Chapter II: Part 2

"_It remains to say on this point only one word, to guard against
misapprehension. If these States are to again become universally
slaveholding, I do not pretend to say with what violations of the
Constitution that end shall be accomplished. On the other hand,
while I do confidently believe and hope that my country will yet
become a land of universal freedom, I do not expect that it will
be made so otherwise than through the action of the several States
cooperating with the Federal Government, and all acting in strict
conformity with their respective Constitutions_."

In a speech in the Senate, last spring, March 2, 1859, Mr. Seward said--he was speaking of the "Expenses and Revenues"--

"We are for free trade to a practical extent, and we all are in
favor of a judicious tariff. The exigency of this debate does not
require me to survey the whole range of productive industry of the
country, and to suggest a comparative system of imposts adjusted
to them all. It would be labor lost to do so; for, as I have
already said, it is in the House of Representatives, and not here,
that the act originating any revision of the tariff must be
introduced, and perfected, at least in degree. But I can say, with
entire freedom, that it would present no ground of objection, in
my judgment, if such a bill should be so constructed as to favor
and encourage the mining and manufacture of iron. I select and
distinguish this great interest, because I think that the
disasters which have overtaken the National Treasury and have
crushed the prosperity of the country, have resulted from neglect
and improvidence in regard to it. We have been engaged, as most
other civilized states have been engaged, during the last fifteen
or twenty years, in adopting the great invention of railroads, or,
as the Frenchmen accurately describe them, iron roads, and
bringing it into universal use. If we could only have understood
ourselves in the beginning of this period, and adhered
persistently throughout to just convictions then formed, we should
have so discriminated in our revenue system as to have made this
great enterprise work out an establishment of the iron manufacture
in this country, so as to derive from it our chief supplies. But
the country has not been willing to look steadily to that ultimate
interest. It has asked always the cheapest iron that could be
gotten, and, of course, has demanded that the imposts should be
fixed at the lowest possible rates. So the protection afforded by
the tariff of 1846 gave place to a lower protection in 1857; and
it has not been without much difficulty that at times Congress has
been stayed from remitting all duties on foreign manufactures of
railroad iron. The Legislatures of the States, acting on the same
erroneous principles, have authorized combinations and
associations on doubtful principles to force forward the same
precipitancy of action. Loans of the credit of States, of
counties, cities, and even towns, have been authorized, to furnish
capital to railroad corporations, and at the same time they have
been continually allowed to borrow money, at usurious and ruinous
rates of interest. Securities thus obtained, doubted and
comparatively valueless at home, have been pledged to the iron
manufacturers abroad, and their enterprise has been excessively
stimulated, while that of our own manufacturers has been
disheartened and suppressed. These improvement measures have at
last produced their inevitable effect--an undue diversion of
capital into railroad enterprises, a derangement of internal
exchanges at home, and a collapse of the national credit abroad,
and a suspension equally of domestic manufactures and of foreign
commerce. Such are the legitimate results of the improvidence
which caused roads to be built of foreign iron, over the coal and
iron beds in our mountains. I hope, sir, that the House of
Representatives will make the needed initial step in a return to a
wise policy, and will send the miner once more with his torch into
the deserted chambers where the coal and the ore are stored away
by the hand of nature, and will adopt such a policy as will
rekindle the slumbering fires in the forges and furnaces of
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Tennessee and Missouri. It
would be a benevolent work. I do not say that I would force the
Government to assume it merely as a work of benevolence; but I do
say, that since there is need of taxes to avoid debt, I would so
levy the taxes as to secure incidentally that benevolent object."

To show that Mr. Seward indulged in no feelings of personal hostility toward any slaveholder, we quote from his remarks on the death of Senator Rusk of Texas, a man in his politics _utterly_ opposed to Mr. Seward as we can suppose any southern politician, however ultra, to be.

Said Mr. Seward of his fellow-senator:

"On the last day of August, I was reentering the port of Quebec,
after a voyage of thirty days, in search of health, along the
inhospitable coasts of Labrador. The sympathies of home and
country, so long suppressed, were revived within me, and I was
even meditating new labors and studies here, when the pilot, who
came on board, handed me a newspaper which announced the death of
the senator from Texas. My first emotions were those of sadness
and sorrow over this bereavement of a personal friend. When these
had had their time, I tried to divine why it was that he, among
all the associates whom I honored, esteemed and loved here, was
thus suddenly and prematurely withdrawn from the scene of our
common labors; he for whom I thought higher honors were preparing,
and a fuller wreath was being woven; he who seemed to me to stand
a monument against which the waves of faction must break, if ever
they should be stirred up from their lowest depths; he, in short,
with whom I thought I might do so much, and without whom I could
do almost nothing, to magnify and honor the Republic. That
question I could not solve--I cannot solve it now. It is only
another occasion in which I am required to trust, where I am not
permitted to know, the ways of the Great Disposer.

