by Senator David E. Atchison.[425] It was while his fortunes were waning in Missouri, that Benton interested himself in the Central Highway and in the Wyandots.  His project, indeed, contemplated grants of land along the route, when the Indian title should be extinguished.[426] Possibly it was Benton’s purpose to regain his footing in Missouri politics by advocating this popular measure; possibly, as his opponents hinted, he looked forward to residing in the new Territory and some day becoming its first senator; at all events, he came to look upon the territorial organization of Nebraska as an integral part of his larger railroad project.

In this wise, Missouri factional quarrels, Indian titles, railroads, territorial government for Nebraska, and land grants had become hopelessly tangled, when another bill for the organization of Nebraska came before Congress in February, 1853.[427] The measure was presented by Willard P. Hall, a representative from Missouri, belonging to the Benton faction.  His advocacy of the bill in the House throws a flood of light on the motives actuating both friends and opponents.  Representatives from Texas evinced a poignant concern for the rights of the poor Indian.  Had he not been given these lands as a permanent home, after being driven from the hunting ground of his fathers?  To be sure, there was a saving clause in the bill which promised to respect Indian claims, but zeal for the Indian still burned hotly in the breasts of these Texans.  Finally, Hall retorted that Texas had for years been trying to drive the wild tribes from her borders, so as to make the northern routes unsafe and thus to force the tide of emigration through Texas.[428] “Why, everybody is talking about a railroad to the Pacific.  In the name of God, how is the railroad to be made, if you will never let people live on the lands through which the road passes?"[429]

In other words, the concern of the Missourians was less for the unprotected emigrant than for the great central railroad; while the South cared less for the Indian than for a southern railroad route.  The Nebraska bill passed the House by a vote which suggests the sectional differences involved in it.[430]

It was most significant that, while a bill to organize the Territory of Washington passed at once to a third reading in the Senate, the Nebraska bill hung fire.  Douglas made repeated efforts to gain consideration for it; but the opposition seems to have been motived here as it was in the House.[431] On the last day of the session, the Senate entered upon an irregular, desultory debate, without a quorum.  Douglas took an unwilling part.  He repeated that the measure was “very dear to his heart,” that it involved “a matter of immense importance,” that the object in view was “to form a line of territorial governments extending from the Mississippi valley to the Pacific ocean.”  The very existence of the Union seemed to him to depend upon this policy.  For eight years he had advocated