Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 2).djvu/236

214 throughout the convention controlling more than enough votes to prevent any nomination under the two-third rule. On the sixteentli ballot he received 121 votes ; but, as he was opposed to the principle of the two-third rule, he at once withdrew in favor of Buchanan, who had received a majority, thus securing his nomination. At the Democratic na- tional convention in Charleston in 1860, on the first ballot he received 1451 votes out of 252-J cast. On the twenty-third ballot he received 152^ votes, which was not. only a large majority of the votes cast, but also a majority of all those entitled to representation. The convention having adjourned to Baltimore, he received on the first ballot 17J5| out of 190^ votes cast. On the second ballot he received 18H votes out of 194^-, and his nomination was then made unanimous. The seceding delegates nominated John C. Breckenridge. Abraham Lin- coln was the nominee of the Republican party, and John Bell of the Constitutional Union party. Of the electoral votes only twelve were cast for Doug- las, although he received 1,375,157 of the popular votes, distributed through every state in the Union. . Mr. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes and 1,86G,- 352 popular votes. From the age of twenty-one till his death, with the exception of about two years, Mr. Douglas's entire life was devoted to the public service. During his congressional cai'eer his name was prominently associated with numer- ous important measures, many of which were the offspring of his own mind or received its control- ling impress. In the house of representatives he maintained that the title of the United States to the whole of Oregon up to latitude 54° 40' N. was " clear and unquestionable." ?Ie declared that he " never would, now or hereafter, yield up one inch of Oregon either to Great Britain or any other gov- ernment." He advocated the policy of giving no- tice to terminate the joint occupation, of establish- ing a territorial government over Oregon protected by a sufficient military force, and of putting the country at once in a state of preparation, so that if war should result from the assertion of our just rights we might drive " Great Britain and the last vestiges of royal authority from the continent of North America, and make the United States an ocean-bound republic." In advocating the bill re- funding the fine imposed on Gen. Jackson by Judge Hall, he said : " I maintain that, in the exer- cise of the power of proclaiming martial law, Gen. Jackson did not violate the constitution nor assume to himself any authority not fully authorized and legalized by his position, his duty, and the un- avoidable necessity of the case. . . . His power was commensurate with his duty, and he was author- ized to use the means essential to its performance. . . . There are exigencies in the history of nations when necessity becomes the paramount law, to which all other considerations must yield." Gen. Jackson personally thanked Mr. Douglas for this speech, and a copy of it was found among Jack- son's papers endorsed by him : " This speech con- stitutes my defence." Mr. Douglas was among the earliest advocates of the annexation of Texas, and, after the treaty for that object had failed in the senate, he introduced joint resolutions having prac- tically the same effect. As chairman of the com- mittee on territories in 1846, he reported the joint resolution by which Texas was declared to be one of the United States, and he vigorously supported the administration of President Polk in the ensu- ing war with Mexico. He was for two years chair- man of the committee on territories in the house (then its most important committee in view of the slavery question), and became chairman of the same committee in the senate immediately upon entering that body. This position he held for eleven years, until removed in December, 1858, on account of his opposition to some of the measures of President Buchanan's administration. During this time he reported and carried through the bills organizing the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mexico, Utah, Washington, Kansas, and Ne- braska, and also those for the admission of the states of Iowa, Wisconsin, California, Minnesota, and Oregon.

On the question of slavery in the territories he early took the position, which he consistently main- tained, that congress should not interfere, but that the people of each state and territory should be al- lowed to regulate their domestic institutions to suit themselves. In accordance with this principle he opposed the Wilraot proviso when it passed the house of representatives in 1847, and afterward in the senate when it was offered as an amendment to the bill for the organization of the territory of Oregon. Although opposed to the principles in- volved in the Missouri compromise, he preferred, as it had been so long acquiesced in, to carry it out in good faith rather than expose the country to renewed sectional agitation ; and hence, in August, 1848, he offered an amendment to the Oregon bill, extending the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific ocean, thus prohibiting slavery in all the territory north of the parallel of 36° 30', and by implication tolerating it south of that line. This amendment was adopted in the senate by a large majority, receiving the support of every southern and several northern senators ; but was defeated in the house by nearly a sectional vote. This action of the house of representatives, which Mr. Douglas regarded as a practical repudiation of the principle of the Missouri compromise, together with the re- fusal of the senate to prohibit slavery in all the territories, gave rise to the sectional agitation of 1849-'50, which was temporarily quieted by the legislation known as the " compromise measures of 1850," the most famous of which was the fugitive- slave law (see Clay, Henry, vol. i., page 644). Mr. Douglas strongly supported these measures, the first four having been originally reported by him from the committee on territories. The two others, including the fugitive-slave law, were added by the committee of thirteen, and the measures were re- ported back by its chairman, Henry Clay. On his return to Chicago, the city council passed resolu- tions denouncing him as a traitor, and the meas- ures as violations of the law of God and of the constitution ; enjoining the city police to disregard the laws, and urging the citizens not to obey them. The next evening a large meeting of citizens was held, at which it was resolved to " defy death, the dungeon, and the grave," in resistance to the exe- cution of the law. Mr. Douglas immediately ap- peared upon the stand, and announced that on the following evening he would speak at the same place in defence of his course. Accordingly, on 23 Oct., he defended the entire series of measures in a speech in which he defined their principles as fol- lows : " These measures are predicated upon the great fundamental principle that every people ought to possess the right of framing and regu- lating their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in their own way. . . . These things are all confided by the constitution to each state to decide for itself, and I know of no reason why the same principle should not be extended to the territories." This constituted the celebrated doc- trine of " Popular Sovereignty," sometimes called by its opponents " squatter sovereignty " (see Butts,