"Mr. President, the teeming thoughts of this solemn hour bring up
once more before me the manly form and beaming countenance of my
friend, though it is but for that formal parting which has, until
now, been denied me. Farewell, noble patriot, heroic soldier,
faithful statesman, generous friend! loved by no means the least,
although among the last of friends secured. I little thought that
our whisperings about travels over earth's fairest lands and
broadest seas were only the suggestions of our inward natures to
prepare for the sad journey[1] that leads through the gate of
death."

[1] Mr. Rusk and Mr. Seward had planned a voyage around the
world together.

Feb. 25, 1859, the famous night session of the Senate on the Cuba Thirty Million Bill occurred. Mr. Seward had previously spoken against the measure, and opposed the friends of the bill, but he was treated with courtesy till this night session, when Mr. Tombs made a fierce onslaught upon him. Let us recall the debate:

Mr. Dixon, of Connecticut, spoke for two hours, replying to the points of Mr. Benjamin's recent speech. Mr. Benjamin had urged, he said, that unless we acquire Cuba, Spain will emancipate the negroes. Mr. Dixon reasoned, that if negro freedom in Cuba would be injurious to the United States, in Jamaica it must be equally so; yet it is not used as an argument to buy Jamaica from Great Britain. Mr. Benjamin had reasoned that compulsory labor was necessary to develop tropical production; but Mr. Dixon thought that the sugar for the world could be grown by free labor; and if it could not, sugar was not a sufficient equivalent for the perpetuation of slavery. In the course of his remarks, Mr. Dixon had occasion to say that slavery degrades free labor.

Mr. Reid controverted this opinion, and said the doctrine was new in the South. He maintained that the white man was not degraded by labor, although he worked at the bench, or in a field, side by side with his slave.

Mr. Dixon refused to admit the correctness of this assertion as an exposition of the general southern feeling.

Mr. Bell traced the rise and progress of the filibuster spirit, until it culminated in the Ostend manifesto, and became reflected in this Cuban bill. Both were in a form offensive to Spain. No nation would be apt to receive kindly an offer made to purchase its territory when accompanied by a studied reminder of its fallen fortunes. His (Mr. Bell's) opinion was that the Ostend manifesto and the present proposal were framed on the perfect knowledge that Cuba could not be acquired, and that they were addressed to what is supposed to be the dominant traits in our national character. The committee's report is skillfully drawn up. It promises to extend the trade and commerce of the North, the peculiar industry of the South, and the agriculture of the West. It is framed to habituate the country to the cry of "war," but we are making no preparation for war. On the contrary, we are trying to get along without a revenue. For himself, he would favor our acquiring control of the island, either as a protectorate or independent power; but he likewise held that the time has not yet come when its possession was necessary, either to our development or security. We are not now in position to accept Cuba, if Spain should offer it as a gift. We cannot accept it until we have built up a navy of sufficient strength to maintain it. The first blow that would be struck in a war with a naval power would be to wrest it from us, and hold its harbors as a means of annoyance against us. The committee's promise that the acquisition of the island will give us the monopoly of sugar is equally fallacious. The increasing production of that article would soon create its production throughout the whole temperate zone. Neither is it true, as the committee says, that when a nation ceases growth, its decadence commences. History does not teach this doctrine of expansion, nor is there any parallelism between the growth of a nation and an individual man. Are our internal affairs so perfectly organized as to leave no range for our ambition? Has even the question of currency been placed on a satisfactory basis? Is our great internal domain reduced to such narrow limits as to afford no scope to our energies? Our territory is now greater than the whole area of the Roman Empire. All this we are bound to protect and defend; and to defend the accessible points of our extended frontier would require 100,000 men, with at least 250 war steamers. The chairman of the Naval Committee says our whole guns are 1,100. The French navy alone has 15,000 cannon afloat, with 500 ships, of which half are war steamers. We are not now prepared for such a war; and yet the President announced, on a recent occasion, that our policy henceforth is expansion.

Mr. Kennedy, of Maryland, addressed the Senate, arguing that the acquisition of Cuba is subversive of the best interests of the South. Referring to the aspect of our domestic affairs, he considered that innovations had been ingrafted on the policy of this government, which inevitably betokens its dissolution. The doctrine of State Rights did well while we were a homogeneous people, bound together by common troubles; but that day has passed. The unbounded prosperity of this country, its fertile lands, and increasing wealth, have attracted to it people from every clime. There is no common interest to bind us together. The Constitution and the Supreme Court are derided, and the Constitution threatens to be but a rope of sand, unable to bind, from having no power to punish infractions of that Constitution. He had been derided as an old Federalist, and the men who so denounced him had now on the table two bills more dangerous, in consolidating the power in the hands of one man, than any that ever emanated from the old Federal party. They had also a bill to give away the public lands to the sweepings of European lazar-houses, to squat thereon, and, under an easy franchise, to control that government, before they know a word of our language, or have one idea toward a comprehension of our institutions. Yet, while offering this extraordinary bonus to the discontented spirits of the old world, they refuse to vote for and denounce the old soldiers' bill. How comes it, he asked, that there is such a diversity of opinion in the democratic party, marching under one banner, and professing common principles?

