owed with the weight of years, the Kentucky
statesman, from the retirement he had sought, in recognition of
the general desire of his countrymen, again returned to the theatre
of his early struggles and triumphs. The fires of ambition had
burned low by age and bereavement, but with earnest longing that
he might again pour oil upon the troubled waters, he presented
to the Senate, as terms of final peaceable adjustment of the slavery
question, the once famous compromise measures of 1850.

The sectional agitation then at its height was measurably the result
of the proposed disposition of territory acquired by the then recent
treaty with Mexico. The advocates and opponents of slavery extension
were at once in bitter antagonism, and the intensity of feeling
such as the country had rarely known.

The compromise measures--proposed by Mr. Clay in a general bill
--embraced the establishment of Territorial Governments for Utah
and New Mexico, the settlement of the Texas boundary, an amendment
to the Fugitive Slave Law, and the admission of California as a
free State. In entire accord with each proposition, Douglas had--by
direction of the Committee on Territories, of which he was the
chairman--reported a bill providing for the immediate admission of
California under its recently adopted free State Constitution.
Separate measures embracing the other propositions of the general bill
were likewise duly reported. These measures were advocated by the
Illinois Senator in a speech that at once won him recognized place
among the great debaters of that illustrious assemblage. After
many weeks of earnest, at times vehement, debate, the bills in the
form last mentioned were passed, and received the approval of
the President. Apart from the significance of these measures as
a peace offering to the country, their passage closed a memorable era
in our history. During their discussion Clay, Calhoun, and Webster
--"the illustrious triumvirate"--were heard for the last time in
the Senate. Greatest of the second generation of our statesmen,
associated in the advocacy of measures that in the early day of
the Republic had given us exalted place among the nations,
within brief time of each other, "shattered by the contentions
of the Great Hall, they passed to the chamber of reconciliation and
of silence."

Chief in importance of his public services to his State was that
of Senator Douglas in procuring from Congress a land grant to aid in