carry on the
+government without coming to non-intervention, and saying nothing upon
+the subject of slavery. Although they may not vote for my proposition,
+the fact that they have to avow the principle upon which they have
+fought me for years is the only one upon which they can possibly
+agree, is conclusive evidence that I have been right in that
+principle, and that they have been wrong in fighting me upon it."[932]
+
+In the House the Colorado bill was amended by the excision of the
+clause providing for appeals to the United States Supreme Court in all
+cases involving title to slaves. Douglas promptly pointed out the
+significance of this omission. The decisions of the territorial court
+regarding slavery would now be final. The question of whether the
+territorial legislature might, or might not, exclude slavery, would
+now be decided by territorial judges who would be appointed by a
+Republican President.[933] The Republicans now in control of the
+Senate were eager to press their advantage. And Douglas had to
+acquiesce. After all, the practical importance of the matter was not
+great. No one anticipated that slavery ever would exist in these new
+Territories.
+
+The substitute which Douglas offered for the Colorado bill, and
+subsequently for the other territorial bills, deserves more than a
+passing allusion. Not only was it his last contribution to territorial
+legislation, but it suggested a far-reaching change in our colonial
+policy. It was the logical conclusion of popular sovereignty
+practically applied.[934] Congress was invited to abdicate all but the
+most meagre power in organizing new Territories. The task of framing
+an organic act for the government of a Territory was to be left to a
+convention chosen by adult male citizens who were in actual residence;
+but this organic law must be republican in form, and in every way
+subordinate to the Constitution and to all laws and treaties affecting
+the Indians and the public lands. A Territory so organized was to be
+admitted into the Union whenever its population should be equal to the
+unit required for representation in the lower house of Congress. The
+initiative in taking a preliminary census and calling a territorial
+convention, was to be taken by the judge of the Federal court in the
+Territory. The tutelage of the Federal government was thus to be
+reduced to lowest terms.
+
+Congress was to confine itself to general provisions applicable to all
+Territories, leaving the formation of new Territories to the caprice
+of the people in actual residence. This was a generous concession to
+popular sovereignty; but even so, the paramount authority was still
+vested in Congress. Congress, and not the people, was to designate the
+bounds of the Territory; Congress was to pass judgment upon the
+republicanism of the organic law, and a Federal judge was to set the
+machinery of popular sovereignty in motion. Obviously the time had
+passed when Congress would make so radical a departure from precedent.
+Least of all were the Republican members disposed to weaken the hold
+of the Federal government upon Territories where the question of
+slavery might again become acute.
+
+While the House was unwilling to vote for a submission of the
+Crittenden propositions to a popular vote, it did propose an amendment
+denying to Congress the power to interfere with the domestic
+institutions of any State. Not being in any sense a concession, but
+only an affirmation of a widely accepted principle, this amendment
+passed the House easily enough. Yet in his role of compromiser,
+Douglas made much of this vote. He called Senator Mason's attention to
+two great facts--"startling, tremendous facts--that they [the
+Republicans] have abandoned their aggressive policy in the Territories
+and are willing to give guarantees in the States." These "ought to be
+accepted as an evidence of a salutary change in public opinion at the
+North."[935] Now if the Republican party would only offer a similar
+guarantee, by a constitutional amendment, that they would never revive
+their aggressive policy toward slavery in the Territories!
+
+As the February days wore away, Douglas became less hopeful of
+peaceable adjustment through compromise. If he had counted upon large
+concessions from Seward, he was disappointed. If he had entertained
+hopes of the Peace Conference, he had also erred grievously. He became
+more and more assured that the forces making against peace were from
+the North as well as the South. He told the Senate on February 21st,
+that there was "a deliberate plot to break up this Union under
+pretense of preserving it."[936] Privately he feared the influence of
+some of Mr. Lincoln's advisers, who were hostile to Seward. "What the
+Blairs really want," he said hotly to a friend, "is a civil war."[937]
+With many another well-wisher he deplored the secret entrance of Mr.
+Lincoln into the capital. It seemed to him both weak and undignified,
+when the situation called for a conciliatory, but firm, front.[938]
+
+With an absence of personal pique which did him credit, he determined
+to take the first opportunity to warn Mr. Lincoln of the dangers of
+his position. Douglas knew Lincoln far better than the average
+Washington politician. To an acquaintance who lamented the apparent
+weakness of the President-elect, Douglas said emphatically, "No, he is
+not that, Sir; but he is eminently a man of the atmosphere which
+surrounds him. He has not yet got out of Springfield, Sir.... He he
+does not know that he is President-elect of the United States, Sir, he
+does not see that the shadow he casts is any bigger now than it was
+last year. It will not take him long to find it out when he has got
+established in the White House."[939]
+
+The ready tact of Mrs. Douglas admirably seconded the initiative of
+her husband. She was among the first to call upon Mrs. Lincoln,
+thereby setting the example for the ladies of the opposition.[940] A
+little incident, to be sure; but in critical hours, the warp and woof
+of history is made up of just such little acts of thoughtful courtesy.
+Washington society understood and appreciated the gracious spirit of
+Adele Cutts Douglas; and even the New York press commented upon the
+incident with satisfaction.
+
+That Seward and his friends were no less alarmed than Douglas, at the
+prospect of Lincoln's falling under the influence of the coercionists,
+is a matter of record.[941] There were, indeed, two factions
+contending for mastery over the incoming administration. So far as an
+outsider could do so, Douglas was willing to lend himself to the
+schemes of the Seward faction, for in so doing he was obviously
+promoting the cause of peace.[942] Three days after Lincoln's arrival
+Douglas called upon him; and on the following evening (February 27th)
+he sought another private interview.[943] They had long known each
+other; and politics aside, Lincoln entertained a high opinion of
+Douglas's fairmindedness and common sense.[944] They talked earnestly
+about the Peace Conference and the efforts of extremists in Congress
+to make it abortive.[945] Each knew the other to be a genuine lover of
+the Union. Upon this common basis of sentiment they could converse
+without reservations.
+
+Douglas was agitated and distressed.[946] Compromise was now
+impossible in Congress. He saw but one hope. With great earnestness he
+urged Lincoln to recommend the instant calling of a national
+convention to amend the Constitution. Upon the necessity of this step
+Douglas and Seward agreed. But Lincoln would not commit himself to
+this suggestion, without further consideration.[947] "It is impossible
+not to feel," wrote an old acquaintance, after hearing Douglas's
+account of this interview, "that he [Douglas] really and truly loves
+his country in a way not too common, I fear now, in Washington."[948]
+
+The Senate remained in continuous session from Saturday, March 2d,
+until the oath of office was taken by Vice-President Hamlin on Monday
+morning. During these eventful hours, the Crittenden amendments were
+voted down;[949] and when the venerable senator from Kentucky made a
+final effort to secure the adoption of the resolution of the Peace
+Congress, which was similar to his own, it too was decisively
+defeated.[950] In the closing hours of the session, however, in spite
+of the opposition of irreconcilables like Sumner, Wade, and Wilson,
+the Senate adopted the amendment which had passed the House, limiting
+the powers of Congress in the States.[951]
+
+While Union-loving men were thus wrestling with a forlorn hope,
+Douglas was again closeted with Lincoln. It is very probable that
+Douglas was invited to call, in order to pass judgment upon certain
+passages in the inaugural address, which would be delivered on the
+morrow. At all events, Douglas exhibited a familiarity with portions
+of the address, which can hardly be accounted for in other ways. He
+expressed great satisfaction with Lincoln's statement of the
+invalidity of secession. It would do, he said, for all constitutional
+Democrats to "brace themselves against."[952] He frankly announced
+that he would stand by Mr. Lincoln in a temperate, resolute Union
+policy.[953]
+
+On the forenoon of Inauguration Day, Douglas told a friend that he
+meant to put himself as prominently forward in the ceremonies as he
+properly could, and to leave no doubt in any one's mind of his
+determination to stand by the administration in the performance of its
+first great duty to maintain the Union. "I watched him carefully,"
+records this same acquaintance. "He made his way not without
+difficulty--for there was literally no sort of order in the
+arrangements--to the front of the throng directly beside Mr. Lincoln,
+when he prepared to read his address. A miserable little rickety table
+had been provided for the President, on which he could hardly find
+room for his hat, and Senator Douglas, reaching forward, took it with
+a smile and held it during the delivery of the address. It was a
+trifling act, but a symbolical one, and not to be forgotten, and it
+attracted much attention all around me."[954]
+
+At least one passage in the inaugural address was framed upon
+suggestions made by Douglas. Contrary to his original intention,
+Lincoln went out of his way to say, "I cannot be ignorant of the fact
+that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the
+National Constitution amended. While I make no recommendation of
+amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority of the people
+over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the modes
+prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing
+circumstances, favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being
+afforded the people to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me
+the convention mode seems preferable, in that it allows amendments to
+originate with the people themselves, instead of only permitting them
+to take or reject propositions originated by others, not especially
+chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as they
+would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed
+amendment to the Constitution--which amendment, however, I have not
+seen--has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government
+shall never interfere with the domestic institutions of the States,
+including that of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction of
+what I have said, I depart from my purpose, not to speak of particular
+amendments, so far as to say that, holding such a provision to now be
+implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made
+express and irrevocable."[955]
+
+In the original draft of his address, written before he came to
+Washington, Lincoln had dismissed with scant consideration the notion
+of a constitutional amendment: "I am not much impressed with the
+belief that the present Constitution can be improved. I am rather for
+the old ship, and the chart of the old pilots."[956] Sometime after
+his interview with Douglas, Lincoln struck out these words and
+inserted the paragraph already quoted, rejecting at the same time a
+suggestion from Seward.[957]
+
+The curious and ubiquitous correspondents of the New York press,
+always on the alert for straws to learn which way the wind was
+blowing, made much of Douglas's conspicuous gallantry toward Mrs.
+Lincoln. He accompanied her to the inaugural ball and unhesitatingly
+defended his friendliness with the President's household, on the
+ground that Mr. Lincoln "meant to do what was right." To one press
+agent, eager to have his opinion of the inaugural, Douglas said, "I
+defend the inaugural if it is as I understand it, namely, an emanation
+from the brain and heart of a patriot, and as I mean, if I know
+myself, to act the part of a patriot, I endorse it."[958]
+
+On March 6th, while Republican senators maintained an uncertain and
+discreet silence respecting the inaugural address, Douglas rose to
+speak in its defense. Senator Clingman had interpreted the President's
+policy in terms of his own emotions: there was no doubt about it, the
+inaugural portended war. "In no wise," responded Douglas with energy:
+"It is a peace-offering rather than a war message." In all his long
+congressional career there is nothing that redounds more to Douglas's
+everlasting credit than his willingness to defend the policy of his
+successful rival, while men of Lincoln's own party were doubting what
+manner of man the new President was and what his policy might mean.