He proceeded to ask how it is possible for us to hold Cuba, with but fifty-seven ships in our navy to protect the fifty Cuban harbors? Our Paraguay armada consists of canal-boats, and side-wheel steamers. Have senators reflected on the baneful effect the acquisition of Cuba would have on slave property? He remembered the opening of Alabama. Virginia has scarcely yet recovered from the effect of that exodus of her labor to localities where it would be more remunerative. With the slave trade stopped, Cuba would be a perpetual drain, and would put planters into a more unequal contest by withdrawing the labor from their cotton fields into sugar production. It is estimated that five hundred thousand slaves will be abstracted from the southern States, and a thousand millions of capital, within five years. And if we drift into a war with England and France, we will have to maintain a contest with fifteen hundred ships on our extended coast line. These are considerations, for the American people, as they will change the whole course of our policy, and inaugurate a new era of standing armies and enormous fleets. The time is also inopportune for the acquisition of that island. In conclusion, he did not admit the right to bring in a foreign nation, with a foreign tongue and foreign teachings, and incapable of understanding our institutions. In his opinion, we were fast losing all those landmarks which characterized our early nationality, and were fast becoming a mere confederation of heterogeneous States. For these and other considerations, he was opposed to the acquisition of Cuba.

Mr. Wade here moved to adjourn. Lost by 17 to 28.

At eight o'clock in the evening the Senate was crowded--the galleries were one sea of faces. The Republicans wanted to adjourn the discussion to the next day--the Democrats were determined to force a vote on the bill that evening.

Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, moved to postpone the Cuba and take up the homestead bill, and proceeded to speak on the latter.

Mr. Slidell called him to order.

Mr. Doolittle insisted on his motion.

Mr. Johnson, of Tennessee, although he had for fifteen years advocated the homestead bill, asked Mr. Doolittle to withdraw his motion.

Mr. Douglas, as a friend of the homestead bill, made the same request.

Mr. Clark, of Connecticut, as a friend of the homestead bill, moved the Senate adjourn. Lost, by 17 to 30.

Mr. Trumbull asked Mr. Hunter to pledge himself not to bring forward the appropriation bills, to prevent a vote on the homestead bill.

Mr. Hunter would give no such promise.

Mr. Trumbull appealed to Mr. Johnson to stand by and press the homestead bill.

Mr. Bigler asked Mr. Trumbull, for himself and the Republicans, to name the hour at which they would vote on both measures.

Mr. Trumbull, for himself, was ready now, but could not make any pledge for his friends.

Mr. Seward said that after nine hours' discussion on the Cuba bill, it was time to come back to the great question of the age. Two propositions now stand face to face; one is the question of land for the landless, and the other is a question of land for slaves.

Mr. Slidell here rose.

The Vice-President. Will the Senator from New York yield the floor to the Senator from Louisiana?

Mr. Seward. No, sir, I do not.

Mr. Slidell called Mr. Seward to order. He was discussing the comparative merits of the two bills.

The Vice-President decided that Mr. Seward was in order.

Mr. Seward went on with a few words, when Mr. Fitch appealed to the Chair to put the question of order to the Senate, with a view of stopping what threatened to be an interminable discussion.

The Vice-President refused to do so.

Mr. Seward went on, saying: "It is in the Thirty-fifth Congress that the homestead bill has been put aside." He then contrasted the merits of the two bills.

Mr. Toombs said, as to "land for the landless," it carried with it some demagogical power. He despised a demagogue, but despised still more those who are driven by demagogues. What are the other side afraid of? If they do not want to give $30,000,000 to carry out a great national policy, let them say so and not attempt to get rid of the issue by saying, "We want to give land to the landless."

Mr. Wade said the question was land to the landless, or niggers to the niggerless. He would antagonize these issues, and carry the appeal to the country. The whole object of the Democratic party was to go round the world hunting for niggers. They could no more sustain their party without niggers, than they could a steam engine without fuel.

Mr. Fessenden took Mr. Toombs to task, and asked if the language he had used was not in imitation of the great man at the other end of the Avenue (the President), who recently addressed an out-of-door crowd, saying none but cowards shirk this Cuban bill. He told the senator the Republicans did not tremble nor shrink. He referred to the trial of physical endurance at the last session, and hinted that they could endure as much again. He denied that the Republicans were obstructing legitimate business, but said they were opposed to this Cuban measure, by which nothing was intended but a party result.

Mr. Seward was not in the habit of impugning the courage of any man. He believed every senator had sufficient. He himself had enough for his own purposes. But other qualities are also necessary. There is moral courage. There is truthfulness to pledges. The President had power to carry out his pledges, and has he done so? Where is the Pacific Railroad bill? where his protection? where relief to the bankrupt? Lost, sunk, sacrificed, in his attempt to fasten slavery on the Spanish American States. No part of the President's policy has been carried out, but it is all sacrificed to a false and pretended issue. Out of nothing, nothing is expected to come. He (Mr. Seward) had never mistaken the President's policy. He never mistook it for a giant in arms, but for a windmill with sails. Mr. Seward concluded by an energetic declaration that he is to be found on the side of liberty, everywhere and always.

