geographical center of the State; by 1856, the northern counties had already established a political equipoise.  The great city on Lake Michigan, a lusty young giant, was yearly becoming more conscious of its commercial and political possibilities.  Douglas had natural affinities with Chicago.  It was thoroughly American, thoroughly typical of that restless, aggressive spirit which had sent him, and many another New Englander, into the great interior basin of the continent.  There was no other city which appealed so strongly to his native instincts.  From the first he had been impressed by its commercial potentialities.  He had staked his own fortunes upon its invincible prosperity by investing in real estate, and within a few years he had reaped the reward of his faith in unseen values.  His holdings both in the city and in Cook County advanced in value by leaps and bounds, so that in the year 1856, he sold approximately one hundred acres for $90,000.  With his wonted prodigality, born of superb confidence in future gains, he also deeded ten acres of his valuable “Grove Property” to the trustees of Chicago University.[592] Yet with a far keener sense of honor than many of his contemporaries exhibited, he refused to speculate in land in the new States and Territories, with whose political beginnings he would be associated as chairman of the Committee on Territories.  He was resolved early in his career “to avoid public suspicion of private interest in his political conduct."[593]

The gift to Chicago University was no doubt inspired in part at least by local pride; yet it was not the first nor the only instance of the donor’s interest in educational matters.  No one had taken greater interest in the bequest of James Smithson to the United States.  At first, no doubt, Douglas labored under a common misapprehension regarding this foundation, fancying that it would contribute directly to the advancement and diffusion of the applied sciences; but his support was not less hearty when he grasped the policy formulated by the first secretary of the institution.  He was the author of that provision in the act establishing the Smithsonian Institution, which called for the presentation of one copy of every copyrighted book, map, and musical composition, to the Institution and to the Congressional Library.[594] He became a member of the board of regents and retained the office until his death.

With his New England training Douglas believed profoundly in the dignity of labor; not even his Southern associations lessened his genuine admiration for the magnificent industrial achievements of the Northern mechanic and craftsman.  He shared, too, the conviction of his Northern constituents, that the inventiveness, resourcefulness, and bold initiative of the American workman was the outcome of free institutions, which permitted and encouraged free and bold thinking.  The American laborer was not brought up to believe it “a crime to think in opposition to the consecrated errors of olden times."[595] It was impossible for a man so thinking to look with favor upon the slave-labor system of the South.  He might tolerate the presence of slavery in the South; but in his heart of hearts he could not desire its indefinite extension.