the construction of the Illinois Central Railroad. It is but
justice to the memory of his early colleague, Senator Breese, to
say that he had been the earnest advocate of a similar measure in a
former Congress. The bill, however, which after persistent opposition
finally became a law, was introduced and warmly advocated by Senator
Douglas. This act ceded to the State of Illinois--subject to
the disposal of the Legislature thereof--"for the purpose of aiding
in the construction of a railroad from the southern terminus of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal to a point at or near the junction
of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, with a branch of the same to
Chicago, and another to Dubuque, Iowa, every alternate section
of land designated by even numbers for six sections in width on
each side of said road, and its branches." It is difficult at this
day to realize the importance of this measure to the then sparsely
settled State. The grant in aggregate was near three million acres,
and was directly to the State. After appropriate action by the
State Legislature, the Illinois Central Railroad Company was duly
organized--and the road eventually constructed.

A recent historian has truly said:

"For this, if for no other public service to his State, the name
of Douglas was justly entitled to preservation by the erection
of that splendid monumental column which, overlooking the blue
waters of Lake Michigan, also overlooks for long distance that iron
highway which was in no small degree the triumph of his legislative
forecast and genius."

The measure now to be mentioned aroused deeper attention--more
anxious concern--throughout the entire country than any with which
the name of Douglas had yet been closely associated. It pertained
directly to slavery, the "bone of contention" between the North
and the South, the one dangerous quantity in our national politics
from the establishment of the Government. Beginning with its
recognition--though not in direct terms--in the Federal Constitution,
it had through two generations, in the interest of peace, been the
subject of repeated compromise.

As chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, Douglas in the
early days of 1854 reported a bill providing for the organization of
the Territories of Nebraska and Kansas. This measure, which so
suddenly arrested public attention, is known in our political
history as the "Kansas-Nebraska Bill." Among its provisions was
one repealin