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Rh Isaac). At the close of his speech the meeting unanimously resolved to sustain all the compromise measures, including the fugitive-slave law, and on the following evening the common council repealed their nullifying resolutions by a vote of twelve to one. In December, 1853, Mr. "Douglas reported his celebrated bill to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which formed the issues upon which the Democratic and Republican parties became ar- rayed against each other. The passage of this bill caused intense excitement in the non-slaveholding states, and Mr. Douglas, as its author, was bitterly denounced. He said that he travelled from Wash- ington to Chicago by the light of his own burning effigies. The controversy turned upon the follow- ing provision repealing the Missouri compromise : " Which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by congress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legisla- tion of 1850 (commonly called the compromise measures), is hereby declai-ed inoperative and void ; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the peo- ple thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States." In the congressional session of 1857-'8 he denounced and opposed the Lecompton constitution, on the ground that " it was not the act of the people of Kansas, and did not embody their will."

Mr. Douglas was remarkably successful in pro- moting the interests of his own state during his congressional career. In 1848 he introduced and procured the passage of the bill granting to the state of Illinois the alternate sections of land along the line of the Illinois Central railroad, which so largely contributed to developing the resources and restoring the credit of the state. He was one of the earliest and warmest advocates of a railroad to the Pacific. In foreign policy he opposed the treaty with England limiting the territory of Oregon to the forty-ninth parallel. He also opposed the Trist peace treaty with Mexico. He opposed the ratifica- tion of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, chiefly because it pledged the faith of the United States never to an- nex, colonize, or exercise dominion over any part of Central America. He maintained that the isthmus routes must be kept open as highways to the American possessions on the Pacific ; that the time would come when the United States would be compelled to occupy Central America ; and de- clared that he would never pledge the faith of the republic not to do in the future what its interests and safety might require. He also declared him- self in favor of the acquisition of Culaa whenever it could be obtained consistently with the laws of nations and the honor of the United States.

In 1855 he introduced a bill for the relief of the U. S. supreme court, giving circuit-court powers to the district courts, requiring all the district judges in each circuit to meet once a year as an interme- diate court of appeals under the presidency of a justice of the supreme court, and providing for ap- peals from the district courts to these intermediate courts, and thence to the supreme court, in cases involving large amounts. In 1857 he declared that the only solution of the Mormon question in Utah was to " repeal the organic act absolutely and un- conditionally, blotting out of existence the territo- rial government, and bringing Utah under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States government."

In 1858, and again in 1860, he visited the southern states, and made many speeches. Everywhere he boldly denied the right of secession, and main- tained that, while this was a union of sovereign states independent in all local matters, they were bound together in an indissoluble compact by the constitution, which established a national govern- ment inherently possessing all powers essential to its own preservation. During the exciting session of 1860-'l, Mr. Douglas, as a member of the com- mittee of thirteen, and on the floor of the senate, labored incessantly to avert civil war by any rea- sonable measures of adjustment, but at the begin- ning of hostilities he threw the whole weight of his influence in behalf of the Union, and gave Mr. Lincoln's administration an unfaltering support. In public speeches he denounced secession as crime and madness, and declared that, if the new system of resistance by the sword and bayonet to the re- sult of the ballot-box shall prevail in this country, " the history of the United States is already written in the history of Mexico." He said that " no one could be a true Democrat without being a patriot." In an address to the legislature of Illinois, deliv- ered at its unanimous request, he urged the obliv- ion of all party differences, and appealed to his political friends and opponents to unite in support of the government. In a letter dictated for publi- cation during his last illness, he said that but one course was left for patriotic men. and that was to sustain the government against all assailants. On his death-bed his last coherent words expressed an ardent wish for the preservation of the Union, and his dying message to his sons was to " obey the laws and uphold the constitution."

Mr. Douglas was somewhat below the middle height, but strongly built, and capable of great mental and physical exertion. He was a ready and powerful speaker, discarding ornament in favor of simplicity and strength. Few equalled him in per- sonal influence over the masses of the people, and none inspired more devoted friendship. While con- sidering it the duty of congi'ess to protect the rights of the slave- holding states, he was opposed to slavery it- self. His first wife was the only child of a large slave-hold- er, who in his last will pro- vided that, if Mrs. Douglas should die with- out issue, all her slaves should be freed and re- moved to Libe- ria at the ex- pense of her es- tate, saying fur- ther tiiat this provision was in accordance with the wishes of Judge Douglas, who would not consent to own a slave. He

married, 7 April, 1847, Martha, daughter of Col. Robert Martin, of Rockingham county, N. C., by whom he had three children, two of whom, Robert M. and Stephen A., both lawyers, are living (1887). She died 19 Jan., 1853. He married, 20 Nov., 1856, Adele, daughter of James