Life of Stephen A Douglas . her, with Masons Fugitive Slave bill was a mass of unrelated measures, jumbledtogether for the illegitimate purpose of compellingsupport of the whole from friends of the severalparts. Clay spoke for two days in support of his greatmasterpiece of compromising statesmanship. Heinsisted that it should be accepted by all for thereason that neither party made any concession ofprinciple, but only of feeling and sentiment, andingeniously sought to soothe the anger of the Northby the assurance that the principle of popular sov-ereignty embodied in the bill was no
Life of Stephen A Douglas . her, with Masons Fugitive Slave bill was a mass of unrelated measures, jumbledtogether for the illegitimate purpose of compellingsupport of the whole from friends of the severalparts. Clay spoke for two days in support of his greatmasterpiece of compromising statesmanship. Heinsisted that it should be accepted by all for thereason that neither party made any concession ofprinciple, but only of feeling and sentiment, andingeniously sought to soothe the anger of the Northby the assurance that the principle of popular sov-ereignty embodied in the bill was not only emi-nently just and in harmony with the spirit of ourinstitutions but entirely harmless, inasmuch as theNorth had Nature on its side, facts on its side andthe truth staring it in the face that there was noslavery in the Territories, proving that the law ofNature was of paramount force. On March 4th Calhoun attempted to speak, butfound himself unable and handed his speech toMason who read it for him. He rejected Clays. SToIm €. Calljottn Life of Stephen A. Douglas. 41 Compromise as futile and denied utterly the rightof the inhabitants of a Territory to exclude accused the North of having pursued a courseof systematic hostility to Southern institutions sincethe close of the Revolution, and cited the Ordinanceof 1787, the Missouri Compromise and the exclu-sion of slavery from Oregon as instances of North-ern aggression; and now, he said, the final andfatal act of exclusion was attempted. Hedenounced the action of the people of Californiain organizing a State without congressional author-ity as revolutionary and rebellious. He grimlyannounced that the South had no concessions tomake, even to save the poor wreck of a once glo-rious Union. He plainly told them that if theUnion was to be saved the North must save it. Itmust open the Territories to slavery. It must sur-render fugitive slaves. It must cease agitating theslavery question. The Constitution must beamend
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