Mr. Toombs replied at some length, till Mr. Johnson, of Arkansas, again raised a question of order, to cut off debate.

At eleven o'clock there was a crowded audience; half the senators were in their seats, while the rest were reading and smoking in the ante-room.

Mr. Doolittle finally declined to withdraw his motion.

At midnight, Mr. Chandler attempted to reply to the remarks of Mr. Toombs respecting demagogues.

The Vice-President ruled that he was not in order.

Mr. Fessenden appealed from the ruling of the Chair.

Mr. Mason again moved to adjourn. Lost by 20 to 30.

The appeal of Mr. Fessenden was then laid on the table.

Mr. Clark then spoke; after which Mr. Doolittle's motion to take up the homestead bill was voted on, and lost, by yeas 17, nays 28.

At last, wearied out, and convinced that the Republicans were not to be intimidated or driven into a vote upon the bill without more discussion, Mr. Slidell, himself, moved an adjournment, at one o'clock at night, which was of course carried.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS.

Stephen Arnold Douglas was born in the town of Brandon, Vermont, on the 23d of April, 1813. His father, S. A. Douglas, was a doctor and native of Rensselaer County, New York. The father removed to Vermont in early life, and was educated at Middlebury College. He was a physician of some eminence. He died suddenly in 1813, leaving two children--a daughter, twenty months old, and a son (the subject of this sketch) only two months of age. The mother of Mr. Douglas, was the daughter of a large farmer in Brandon, Vermont. Upon the death of her husband, she went back to the old homestead which she inherited with a bachelor brother. The brother and sister lived for many years on this retired farm in one of the valleys of the Green Mountains, caring for the two children with economy, prudence and the most ardent affection. The farm-property increased in value, and the sister and mother had no doubt that she could leave her children a comfortable competence, enough to educate them and help them to an independence in after life. After fourteen years had elapsed, the uncle visited the State of New York, and very singularly took the idea into his head of marriage, and returned with a young and handsome wife, who, at the end of a year, presented him with a son. Stephen was at this time fifteen years old, and had received a good common-school education, and he began at once to prepare for college. His uncle was applied to, who by this time began to grow selfish, and desired to keep his property for _his own son_, and he very frankly informed the young man, that he did not possess property sufficient to warrant him in getting a collegiate education, and he advised him to stay at work upon the farm. The farm and all the property attached to it was held in his uncle's name, was legally his, and his mother only possessed a few worn-out acres, barely sufficient to support her and her daughter. Until the marriage of her brother, she had not dreamed of such a contingency and had relied upon their joint property for her children, who had been great favorites with the bachelor, who had frequently promised them all he had. In this change of circumstances, young Stephen did not long hesitate what to do, but apprenticed himself to a cabinet-maker in Middlebury. He remained here for some eight months, working hard, but, at the expiration of that time, he came to some misunderstanding with his employer, and left him. He came back to his native town and entered the cabinet-shop of one Deacon Knowlton, where he remained a year, making French bedsteads of hard, curled maple, which was so severe labor as to injure his health. He was now obliged to leave his employer, and, while waiting to regain his health, he became a student in the Brandon Academy. At the end of another year, he gave up all hopes of being able to prosecute the cabinet business, and determined on trying to get an education. His sister had married Julius N. Granger, and moved to Ontario County, New York. His mother, a little later, married her daughter's husband's father, Gehazi Granger, and Stephen accompanied her, joining the Canandaigua Academy, where he pursued the classical course till the spring of 1833. At the same time, he was also studying law in the village with the Messrs. Hubbell. He was at this time, though young, an ardent politician, and gave abundant evidence that politics would, in after-life, be his chosen field for action. In the spring of 1833, he turned his face westward, and entered the law-office of S. T. Andrews, then a member of Congress. He was here attacked with a bilious fever, and was ill an entire summer, which threw him out of his place and used up his small stock of funds. When he finally recovered, he was without place and money, and in a situation which would completely dishearten most young men. He started on westward, and seeing no good opening, and being reduced to great straits, engaged to teach a school in the village of Winchester, Illinois. When he came there, he had _but thirty-seven and a half cents in his pocket_, but by a fortunate occurrence he was enabled to earn a few dollars as clerk before his school opened. The first Monday in December, 1833, he opened his school of forty scholars, at a tuition of three dollars each. He studied law evenings, and, in the course of the following spring, opened a law-office in the place, having obtained a license upon examination from the Supreme Court judges. He sprang at once into the full tide of success, for in less than a year he was elected State's Attorney by the joint vote of the Legislature? He was but twenty-two years of age, yet, by the very nature of his office, he was pitted against the ablest and most acute lawyers in the State. Nothing but the most untiring industry held him up in this position. He endeavored to make up for his lack of experience by the closest study and application, and he very naturally exerted himself to the extent of all his abilities. The result was that he attained distinguished success. In December, 1836, he was elected to the Legislature of his State, and resigned the office of State's Attorney to sit in the Legislature. He was the youngest member of the House, yet he soon created for himself an excellent reputation as a legislator. The State was then going mad with speculation and wild-cat banking. Mr. Douglas opposed the banking institutions--their increase in any shape or manner--but was overborne by numbers. The majority were in favor of extending the then vicious system of banking, and so voted. The very same year, all the banks suspended specie payments, their paper depreciated to a frightful extent, and after a few years they were wound up. Mr. Douglas participated in the great struggle over internal improvements, giving his voice and vote in favor of any plan of public works which would stand the test of an examination. No public man could go through this ordeal without making enemies, for there were rival routes for canals, rival interests, and Mr. Douglas was too outspoken and independent not to take sides upon these local questions. Of course, he made temporary enemies. The railroad mania now began, and Mr. Douglas favored a plan which put the public works _completely_ in the power of the State. The other plan was to join the State with individual stockholders, but really give the control of the works to the private stockholders. In all these local quarrels Mr. Douglas participated with the enthusiasm and energy which have always been characteristic of the man.