+Nothing could have been more adroit than Douglas's plea for the
+inaugural address. He did not throw himself into the arms of the
+administration and betray his intimate acquaintance with the plans of
+the new President. He spoke as the leader of the opposition,
+critically and judiciously. He had read the inaugural with care; he
+had subjected it to a critical analysis; and he was of the opinion
+that it was characterized by ability and directness on certain points,
+but by lack of explicitness on others. He cited passages that he
+deemed equivocal and objectionable. Nevertheless he rejoiced to read
+one clause which was evidently the key to the entire document:
+
+"The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and
+experience shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in
+every case and exigency my best discretion will be exercised according
+to circumstances actually existing, and with a view and a hope of a
+peaceful solution of the national troubles, and the restoration of
+fraternal sympathies and affections."[959]
+
+By the terms of his message, too, the President was pledged to favor
+such amendments as might originate with the people for the settlement
+of the slavery question,--even if the settlement should be repugnant
+to the principles of his party. Mr. Lincoln should receive the thanks
+of all Union-loving men for having "sunk the partisan in the patriot."
+The voice of Douglas never rang truer than when he paid this tribute
+to his rival's honesty and candor.
+
+"I do not wish it to be inferred," he said in conclusion,... "that I
+have any political sympathy with his administration, or that I expect
+any contingency can happen in which I may be identified with it. I
+expect to oppose his administration with all my energy on those great
+principles which have separated parties in former times; but on this
+one question--that of preserving the Union by a peaceful solution of
+our present difficulties; that of preventing any future difficulties
+by such an amendment of the Constitution as will settle the question
+by an express provision--if I understand his true intent and meaning,
+I am with him."[960]
+
+But neither President Lincoln nor Douglas had committed himself on the
+concrete question upon which hung peace or war--what should be done
+about Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens. The point was driven home with
+relentless vigor by Wigfall, who still lingered in the Senate after
+the secession of his State. "Would the Senator who is speaking for the
+administration say explicitly, whether he would advise the withdrawal
+of the troops from the forts?" The reply of Douglas was admirable: "As
+I am not in their counsels nor their confidence, I shall not tender
+them my advice until they ask it.... I do not choose either, to
+proclaim what my policy would be, in view of the fact that the Senator
+does not regard himself as the guardian of the honor and interests of
+my country, but is looking to the interests of another, which he
+thinks is in hostility to this country. It would hardly be good policy
+or wisdom for me to reveal what I think ought to be our policy, to one
+who may so soon be in the counsels of the enemy, and the command of
+its armies."[961]
+
+Douglas did admit, however, that since the garrison of Fort Sumter had
+provisions for only thirty days, he presumed no attempt would be made
+to reinforce it. Under existing circumstances the President had no
+power to collect the revenues of the government and no military force
+sufficient to reinforce Sumter. Congress was not in session to supply
+either the necessary coercive powers or troops. He therefore drew the
+conclusion that not only the President himself was pacific in his
+policy, but the Republican party as well, despite the views of
+individual members. "But," urged Mason of Virginia, "I ask the
+Senator, then, what is to be done with the garrison if they are in a
+starving condition?" "If the Senator had voted right in the last
+presidential election," replied Douglas good-naturedly, "I should have
+been in a condition, perhaps, to tell him authoritatively what ought
+to be done."
+
+From this moment on, Douglas enjoyed the confidence of President
+Lincoln to an extraordinary degree. No one knew better than Lincoln
+the importance of securing the cooeperation of so influential a
+personage. True, by the withdrawal of Southern senators, the
+Democratic opposition had been greatly reduced; but Douglas was still
+a power in this Democratic remnant. Besides, the man who could command
+the suffrages of a million voters was not a force lightly to be
+reckoned with. After this speech of the 6th, Lincoln again sent for
+Douglas, to express his entire agreement with its views and with its
+spirit.[962] He gave Douglas the impression that he desired to gain
+time for passions to cool by removing the causes of irritation. He
+felt confident that there would soon be a general demand for a
+national convention where all existing differences could be radically
+treated. "I am just as ready," Douglas reported him to have said, "to
+reinforce the garrisons at Sumter and Pickens or to withdraw them, as
+I am to see an amendment adopted protecting slavery in the Territories
+or prohibiting slavery in the Territories. What I want is to get done
+what the people desire to have done, and the question for me is how to
+find that out exactly."[963] On this point they were in entire accord.
+
+The patriotic conduct of Douglas earned for him the warm commendation
+of Northern newspapers, many of which had hitherto been incapable of
+ascribing honorable motives to him.[964] No one who met him at the
+President's levees would have suspected that he had been one of his
+host's most relentless opponents. A correspondent of the New York
+_Times_ described him as he appeared at one of these functions. "Here
+one minute, there the next--now congratulating the President, then
+complimenting Mrs. Lincoln, bowing and scraping, and shaking hands,
+and smiling, laughing, yarning and saluting the crowd of people whom
+he knew." More soberly, this same observer added, "He has already done
+a great deal of good to the administration."[965] It is impossible to
+find the soured and discomfited rival in this picture.
+
+The country was anxiously awaiting the development of the policy of
+the new Executive, for to eight out of every ten men, Lincoln was
+still an unknown man. Rumors were abroad that both Sumter and Pickens
+would be surrendered.[966] Seward was known to be conciliatory on this
+point; and the man on the street never once doubted that Seward would
+be the master-mind in the cabinet. Those better informed knew--and
+Douglas was among them--that Seward's influence was menaced by an
+aggressive faction in the cabinet.[967] Behind these official
+advisers, giving them active support, were those Republican senators
+who from the first had doubted the efficacy of compromise.
+
+Believing the country should have assurances that President Lincoln
+did not meditate war,--did not, in short, propose to yield to the
+aggressive wing of his party,--Douglas sought to force a show of
+hands.[968] On March 13th, he offered a resolution which was designed
+to draw the fire of Republican senators. The Secretary of War was
+requested to furnish information about the Southern forts now in
+possession of the Federal government; to state whether reinforcements
+were needed to retain them; whether under existing laws the government
+had the power and means to reinforce them, and whether it was wise to
+retain military possession of such forts and to recapture those that
+had been lost, except for the purpose of subjugating and occupying the
+States which had seceded; and finally, if such were the motives, to
+supply estimates of the military force required to reduce the seceding
+States and to protect the national capital.[969] The wording of the
+resolution was purposely involved. Douglas hoped that it would
+precipitate a discussion which would disclose the covert wish of the
+aggressives, and force an authoritative announcement of President
+Lincoln's policy. Doubtless there was a political motive behind all
+this. Douglas was not averse to putting his bitter and implacable
+enemies in their true light, as foes of compromise even to the extent
+of disrupting the Union.[970]
+
+Not receiving any response, Douglas took the floor in defense of his
+resolution. He believed that the country should have the information
+which his resolution was designed to elicit. The people were
+apprehensive of civil war. He had put his construction upon the
+President's inaugural; but "the Republican side of the Chamber remains
+mute and silent, neither assenting nor dissenting." The answer which
+he believed the resolution would call forth, would demonstrate two
+points of prime importance: "First, that the President does not
+meditate war; and, secondly, that he has no means for prosecuting a
+warfare upon the seceding States, even if he desired."
+
+With his wonted dialectic skill Douglas sought to establish his case.
+The existing laws made no provision for collecting the revenue on
+shipboard. It was admitted on all sides that collection at the port of
+entry in South Carolina was impossible. The President had no legal
+right to blockade the port of Charleston. He could not employ the army
+to enforce the laws in the seceded States, for the military could be
+used only to aid a civil process; and where was the marshal in South
+Carolina to execute a writ? The President must have known that he
+lacked these powers. He must have referred to the future action of
+Congress, then, when he said that he should execute the laws in all
+the States, unless the "requisite means were withheld." But Congress
+had not passed laws empowering the Executive to collect revenue or to
+gain possession of the forts. What, then, was the inference? Clearly
+this, that the Republican senators did not desire to confer these
+powers.
+
+If this inference is not correct, if this interpretation of the
+inaugural address is faulty, urged Douglas, why preserve this
+impenetrable silence? Why not let the people know what the policy of
+the administration is? They have a right to know. "The President of
+the United States holds the destiny of this country in his hands. I
+believe he means peace, and war will be averted, unless he is
+overruled by the disunion portion of his party. We all know the
+irrepressible conflict is going on in their camp.... Then, throw aside
+this petty squabble about how you are to get along with your pledges
+before election; meet the issues as they are presented; do what duty,
+honor, and patriotism require, and appeal to the people to sustain
+you. Peace is the only policy that can save the country or save your
+party."[971]
+
+On the Republican side of the chamber, this appeal was bitterly
+resented. It met with no adequate response, because there was none to
+give; but Wilson roundly denounced it as a wicked, mischief-making
+utterance.[972] Unhappily, Douglas allowed himself to be drawn into a
+personal altercation with Fessenden, in which he lost his temper and
+marred the effect of his patriotic appeal. There was probably some
+truth in Douglas's charge that both senators intended to be personally
+irritating.[973] Under the circumstances, it was easier to indulge in
+personal disparagement of Douglas, than to meet his embarrassing
+questions.
+
+How far Douglas still believed in the possibility of saving the Union
+through compromise, it is impossible to say. Publicly he continued to
+talk in an optimistic strain.[974] On March 25th, he expressed his
+satisfaction in the Senate that only one danger-point remained; Fort
+Sumter, he understood, was to be evacuated.[975] But among his friends
+no one looked into the future with more anxiety than he. Intimations
+from the South that citizens of the United States would probably be
+excluded from the courts of the Confederacy, wrung from him the
+admission that such action would be equivalent to war.[976] He noted
+anxiously the evident purpose of the Confederated States to coerce
+Kentucky and Virginia into secession.[977] Indeed, it is probable that
+before the Senate adjourned, his ultimate hope was to rally the Union
+men in the border States.[978]
+
+When President Lincoln at last determined to send supplies to Fort
+Sumter, the issue of peace or war rested with Jefferson Davis and his
+cabinet at Montgomery. Early on the morning of April 12th, a shell,
+fired from a battery in Charleston harbor, burst directly over Fort
+Sumter, proclaiming to anxious ears the close of an era.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 892: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp. 116 ff.]
+
+[Footnote 893: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+131-132.]
+
+[Footnote 894: Chicago _Times and Herald_, December 7, 1860.]
+
+[Footnote 895: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 896: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 12.]
+
+[Footnote 897: _Ibid._, p. 29.]
+
+[Footnote 898: _Ibid._, p. 3.]
+
+[Footnote 899: _Ibid._, pp. 11-12.]
+
+[Footnote 900: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 28.]
+
+[Footnote 901: _Ibid._, p. 57.]
+
+[Footnote 902: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 52.]
+
+[Footnote 903: Rhodes, History of the United States, III, pp.
+151-153.]
+
+[Footnote 904: Report of the Committee of Thirteen, pp. 11-12.]
+
+[Footnote 905: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 158.]
+
+[Footnote 906: December 21st.]
+
+[Footnote 907: MS. Letter, Douglas to C.H. Lanphier, December 25,
+1860.]
+
+[Footnote 908: Report of the Committee of Thirteen, p. 16.]
+
+[Footnote 909: _Ibid._, p. 18.]
+
+[Footnote 910: McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 911: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 35.]
+
+[Footnote 912: _Ibid._, p. 38.]
