; that is, for the
right of the people of Nebraska, when they made a state, to have it free
or slave, as they pleased.

%386. The Kansas-Nebraska Law.%--An attempt was at once made to
prevent this. But Douglas recalled his bill and brought in another,
providing for two territories, one to be called Kansas[1] and the other
Nebraska, expressly repealing the Missouri Compromise,[2] and opening
the country north of 36 deg. 30' to slavery.[3] The Free-soilers, led on by
Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Seward of New York, and Charles Sumner of
Massachusetts, did all they could to defeat the bill; but it passed, and
Pierce signed it and made it law.[4]

[Footnote 1: The northern and southern boundaries of Kansas were those
of the present state, but it extended westward to the Rocky Mountains.]

[Footnote 2: It declared that the slavery restriction of the Missouri
Compromise "was suspended by the principles of the legislation of 1850,
commonly called the compromise measures, and is hereby declared
inoperative."]

[Footnote 3: The "true intent and meaning" of this act, said the law,
is, "not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to
form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject
only to the Constitution of the United States." Read Rhodes's _History
of the United States_, Vol. I., pp. 425-490.]

[Footnote 4: May 30, 1854.]

%387. The Struggle for Kansas.%--Thus was it ordained that Kansas and
Nebraska, once expressly set apart as free soil, should become free or
slave states according as they were settled while territories by
antislavery or proslavery men. And now began a seven years' struggle for
Kansas. "Come on, then," said Seward of New York in a speech against
the Kansas Bill; "Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states. Since
there is no escaping your challenge, I accept it on behalf of freedom.
We will engage in competition for the virgin soil of Kansas, and God
give the victory to the side that is stronger in numbers as it is in
the right."

[Illustration: %THE UNITED STATES in 1851 SEVENTY FIVE YEARS AFTER
INDEPENDENCE Showing Railroads and Overland Routes]

This described the situation exactly. The free-state men of the North
and the slave-state men of the South were to rush into Kansas and
struggle for its possession. The moment the law opening Kansas for
settlement was known in Missouri, numbers of men