Soon after the adjournment of the Legislature, Mr. Douglas was appointed by the President of the United States, Register of the Land Office at Springfield, Illinois. He desired to return to the law, but the acceptance of the office would be to his pecuniary advantage, and he felt it to be his duty to accept.

In November 1837, he was nominated to Congress by a Convention of the Democratic party in his district. The time was peculiarly unfavorable to him, for the country was in a whirlpool of agitation and the Democratic party of Illinois on many questions of the day, sided with the Whigs, and were against Mr. Van Buren.

The election took place in August, 1838--thirty-six-thousand votes were cast--and his Whig opponent was elected by a majority of _five votes_! At the ensuing Presidential election, the same district gave Harrison a majority of three thousand votes over Van Buren. Mr. Douglas devoted himself to the law till the Presidential campaign opened, when he gave himself zealously up to that. He stumped the State for seven months from one part to the other, making the acquaintance of almost the entire people. The State went democratic. In December, 1840, Mr. Douglas was elected Secretary of State, and in February, 1841, was elected by joint vote of the State Legislature a judge of the Supreme Court. He was now but twenty-eight years of age, and at first resolved to decline this fresh honor; but, upon a reconsideration, he accepted the appointment, though it was to his pecuniary hurt.

In 1843, Mr. Douglas's health became so impaired that he made a trip into the Indian country. During his absence he was nominated for Congress by his friends, and when he returned he resigned his judgship and went into the canvass with great spirit. Himself and competitor were soon prostrated with bilious fever, and they were unable to rise from their beds on election day. The result of the election was the triumph of Mr. Douglas by four hundred votes. At the next election he was reelected by nineteen hundred majority, and on the third election by twenty-nine hundred majority. He did not take his seat in the House under the last election, for, before the time came for the Congress to meet, he had been chosen to the U.S. Senate for six years. [Note: election took place in 1847.]

In April, 1847, M. Douglas was married to a Miss Martin, only daughter of Col. Robert Martin, of Rockingham County North Carolina. A few years since, Mr. Douglas lost his wife, and in the winter of 1856-7 married Miss Cutts of Washington, his present accomplished wife. By his first wife he had several children, and they inherited from their mother a large property in the South, consisting of land and slaves.

In 1838, Mr. Douglas took strong ground in Illinois against naturalization as a necessary pre-requisite to voting. He contended in the State courts--for the question was raised there--that though Congress has the exclusive right to prescribe uniform naturalization laws, yet that naturalization has necessarily no connection with the elective franchise, that being a privilege granted by the States. Mr. Douglas triumphed through a decision of the Supreme Court of Illinois.

In 1841, Mr. Douglas opposed the Bankrupt law of the time, which became so memorable. In the famous Oregon controversy and excitement he belonged to the "fifty-four forty or fight" party, and in his public speeches, as well as in private, took a very determined stand against the pretensions of Great Britain. Here is a paragraph from a speech of his in the House at this time:

"It therefore becomes us to put this nation in a state of defence; and when we are told that this will lead to war, all I have to say is this: preserve the honor and integrity of this 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 it until the question was all 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."

To show the position of Mr. Douglas on the Oregon question, we will quote two paragraphs from one of his speeches:

"I choose to be frank and candid in this declaration of my sentiments on this question. For one, 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 I will never 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 had a valid title to one inch of that country. The question was only one of dispute between Russia, Spain and the United States. England never had a title to any part of the country. Our Government has always held that England had no title to it. In 1826, Mr. Clay, in his dispatches to Mr. Gallatin, said, 'it is not conceived that the British Government can make out even a colorable title to any part of the northwest coast!'...

"The value of the Oregon Territory is not to be measured by the number of miles upon the coast, whether it shall terminate at 49 deg., or at 54 deg. 40', or reach to 61 deg. and the Arctic Ocean. It does not depend on the character of the country, nor the quality of the soil. It is true that consideration is not virtually of attention; but the great point at issue--the great struggle between us and Great Britain--is for the freedom of the Pacific Ocean; for the trade of China and of Japan, of the East Indies, and for the maritime ascendency on all these waters. That is the great point at issue between the two countries, and the settlement of this Oregon question involves all these interests. And in order to maintain these interests, and secure all the benefits resulting from them, we must not only go to 54 deg. 40', but we have got to exclude Great Britain from the coast _in toto_."

