Douglas was not chosen a member of the select Committee of Thirteen.  He could hardly expect to be; but he contributed not a little to its labors, if a traditional story be true.  In a chance conversation, Clay, who was chairman of the committee, told Douglas that their report would recommend the union of his two bills,—­the California and the Territorial bills,—­instead of a bill of their own.  Clay intimated that the committee felt some delicacy about appropriating Douglas’s carefully drawn measures.  With a courtesy quite equal to Clay’s, Douglas urged him to use the bills if it was deemed wise.  For his part, he did not believe that they could pass the Senate as a single bill.  In that event, he could then urge the original bills separately upon the Senate.  Then Clay, extending his hand, said, “You are the most generous man living.  I will unite the bills and report them; but justice shall nevertheless be done you as the real author of the measures.”  A pretty story, and not altogether improbable.  At all events, the first part of “the Omnibus Bill,” reported by the Committee of Thirteen, consisted of Douglas’s two bills joined together by a wafer.[355]

There was one highly significant change in the territorial bills inside the Omnibus.  Douglas’s measures had been silent on the slavery question; these forbade the territorial legislatures to pass any measure in respect to African slavery, restricting the powers of the territorial legislatures at a vital point.  Now on this question Douglas’s instructions bound him to an affirmative vote.  He was in the uncomfortable and hazardous position of one who must choose between his convictions, and the retention of political office.  It was a situation all the more embarrassing, because he had so often asserted the direct responsibility of a representative to his constituents.  He extricated himself from the predicament in characteristic fashion.  He reaffirmed his convictions; sought to ward off the question; but followed instructions when he had to give his vote.  He obeyed the letter, but violated the spirit of his instructions.

In the debates on the Omnibus Bill, Douglas reiterated his theory of non-interference with the right of the people to legislate for themselves on the question of slavery.  He was now forced to further interesting assertions by some pointed questions from Senator Davis of Mississippi.  “The Senator says that the inhabitants of a territory have a right to decide what their institutions shall be.  When?  By what authority?  How many of them?” Douglas replied:  “Without determining the precise number, I will assume that the right ought to accrue to the people at the moment they have enough to constitute a government....  Your bill concedes that a representative government is necessary—­a government founded upon the principles of popular sovereignty, and the right of the people to enact their own laws; and for this reason you give them a legislature constituted