Stephen A. Douglas, Western Man: The Early Years in Congress, 1844-1850

It didn't take long for freshman Congressman Stephen A. Douglas to see the truth of Senator Thomas Hart Benton's warning: slavery attached itself to every measure before the U.S. Congress. Douglas' wanted to expand the nation into an ocean-bound free republic yet slavery, and the violent conflicts it stirred, always interfered, as it did with his 1844 bill to organize Nebraska.In 1848, when America acquired 550,000 square miles after the Mexican War, the fight began over whether the territory would be free or slave. Henry Clay, a slave owner who favored gradual emancipation, packaged territorial bills from Douglas' committee with four others. But Clay's "Omnibus Bill" failed. Exhausted, he left the Senate, leaving Douglas in control.Within two weeks, Douglas won passage of all eight bills and President Millard Fillmore signed the Compromise of 1850, Douglas' greatest legislative achievement. This book chronicles how his popular sovereignty doctrine moved the issue of slavery out of Congress on into the ballot box.