+
+[Footnote 913: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39. It is not
+unlikely that Douglas may have been reassured on this point by some
+communication from Lincoln himself. The Diary of a Public Man (_North
+American Review_, Vol. 129,) p. 130, gives the impression that they
+had been in correspondence. Personal relations between them had been
+cordial even in 1859, just after the debates; See Publication No. 11,
+of the Illinois Historical Library, p. 191.]
+
+[Footnote 914: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 915: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., App., p. 41.]
+
+[Footnote 916: _Ibid._, p. 42.]
+
+[Footnote 917: January 10th, 11th, and 19th.]
+
+[Footnote 918: The resolution was carried, 25 to 23, six Southern
+Senators refusing to vote. _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 409.]
+
+[Footnote 919: McPherson, Political History of the Rebellion, p. 39.]
+
+[Footnote 920: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 133-134. Douglas was on
+terms of intimacy with the writer, and must have shared these
+communications. Besides, Douglas had independent sources of
+information.]
+
+[Footnote 921: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 445-446.]
+
+[Footnote 922: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 508.]
+
+[Footnote 923: _Ibid._, p. 586.]
+
+[Footnote 924: Senate Bill, No. 549, 36 Cong., 2 Sess.]
+
+[Footnote 925: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 661.]
+
+[Footnote 926: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 927: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 669.]
+
+[Footnote 928: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.]
+
+[Footnote 929: _Ibid._]
+
+[Footnote 930: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 764.]
+
+[Footnote 931: _Ibid._, p. 765.]
+
+[Footnote 932: _Ibid._, p. 766.]
+
+[Footnote 933: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1205.]
+
+[Footnote 934: It is printed in full in _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p.
+1207.]
+
+[Footnote 935: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1391.]
+
+[Footnote 936: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1081.]
+
+[Footnote 937: Diary of a Public Man, p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 938: _Ibid._, p. 260.]
+
+[Footnote 939: _Ibid._, p. 261.]
+
+[Footnote 940: Correspondent of the New York _Times_, February 25,
+1861.]
+
+[Footnote 941: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 260-261.]
+
+[Footnote 942: _Ibid._, p. 264.]
+
+[Footnote 943: _Ibid._, pp. 264, 268; the interview of February 26th
+was commented upon by the Philadelphia _Press_, February 28.]
+
+[Footnote 944: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 73, note.]
+
+[Footnote 945: Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 946: Diary of a Public Man, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 947: _Ibid._, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 948: _Ibid._, p. 268.]
+
+[Footnote 949: _Globe_, 36 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1405.]
+
+[Footnote 950: _Ibid._, p. 1405.]
+
+[Footnote 951: _Ibid._, p. 1403.]
+
+[Footnote 952: Diary of a Public Man, p. 380.]
+
+[Footnote 953: _Ibid._, p. 379.]
+
+[Footnote 954: _Ibid._, p. 383.]
+
+[Footnote 955: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, pp. 340-341. These
+authors note that Lincoln rewrote this paragraph, but take it for
+granted that he did so upon his own motion, after rejecting Seward's
+suggestion.]
+
+[Footnote 956: Nicolay and Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 340, note.]
+
+[Footnote 957: Seward's letter was written on the evening of February
+24th. Douglas called upon the President February 26th. See Nicolay and
+Hay, Lincoln, III, p. 319; Diary of a Public Man, pp. 264, 268.]
+
+[Footnote 958: New York _Times_, March 6, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 959: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1437.]
+
+[Footnote 960: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1438]
+
+[Footnote 961: _Ibid._, p. 1442.]
+
+[Footnote 962: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 963: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 964: New York _Times_, March 8, 1861; also the Philadelphia
+_Press_, March 11, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 965: New York _Times_, March 10, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 966: Rhodes History of the United States, III, p. 332.]
+
+[Footnote 967: Diary of a Public Man, p. 493.]
+
+[Footnote 968: _Ibid._, pp. 495-496.]
+
+[Footnote 969: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1452.]
+
+[Footnote 970: Diary of a Public Man, pp. 495-496.]
+
+[Footnote 971: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p 1461.]
+
+[Footnote 972: _Ibid._, p. 1461.]
+
+[Footnote 973: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., p. 1465.]
+
+[Footnote 974: _Ibid._, pp. 1460, 1501, 1504.]
+
+[Footnote 975: _Ibid._, p. 1501.]
+
+[Footnote 976: Diary of a Public Man, p. 494.]
+
+[Footnote 977: _Ibid._, p. 494.]
+
+[Footnote 978: _Globe_, 36 Cong., Special Sess., pp. 1505, 1511.]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+THE SUMMONS
+
+
+The news of the capitulation of Fort Sumter reached Washington on
+Sunday morning, April 14th. At a momentous cabinet meeting, President
+Lincoln read the draft of a proclamation calling into service
+seventy-five thousand men, to suppress combinations obstructing the
+execution of the laws in the Southern States. The cabinet was now a
+unit. Now that the crisis had come, the administration had a policy.
+Would it approve itself to the anxious people of the North? Could it
+count upon the support of those who had counselled peace, peace at any
+cost?
+
+Those who knew Senator Douglas well could not doubt his loyalty to the
+Union in this crisis; yet his friends knew that Union-loving men in
+the Democratic ranks would respond to the President's proclamation
+with a thousandfold greater enthusiasm, could they know that their
+leader stood by the administration. Moved by these considerations,
+Hon. George Ashmun of Massachusetts ventured to call upon Douglas on
+this Sunday evening, and to suggest the propriety of some public
+statement to strengthen the President's hands. Would he not call upon
+the President at once and give him the assurance of his support?
+Douglas demurred: he was not sure that Mr. Lincoln wanted his advice
+and aid. Mr. Ashmun assured him that the President would welcome any
+advances, and he spoke advisedly as a friend to both men. The peril of
+the country was grave; surely this was not a time when men should let
+personal and partisan considerations stand between them and service to
+their country. Mrs. Douglas added her entreaties, and Douglas finally
+yielded. Though the hour was late, the two men set off for the White
+House, and found there the hearty welcome which Ashmun had
+promised.[979]
+
+Of all the occurrences of this memorable day, this interview between
+Lincoln and Douglas strikes the imagination with most poignant
+suggestiveness. Had Douglas been a less generous opponent, he might
+have reminded the President that matters had come to just that pass
+which he had foreseen in 1858. Nothing of the sort passed Douglas's
+lips. The meeting of the rivals was most cordial and hearty. They held
+converse as men must when hearts are oppressed with a common burden.
+The President took up and read aloud the proclamation summoning the
+nation to arms. When he had done, Douglas said with deep earnestness,
+"Mr. President, I cordially concur in every word of that document,
+except that instead of the call for seventy-five thousand men, I would
+make it two hundred thousand. You do not know the dishonest purposes
+of those men as well as I do."[980] Why has not some artist seized
+upon the dramatic moment when they rose and passed to the end of the
+room to examine a map which hung there? Douglas, with animated face
+and impetuous gesture, pointing out the strategic places in the coming
+contest; Lincoln, with the suggestion of brooding melancholy upon his
+careworn face, listening in rapt attention to the quick, penetrating
+observations of his life-long rival. But what no artist could put upon
+canvas was the dramatic absence of resentment and defeated ambition in
+the one, and the patient teachableness and self-mastery of the other.
+As they parted, a quick hearty grasp of hands symbolized this
+remarkable consecration to a common task.
+
+As they left the executive mansion, Ashmun urged his companion to send
+an account of this interview to the press, that it might accompany the
+President's message on the morrow. Douglas then penned the following
+dispatch: "Senator Douglas called upon the President, and had an
+interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The
+substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was
+unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues,
+he was prepared to fully sustain the President in the exercise of all
+his constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the
+government, and defend the Federal capital. A firm policy and prompt
+action was necessary. The capital was in danger, and must be defended
+at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the
+present and future without any reference to the past."[981] When the
+people of the North read the proclamation in the newspapers, on the
+following morning, a million men were cheered and sustained in their
+loyalty to the Union by the intelligence that their great leader had
+subordinated all lesser ends of party to the paramount duty of
+maintaining the Constitution of the fathers. To his friends in
+Washington, Douglas said unhesitatingly, "We must fight for our
+country and forget all differences. There can be but two parties--the
+party of patriots and the party of traitors. We belong to the
+first."[982] And to friends in Missouri where disunion sentiment was
+rife, he telegraphed, "I deprecate war, but if it must come I am with
+my country, and for my country, under all circumstances and in every
+contingency. Individual policy must be subordinated to the public
+safety."[983]
+
+From this day on, Douglas was in frequent consultation with the
+President. The sorely tried and distressed Lincoln was unutterably
+grateful for the firm grip which this first of "War Democrats" kept
+upon the progress of public opinion in the irresolute border States.
+It was during one of these interviews, after the attack upon the Sixth
+Massachusetts Regiment in the streets of Baltimore, that Douglas urged
+upon the President the possibility of bringing troops by water to
+Annapolis, thence to Washington, thus avoiding further conflict in the
+disaffected districts of Maryland.[984] Eventually the Eighth
+Massachusetts and the Seventh New York reached Washington by this
+route, to the immense relief of the President and his cabinet.
+
+Before this succor came to the alarmed capital, Douglas had left the
+city for the West. He had received intimations that Egypt in his own
+State showed marked symptoms of disaffection. The old ties of blood
+and kinship of the people of southern Illinois with their neighbors in
+the border States were proving stronger than Northern affiliations.
+Douglas wielded an influence in these southern, Democratic counties,
+such as no other man possessed. Could he not best serve the
+administration by bearding disunionism in its den? Believing that
+Cairo, at the confluence of the Mississippi and the Ohio, was destined
+to be a strategic point of immense importance in the coming struggle,
+and that the fate of the whole valley depended upon the unwavering
+loyalty of Illinois, Douglas laid the matter before Lincoln. He would
+go or stay in Washington, wherever Lincoln thought he could do the
+most good. Probably neither then realized the tremendous nature of the
+struggle upon which the country had entered; yet both knew that the
+Northwest would be the makeweight in the balance for the Union; and
+that every nerve must be strained to hold the border States of
+Kentucky and Missouri. Who could rouse the latent Unionism of the
+Northwest and of the border States like Douglas? Lincoln advised him
+to go. There was a quick hand-grasp, a hurried farewell, and they
+parted never to meet again.[985]
+
+Rumor gave strange shapes to this "mission" which carried Douglas in
+such haste to the Northwest. Most persistent of all is the tradition
+that he was authorized to raise a huge army in the States of the upper
+Mississippi Valley, and to undertake that vast flanking movement which
+subsequently fell to Grant and Sherman to execute. Such a project
+would have been thoroughly consonant with Douglas's conviction of the
+inevitable unity and importance of the great valley; but evidence is
+wanting to corroborate this legend.[986] Its frequent repetition,
+then and now, must rather be taken as a popular recognition of the
+complete accord between the President and the greatest of War
+Democrats. Colonel Forney, who stood very near to Douglas, afterward
+stated "by authority," that President Lincoln would eventually have
+called Douglas into the administration or have placed him in one of
+the highest military commands.[987] Such importance may be given to
+this testimony as belongs to statements which have passed unconfirmed
+and unchallenged for half a century.
