Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/640

 ." That "this repose is to suffer no shock during my official term, if I have power to avert it, those who placed me here may be assured."

Notwithstanding the legislation of 1850, the platforms of the political parties, and the asseverations of the president, the "shock" came. As Mr. Chase described it, "the rattling thunder broke from a cloudless firmament, and the storm burst forth in fury." But this time the agitation was not to be confined to the floor of congress — the "people" were invited to take a part in it.

On the 15th of December, 1853, Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, submitted to the senate a bill to organize the territory of Nebraska, which was referred to the committee on territories, and subsequently reported by Mr. Douglas of said committee with amendments. The following is the accompanying report:

"The principal amendments which your committee deem it their duty to commend to the favorable action of the senate, in a special report, are those in which the principles established by the compromise measures of 1850, so far as they are applicable to territorial organizations, are proposed to be affirmed and carried into practical operation within the limits of the new territory.

"The wisdom of those measures is attested, not less by their salutary and beneficial effects, in allaying sectional agitation and restoring peace and harmony to an irritated and distracted people, than by the cordial and almost universal approbation with which they have been received and sanctioned by the whole country. In the judgment of your committee, those measures were intended to have a far more comprehensive and enduring effect than the mere adjustment of difficulties arising out of the recent acquisition of Mexican territory. They were designed to establish certain great principles, which would not only furnish adequate remedies for existing evils, but, in all time to come, avoid the perils of similar agitation, by withdrawing the question of slavery from the halls of congress and the political arena, and committing it to the arbitration of those who were immediately interested in, and alone responsible for its consequences. With a view of conforming their action to what they regard as the settled policy of the government, sanctioned by the approving voice of the American people, your committee have deemed it their duty to incorporate and perpetuate, in their territorial bill, the principles and spirit of those measures. If any other considerations were necessary to render the propriety of this course imperative upon the committee, they may be found in the fact that the Nebraska country occupies the same relative position to the slavery question, as did New Mexico and Utah, when those territories were organized.

"It was a disputed point, whether slavery was prohibited by law in the country acquired from Mexico. On the one hand, it was contended, as a legal proposition, that slavery, having been prohibited by the enactments of Mexico, according to the laws of nations, we received the country with all its local laws and domestic institutions attached to the soil, so far as they did not conflict with the constitution of the United States; and that a law either protecting or prohibiting slavery, was not repugnant to that instrument, as was evidenced by the fact that one half of the states of the Union tolerated, while