In the course of the debate in committee of the House upon resolutions giving notice to Great Britain of the abrogation of the treaty between this country and Great Britain, Mr. Ramsey moved to strike out all after the word resolved (in one of the resolutions) and insert, "That the Oregon question is no longer a subject of negotiation or compromise." We quote from the record:

"Tellers were ordered and _ten_ members passed between them, amid shouts of laughter, cries of 54 deg. 40' forever, clapping of hands and stamping of feet, which the chairman was some time in suppressing; and the negative vote was then taken and stood 146. So the amendment was _rejected_."

The names of the ten "fifty-four forties," were as follows:

ARCHIBALD BELL, of Arkansas.
ALEXANDER RAMSEY, of Pennsylvania.
WILLIAM SAWYER, of Ohio.
T. B. HOGE, of Illinois.
ROBERT SMITH, of Illinois.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, of Illinois.
JOHN A. MCCLEELAND, "
JOHN WENTWORTH, "
CORNELIUS DARRAH, of Pennsylvania.
FELIX S. MCCONNEL, of Alabama.

It will be noticed, that then, as now, Mr. Douglas had the faculty of carrying his State delegation with him.

Mr. Douglas has, while in Congress, favored the appropriation by the general government of money for internal improvements upon the Jackson plan of strictly confining such appropriations to objects of national and general, not of State or local importance.

He has frequently voted for river and harbor bills--voted for the Independent Treasury bill, and has, in and out of Congress, utterly denied the power of Congress over the franchise in the States. Mr. Douglas was an early supporter of the Mexican war. "He opposed the incorporation of the Wilmot proviso into the two or three million bills. He believed the people's time had not come for any action on that subject. Slavery was now prohibited in Mexico. If any portion of that country should be annexed to the United States without any stipulation being made on that point, the existing laws would remain in force. ....If the question was pressed for immediate decision, he could perceive no other mode of harmonizing conflicting sentiments, but by the adoption of the Missouri Compromise Line."

Mr. Douglas voted to bring up the Homestead bill which was before the last Congress and which passed the House, showing that he is in favor of that important measure.

We now come to the history of Mr. Douglas in connection with the Kansas-Nebraska bill.

The battle which he waged with his political opponents and won upon that bill is so fresh in the memory of all our readers that it will not be safe, or necessary, to go into a minute history of the struggle. In the winter of 1852-3, Mr. Douglas reported a Nebraska bill from the Territorial Committee of which he was chairman, which contained no repeal of the Missouri Compromise or enumeration of his peculiar Popular Sovereignty doctrines. In the great debate over the compromise measures in 1850, no one ever called in question the Missouri Compromise. In the winter of 1852-3, Senator Atchison, of Missouri, declared in his seat in the Senate that the Missouri prohibition could never be repealed.

The Kansas-Nebraska bill as reported from the Committee appeared first without any repeal of the Missouri restriction--on the 7th day of January it was first presented. On the 16th, Mr. Dixon, a Whig senator from Kentucky, proposed an amendment to the bill reported from the committee which repealed the aforesaid compromise. This movement was at first opposed by leading Democrats and their organ the _Union_, but in a very few days Mr. Douglas, either because he saw the justice of the repeal of the restriction or thought it would advance his political interests, acquiesced in the amendment and made it a part of his bill. We make a few brief extracts from Mr. Douglas's argument in the Senate, Jan. 30, 1854, in support of his bill:

"Sir, I wish you to bear in mind, too, that this geographical
line, established by the founders of the Republic between free
territories and slave territories, extended as far westward as our
territory then reached; the object being to avoid all agitation
upon the slavery question by settling that question forever, as
far as our territory extended, which was then to the Mississippi
River.

"When, in 1803, we acquired from France the territory known as
Louisiana, it became necessary to legislate for the protection of
the inhabitants residing therein. It will be seen by looking into
the bill establishing the territorial government in 1805 for the
territory of New Orleans, embracing the same country now known as
the State of Louisiana, that the ordinance of 1787 was expressly
extended to that territory, excepting the sixth section, which
prohibited slavery. Then that act implied that the Territory of
New Orleans was to be a slaveholding territory, by making that
exception in the law. But, sir, when they came to form what was
then called the Territory of Louisiana, subsequently known as the
Territory of Missouri, north of the thirty-third parallel, they
used different language. They did not extend the ordinance of 1787
to it at all. They first provided that it should be governed by
laws made by the governor and the judges, and when, in 1812,
Congress gave to that territory, under the name of the Territory
of Missouri, a territorial government, the people were allowed to
do as they pleased upon the subject of slavery, subject only to
the limitations of the Constitution of the United States. Now,
what is the inference from that legislation? That slavery was, by
implication, recognized south of the thirty-third parallel; and
north of that, the people were left to exercise their own judgment
and do as they pleased upon the subject, without any implication
for or against the existence of the institution.