+
+On his way to Illinois, Douglas missed a train and was detained half a
+day in the little town of Bellaire, Ohio, a few miles below Wheeling
+in Virginia.[988] It was a happy accident, for just across the river
+the people of northwestern Virginia were meditating resistance to the
+secession movement, which under the guidance of Governor Letcher
+threatened to sever them from the Union-loving population of Ohio and
+Pennsylvania. It was precisely in this region, nearly a hundred years
+before, that popular sovereignty had almost succeeded in forming a
+fourteenth State of the Confederacy. There had always been a disparity
+between the people of these transmontane counties and the tide-water
+region. The intelligence that Douglas was in Bellaire speedily brought
+a throng about the hotel in which he was resting. There were clamors
+for a speech. In the afternoon he yielded to their importunities. By
+this time the countryside was aroused. People came across the river
+from Virginia and many came down by train from Wheeling,[989] Men who
+were torn by a conflict of sentiments, not knowing where their
+paramount allegiance lay, hung upon his words.
+
+Douglas spoke soberly and thoughtfully, not as a Democrat, not as a
+Northern man, but simply and directly as a lover of the Union. "If we
+recognize the right of secession in one case, we give our assent to it
+in all cases; and if the few States upon the Gulf are now to separate
+themselves from us, and erect a barrier across the mouth of that great
+river of which the Ohio is a tributary, how long will it be before New
+York may come to the conclusion that she may set up for herself, and
+levy taxes upon every dollar's worth of goods imported and consumed in
+the Northwest, and taxes upon every bushel of wheat, and every pound
+of pork, or beef, or other productions that may be sent from the
+Northwest to the Atlantic in search of a market?" Secession meant
+endless division and sub-division, the formation of petty
+confederacies, appeals to the sword and the bayonet instead of to the
+ballot.
+
+"Unite as a band of brothers," he pleaded, "and rescue your government
+and its capital and your country from the enemy who have been the
+authors of your calamity." His eye rested upon the great river. "Ah!"
+he exclaimed, a great wave of emotion checking his utterance, "This
+great valley must never be divided. The Almighty has so arranged the
+mountain and the plain, and the water-courses as to show that this
+valley in all time shall remain one and indissoluble. Let no man
+attempt to sunder what Divine Providence has rendered indivisible."[990]
+
+As he concluded, anxious questions were put to him, regarding the
+rumored retirement of General Scott from the army. "I saw him only
+Saturday," replied Douglas. "He was at his desk, pen in hand, writing
+his orders for the defense and safety of the American Capital." And as
+he repeated the words of General Scott declining the command of the
+forces of Virginia--"'I have served my country under the flag of the
+Union for more than fifty years, and as long as God permits me to
+live, I will defend that flag with my sword; even if my own State
+assails it,'"--the crowds around him broke into tumultuous cheers.
+Within thirty days the Unionists of western Virginia had rallied,
+organized, and begun that hardy campaign which brought West Virginia
+into the Union. On the very day that Douglas was making his fervent
+plea for the Union, Robert E. Lee cast in his lot with the South.
+
+At Columbus, Douglas was again forced to break his journey; and again
+he was summoned to address the crowd that gathered below his window.
+It was already dark; the people had collected without concert; there
+were no such trappings, as had characterized public demonstrations in
+the late campaign. Douglas appeared half-dressed at his bedroom
+window, a dim object to all save to those who stood directly below
+him. Out of the darkness came his solemn, sonorous tones, bringing
+relief and assurance to all who listened, for in the throng were men
+of all parties, men who had followed him through all changes of
+political weather, and men who had been his persistent foes. There was
+little cheering. As Douglas pledged anew his hearty support to
+President Lincoln, "it was rather a deep 'Amen' that went up from the
+crowd," wrote one who had distrusted hitherto the mighty power of
+this great popular leader.[991]
+
+On the 25th of April, Douglas reached Springfield, where he purposed
+to make his great plea for the Union. He spoke at the Capitol to
+members of the legislature and to packed galleries. Friend and foe
+alike bear witness to the extraordinary effect wrought by his words.
+"I do not think that it is possible for a human being to produce a
+more prodigious effect with spoken words," wrote one who had formerly
+detested him.[992] "Never in all my experience in public life, before
+or since," testified the then Speaker of the House, now high in the
+councils of the nation, "have I been so impressed by a speaker."[993]
+Douglas himself was thrilled with his message. As he approached the
+climax, the veins of his neck and forehead were swollen with passion,
+and the perspiration ran down his face in streams. At times his clear
+and resonant voice reverberated through the chamber, until it seemed
+to shake the building.[994] While he was in the midst of a passionate
+invective, a man rushed into the hall bearing an American flag. The
+trumpet tones of the speaker and the sight of the Stars and Stripes
+roused the audience to the wildest pitch of excitement.[995] Men and
+women became hysterical with the divine madness of patriotism. "When
+hostile armies," he exclaimed with amazing force, "When hostile armies
+are marching under new and odious banners against the government of
+our country, the shortest way to peace is the most stupendous and
+unanimous preparation for war. We in the great valley of the
+Mississippi have peculiar interests and inducements in the struggle
+... I ask every citizen in the great basin between the Rocky Mountains
+and the Alleghanies ... to tell me whether he is ever willing to
+sanction a line of policy that may isolate us from the markets of the
+world, and make us dependent provinces upon the powers that thus
+choose to isolate us?... Hence, if a war does come, it is a war of
+self-defense on our part. It is a war in defense of the Government
+which we have inherited as a priceless legacy from our patriotic
+fathers, in defense of those great rights of freedom of trade,
+commerce, transit and intercourse from the center to the circumference
+of our great continent."[996]
+
+The voice of the strong man, so little given to weak sentiment, broke,
+as he said, "I have struggled almost against hope to avert the
+calamities of war and to effect a reunion and reconciliation with our
+brethren in the South. I yet hope it may be done, but I am not able to
+point out how it may be. Nothing short of Providence can reveal to us
+the issues of this great struggle. Bloody--calamitous--I fear it will
+be. May we so conduct it, if a collision must come, that we will stand
+justified in the eyes of Him who knows our hearts, and who will
+justify our every act. We must not yield to resentments, nor to the
+spirit of vengeance, much less to the desire for conquest or ambition.
+I see no path of ambition open in a bloody struggle for triumphs over
+my countrymen. There is no path of ambition open for me in a divided
+country.... My friends, I can say no more. To discuss these topics is
+the most painful duty of my life. It is with a sad heart--with a grief
+I have never before experienced--that I have to contemplate this
+fearful struggle; but I believe in my conscience that it is a duty we
+owe to ourselves and to our children, and to our God, to protect this
+Government and that flag from every assailant, be he who he may."
+
+Thereafter treason had no abiding place within the limits of the State
+of Illinois. And no one, it may be safely affirmed, could have so
+steeled the hearts of men in Southern Illinois for the death grapple.
+In a manly passage in his speech, Douglas said, "I believe I may with
+confidence appeal to the people of every section of the country to
+bear witness that I have been as thoroughly national as any man that
+has lived in my day. And I believe if I should make an appeal to the
+people of Illinois, or of the Northern States, to their impartial
+verdict; they would say that whatever errors I have committed have
+been in leaning too far to the Southern section of the Union against
+my own.... I have never pandered to the prejudice and passion of my
+section against the minority section of the Union." It was precisely
+this truth which gave him a hearing through the length and breadth of
+Illinois and the Northwest during this crisis.
+
+The return of Douglas to Chicago was the signal for a remarkable
+demonstration of regard. He had experienced many strange home-comings.
+His Democratic following, not always discriminating, had ever accorded
+him noisy homage. His political opponents had alternately execrated
+him and given him grudging praise. But never before had men of all
+parties, burying their differences, united to do him honor. On the
+evening of his arrival, he was escorted to the Wigwam, where hardly a
+year ago Lincoln had been nominated for the presidency. Before him
+were men who had participated jubilantly in the Republican campaign,
+with many a bitter gibe at the champion of "squatter sovereignty."
+Douglas could not conceal his gratification at this proof that,
+however men had differed from him on political questions, they had
+believed in his loyalty. And it was of loyalty, not of himself, that
+he spoke. He did not spare Southern feelings before this Chicago
+audience. He told his hearers unequivocally that the slavery question,
+the election of Lincoln, and the territorial question, were so many
+pretexts for dissolving the Union. "The present secession movement is
+the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since,
+formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months
+ago." But this was no time to discuss pretexts and causes. "The
+conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised, war is levied to
+accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man
+must be for the United States or against it. There can be no neutrals
+in this war; _only patriots_--_or traitors_."[997] It was the first
+time he had used the ugly epithet.
+
+Hardly had he summoned the people of Illinois to do battle, when again
+he touched that pathetic note that recurred again and again in his
+appeal at Springfield. Was it the memory of the mother of his boys
+that moved him to say, "But we must remember certain restraints on
+our action even in time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war
+must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations. We
+must not invade Constitutional rights. The innocent must not suffer,
+nor women and children be the victims." Before him were some who felt
+toward the people of the South as Greek toward barbarian. But Douglas
+foresaw that the horrors of war must invade and desolate the homes of
+those whom he still held dear. There is no more lovable and admirable
+side of his personality than this tenderness for the helpless and
+innocent. Had he but lived to temper justice with mercy, what a power
+for good might he not have been in the days of reconstruction!
+
+The summons had gone forth. Already doubts and misgivings had given
+way, and the North was now practically unanimous in its determination
+to stifle rebellion. There was a common belief that secession was the
+work of a minority, skillfully led by designing politicians, and that
+the loyal majority would rally with the North to defend the flag.
+Young men who responded jubilantly to the call to arms did not doubt,
+that the struggle would be brief. Douglas shared the common belief in
+the conspiracy theory of secession, but he indulged no illusion as to
+the nature of the war, if war should come. Months before the firing
+upon Fort Sumter, in a moment of depression, he had prophesied that if
+the cotton States should succeed in drawing the border States into
+their schemes of secession, the most fearful civil war the world had
+ever seen would follow, lasting for years. "Virginia," said he,
+pointing toward Arlington, "over yonder across the Potomac, will
+become a charnel-house.... Washington will become a city of
+hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This
+house 'Minnesota Block,' will be devoted to that purpose before the
+end of the war."[998] He, at least, did not mistake the chivalry of
+the South. Not for an instant did he doubt the capacity of the
+Southern people to suffer and endure, as well as to do battle. And he
+knew--Ah! how well--the self-sacrifice and devotion of Southern women.
+
+The days following the return of Douglas to Chicago were filled also
+with worries and anxieties of a private nature. The financial panic of
+1857 had been accompanied by a depression of land values, which caused
+Douglas grave concern for his holdings in Chicago, and no little
+immediate distress. Unable and unwilling to sacrifice his investments,
+he had mortgaged nearly all of his property in Cook County, including
+the valuable "Grove Property" in South Chicago. Though he was always
+lax in pecuniary matters, and, with his buoyant generous nature,
+little disposed to take anxious thought for the morrow, these heavy
+financial obligations began now to press upon him with grievous
+weight. The prolonged strain of the previous twelve months had racked
+even his constitution. He had made heavy drafts on his bodily health,
+with all too little regard for the inevitable compensation which
+Nature demands. As in all other things, he had been prodigal with
+Nature's choicest gift.
