y
demanding that the natives should not be permitted to cumber the ground.
They must move on to the arid desert beyond or be carried into the
Southern country, which Davis, as we have seen, was trying to open to
Southern pioneers. It was a real conflict of interest between the lower
South and the Northwest, and in order to win, the Northwestern
politicians must find allies in the East as Clay had done in 1825-36,
though Douglas as an "old-line" Democrat could not so readily see this.

He resorted to management and _finesse_. He found two delegates from
Nebraska in Washington in December, 1853, one from what was soon to be
Kansas, the other from the pioneers of Nebraska. It was natural,
therefore, for him to change his Nebraska bill of the former sessions
into a bill for the creation of two Territories, with the two rival
delegates as their prospective spokesmen in Congress. Besides, Douglas,
who was a consummate politician, would have two more loyal followers and
two other embryo States in his wing of the Democratic party.

[Illustration: Conflicting Sectional Interests, 1850-1860]

Hence Douglas prepared for the removal of the Indians, for the creation
of two Territories instead of one, and he enlisted in his cause the
Senators and Representatives of Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin,
by showing them that their own schemes for the granting of public lands
to assist in the building of railroads would be furthered by their
voting for the opening of Nebraska. Every economic and political
instinct of the people of the Northwest tended to enlist them in the
cause of Douglas and Nebraska. And it was known to most of the Chicago
public and big business men that a Pacific railroad was to be laid from
Council Bluffs, a point already in railroad connection with Chicago, to
San Francisco, in the event of the rapid development of the Platte River
country. But St. Louis and Missouri leaders would oppose this because
they had been fighting since 1848 to get a railway to the Pacific
directly from Kansas City.

There was, however, a vigorous pro-slavery party in Missouri, led by
David Atchison. This party had overthrown Benton, and their first
purpose was the making of Kansas a slave State. It was the western half
of Missouri which now controlled the State, and the commercial element
of St. Louis, to which the Pacific railroad was so attractive, was in
the minority. Douglas won Atchison and western Missouri to his plans by
ho