lding out to them that their contention, as old as Missouri itself,
that the Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional, might be granted by
Congress. When this was fully appreciated, Kentucky and Tennessee
leaders became interested. Southern newspapers took up the discussion
and Douglas immediately became a statesman. Even Jefferson Davis was led
to commit himself to the new Kansas-Nebraska Bill when the anti-slavery
men of the East began to attack it. And on Sunday, January 22, Pierce
promised Douglas the official support of the Administration.

The bill now provided for two Territories west of the Missouri River,
for the formal repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and for the adoption
of the old Cass doctrine of popular sovereignty, whereby the settlers in
the new communities were to determine for themselves whether they would
have slaves or not. If any dispute arose as to this a test was to be
made of the question in the United States courts. This looked like a
surrender of a large part of the public domain to the South, and the
repeal of the semi-sacred Compromise was perhaps the boldest proposition
that had ever been offered in Congress. Still the great purpose was the
development of the Northwest, and wise public men might have seen that
the populous free States of the Northwest would inevitably win and make
the 400,000 square miles of Nebraska free territory; and if the railroad
bills which Douglas supported and tied to his main measure by all kinds
of promises passed, the supremacy of the Northwest would be certain.

But the weakness of popular government is the fact that public men are
seldom strong enough to deny themselves the opportunity of an appeal to
the people on a side issue, if such appeal promises political victory.
The day that Douglas introduced his bill, there appeared in the New
York papers, _The Appeal of the Independent Democrats_, signed by
Senators Chase and Sumner and the Free-Soil members of the House. It was
an able protest against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and a
denunciation of the "unscrupulous politician" who made this surrender of
national and free States rights in order to secure for himself the
coveted Presidency. The essential purpose of the Douglas legislation,
the rapid upbuilding of the Northwest and the blocking of the Davis
plans for a Pacific railroad, were entirely overlooked. A wave of
excitement swept over the East and the New England colonies of the
Northwest. Peti