For the sake of peace Douglas smothered his resentment, and, for a brief time at least, sought to demonstrate his political orthodoxy in matters where there was no conflict of opinion.  As a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, he cordially supported the bill for the purchase of Cuba, even though the chairman, Slidell, had done more to injure him in the recent campaign than any other man.  There were those who thought he demeaned himself by attending the Democratic caucus and indorsing the Slidell project.[781]

It was charged that the proposed appropriation of $30,000,000 was to be used to bribe Spanish ministers to sell Cuba; that the whole project was motived by the desire of the South to acquire more slave territory; and that Douglas was once more cultivating the South to secure the presidency in 1860.  The first of these charges has never been proved; the second is probably correct; but the third is surely open to question.  As long ago as Folk’s administration, Douglas had expressed his belief that the Pearl of the Antilles must some day fall to us; and on various occasions he had advocated the annexation of Cuba, with the consent of Spain and the inhabitants.  At New Orleans, he had been called upon to express his views regarding the acquisition of the island; and he had said, without hesitation, “It is folly to debate the acquisition of Cuba.  It naturally belongs to the American continent.  It guards the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is the heart of the American continent and the body of the American nation.”  At the same time he was careful to add that he was no filibuster:  he desired Cuba only upon terms honorable to all concerned.[782]

Subsequent events acquit Douglas of truckling to the South at this time.  No doubt he would have been glad to let bygones be bygones, to close up the gap of unpleasant memories between himself and the administration, and to restore Democratic harmony.  For Douglas loved his party and honored its history.  To him the party of Jefferson and Jackson was inseparably linked with all that made the American Commonwealth the greatest of democracies.  Yet where men are acutely conscious of vital differences of opinion, only the hourly practice of self-control can prevent clashing.  Neither Douglas nor his opponents were prepared to undergo any such rigid self-discipline.

On February 23d, the pent-up feeling broke through all barriers and laid bare the thoughts and intents of the Democratic factions.  The Kansas question once more recurring, Brown of Mississippi now demanded adequate protection for property; that is, “protection sufficient to protect animate property.”  Any other protection would be a delusion and a cheat.  If the territorial legislature refused such protection, he for one would demand it of Congress.  He dissented altogether from the doctrine of the Senator from Illinois, that by non-action, or unfriendly legislation a Territory could annul a decision of the Supreme Court and exclude