FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  
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
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115  
116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Illinois

 

measure

 

Douglas

 

subject

 

Legislature

 
public
 

directly

 

Michigan

 

attention

 
Railroad

Nebraska

 
Kansas
 

Central

 

Senator

 

construction

 

Territories

 

concern

 

mentioned

 

anxious

 

deeper


entire

 

provisions

 

aroused

 

closely

 

repealin

 

country

 

forecast

 

overlooks

 

waters

 

monumental


column

 
overlooking
 

distance

 

genius

 

legislative

 
triumph
 

highway

 

degree

 

generations

 

interest


Federal

 

Constitution

 

suddenly

 

repeated

 

organization

 

chairman

 
Senate
 

Committee

 

reported

 

compromise