compromise is a final settlement.... Those who preach peace should not
be the first to commence and reopen an old quarrel."

This was the man who four years later recommenced and reopened this old
quarrel of slavery. In the meantime something had occurred. In 1852 he
had been the unsuccessful candidate for the democratic nomination for
President, and he had aspirations for the nomination in 1856, when a
nomination would have been equivalent to an election. It thus seemed
politic for him to make some decided move which would secure to him the
loyalty of the slave power.

Upon Stephen A. Douglas rested the responsibility of the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. He was at that time chairman of the Senate
committee on Territories. His personal friend and political manager for
Illinois, William A. Richardson, held a similar position in the House.
The control of the legislation upon this subject was then absolutely in
the hands of Senator Douglas, the man who had "determined never to make
another speech on the slavery question."

It is not within the scope of this book to go into the details of this
iniquitous plot, for plot it was. But the following passage may be
quoted as exhibiting the method of the bill: "It being the true intent
and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or
state, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way, subject only to the Constitution." In other words, no
state or territory could be surely safe from the intrusion of slavery.

Lincoln had been practising law and had been out of politics for six
years. It was this bill which called him back to politics, "like a