+
+Not long after his public address Douglas fell ill and developed
+symptoms that gave his physicians the gravest concern. Weeks of
+illness followed. The disease, baffling medical skill, ran its
+course. Yet never in his lucid moments did Douglas forget the ills of
+his country; and even when delirium clouded his mind, he was still
+battling for the Union. "Telegraph to the President and let the column
+move on," he cried, wrestling with his wasting fever. In his last
+hours his mind cleared. Early on the morning of June 3d, he seemed to
+rally, but only momentarily. It was evident to those about him that
+the great summons had come. Tenderly his devoted wife leaned over him
+to ask if he had any message for his boys, "Robbie" and "Stevie." With
+great effort, but clearly and emphatically, he replied, "Tell them to
+obey the laws and support the Constitution of the United States." Not
+long after, he grappled with the great Foe, and the soul of a great
+patriot passed on.
+
+    "I was ever a fighter, so--one fight more,
+      The best and the last!
+    I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
+      And bade me creep past.
+    No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
+      The heroes of old,
+    Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
+      Of pain, darkness and cold."
+
+With almost royal pomp, the earthly remains of Stephen Arnold Douglas
+were buried beside the inland sea that washes the shores of the home
+of his adoption. It is a fitting resting place. The tempestuous waters
+of the great lake reflect his own stormy career. Yet they have their
+milder moods. There are hours when sunlight falls aslant the subdued
+surface and irradiates the depths.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 979: Holland, Life of Lincoln, p. 301.]
+
+[Footnote 980: _Ibid._, p. 302.]
+
+[Footnote 981: Arnold, Lincoln, pp. 200-201. The date of this dispatch
+should be April 14, and not April 18.]
+
+[Footnote 982: Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 224.]
+
+[Footnote 983: New York _Tribune_, April 18.]
+
+[Footnote 984: Forney, Anecdotes, I, p. 225.]
+
+[Footnote 985: Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, p. 249 note; Forney,
+Anecdotes, I, p. 225.]
+
+[Footnote 986: Many friends of Douglas have assured me of their
+unshaken belief in this story.]
+
+[Footnote 987: Forney, Anecdotes, I, pp. 121, 226.]
+
+[Footnote 988: Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 989: Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 990: The Philadelphia _Press_, April 26, 1861, reprinted the
+speech from the Wheeling _Intelligencer_ of April 21, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 991: J.D. Cox, Military Reminiscences of the Civil War, I,
+pp. 5-6.]
+
+[Footnote 992: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.]
+
+[Footnote 993: Senator Cullom of Illinois, quoted in Arnold, Lincoln,
+p. 201, note.]
+
+[Footnote 994: Mr. Horace White in Herndon-Weik, Lincoln, II, pp.
+126-127.]
+
+[Footnote 995: Arnold, Lincoln, p. 201, note.]
+
+[Footnote 996: The speech was printed in full in the New York
+_Tribune_, May 1, 1861.]
+
+[Footnote 997: The New York _Tribune_, June 13th, and the Philadelphia
+_Press_, June 14th, published this speech in full.]
+
+[Footnote 998: Arnold, Lincoln, p. 193. See also his remarks in the
+Senate, January 3, 1861.]
+
+
+
+
+INDEX
+
+
+Abolitionism, debate in the Senate on, 124-126.
+
+Abolitionists, in Illinois, 156, 158-160;
+  agitation of, 194-195.
+
+Adams, John Quincy, on Douglas, 72, 76, 89, 98;
+  catechises Douglas, 111, 113.
+
+Albany Regency, 10.
+
+Anderson, Robert, dispatch to War Department, 442;
+  moves garrison to Port Sumter, 451.
+
+Andrews, Sherlock J., 11.
+
+Anti-Masonry, in New York, 10.
+
+Anti-Nebraska party. _See_ Republican party.
+
+"Appeal of the Independent Democrats," origin, 240;
+  assails motives of Douglas, 241.
+
+Arnold, Martha, grandmother of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Arnold, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Ashmun, George, 475, 476, 477.
+
+Atchison, David R., pro-slavery leader in Missouri, 223;
+  favors Nebraska bill (1853), 225;
+  and repeal of Missouri Compromise, 225, 235;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 256.
+
+
+Badger, George E., 215.
+
+"Barnburners," 132.
+
+Bay Islands, Colony of, 209, 213.
+
+Bell, John, presidential candidate, 425, 429, 440.
+
+Benjamin, Judah P., quoted, 402, 453.
+
+Benton, Thomas H., 44, 117, 223.
+
+Berrien, John M., 185.
+
+Bigler, William, 333, 335, 417, 446.
+
+Bissell, William H., 305.
+
+Black, Jeremiah S., controversy with Douglas, 409-410.
+
+"Black Republicans," origin of epithet, 275;
+  arraigned by Douglas, 296, 297, 304, 374-375.
+
+"Blue Lodges" of Missouri, 283, 286.
+
+Boyd, Linn, 182.
+
+Brandon, birthplace of Douglas, 5, 9, 69.
+
+Brandon Academy, 7, 9.
+
+Breckinridge, John C., 382;
+  presidential candidate (1860), 427, 428, 435, 440-441.
+
+Breese, Sidney, judge of Circuit Court, 52;
+  elected Senator, 62;
+  and Federal patronage, 118-119;
+  director of Great Western Railroad Company, 168-170;
+  retirement, 158, 171.
+
+Bright, Jesse D., 119, 417.
+
+Broderick, David C., and Lecompton constitution, 335;
+  and English bill, 347;
+  killed, 411.
+
+Brooks, S.S., editor of Jacksonville _News_, 19, 20, 25, 40.
+
+Brooks, Preston, assaults Sumner, 298.
+
+Brown, Albert G., 247, 340, 341, 397-398, 402.
+
+Brown, John, Pottawatomie massacre, 299;
+  Harper's Ferry raid, 411, 412.
+
+Brown, Milton, of Tennessee, 89.
+
+Browning, O.H., 66, 67, 115.
+
+Buchanan, James, candidacy (1852), 206;
+  nominated for presidency (1856), 276-278;
+  indorses Kansas-Nebraska bill, 279 _n._;
+  elected, 306;
+  appoints Walker governor of Kansas, 324-325;
+  interview with Douglas, 328;
+  message, 328-329;
+  advises admission of Kansas, 338;
+  orders reinforcement of Sumter, 452.
+
+Bulwer, Sir Henry, Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209.
+
+Butler, Andrew P., 119, 137, 216.
+
+
+Calhoun, John, president of Lecompton Convention, 327.
+
+Calhoun, John C., 120;
+  on Abolitionism, 124;
+  and Douglas, 125;
+  radical Southern leader, 127, 138;
+  on the Constitution, 140.
+
+California, coveted by Polk, 109;
+  Clayton Compromise, 130;
+  Polk's programme, 133;
+  statehood bill, 134;
+  controversy in Senate, 135-142;
+  Clay's resolutions, 176;
+  new statehood bill, 181-184;
+  the Omnibus, 184-186;
+  admitted, 187.
+
+Canandaigua Academy, 9, 10.
+
+Carlin, Thomas, 42, 45, 51.
+
+Cass, Lewis, defends Oregon policy, 99;
+  introduces Ten Regiments bill, 120;
+  Nicholson letter, 128;
+  presidential candidate, 132;
+  candidacy (1852), 206;
+  and Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209;
+  and Monroe Doctrine, 211;
+  on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 245-246;
+  candidacy (1856), 277;
+  on Sumner, 296.
+
+Charleston Convention, delegates to, 413, 416;
+  organization of, 417;
+  Committee on Resolutions, 418;
+  speech of Payne, 418-419;
+  speech of Yancey, 419;
+  speech of Pugh, 419-420;
+  minority report adopted, 420;
+  secession, 420;
+  balloting, 420-421;
+  adjournment, 421.
+
+Chase, Salmon P., joint author of the "Appeal," 240-241;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 247; 249;
+  assailed by Douglas, 251-252.
+
+Chicago, residence of Douglas, 309;
+  investments of Douglas in, 310.
+
+Chicago Convention, 425.
+
+Chicago _Press and Tribune_, on Douglas, 349;
+  declares Springfield resolutions a forgery, 370.
+
+Chicago _Times_, Douglas organ in Northwest, 305, 328.
+
+Chicago University, gift of Douglas to, 310.
+
+Clark Resolution (1861), 452.
+
+Clay, Henry, compromise programme, 176;
+  and Douglas, 183-184;
+  and Utah bill, 186-187;
+  on passage of compromise measures, 189.
+
+Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 209-214.
+
+Clayton, John M., 119;
+  on Oregon, 130;
+  _entente_ with Bulwer, 209-210;
+  assailed by Cass and Douglas, 211-212;
+  replies to critics, 213-214;
+  on Kansas-Nebraska bill, 247-248.
+
+Clingman, Thomas L., 425, 444, 466.
+
+Colfax, Schuyler, 348.
+
+Collamer, Jacob, 289, 338, 446-447.
+
+Colorado bill, 456;
+  substitute of Douglas for, 457, 459-460;
+  slavery in, 456, 458-459.
+
+Committee on Territories, Douglas as chairman, in House, 99-100;
+  in Senate, 119-120;
+  Douglas deposed, 395.
+
+Compromise of 1850, Clay's resolutions, 176-177;
+  speech of Douglas, 177-181;
+  compromise bills, 181-182;
+  committee of thirteen, 183-184;
+  debate in Senate, 184-187;
+  passage, 187;
+  finality resolution, 194-195; 197;
+  principle involved, 189-190.
+
+Constitutional Union party, possibility of, 349;
+  nominates Bell, 425;
+  prospects, 428.
+
+Cook, Isaac, 418.
+
+Crittenden Compromise, 446-447;
+  indorsed by Douglas, 447-448;
+  proposed referendum on, 449;
+  opposed by Republicans, 452;
+  defeated, 463.
+
+Crittenden, John J., favors Douglas's re-election, 382;
+  compromise resolutions, 446-447;
+  efforts for peace, 448, 452, 463.
+
+Cuba, acquisition of, favored by Douglas, 199, 208, 396-397.
+
+Cutts, J. Madison, father of Adele Cutts Douglas, 255, 316.
+
+
+Danites, Mormon order, 90;
+  Buchanan Democrats, 382.
+
+Davis, Jefferson, and Douglas, 189;
+  and Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237-238;
+  and Freeport doctrine, 399 ff., 413;
+  resolutions of, 415-416;
+  assails Douglas, 423;
+  on candidates and platforms, 424;
+  on Southern grievances, 444;
+  on committee of thirteen, 446;
+  permits attack on Sumter, 474.
+
+Davis, John, 119.
+
+Democratic party, Baltimore convention (1844), 79;
+  campaign, 80-81;
+  platform, 84, 98-99, 104-105;
+  convention of 1848, 131-132;
+  Cass and Barnburners, 132-133;
+  convention of 1852, 204-206;
+  campaign, 207;
+  Cincinnati convention, 276-278;
+  platform and candidate, 278-279;
+  "Bleeding Kansas," 299 ff.;
+  election of 1856, 305-306;
+  Charleston convention, 413 ff.;
+  Davis resolutions, 415-416;
+  minority report, 418-420;
+  secession, 420;
+  adjournment, 421;
+  Baltimore convention, 426-428;
+  Bolters' convention, 428;
+  campaign of 1860, 429-441.
