The Compromise of 1850 was a legislative makeshift that failed toplacate any of the most extreme sectional interests. The battle nextshifted to the settlement of the western prairie. In January 1854,Douglas introduced a bill for organizing governments in the Kansas andNebraska territories. The bill provided that the question of slavery ineach territory would be reserved until it entered the Union as a newstate. At that time, the citizens of the territory would draw up aconstitution and determine whether their state would permit or forbidslavery.
The Kansas-Nebraska bill embodied Douglas's doctrine of popularsovereignty. Since all political power resided in the people, arguedDouglas, it was the people, not the federal government, who shoulddecide the question of slavery in their own territory. Congress shouldgrant territories a liberal degree of political autonomy, and theterritories could then exercise their democratic rights toself-government.
Popular sovereignty had the potential for great public appeal becauseit was closely tied to the ideal of majority rule and the principles ofAmerican constitutionalism. For Douglas, it had even more importantpolitical implications. By removing slavery from congressional debateand transferring it to geographically remote territorial legislatures,Douglas hoped to insulate the federal Union from further sectionalconflict.
Once the Kansas-Nebraska Act passed, however, a new storm of dissenterupted. Northern anti-slavery newspapers attacked the act as aconcession to southern slave interests. Thousands of clergymen acrossthe North, including a group in Chicago, protested the act. TheRepublican Chicago Tribune attacked Douglas as a traitor. Mass meetingswere called, and even Democratic papers began to join the ragingchorus.
Douglas hurried back to Illinois to try to contain the damage, hispassage illuminated, he later claimed, by the flames of his own burningeffigies. He circled the state for two months, confronting hostileaudiences and furious voters. In Springfield, he and a former Illinoislegislator, Abraham Lincoln, gave opposing speeches on theKansas-Nebraska Act, and the two repeated their arguments in Peoria.Douglas returned to Washington in December 1854, stunned by the furythat his legislation had unleashed.
In Kansas, free-soil northerners began to move into the territory,aided by the New England Emigrant Aid Company and other groups.Pro-slavery Missourians also crossed the border, and in 1855 theycaptured control of the territorial legislature. A counter free-soilgovernment was then set up, and Kansas found itself with two competinglegislatures. In May 1856, proslavery forces attacked the free-soiltown of Lawrence, and several days later John Brown and a few brigandsmurdered five unarmed southerners near Pottawatomie Creek.
Far from being insulated from the Congress, the fury over Kansas nowspread to the floor of the Senate. As blood was being shed in Kansas,Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts vented his fury at the "crimeagainst Kansas" and denounced Douglas and two southern colleagues in themost hostile and insulting terms.
Two days later, Sumner was beaten unconscious on the floor of theSenate by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Douglas, whohad played no part in seeking retribution against Sumner, wasnonetheless accused of collusion in the act.
The shadow of Kansas hovered over the Democratic party as it met inCincinnati to select its 1856 presidential candidate. Douglas onceagain worked to secure the party's nomination, but when he realized hecould not win, he withdrew his name and threw his support to JamesBuchanan. In the general election, Buchanan went on, with Douglas'spolitical and financial backing, to win the presidency.
Douglas expected that his loyalty to Buchanan would strengthen theparty and preserve his influence in the new administration. But theissue of self-government in the territories soon made that impossible.A pro-slavery convention meeting in Lecompton, Kansas, drew up aconstitution proposing statehood with the proviso that all property inslaves be protected. Elections for the Lecompton delegates had beenriddled with fraud, and the convention provided no means for a popularreferendum on the constitution as a whole. Voters were given only thesingle option of endorsing the constitution "with slavery" or "withoutslavery." Nonetheless, President Buchanan proposed that Kansas beadmitted under the terms of the Lecompton constitution.
For Douglas, Lecompton was a critical test of popular sovereignty.Since the Lecompton constitution was not a full and free expression ofthe will of the people of Kansas, said Douglas, it could not beaccepted, no matter what position was taken on slavery. Buchanan andDouglas sparred warily for nearly a year before confronting each otherat the White House in December 1857. Douglas announced that he intendedto oppose the Lecompton constitution, and Buchanan responded withmenacing threats. Douglas stormed out of the meeting, telling hisfriends his decision was irrevocable: "I have taken a through ticketand checked all my baggage."
Buchanan followed through immediately on his threats against Douglas.In early 1858, hundreds of Douglas supporters holding patronage jobs inthe federal customs office, marshal's office, and post office weresummarily dismissed. Government jobs were promised to anyone who wouldcome out against Douglas. The mails were ransacked, and pro-Douglascommunications were destroyed or turned over to newspapers for politicaladvantage.
While Buchanan waged fierce partisan war against Douglas, theLecompton constitution came before Congress for final approval.Douglas, who had fallen seriously ill, roused himself from his sickbedto defend popular sovereignty and denounce Lecompton on the floor of theSenate. When the Congress approved the constitution in modified form,it appeared that Douglas had lost. The final vote, though, was taken bythe citizens of Kansas, who voted down the pro-slavery constitution byan overwhelming margin in August 1858. In Douglas's view, popularsovereignty had been vindicated.
STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS AND THE AMERICAN UNION
© The University of Chicago Library
1100 East 57th Street Chicago Illinois 60637
Phone Numbers
