ory to statehood,
whether or not slavery should be authorized. These ideas found
expression in various newspapers during the month of December, 1853.
Though the authorship of the new theory is still a matter of dispute,
it is well known that Stephen A. Douglas became its chief sponsor and
champion. The real motives and intentions of Douglas himself and of
many of his supporters will always remain obscure and uncertain. But no
uncertainty attaches to the motives of Senator Atchison and the leaders
of the Calhoun section of the Democratic party. For ten years at least
they had been laboring to get rid of the Missouri Compromise. Their
motive was to defend slavery and especially to forestall a successful
movement for emancipation in the State of Missouri.

From early in January, 1854, until late in May, Douglas's Nebraska bill
held the attention of Congress and of the entire country. At first the
measure simply assumed that the Missouri Compromise had been superseded
by the Act of 1850. Later the bill was amended in such a way as to
repeal distinctly that time-honored act. At first the plan was to
organize Nebraska as a single Territory extending from Texas to Canada.
Later it was proposed to organize separate Territories, one west of
Missouri under the name of Kansas, the other west of Iowa under the name
of Nebraska. Opposition came from Free-soilers, from Northern Whigs
and a few Whigs from the South, and from a large proportion of Northern
Democrats. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise came like a thunderbolt
out of a clear sky to the people of the North. For a time Douglas was
the most unpopular of political leaders and was apparently repudiated by
his party. The first name designating the opponents of the Douglas bill
was "Anti Nebraska men," for which the name Republican was gradually
substituted and in 1858 became the accepted title of the party.

The provision for two territorial governments instead of one carried
with it the idea of a continued balance between slave and free States;
Kansas, being on a geographical parallel with the slave States, would
probably permit slavery, while Nebraska would be occupied by free-state
immigrants. Though this was a commonly accepted view, Eli Thayer of
Worcester, Massachusetts, and a few others took a different view. They
proposed to make an end of the discussion of the extension of slavery
by sending free men who were opposed to slavery to occupy the territory
open for set