given power to spread over new territory, at will, the blight and curse
of human bondage? Upon this foremost question of the day, Senator
Broderick stood side by side with Stephen A. Douglas in opposition to
the Buchanan Administration, and its mad attempt to force slavery upon
the people of the New West. The attitude of California politicians on
this matter is evidenced by the fact that the legislature in session at
Sacramento promptly instructed Broderick to vote for the administration
program, and a later legislature condemned him by resolution for failing
to comply with the instructions of its predecessor and declared that his
attitude was a disgrace and humiliation to the Nation. They demanded his
immediate resignation. Let it be noted clearly that Broderick was
condemned, not for opposing negro slavery, but simply and solely for
opposing the extreme southern contention. Not long, however, was
Broderick permitted to display his antislavery sympathies. During the
exciting campaign of 1859, David S. Terry, believing himself aggrieved
because of certain utterances of Broderick, challenged the latter to
deadly combat. Reluctantly, but thereto compelled by long usage in
California, Broderick met Terry upon the so-called "field of honor,"
September 13, 1859. Three days later Broderick was dead, a sacrifice, so
all forward-looking men believed, to the wrath of the slave power. "His
death was a political necessity, poorly veiled beneath the guise of a
private quarrel." This was said at his funeral, and widely accepted
among the people. It has been claimed that the death of Broderick saved
California to the Union; that the revulsion of feeling following his
bloody death was so great that his beloved State became good soil for
the new teaching of Lincoln and the Republican Party. Generously one
would like to accept this theory were not the evidence so strongly
against it. To Broderick belongs the high honor of inaugurating the
fight on the Pacific Coast against the extension of slavery. In the
outset of that conflict he perished, and the manner of his taking off