Stephen A. Douglas by Allen Johnson

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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.

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