[Footnote 355:  See Sheahan, Douglas, pp. 132-134.  See also Douglas’s speech in the Senate, Dec. 23, 1851, and the testimony of Jefferson Davis, Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1830.]

[Footnote 356:  Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1115.]

[Footnote 357:  Ibid., p. 1116.]

[Footnote 358:  Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1134-1135.]

[Footnote 359:  Ibid., p. 1135.]

[Footnote 360:  Ibid., p. 1134.]

[Footnote 361:  Ibid., pp. 1143-1144.]

[Footnote 362:  Globe, 36 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 305-306; also Cutts, Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 80-81.]

[Footnote 363:  Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., App., pp. 1480-1481.  Rhodes, History of the United States, I, p. 181.]

[Footnote 364:  Rhodes, History of the United States, I, pp. 182-183.]

[Footnote 365:  Globe, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., App., p. 66.]

[Footnote 366:  Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 1829-1830.]

[Footnote 367:  Ibid., p. 1830.]

[Footnote 368:  See his speech in Chicago; Sheahan, Douglas, p. 169.]

[Footnote 369:  When Douglas reported the bills, he announced that there was a difference of opinion in the committee on some points, in regard to which each member reserved the right of stating his own opinion and of acting in accordance therewith.  See Globe, 31 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 592.]

CHAPTER X

YOUNG AMERICA

When Douglas reached Chicago, immediately after the adjournment of Congress, he found the city in an uproar.  The strong anti-slavery sentiment of the community had been outraged by the Fugitive Slave Law.  Reflecting the popular indignation, the Common Council had adopted resolutions condemning the act as a violation of the Constitution and a transgression of the laws of God.  Those senators and representatives who voted for the bill, or “who basely sneaked away from their seats and thereby evaded the question,” were stigmatized as “fit only to be ranked with the traitors, Benedict Arnold and Judas Iscariot.”  This was indeed a sorry home-coming for one who believed himself entitled to honors.

Learning that a mass-meeting was about to indorse the action of the city fathers, Douglas determined to face his detractors and meet their charges.  Entering the hall while the meeting was in progress, he mounted the platform, and announced that on the following evening he would publicly defend all the measures of adjustment.  He was greeted with hisses and jeers for his pains; but in the end he had the satisfaction of securing an adjournment until his defense had been heard.