mpended. Active leadership by revolutionists
trained in Europe was suppressed, removed; as in one instance we
have seen. One abolitionist mass-meeting followed another in those
days, but the results of all were much the same. Protests and
declamation abounded, plan and leadership lacked. The strained
compromise held. Neither war nor a new party came as yet, disunion
was not yet openly attempted. Moreover, there was a deliberate
intent upon an era of good feeling. Whig and Democrat alike forced
themselves to settle down into the belief that peace had come. If
men were slaves, why, let them be slaves. At that time the
national reflex was less sensitive than it later became with
increased telegraphic and news facilities. Washington was not
always promptly and exactly advised of the political situation in
this or that more remote portion of the country. This very fact,
however, meant a greater stability in the political equilibrium.
Upon the western borders the feeling of unrest now became most
marked; and, more swiftly than was generally recognized, important
matters there were going forward; but even in that direction,
declared the prophets of peace, all now was more calm than it had
been for years.

Six years before this time Mr. Wilkins, secretary of war, had
proposed to organize Nebraska Territory and to extend thither the
army posts; and in that same year Stephen A. Douglas, then of the
House, had introduced a bill for the organization of Nebraska; but
neither effort had had result. Two years later, Douglas, then in
the Senate, once more sought to test the Squatter Sovereignty idea
regarding the new western lands, but once more a cold silence met
his attempts. Six months after that time the same bill, with the
intent of attaching Nebraska to the state of Arkansas, was killed
by Congress, because held to be dangerous. A third bill by
Douglas, later in the same year, was also recommitted. The
"Territory of the Platte" was the next attempt to be dropped. All
these crude attempts were merged in the great Compromise of 1850.
The might of party was brought to bear upon all questions of
principle, and the country was commanded to be calm; indeed for a
time was calm. It was the time of manacled hands and of manacled
minds. Our government was not a real democracy. The great West
had not yet raised its voice, augmented by new millions of voices
pealing the paean of liberty and opportunity for man.

In thi