and every politician discussed the moral bearings of his tenets.

In no locality was this excitement more intense than in Illinois. There
were special reasons for this. It is a very long state, stretching
nearly five hundred miles from north to south. Now, it is a general law
among Americans that migration follows very nearly the parallels of
latitude from East to West. For this reason the northern portion of the
state was mostly settled by northern people whose sympathies were
against slavery; while the southern portion of the state was mostly
settled by southern people, whose sympathies were in favor of slavery.
The state was nearly evenly divided, and the presence of these two
parties kept up a continual friction and intensified the feeling on
both sides.

To this general condition must be added the fact that Illinois was the
home of Douglas, who was personally and almost solely responsible for
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. In that state he had risen from
obscurity to be the most conspicuous man in the United States. His
party had a decided majority in the state, and over it he had absolute
control. He was their idol. Imperious by nature, shrewd, unscrupulous,
a debater of marvelous skill, a master of assemblies, a man who knew
not the meaning of the word fail--this was Douglas. But his home was in
Chicago, a city in which the anti-slavery sentiment predominated.

When Douglas returned to his state, _his_ in more than one sense, it
was not as a conquering hero. He did not return direct from Washington,
but delayed, visiting various portions of the country. Possibly this
was due to the urgency of business, probably it was in order to give
time for the excitement to wear itself out. But this did not result,
and his approach was the occasion of a fresh outbreak of feeling in