theory of property in slaves was maintained by the Constitution.

As a result of these party deliberations Douglas brought in a second Nebraska Bill, which, though showing a more careful study of the subject than the first, was not materially different in purport. Suddenly a member from Kentucky, Dixon, a pro-slavery Whig, offered what was practically the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His resolution seemed to fall like a thunderbolt in the House. The South was pleased, and in a few days the air became full with the word "repeal." Douglas, to gain Southern favour, for the time was drawing near for another Presidential Convention, took it upon himself to bring this Bill before the House. Before taking this step he received an endorsement of it in writing from President Pierce, and thus fortified he passed the measure successfully through the House, and it was signed on 30th May 1854. The Repeal was gained on the ground that the Missouri Compromise was made null and void by the legislation of 1850, and also that it had been inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress. The Bill held a phrase which Bentham called "a stump speech injected into the belly of the Nebraska Bill." This was that "it was the true intent and meaning of this Act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, or to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution."

While Congress made this gratuitous gift of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise to Southern interest,

the Administration itself was faithfully following its behests. Ten million dollars were paid to Mexico four or five months before the Repeal for 45,000 square miles of territory south of the Gila River of Arizona -territory most likely to be occupied by slavery.

The virtual promise that Congress would no longer of itself dedicate any more territory to freedom gave an added impulse to the South to acquire new territory, where by virtue of climate and situation slavery could be maintained. For this purpose Cuba was almost wrested from Spain, and expeditions were organized against Central America and for new territory on the Texan border. President Pierce went so far as to direct the American Minister to Great Britain (Buchanan, who later was nominated and elected President), and the Ministers to France and Spain, Moore and Soule, to meet and discuss how far the United States could venture in its attack on Cuba. The result was the "Ostend Manifesto " of 18th October 1854, which advised the United States to attempt to buy Cuba, and if Spain refused to sell, then to wrest it from her by force, on the ground that it would be disadvantageous to the United States to have it Africanized, as San Domingo had been.

The sudden display of power on the part of the South, coupled with the bold and arrogant repeal of the Missouri Compromise, alarmed the anti-slavery forces of the North. The battle was called needless in a territory unsuited for slavery by nature and dedicated to freedom by legislation lasting thirty years. The Free-Soil Party naturally led the agitation. They asked that all issues of the various parties be dropped

and a reorganization take place on the question of the Nebraska Bill, as the repeal legislation was called. This was rather difficult to do, because, though the whole South was for it, the North was not so decidedly against it. The two wings of the Democratic Party were kept together by the compromise that they would abide by the decision of the courts on the question of slavery, while the Whigs in the South were as distinctly pro-slavery as the Democrats, and the Whigs of the North did not like to associate themselves with a party which had the opprobrium of Abolitionist. They joined the Know-Nothings rather than go openly with the radical Free-Soilers.

However, the year of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a year of Congressional elections, and that the people of the North, despite party alignments, did stand together on the Nebraska Bill can be shown by the organization of the House of 1853-54, which had a Democratic majority of eighty-four, while the House of 1855-56, the members of which were elected on the Nebraska question, had a majority of one hundred and eight anti-Nebraska men, who, within a year, drew together under the name of Republican.

The apathy of the years fell from Lincoln as he saw the gauntlet thrown in the face of the North. It was fortuitous in his life that the sponsor of the Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the man who stood at the head of the Democratic forces and was recognized as the coming Presidential candidate, should be his old antagonist, Douglas, now senator from Illinois, and a party rival from his own district. It might have been his intimate knowledge of his opponent

that made him rouse himself on the question of the Repeal and take up the fight. He became an outspoken anti-Nebraska man and Douglas's direct opponent in

the field.

The northern part of Illinois, which was peopled by the Yankees of New England, was anti-slavery, and when Douglas came to Chicago he was greeted with hoots and jeers, and was practically forced off the platform. But by the time he reached Southern Illinois he was greeted with open arms. In Springfield he received an ovation. Here the opposing forces, the few Whigs, waited for Lincoln to answer him. The State Agricultural Fair was going on, and Douglas spoke there on the 3rd of October. It was a laboured defence of his position, and he himself called upon Lincoln to reply. The next day Lincoln took the floor and spoke for four hours in the height and ardour of his spiritual regeneration. Douglas, who sat in the front row, often interrupted him, and there was a play of words between them and an acceptance on all sides of a Douglas-Lincoln equality. Herndon said that this anti-Nebraska speech of Lincoln's was the profoundest that he had made in his whole life. "He felt upon his soul the truths burn which he uttered, and all present felt that he was true to his own soul. He quivered with emotion, and the whole house was as still as death."

Lincoln, despite his wishes, for he could ill afford public life, was put up as candidate for the State Legislature, and his friends urged him to follow Douglas and continue the form of debate which he had begun in the State Fair. Lincoln went to Peoria on the 16th of

October, and there answered Douglas in a speech which he himself considered as the truest statement of his own principles, for he wrote it out and had it published as a campaign pamphlet. But Lincoln went no further than Peoria, for Douglas had suggested that they both cease canvassing and return home. Lincoln kept true to the compact, but Douglas spoke again at Princeton, where, he said, Owen Lovejoy, the brother of the Lovejoy who had been shot at Alton, "heckled and nagged him into debate." Lincoln, for all Douglas's excuse, felt keenly that he had been tricked.

After his speech at the State Fair the Abolitionists were anxious to hail Lincoln as one of their own, and Lovejoy tried to get him to address them the same evening. Lincoln was in a quandary, for to attach himself to the Abolitionists meant certain political death, and to refuse was also dangerous at this crisis. Herndon, who was an Abolitionist, but who understood Lincoln's political position, hastened to Lincoln and advised him" to take his son Bob and drive somewhere into the country and stay there till the thing was over." This Lincoln did, and he was saved committing himself on the subject for two years.

Meanwhile he was elected to the Legislature, but the Senatorial term of Shields, a Democrat, which was about to end, made him desirous of obtaining that place. As there was some legal doubt as to whether a member of the Legislature could run for the Senate, he resigned his position to make his canvass more sure. Unfortunately there was a change in the vote from Sangamon, and instead of a Whig victory the Senatorial electors were Democratic. Lincoln, though he held the highest