spirit of the exuberant West, “we have a vast territory, stretching from the Mississippi to the Pacific, which is rapidly filling up with a hardy, enterprising, and industrious population, large enough to form at least seventeen new free States, one half of which we may expect to see represented in this body during our day.  Of these I calculate that four will be formed out of Oregon, five out of our late acquisition from Mexico, including the present State of California, two out of the territory of Minnesota, and the residue out of the country upon the Missouri river, including Nebraska.  I think I am safe in assuming, that each of these will be free territories and free States whether Congress shall prohibit slavery or not.  Now, let me inquire, where are you to find the slave territory with which to balance these seventeen free territories, or even any one of them?"[350] Truer prophecy was never uttered in all the long controversy over the extension of slavery.

With a bit of brag, which was perhaps pardonable tinder the circumstances, Douglas reminded the Senate of his efforts to secure the admission of California and of his prediction that the people of that country would form a free State constitution.  A few months had sufficed to vindicate his position at the last session.  And yet, strangely enough, the North was still fearful lest slavery should be extended to New Mexico and Utah.  “There is no ground for apprehension on this point,” he stoutly contended.  “If there was one inch of territory in the whole of our acquisition from Mexico, where slavery could exist, it was in the valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, within the limits of the State of California.  It should be borne in mind, that climate regulates this matter, and that climate depends upon the elevation above the sea as much as upon parallels of latitude.”  Why then leave the question open for further agitation?  Give the people of California the government to which they are entitled.  “The country is now free by law and in fact—­it is free according to those laws of nature and of God, to which the Senator from Massachusetts alluded, and must forever remain free.  It will be free under any bill you may pass, or without any bill at all."[351]

Though he did not discuss the compromise resolutions nor commit himself to their support, Douglas paid a noble tribute to the spirit in which they had been offered.  He spoke feelingly of “the self-sacrificing spirit which prompted the venerable Senator from Kentucky to exhibit the matchless moral courage of standing undaunted between the two great hostile factions, and rebuking the violence and excesses of each, and pointing out their respective errors, in a spirit of kindness, moderation, and firmness, which made them conscious that he was right.”  Clay’s example was already, he believed, checking the tide of popular excitement.  For his part, he entertained no fears as to the future.  “The Union will not be put in peril; California will be admitted; governments for the territories must be established; and thus the controversy will end, and I trust forever.”  A cheerful bit of Western optimism to which the country at large was not yet ready to subscribe.