Nor did he seem to entertain a doubt as to the universal appeal which his principle would make:  “I say frankly that, in my opinion, this measure will be as popular at the North as at the South, when its provisions and principles shall have been fully developed and become well understood.  The people at the North are attached to the principles of self-government; and you cannot convince them that that is self-government which deprives a people of the right of legislating for themselves, and compels them to receive laws which are forced upon them by a legislature in which they are not represented."[494]

The rising indignation at the North against the Kansas-Nebraska bill was felt much more directly in the House than in the Senate.  So strong was the counter-current that the Senate bill was at first referred to the Committee of the Whole, and thus buried for weeks under a mass of other bills.  Many believed that the bill had received a quietus for the session.  Not so Douglas and his friend Richardson of Illinois, who was chairman of the Committee on Territories.  With a patience born of long parliamentary experience, they bided their time.  In the meantime, every possible influence was brought to bear upon recalcitrant Democrats.  And just here the wisdom of Douglas, in first securing the support of the administration, was vindicated.  All those devices were invoked which President and cabinet could employ through the use of the Federal patronage, so that when Richardson, on the 8th of May, called upon the House to lay aside one by one the eighteen bills which preceded the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he was assured of a working majority.  The House bill having thus been reached, Richardson substituted for it the Senate bill, minus the Clayton amendment.  When he then announced that only four days would be allowed for debate, the obstructionists could no longer contain themselves.  Scenes of wild excitement followed.  In the end, the friends of the bill yielded to the demand for longer discussion.  Debate was prolonged until May 22d, when the bill passed by a vote of 113 to 110, in the face of bitter opposition.

Through all these exciting days, Douglas was constantly at Richardson’s side, cautioning and advising.  He was well within the truth when he said, in confidential chat with Madison Cutts, “I passed the Kansas-Nebraska Act myself.  I had the authority and power of a dictator throughout the whole controversy in both houses.  The speeches were nothing.  It was the marshalling and directing of men, and guarding from attacks, and with a ceaseless vigilance preventing surprises."[495]