rally the Chauvinists of both parties to their standard. While Cass
led the skirmishing line in the Senate, Douglas forged to the fore in
the House.[207]

It is good evidence of the confidence placed in Douglas by his
colleagues that, when territorial questions of more than ordinary
importance were pending, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on
Territories.[208] If there was one division of legislative work in
which he showed both capacity and talent, it was in the organization
of our Western domain and in its preparation for statehood. The vision
which dazzled his imagination was that of an ocean-bound republic; to
that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any
self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his
imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by
contact with actual Western conditions. Finance, the tariff, and
similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to
leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a
continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness. He had
now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be
indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was
made chairman of a similar committee. His career must be measured by
the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was
called upon to solve concerning the public domain. In this sphere he
laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required;
but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound
up more or less intimately with the slavery question. Upon this
delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to
bear? Time only could tell. Meantime, the House Committee on
Territories had urgent business on hand.