or even serious limitation of the slave power.

The first man to challenge the almost solid cohorts of pro-slavery
Democracy in California was David C. Broderick, United States Senator
from 1857 until his untimely death in 1859. Broderick was the son of a
stone cutter and in early life followed his father's trade. Born in
Washington, D. C., he grew to manhood in New York City. When only
twenty-six years old he became "Tammany's candidate for Congress." He
was defeated and in June, 1849, he too arrived in San Francisco,
determined never to return East unless as United States Senator.
Plunging into the political life of the state as a loyal Democrat he was
sent almost at once to the legislature in Sacramento, where he speedily
became an influential member. In 1851 he was made presiding officer of
the Senate and by 1852 his leadership within the State was so firmly
established that it was said of him "he is the Democratic Party of
California." January 10, 1857, after years of bitter struggle, Broderick
was elected United States Senator, and the following March was duly
received as a member of that august body. From the first his had been a
strenuous career, he had been the storm center of heated contests,
personal and political, in which he had commanded the suffrages of his
fellows so completely that it was said, "men of all ages followed him
like dogs." He had made many bitter and unrelenting enemies, and now
that he had reached the goal of his ambition, he was to enter upon a
last dread battle, the most severe and deadly of all he had known.

Stripped of all misleading complications the question then agitating
Congress and the country was simply this: Shall Negro Slavery be forced
upon the new territory of Kansas against the will of a majority of her
people? This, of course, was only preliminary to the larger question:
Shall the National Government, under lead of the Slave Oligarchy, be