"This continued to be the condition of the country in the Missouri
territory up to 1820, when the celebrated act which is now called
the Missouri Compromise act was passed. Slavery did not exist in,
nor was it excluded from the country now known as Nebraska. There
was no code of laws upon the subject of slavery either way: First,
for the reason that slavery had never been introduced into
Louisiana and established by positive enactment. It had grown up
there by a sort of common law, and been supported and protected.
When a common law grows up, when an institution becomes
established under a usage, it carries it so far as that usage
actually goes, and no further. If it had been established by
direct enactment, it might have carried it so far as the political
jurisdiction extended; but, be that as it may, by the act of 1812,
creating the territory of Missouri, that territory was allowed to
legislate upon the subject of slavery as it saw proper, subject
only to the limitations which I have stated; and the country not
inhabited or thrown open to settlement was set apart as Indian
country and rendered subject to Indian laws. Hence, the local
legislation of the State of Missouri did not reach into that
Indian country, but was excluded from it by the Indian code and
Indian laws. The municipal regulations of Missouri could not go
there until the Indian title had been extinguished and the country
thrown open to settlement. Such being the case, the only
legislation in existence in Nebraska territory at the time that
the Missouri act passed, namely, the 6th of March, 1820, was a
provision, in effect, that the people should be allowed to do as
they pleased upon the subject of slavery.

"The territory of Missouri having been left in that legal
condition, positive opposition was made to the bill to organize a
state government, with a view to its admission into the Union; and
a senator from my State, Mr. Jesse B. Thomas, introduced an
amendment, known as the eighth section of the bill, in which it
was provided that slavery should be prohibited north of 36 deg. 30'
north latitude, in all that country which we had acquired from
France. What was the object of the enactment of that eighth
section? Was it not to go back to the original policy of
prescribing boundaries to the limitation of free institutions, and
of slave institutions, by a geographical line, in order to avoid
all controversy in Congress upon the subject? Hence, they extended
that geographical line through all the territory purchased from
France, which was as far as our possessions then reached. It was
not simply to settle the question on that piece of country, but it
was to carry out a great principle, by extending that dividing
line as far west as our territory went, and running it onward on
each new acquisition of territory. True, the express enactment of
the eighth section of the Missouri act, now called the Missouri
Compromise act, only covered the territory acquired from France;
but the principles of the act, the objects of its adoption, the
reasons in its support, required that it should be extended
indefinitely westward, so far as our territory might go, whenever
new purchases should be made.

"Thus stood the question up to 1845, when the joint resolution for
the annexation of Texas passed. There was inserted in that a
provision, suggested in the first instance and brought before the
House of Representatives by myself, extending the Missouri
Compromise line indefinitely westward through the territory of
Texas. Why did I bring forward that proposition? Why did the
Congress of the United States adopt it? Not because it was of the
least practical importance, so far as the question of slavery
within the limits of Texas was concerned; for no man ever dreamed
that it had any practical effect there. Then, why was it brought
forward? It was for the purpose of preserving the principle, in
order that it might be extended still further westward, even to
the Pacific Ocean, whenever we should then acquire country that
far. I will here read that clause in the joint resolution for the
annexation of Texas. It is the third article, second section, and
is in these words:

"'New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in
number, in addition to said State of Texas, having sufficient
population, may hereafter, by the consent of said State, be
formed out of the territory thereof which shall be entitled to
admission under the provisions of the Federal Constitution.
And such States as may be formed out of that portion of said
territory, lying south of 36 deg. 30' north latitude, commonly
known as the Missouri Compromise line, shall be admitted into
the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each State
asking admission may desire. And in such State or States as
shall be formed out of said territory north of said Missouri
Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude (except for
crime) shall be prohibited.'

"It will be seen that that contains a very remarkable provision,
which is, that when States lying north of 36 deg. 30' apply for
admission, slavery shall be prohibited in their constitutions. I
presume no one pretends that Congress could have power thus to
fetter a State applying for admission into this Union; but it was
necessary to preserve the principle of the Missouri Compromise
line, in order that it might afterward be extended, and it was
supposed that while Congress had no power to impose any such
limitation, yet, as that was a compact with the State of Texas,
that State could consent for herself, that, when any portion of
her own territory, subject to her own jurisdiction and control,
applied for a constitution, it should be in a particular form; but
that provision would not be binding on the new State one day after
it was admitted into the Union. The other provision was, that such
States as should lie south of 36 deg. 30' min. should come into the
Union with or without slavery, as each should decide, in its
constitution. Then, by that act, the Missouri Compromise was
extended indefinitely westward, so far as the State of Texas went,
that is, to the Rio del Norte; for our Government at the time
recognized the Rio del Norte as its boundary. We recognized it, in
many ways, and among them by even paying Texas for it, in order
that it might be included in and form a portion of the territory
of New Mexico.