+
+_Democratic Review_, and candidacy of Douglas (1852), 200-202.
+
+Dickinson, Daniel S., 128, 382.
+
+Divorce, Douglas on, 33-34.
+
+Dixon, Archibald, and repeal of Missouri Compromise, 235-236;
+  and Nebraska bill, 239.
+
+Dodge, Augustus C., Nebraska bill of, 228;
+  favors two Territories, 239.
+
+Doolittle, James R., 446.
+
+Douglas, Adele Cutts, wife of Stephen A., 316-317;
+  leader in Washington society, 336-337;
+  in campaign of 1858, 383;
+  in campaign of 1860, 438;
+  calls upon Mrs. Lincoln, 462; 476, 489.
+
+Douglas, Martha (_nee_ Martha Denny Martin), daughter of
+  Robert Martin, 145;
+  marries Stephen A. Douglas, 147;
+  inherits father's estate, 148;
+  death, 208.
+
+Douglas, Stephen Arnold.
+  _Early years_:
+    ancestry and birth, 4-5;
+    boyhood, 5-7;
+    apprentice, 8-9;
+    in Brandon Academy, 9;
+    removal to New York, 9;
+    in Canandaigua Academy, 9-10;
+    studies law, 11;
+    goes west, 11-13;
+    reaches Jacksonville, Illinois, 14;
+    teaches school, 16-17;
+    admitted to bar, 17.
+  _Beginnings in Politics_:
+    first public speech, 20-21;
+    elected State's attorney, 22;
+    first indictments, 23-24;
+    defends Caucus system, 26-27;
+    candidate for Legislature, 27-29;
+    in Legislature, 29-34;
+    Register of Land Office, 35-36;
+    nominated for Congress (1837), 40-41;
+    campaign against Stuart, 42-44;
+    resumes law practice, 45;
+    chairman of State committee, 47-50;
+    Secretary of State, 53;
+    appointed judge, 56-57;
+    visits Mormons, 58;
+    on the Bench, 63-64;
+    candidate for Senate, 62;
+    nominated for Congress, 65;
+    elected, 67.
+  _Congressman_:
+    defends Jackson, 69-72;
+    reports on Election Law, 73-76;
+    plea for Internal Improvements, 77-78;
+    on Polk, 80;
+    meets Jackson, 81-82;
+    re-elected (1844), 83;
+    advocates annexation of Texas, 85-90;
+    and the Mormons, 91-92;
+    proposes Oregon bills, 95;
+    urges "re-occupation of Oregon," 96-98;
+    supports Polk's policy, 99;
+    appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, 99;
+    offers bill on Oregon, 101;
+    opposes compromise and arbitration, 101-103;
+    renominated for Congress, 103;
+    and the President, 104-106;
+    proposes organization of Oregon, 106;
+    advocates admission of Florida, 107;
+    defends Mexican War, 109-110;
+    claims Rio Grande as boundary, 111-114;
+    seeks military appointment, 114-115;
+    re-elected (1846), 115;
+    defends Polk's war policy, 116-117;
+    elected Senator (1847), 117-118.
+  _United States Senator_:
+    appointed chairman of Committee on Territories, 119;
+    on Ten Regiments bill, 120-122;
+    on Abolitionism, 124-126;
+    second attempt to organize Oregon, 129;
+    favors Clayton Compromise, 130;
+    proposes extension of Missouri Compromise line, 131;
+    offers California statehood bills, 134-137;
+    advocates "squatter sovereignty," 138-139;
+    presents resolutions of Illinois Legislature, 140;
+    marriage, 147;
+    denies ownership of slaves, 149-150;
+    removes to Chicago, 169;
+    advocates central railroad, 169-172;
+    speech on California (1850), 177 ff.;
+    concerts territorial bills with Toombs and Stephens, 181-182;
+    vote on compromise measures, 187-188;
+    defends Fugitive Slave Law, 191-194;
+    presidential aspirations, 195-196;
+    on intervention in Hungary, 199-200;
+    candidacy (1852), 200-206;
+    in campaign of 1852, 207;
+    re-elected Senator, 208 _n._;
+    death of his wife, 208;
+    on Clayton-Bulwer treaty, 211-214;
+    hostility to Great Britain, 215-216;
+    travels abroad, 217-219;
+    proposes military colonization of Nebraska, 221;
+    urges organization of Nebraska, 224-225;
+    report of January 4, 1854, 229 ff.;
+    offers substitute for Dodge bill, 231-232;
+    interprets new bill, 233-234;
+    and Dixon, 235-236;
+    drafts Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237;
+    secures support of administration, 237-238;
+    reports bill, 239;
+    arraigned by Independent Democrats, 241;
+    replies to "Appeal," 241-243;
+    proposes amendments to Kansas-Nebraska bill, 246, 249;
+    closes debate, 251-254;
+    answers protests, 256-257;
+    faces mob in Chicago, 258-259;
+    denounces Know-Nothings, 263;
+    in campaign of 1854, 264 ff.;
+    debate with Lincoln, 265-266;
+    and Shields, 267, 268;
+    on the elections, 269-272;
+    and Wade, 272-273;
+    on "Black Republicanism," 275-276;
+    candidacy at Cincinnati, 276-278;
+    supports Buchanan, 278;
+    reports on Kansas, 289-293;
+    proposes admission of Kansas, 293;
+    replies to Trumbull, 294;
+    and Sumner, 296-298;
+    reports Toombs bill, 300-301;
+    omits referendum provision, 302;
+    subsequent defense, 303-304;
+    in campaign of 1856, 304-306;
+    second marriage, 316;
+    on Dred Scott decision, 321-323;
+    interview with Walker, 325;
+      and Buchanan, 327-328;
+    denounces Lecompton constitution, 329-332;
+    report on Kansas, 338-340;
+    speech on Lecomptonism, 341-343;
+    rejects English bill, 345-347;
+    Republican ally, 348;
+    re-election opposed, 349-350;
+    in Chicago, 352-354;
+    opening speech of campaign, 354-357;
+    speech at Bloomington, 358-360;
+    speech at Springfield, 360-361;
+    agrees to joint debate, 362;
+    first debate at Ottawa, 363-370;
+    Springfield resolutions, 370;
+    Freeport debate, 370-375;
+    debate at Jonesboro, 375-378;
+    debate at Charleston, 378-381;
+    friends and foes, 381-382;
+    resources, 382-383;
+    debate at Galesburg, 383-386;
+    debate at Quincy, 386-388;
+    debate at Alton, 388-390;
+    the election, 391-392;
+    journey to South and Cuba, 393-395;
+    deposed from chairmanship of Committee on Territories, 395;
+    supports Slidell project, 396;
+    debate of February 23, 1859, 397 ff.;
+    opposes slave-trade, 403-404;
+    _Harper's Magazine_ article, 405-409;
+    controversy with Black, 409-410;
+    in Ohio, 410-411;
+    presidential candidate of Northwest, 413, 416;
+    and the South, 414;
+    and Republicans, 414-415;
+    candidate at Charleston, 416 ff.;
+    defends his orthodoxy, 422-424;
+    nominated at Baltimore, 427;
+    letter of acceptance, 428;
+    personal canvass, 429-439;
+    on election of Lincoln, 439 ff.;
+    and Crittenden compromise, 446-448;
+    speech of January 3, 1861, 449 ff.;
+      efforts for peace, 448, 452, 453;
+    offers fugitive slave bill, 454;
+    and Mason, 454-455;
+    and Wigfall, 455-456;
+    fears the Blairs, 461;
+    opinion of President-elect, 461;
+    and Lincoln, 462-463;
+    at inauguration, 464;
+    and the inaugural, 466-468;
+    on reinforcement of Sumter, 468-469;
+    in the confidence of Lincoln, 469-470;
+    on policy of administration, 471-473;
+    faces war, 474;
+    closeted with Lincoln, April 14, 475-477;
+    press dispatch, 477;
+    first War Democrat, 478;
+    mission in Northwest, 478-480;
+    speech at Bellaire, 480-482;
+    speech at Columbus, 482-483;
+    speech at Springfield, 483-485;
+    speech at Chicago, 485-487;
+    premonitions of war, 487-488;
+    last illness and death, 488-489.
+  _Personal traits_:
+    Physical appearance, 22-23, 69, 294-295, 364-365;
+    limitations upon his culture, 36-37, 119-120, 215-217, 270-272;
+    his indebtedness to Southern associations, 147-148, 317-318;
+    advocate rather than judge, 70-71, 121-122, 177-181, 270-272, 321;
+    liberal in religion, 263, 317;
+    retentive memory, 319-320;
+    his impulsiveness, 320;
+    his generosity of temper, 320;
+    his loyalty to friends, 267-268, 318-319;
+    his prodigality in pecuniary matters, 309-310;
+    his domestic relations, 317;
+    the man and the politician, 270-272.
+  _As a party leader_:
+    early interest in politics, 8, 10;
+    schooling in politics, 18-19;
+    his talent as organizer, 25 ff.; 39 ff., 47-50;
+    secret of his popularity, 318-319;
+    his partisanship, 324.
+  _As a statesman_:
+    readiness in debate, 320;
+    early manner of speaking, 70 ff.;
+    later manner, 251-252, 294-297;
+    insight into value of the public domain, 36, 311-312;
+    belief in territorial expansion, 100, 107-108;
+    his Chauvinism, 87-88, 97-98, 101-103, 199, 211-214;
+    his statecraft, 100, 107-108, 174-181, 270-272, 314-315;
+    abhorrence of civil war, 449-451, 484-487;
+    love of the Union, 324, 436-437, 481, 484, 489.
+
+Douglass, Benajah, grandfather of Stephen A. Douglas, 4-5.
+
+Douglass, Sally Fisk, mother of Stephen A. Douglas, 5.
+
+Douglass, Stephen A., father of Stephen A. Douglas, 5.
+
+Douglass, William, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Dred Scott decision, Douglas on, 321-323, 356, 359-360, 372-373, 377;
+  Lincoln on, 353, 357, 361, 376-377.
+
+Duncan, Joseph, 50, 60.
+
+
+Election Law of 1842, 73;
+  Douglas on, 74-75.
+
+Elections, State and local, 22, 29, 50, 61, 158-159, 267;
+  congressional, 44, 67, 73-76, 83, 115-116, 207, 267;
+  senatorial, 62, 117, 207, 208 _n._, 268-269, 391-392;
+  presidential, 50, 306, 440-441.
+
+English bill, reported, 343;
+    opposed by Douglas, 345-346;
+  passed, 347.
+
+Everett, Edward, 256, 429.
+
+
+Fessenden, William P., 473-474.
+
+Field, Alexander P., 52.
+
+Fillmore, Millard, 280.
+
+Fitch, Graham N., 335, 336.
+
+Fitzpatrick, Benjamin, 428.
+
+Foote, Henry S., on Abolitionism, 124-125;
+  and Douglas, 126;
+  offers finality resolution, 197.
+
+Ford, Thomas, 61, 90, 154.
+
+Forney, John W., 305, 437;
+  on Douglas and Lincoln, 480.
+
+Fort Pickens, question of evacuating, 468 ff.
