keep as one happy, free, and united people. This is the
mission of the great Mississippi valley, the heart and soul of the
nation and the continent."

Did these words have any definite meaning to Webster? He knew nothing of
the West. He sat with his leonine eyes fixed upon young America in the
person of Douglas. No, as for that, Douglas did not know how truly he
was speaking. He could not see in what manner time would fulfill his
words. No, not even though there was thrilling conviction in his great
voice, which filled the Senate chamber.

On the subject of the territories Douglas had offered several bills of
his own. I can't remember their order, their substance, beyond the fact
that they looked to the territorial control of slavery. But I remember a
very cutting reply that he made to one Senator who interrupted him to
ask by what authority a territory could legislate upon slavery. "Your
bill conceded that a representative government is necessary--a
government founded upon the principles of popular sovereignty, and the
right of the people to enact their own laws; and for this reason you
give them a legislature constituted of two branches; you confer upon
them the right to legislate upon all rightful subjects of legislation,
except negroes. Why except negroes? I am not therefore prepared to say
that under the Constitution we have not the power to pass laws excluding
negro slaves from the territories. But I do say that if left to myself
to carry out my own opinions I would leave the whole subject to the
people of the territories themselves."

In a sense Clay was the center of attraction, both because he had
returned after a long absence and because he was expected to use his
conciliatory power toward a settlement which would satisfy both the
North and the South. He had come to Washington expecting to be received
with open arms by President Taylor. He had been disappointed. He was not
overstrong, being in his seventy-third year. But his old charm had not
faded, his power over men had not abated. He had loved a drink, a game
of cards; he was a slave owner, from a slave state; he had not been
consistent in his thinking and his preachment. True to his peculiar gift
of leadership and negotiation, he had framed a compromise which provided
for the admission of California as a free state. This contradicted the
doctrine of the right of the state to come into the Union free or slave,
as it chose. The bill provided further for th