"Then, sir, in 1848, we acquired from Mexico the country between
the Rio del Norte and the Pacific Ocean. Immediately after that
acquisition, the Senate, on my own motion, voted into a bill a
provision to extend the Missouri Compromise indefinitely westward
to the Pacific Ocean, in the same sense and with the same
understanding with which it was originally adopted. That provision
passed this body by a decided majority, I think by ten at least,
and went to the House of Representatives, and was defeated there
by northern votes.

"Now, sir, let us pause and consider for a moment. The first time
that the principles of the Missouri Compromise were ever
abandoned, the first time they were ever rejected by Congress, was
by the defeat of that provision in the House of Representatives in
1848. By whom was that defeat effected? By northern votes with
free soil proclivities. It was the defeat of that Missouri
Compromise that reopened the slavery agitation with all its fury.
It was the defeat of that Missouri Compromise that created the
tremendous struggle of 1850. It was the defeat of that Missouri
Compromise that created the necessity for making a new compromise
in 1850. Had we been faithful to the principles of the Missouri
Compromise in 1848, this question would not have arisen. Who was
it that was faithless? I undertake to say it was the very men who
now insist that the Missouri Compromise was a solemn compact, and
should never be violated or departed from. Every man who is now
assailing the principle of the bill under consideration, so far as
I am advised, was opposed to the Missouri Compromise in 1848. The
very men who now arraign me for a departure from the Missouri
Compromise are the men who successfully violated it, repudiated
it, and caused it to be superseded by the compromise measures of
1850. Sir, it is with rather bad grace that the men who proved
false themselves should charge upon me and others, who were over
faithful, the responsibilities and consequences of their own
treachery.

"Then, sir, as I before remarked, the defeat of the Missouri
Compromise in 1848 having created the necessity for the
establishment of a new one in 1850, let us see what that
Compromise was.

* * * * *

"Mr. President, I repeat that so far as the question of slavery is
concerned, there is nothing in the bill under consideration which
does not carry out the principle of the compromise measures of
1850, by leaving the people to do as they please, subject only to
the provisions of the Constitution of the United States. If that
principle is wrong, the bill is wrong. If that principle is right,
the bill is right. It is unnecessary to quibble about phraseology
or words; it is not the mere words, the mere phraseology, that our
constituents wish to judge by. They wish to know the legal effect
of our legislation.

"The legal effect of this bill, if it be passed as reported by the
Committee on Territories, is neither to legislate slavery into
these territories, nor out of them; but to leave the people to do
as they please, under the provisions and subject to the
limitations of the Constitution of the United States. Why should
not this principle prevail? Why should any man, North or South,
object to it? I will especially address the argument to my own
section of country, and ask why should any northern man object to
this principle? If you will review the history of the slavery
question in the United States, you will see that all the great
results in behalf of free institutions which have been worked out,
have been accomplished by the operation of this principle and by
it alone.

"When these States were colonies of Great Britain, every one of
them was a slaveholding province. When the Constitution of the
United States was formed, twelve out of the thirteen were
slaveholding States. Since that time six of those States have
become free. How has this been effected? Was it by virtue of
abolition agitation in Congress? Was it in obedience to the
dictates of the Federal Government? Not at all; but they have
become free States under the silent but sure and irresistible
working of that great principle of self-government, which teaches
every people to do that which the interests of themselves and
their posterity, morally and pecuniarily, may require.

"Under the operation of this principle, New Hampshire became free,
while South Carolina continued to hold slaves; Connecticut
abolished slavery, while Georgia held on to it; Rhode Island
abandoned the institution, while Maryland preserved it; New York,
New Jersey, and Pennsylvania abolished slavery, while Virginia,
North Carolina, and Kentucky, retained it. Did they do it at your
bidding! Did they do it at the dictation of the Federal
Government? Did they do it in obedience to any of your Wilmot
Provisoes or Ordinances of '87? Not at all; they did it by virtue
of their rights as freemen under the Constitution of the United
States, to establish and abolish such institutions as they thought
their own good required.

"The leading feature of the Compromise of 1850 was Congressional
non-intervention as to slavery in the territories; that the people
of the territories and of all the States, were to be allowed to do
as they pleased upon the subject of slavery, subject only to the
provisions of the Constitution of the United States.

"That, sir, was the leading feature of the compromise measures of
1850. Those measures, therefore, abandoned the idea of a
geographical line as a boundary between free States and slave
States--abandoned it because compelled to do it from an inability
to maintain it--and in lieu of that substituted a great principle
of self-government, which would allow the people to do as they
thought proper. Now the question is, when that new compromise,
resting upon that great fundamental principle of freedom, was
established, was it not an abandonment of the old one--the
geographical line? Was it not a supersedure of the old one, within
the very language of the substitute for the bill which is now
under consideration? I say it did supersede it, because it applied
its provisions as well to the north as to the south of 36 deg. 30'. It
established a principle which was equally applicable to the
country north as well as south of the parallel of 36 deg. 30'--a
principle of universal application."

Mr. Douglas's bill passed both branches of Congress and became a law, after passing through a severe ordeal both in Congress and before the people. Its passage gave the popular branch of the next Congress into the control of Mr. Douglas's political enemies, for the bill in a majority of the free States was very unpopular.