+
+Fort Sumter, occupation advised, 442;
+  occupied, 451;
+  abortive attempt to reinforce, 452;
+  question of evacuating, 468 ff.;
+  attack upon, 474;
+  capitulation of, 475.
+
+Francis, Simeon, 46.
+
+Fremont, John C., 280.
+
+Freeport doctrine, foreshadowed, 322, 359-360;
+  stated, 372-373;
+  analyzed by Lincoln, 376-377;
+  effect upon South, 381-382;
+  denounced in Senate, 397 ff.;
+  defended in _Harper's Magazine_, 405-409.
+
+Free-Soil party, convention of, 132;
+  holds balance of power in House, 133;
+  in Illinois, 158-160.
+
+Fugitive Slave Law, passed, 187;
+  not voted upon by Douglas, 188;
+  defended by Douglas, 191-194;
+  violations of, 194-195;
+  repeal proposed, 195;
+  attitude of South, 195;
+  Lincoln on, 371;
+  evasions of, 445-446;
+  supplementary law proposed by Douglas, 454.
+
+Fusion party, in Illinois, 264 ff.
+  _See_ Republican party.
+
+
+Galena alien case, 47, 48, 54.
+
+Granger, Gehazi, 9.
+
+Great Britain, animus of Douglas toward, concerning Oregon, 88,
+  93-94, 97, 101, 102;
+  concerning Central America, 211-213, 215-216; 217.
+
+Great Western Railroad Company, 168.
+
+Greeley, Horace, and Douglas, 320, 348;
+  favors re-election of Douglas, 349.
+
+Green, James S., 333, 335, 338, 401, 457.
+
+Greenhow's _History of the Northwest Coast of North America_, 94, 95.
+
+Grimes, James W., 446.
+
+Guthrie, James, 420, 427.
+
+
+Hale, John P., 124, 138, 186.
+
+Hall, Willard P., 223-224.
+
+Hannegan, Edward A., 103-104.
+
+Hardin, John J., 21-22, 27, 91, 92.
+
+_Harper's Magazine_, essay by Douglas in, 405 ff.
+
+Harris, Thomas L., 265.
+
+Helper's _Impending Crisis_, 412-413.
+
+Herndon, William H., Lincoln's law partner, 351.
+
+Hise, Elijah, drafts treaty, 210.
+
+Hoge, Joseph B., 118.
+
+Homestead bill of Douglas, 311.
+
+Honduras and its dependencies, claimed by Great Britain, 209-211.
+
+Howe, Henry, 9.
+
+Hunter, R.M.T., 420, 446.
+
+
+Illinois and Michigan Canal, lands granted to, 31;
+  Douglas and construction of, 32-33;
+  probable influence upon settlement, 154.
+
+Illinois Central Railroad, inception of, 168;
+  project taken up by Douglas, 169-170;
+  bill for land grant to, 170;
+  legislative history of, 171-173;
+  larger aspects of, 174 ff.;
+  in the campaign of 1858, 382.
+
+Illinois _Republican_, attack upon office of, 37-38.
+
+Illinois _State Register_, on Douglas, 46, 81-82;
+  and Springfield clique, 61-62;
+  editorial by Douglas in, 149-150;
+  forecast of Nebraska legislation, 228.
+
+Indian claims, in Nebraska, 220, 222-225, 238-239.
+
+Internal Improvements, agitation in Illinois, 29-30;
+  Douglas on, 30-31.
+
+Iverson, Alfred, 443, 444.
+
+
+Jackson, Andrew, 16, 20;
+  defended by Douglas, 69-72, 78;
+  and Douglas, 81-82.
+
+Jacksonville, Illinois, early home of Douglas, 14 ff.
+
+Johnson, Hadley D., 226, 238-239.
+
+Johnson, Herschel V., 428.
+
+Johnson, Thomas, 225, 226.
+
+Judiciary bill, in Illinois legislature, 54-56, 59.
+
+
+Kansas, first settlers in, 283;
+  colonists of Emigrant Aid Company in, 283;
+  defect in organic act of, 284;
+  first elections in, 284 ff.;
+  invasion by Missourians, 286;
+  first territorial legislature, 286-287;
+  Topeka convention and free State legislature, 288;
+  sack of Lawrence, 299;
+  raid of John Brown, 299;
+  convention elected, 325;
+  free State party in control of legislature, 326;
+  Lecompton convention, 326-327;
+  vote on constitution, 337-338;
+  land ordinance rejected, 347.
+
+Kansas-Nebraska bill, origin of, 236-239;
+  in Democratic caucus, 243-245;
+  wording criticised, 245;
+  amended, 246, 248, 249, 250;
+  passes to third reading in Senate, 250;
+  course in House, 254-255;
+  defeat of Clayton amendment, 255-256;
+  passes Senate, 256;
+  becomes law, 256;
+  arouses North, 256 ff.;
+  popular sovereignty in, 281-282.
+
+King, William F., 172.
+
+Knowlton, Caleb, 9.
+
+Know-Nothing party, origin, 262;
+  denounced by Douglas, 263;
+  in Northwest, 263-264;
+  nominates Fillmore, 280.
+
+Kossuth, Louis, reception of, 199 ff.
+
+
+Lamborn, Josiah, 16.
+
+Lane, James H., in Kansas, 287-288.
+
+Lane, Joseph, 205, 428.
+
+Lecompton constitution, origin, 326-327;
+  denounced by Douglas, 329 ff.;
+  vote upon, 337;
+  submitted to Congress, 338;
+  bill to admit Kansas with, 343.
+
+Lee, Robert E., 482.
+
+Letcher, John, 480.
+
+Liberty party, 116, 158.
+
+Lincoln, Abraham, in Illinois legislature, 32 _n._;
+  leader of "the Long Nine," 34;
+  debate with Douglas (1839), 46;
+  on Douglas, 46;
+  elected to Congress, 116;
+  debate with Douglas (1854), 265-266;
+  "the Peoria Truce," 266 _n._;
+  candidate for Senate, 268-269;
+  Republican nominee for Senate (1858), 350;
+  early career, 351;
+  personal traits, 351-352;
+  addresses Republican convention, 352-353;
+  hears Douglas in Chicago, 354;
+  replies to Douglas, 357-358;
+  speech at Springfield, 361;
+  proposes joint debates, 362;
+  personal appearance, 364-365;
+  debate at Ottawa, 365-370;
+  Freeport debate, 370-375;
+  debate at Jonesboro, 375-378;
+  debate at Charleston, 378-381;
+  resources, 382;
+  debate at Galesburg, 383-386;
+  debate at Quincy, 386-388;
+  debate at Alton, 388-390;
+  defeated, 392;
+  in Ohio, 410-411;
+  presidential candidate, 425;
+  elected, 440-441;
+  enters Washington, 461;
+  and advisers, 461, 462;
+  confers with Douglas, 463-464;
+  inauguration, 464;
+  address, 464-466;
+  defended by Douglas, 466 ff.;
+  consults Douglas, 469-470;
+  not generally known, 471;
+  decides to provision Sumter, 474;
+  calls for troops, 475;
+  confers with Douglas, 476-477, 478;
+  last interview with Douglas, 479.
+
+Logan, Stephen T., 23.
+
+"Lord Coke's Assembly," 53, 55.
+
+
+McClernand, John A., 51, 55, 119, 182.
+
+McConnell, Murray, 14, 48.
+
+McRoberts, Samuel, 42.
+
+Marble, Mary Ann, wife of William Douglass, 4.
+
+Marble, Thomas, ancestor of Stephen A. Douglas, 4.
+
+Marshall, Edward C., 203.
+
+Martin, Colonel Robert, 145;
+  plantations of, 146;
+  will of, 148-149.
+
+Mason, James M., 454, 455, 469.
+
+Matteson, Joel A., 268-269;
+  letter of Douglas to, 313-314.
+
+May, William L., 40.
+
+Mexico, Slidell's mission to, 109;
+  dictatorship in, 111;
+  treaty with Texas, 111-112;
+  territory lost by, 116, 117;
+  treaty of 1848, 123.
+
+Mexican War, announced by Polk, 105, 109;
+  defended by Douglas, 109-112, 116-117;
+  appointments in, 114, 117;
+  terminated, 123.
+
+Minnesota bill, to organize territorial government, 142;
+  to admit State, 340.
+
+Minnesota Block, Douglas residence in Washington, 337, 488.
+
+Missouri Compromise, and annexation of Texas, 89-90;
+  and organization of Oregon, 130;
+  and organization of Mexican cession, 131, 133;
+  and organization of Nebraska, 221, 230-231, 232-233, 235;
+  repeal agitated by Atchison, 235-236;
+  repealed, 237 ff.;
+  declared unconstitutional, 321-322.
+
+Monroe doctrine, debated in Senate, 211-214.
+
+Moore, John, 60.
+
+Mormons, settle in Illinois, 57-58;
+  politics of, 58-61;
+  disorders in Hancock County, 90-91;
+  advised to emigrate, 91;
+  removal, 92;
+  in Utah, 220.
+
+Morris, Edward J., 96.
+
+Mosquito protectorate, 209, 210-211.
+
+
+Nashville convention (1844), 81.
+
+_National Era_, occasions controversy in Senate, 124.
+
+Native American party, 262.
+  _See_ Know-Nothing party.
+
+Nauvoo, settled by Mormons, 57;
+  charter repealed, 90;
+  evacuated, 92.
+
+Nauvoo Legion, 58.
+
+Nebraska, first bill to organize, 95;
+  second bill, 142;
+  bill for military colonization of, 221;
+  third bill, 223-224;
+  Dodge bill, 228;
+  report of Douglas on, 239 ff.;
+  new bill reported, 231;
+  bill printed, 232;
+  manuscript of, 233.
+  _See_ Kansas-Nebraska bill.
+
+Negro equality, Douglas on, 275-276, 356-357, 384;
+  Lincoln on, 358, 361, 368, 379, 385.
+
+New England Emigrant Aid Company, 283.
+
+New Mexico, slavery in, 127 ff.;
+  Clayton compromise, 130;
+  controversy in Congress, 130-131;
+  Polk's policy, 133;
+  Douglas's statehood bills, 134-137;
+  Taylor's policy, 166;
+  Clay's resolutions, 176;
+  territorial bill for, 181-183;
+  in the Omnibus, 184-186;
+  organized, 187.
+
+New York _Times_, supports Lincoln (1858), 382;
+  on Douglas, 411, 429, 436, 470.
+
+New York _Tribune_, on Douglas, 332, 348, 403.
+
+_Niles' Register_, cited as a source, 112.
+
+Non-intervention, principle of, Cass on, 128;
+  in Clayton compromise, 130;
+  Douglas on, 138-139;
+  in compromise of 1850, 181-187, 189-190;
+  in Kansas-Nebraska legislation, 230-231, 236, 243-249, 289-292, 397-402.
+
+
+"Old Fogyism," 200.
+
+Oregon, emigration from Illinois to, 93;
+  "re-occupation" of, 94;
+  international status of, 94-95;
+  Douglas on, 96-98;
+  Polk's policy toward, 98-99;
+  bill to protect settlers in, 101;
+  and treaty with Great Britain, 103, 106;
+  bills to organize, 106, 108, 129;
+  Clayton compromise, 130;
+  organized, 131.
