The obloquy which Douglas encountered in Washington was mere child’s play, as compared with the storm of abuse that met him on his return to Chicago.  He afterwards said that he could travel from Boston to Chicago by the light of his own effigies.[501] “Traitor,” “Arnold,”—­with a suggestion that he had the blood of Benedict Arnold in his veins,—­“Judas,” were epithets hurled at him from desk and pulpit.  He was presented with thirty pieces of silver by some indignant females in an Ohio village.[502] So incensed were the people of Chicago, that his friends advised him not to return, fearing that he would be assaulted.[503] But fear was a sensation that he had never experienced.  He went to Chicago confident that he could silence opposition as he had done four years before.[504]

Three or four days after his return, he announced that on the night of September 1st, he would address his constituents in front of North Market Hall.  The announcement occasioned great excitement.  The opposition press cautioned their readers not to be deceived by his sophistries, and hinted broadly at the advisability of breaking up the meeting.[505] Many friends of Douglas believed that personal violence was threatened.  During the afternoon flags were hung at half mast on the lake boats; bells were tolled, as the crowds began to gather in the dusk of the evening; some public calamity seemed to impend.  At a quarter past eight, Douglas began to address the people.  He was greeted with hisses.  He paused until these had subsided.  But no sooner did he begin again than bedlam broke loose.  For over two hours he wrestled with the mob, appealing to their sense of fairness; but he could not gain a hearing.  Finally, for the first time in his career, he was forced to admit defeat.  Drawing his watch from his pocket and observing that the hour was late, he shouted, in an interval of comparative quiet, “It is now Sunday morning—­I’ll go to church, and you may go to Hell!” At the imminent risk of his life, he went to his carriage and was driven through the crowds to his hotel.[506]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES: 

[Footnote 415:  House Bill No. 444; 28 Cong., 2 Sess.]

[Footnote 416:  Executive Docs., 32 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 124.]

[Footnote 417:  House Bill, No. 170; 30 Cong., 1 Sess.]

[Footnote 418:  Globe, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1161.]

[Footnote 419:  Ibid., pp. 1684-1685.]

[Footnote 420:  Ibid., p. 1760.  Clingman afterward admitted that the Southern opposition was motived by reluctance to admit new free Territories.  “This feeling was felt rather than expressed in words.”  Clingman, Speeches and Writings, p. 334.]

[Footnote 421:  Globe, 32 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 1762.]

[Footnote 422:  See Davis, Union Pacific Railway, Chap. 3.]

[Footnote 423:  See Benton’s remarks in the House, Globe, 31 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 56.]