ng it the worst is to shift the burden to another man. In being
driven to do other men's work as well as his own the negro found some
compensation, but his enslaver paid a constant and heavy penalty.

CHAPTER XIII

THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS

The foremost politician of the Northwest, in the early '50s, was Stephen
A. Douglas, United States senator from Illinois. He was a native of
Vermont, and had early gone West and pushed his fortunes with energy,
audacity, and shrewdness. He was an effective, popular speaker; and his
short and stout frame and large head had won for him the nickname of
"The Little Giant." He was a leader in the Democratic party, and a
prominent Presidential candidate, but never identified with any great
political principle or broad policy. He was chairman of the Senate
committee on Territories, and early in the session of 1853-4 he
introduced a bill for the organization of a vast section hitherto known
as "the Platte country," a part of the Louisiana purchase, lying next to
the western tier of States, and stretching from Indian Territory to
Canada; all of which was now to constitute the Territory of Nebraska,
or, as it was soon divided, the two Territories of Nebraska and Kansas.
This region had as yet been scarcely touched by permanent settlers, but
it was the next step in the great onward march toward the Pacific. It
lay north of the line of 36 degrees 30 minutes, above which it had been
declared by the compromise act of 1820 slavery should never be extended.
Douglas incorporated in his "Kansas-Nebraska" bill, a clause declaring
that the prohibition of slavery north of 36 degrees 30 minutes, by the
act of 1820, had been "superseded by the principles of the legislation
of 1850," and was "inoperative and void." Later he added the
explanatory clause: "It being the true intent and meaning of this act,
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." On its face, this was a proposal
to withdraw the congressional prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern
territory, and remand the question to the territorial population. But
the latent purpose to distinctly favor slavery was proved when Senator
Chase moved an additional clause: "Under which (the Constitution) the
people of the Territory, through the