though informal, an existence as has the Steel Trust or the Beef
Trust in our own time. This powerful interest allied itself with the
capitalists of the Northeast. In modern phraseology, they aimed to
"finance" the slave interest from New York. And for a time the alliance
succeeded in doing this. The South went entirely upon credit. It bought
and borrowed heavily in the East New York furnished the money.

Had there been nothing further to consider, the invasion of the Senate
by Big Business in the 'fifties might not have taken place. But there
was something else. Slavery's system of agriculture was excessively
wasteful. To be highly profitable it required virgin soil, and the
financial alliance demanded high profits. Early in the 'fifties, the
problem of Big Business was the acquisition of fresh soil for slavery.
The problem entered politics with the question how could this be brought
about without appearing to contradict democracy? The West also had its
incipient Big Business. It hinged upon railways. Now that California
had been acquired, with a steady stream of migration westward, with
all America dazzled more or less by gold-mines and Pacific trade, a
transcontinental railway was a Western dream. But what course should it
take, what favored regions were to become its immediate beneficiaries?
Here was a chance for great jockeying among business interests in
Congress, for slave-holders, money-lenders, railway promoters to
manipulate deals to their hearts' content. They had been doing so amid
a high complication of squabbling, while Douglas was traveling in
Europe during 1853. When he returned late in the year, the unity of the
Democratic machine in Congress was endangered by these disputes. Douglas
at once attacked the problem of party harmony. He threw himself into
the task with all his characteristic quickness, all his energy and
resourcefulness.