+
+Pacific Railroad, and organization of Nebraska, 222-224, 238-239.
+
+Parker, Nahum, 8.
+
+Parker, Theodore, on Douglas, 393.
+
+Party organizations, beginnings of, in Illinois, 25-27, 38-42, 49-50;
+  efficiency of, 65-66, 79, 103;
+  sectional influence upon, 158-160;
+  institutional character of, 157-158, 260-262.
+
+Payne, Henry B., 418-419.
+
+Peace Convention, 453;
+  resolution of, 463.
+
+Peck, Ebenezer, 26, 56.
+
+Personal Liberty Acts, 445, 454.
+
+Pierce, Franklin, presidential candidacy, 204-205;
+  approves Kansas-Nebraska bill, 237-238;
+  signs Kansas-Nebraska bill, 256;
+  opinion on slavery extension, 256 _n._;
+  candidacy at Cincinnati, 276-277.
+
+Political parties, and annexation of Texas, 84;
+  and Mexican War, 109;
+  and slavery in Territories, 127-129;
+  and election of 1848, 132-133;
+  in Illinois, 157-158;
+  and Free-Soilers, 158 ff.;
+  and compromise of 1850, 195;
+  nationalizing influence of, 260-262;
+  decline of Whigs, 262;
+  rise of Know-Nothings, 262;
+  and Nebraska Act, 264 ff.;
+  rise of Republican party, 273-274;
+  and "Bleeding Kansas," 294, 299-302, 304-306;
+  and Lecomptonism, 332 ff.;
+  possible re-alignment of, 348-349;
+  and Lincoln-Douglas contest, 349-350, 381-382, 393;
+  and Freeport doctrine, 397-402, 413-414;
+  and issues of 1860, 415 ff.;
+  and election of 1860, 440-441.
+
+Polk, James K., presidential candidacy, 70;
+  indorsed by Douglas, 80;
+  inaugural of, 98;
+  on Oregon, 99;
+  negotiates with Great Britain, 103-104;
+  war message of, 105;
+  and Douglas, 105-106;
+  announces Oregon treaty, 106;
+  covets California, 109;
+  and appointments, 114, 118-119;
+  urges indemnity, 127;
+  and slavery in Territories, 131;
+  proposes territorial governments, 133;
+  proposes statehood bills, 135.
+
+Popular sovereignty, doctrine anticipated, 89;
+  phrase coined, 253;
+  in Kansas-Nebraska Act, 281-282;
+  tested in Kansas, 283 ff.;
+  and Dred Scott decision, 322;
+  and Lecompton constitution, 326-327;
+  defended by Douglas, 329-332, 338-340, 342-343;
+  indorsed by Seward, 348;
+  debated by Lincoln and Douglas, 355, 357, 359-360, 372-373, 376-377;
+  denounced by South, 397 ff.;
+  defended in _Harper's Magazine_ 405-409;
+  ridiculed by Black, 409-410;
+  operates against slavery, 410-411, 429;
+  Douglas urges further concessions to, 457, 459-460.
+
+Powell, Lazarus W., 446.
+
+Public lands, granted to Illinois for canal, 31;
+  Douglas and administration of, 35-36;
+  squatters and land leagues, 163-164;
+  granted to Illinois Central, 170 ff.;
+  granted to Indians, 220;
+  and proposed military colonies, 221;
+  and proposed Pacific railroad, 222-224;
+  in Kansas, 283-285;
+  Douglas and proper distribution of, 311-313.
+
+Pugh, George E., and Lecompton constitution, 335;
+  and English bill, 347; 413;
+  speech in Charleston convention, 419-420;
+  and Douglas, 422, 424.
+
+
+Ralston, J.H., 58.
+
+Raymond, Henry J., editor of New York _Times_, 436.
+
+Reapportionment Act of 1843, 64, 65.
+
+Reeder, A.H., governor of Kansas, 284;
+  and elections, 285, 286;
+  joins free State party, 287;
+  chosen senator at Topeka, 288.
+
+Reid, David S., 145, 146.
+
+Republican party, rise of, in Illinois, 264 ff.;
+  elections of 1854, 269;
+  origin of name, 273;
+  composition of, 273-274;
+  Philadelphia convention, 279-280;
+  and "Bleeding Kansas," 304-305;
+  opposes Lecomptonism, 334;
+  Chicago convention, 421;
+  nominates Lincoln, 425;
+  elections of 1860, 437, 440-441.
+
+Resolution of Illinois Legislature, presented in Senate, 139-140;
+  origin, 159-160;
+  controls Douglas (1850), 184.
+
+Rice, Henry M., 446.
+
+Richardson, William A., on House Committee on Territories, 182;
+  steers Kansas-Nebraska bill through House, 254-255;
+  in Cincinnati convention, 277;
+  candidate for governor, 305;
+  in Charleston convention, 416 ff.;
+  in Baltimore convention, 427;
+  forecasts election, 429.
+
+Richmond, Dean, 426.
+
+River and harbor improvements, Douglas on, 77-78, 313-314.
+  _See also_ Internal Improvements.
+
+Robinson, Charles, leader of free State party in Kansas, 287, 288.
+
+Roman Church, Adele Cutts an adherent of, 317;
+  attitude of Douglas toward, 317.
+
+
+Sangamo _Journal_, on Caucus system, 28;
+  on Douglas, 41.
+
+Santa Anna, treaty with Texas, 111, 112.
+
+Scott, Winfield, 482.
+
+Secession, apprehended, 442;
+  of South Carolina, 447;
+  of Cotton States, 452;
+  and border States, 474.
+
+Seward, William H., and Douglas, 251;
+  loses Republican nomination, 425;
+  on committee of thirteen, 453;
+  and the Blairs, 461, 462.
+
+Shadrach rescue, 194.
+
+Shannon, Wilson, governor of Kansas, 288.
+
+Sheahan, James W., biographer of Douglas, 218, 416;
+ editor of Chicago _Times_, 305.
+
+Sheridan, James B., 438.
+
+Shields, James, senator from Illinois, 171;
+  and Illinois Central Railroad, 175;
+  fails of re-election, 267 ff.
+
+Slavery, in North Carolina, 147-148;
+  in Illinois, 155-156, 178, 242-243;
+  in Kansas, 287, 298;
+  Nebraska bill not designed to extend, 234;
+  Douglas on extension of, 179-180, 243;
+  peonage, 186;
+  Douglas on, 126, 311, 388, 390, 415;
+  Lincoln on, 351, 352, 358, 361, 368-369, 379, 381, 385, 386, 390.
+
+Slave-trade, revival proposed, 403, 421;
+  condemned by Douglas, 403-404.
+
+Slidell, John, mission to Mexico, 109;
+  seeks Douglas's defeat (1858), 381-382, 391;
+  project to purchase Cuba, 396;
+  at Charleston, 417.
+
+Smith, Joseph, on Douglas, 58-59;
+  to Mormon voters, 59-60;
+  on polygamy, 90;
+  murdered, 90.
+
+Smith, Theophilus W., 48, 54, 55.
+
+Smithsonian Institution, foundation of, 310;
+  Douglas on board of Regents, 310.
+
+Snyder, Adam W., 59, 60.
+
+Southern Rights advocates, 194.
+
+Spoils system, countenanced by Douglas, 198, 207.
+
+Springfield Resolutions, in Lincoln-Douglas debates, 366-367, 368,
+  369, 370, 374.
+
+"Squatter sovereignty," Cass and Dickinson on, 128;
+  favored by Douglas, 138-139;
+  genesis of, 161 ff.;
+  explained by Douglas, 184-185;
+  and compromise of 1850, 189-190.
+  _See_ Popular sovereignty.
+
+Squier, E.G., drafts treaty, 210.
+
+"Star of the West," sent to Sumter, 452.
+
+Stephens, Alexander H., and annexation of Texas, 89;
+  and territorial bills (1850), 181-182.
+
+Stowe, Harriet B., description of Douglas, 295-296.
+
+Stuart, Charles E., 335, 347.
+
+Stuart, John T., lawyer, 23;
+  Douglas's opponent (1838), 42-44;
+  Whig politician, 50, 58.
+
+Sumner, Charles, and Fugitive Slave Act, 195;
+  on Kansas, 294, 296;
+  altercation with Douglas, 296-298;
+  assaulted, 298;
+  foe to compromise, 463.
+
+
+Tariff, views of Douglas on, 314-315.
+
+Taylor, Zachary, in Mexican War, 109, 114;
+  nominated for presidency, 132;
+  message, 166.
+
+Texas, as campaign issue, 84;
+  Douglas on annexation of, 85;
+  and slavery, 89;
+  and Missouri Compromise, 90;
+  joint resolution adopted, 90;
+  admitted, 100-101;
+  and Mexican boundary, 110-114, 122-123;
+  and New Mexico boundary, 176, 187.
+
+"The Third House," 53, 54.
+
+Toombs, Robert, 189, 190;
+  Kansas bill, 300; 303, 340;
+  on committee of thirteen, 446.
+
+Trumbull, Lyman, senator from Illinois, 268-269;
+  Democracy questioned, 274-275;
+  on Kansas, 294;
+  on Toombs bill, 302;
+  opposes Douglas, 349.
+
+Tyler, John, 79 _n._; 84.
+
+
+Urquhart, J.D., Douglas's law partner, 45.
+
+Utah, territorial organization of, 181-187;
+  Mormons in, 220;
+  polygamy and intervention in, 401.
+
+
+Van Buren, Martin, nominated by Free-Soilers, 132.
+
+
+Wade, Benjamin F., 269, 272, 338, 446, 458, 463.
+
+Walker, Cyrus, 45, 58.
+
+Walker, Isaac P., 140, 174.
+
+Walker, Robert J., governor of Kansas, 325.
+
+Washington _Sentinel_, prints Nebraska bill, 232.
+
+Washington Territory, organization of, 224.
+
+Washington _Union_, on Douglas, 207;
+  forecast of Nebraska legislation, 228;
+  supports Kansas-Nebraska bill, 240;
+  assails Douglas, 341, 381.
+
+Webster, Daniel, on the Constitution, 140.
+
+Whig party, convention of 1848, 132;
+  campaign of 1852, 207;
+  decline, 260-262;
+  nominates Fillmore, 280.
+
+Whitney, Asa, 222.
+
+Wigfall, Louis T., 455-456, 468.
+
+Wilmot proviso, 107, 117, 128, 132.
+
+Wilson, Henry, Republican leader, 348;
+  favors re-election of Douglas, 349;
+  foe to compromise, 463, 473-474.
+
+Winthrop, Robert C., 86.
+
+Wood, Fernando, 418.
+
+Wyandot Indians, memorial of, 222, 223.
+
+Wyatt, John, 21-22.
+
+
+Yancey, William L., resolution of, 132;
+  speech in Charleston convention, 419.
+
+Yates, Richard, 265.
+
+"Young America," 198, 200, 214.
+
+Young, Brigham, 91.
+
+Young, Richard M., 62, 118, 119.
+
+
+
+
+Norman Hapgood's _biographies_
+
+Illustrated with portraits, fac similes, etc.
+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
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+
+     "Mr. Norman Hapgood's 'George Washington' is characterized
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