West for their sons and daughters where they would be free from family influences, from associated wealth and from those thousand things which in the old settled country have the tendency of keeping down the efforts and enterprises of young people.”  The hearts of those who, like Douglas, had carved out their fortunes in the new States, responded to that sentiment in a way which neither a John Quincy Adams nor a Winthrop could understand.

Yet the question of slavery in the proposed State of Texas was thrust upon the attention of Congress by the persistent tactics of Alexander H. Stephens and a group of Southern associates.  They refused to accept all terms of annexation which did not secure the right of States formed south of the Missouri Compromise line to come into the Union with slavery, if they desired to do so.[193] Douglas met this opposition with the suggestion that not more than three States besides Texas should be created out of the new State, but that such States should be admitted into the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each should determine, at the time of their application to Congress for admission.  As the germ of the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, this resolution has both a personal and a historic interest.  While it failed to pass,[194] it suggested to Stephens and his friends a mode of adjustment which might satisfy all sides.  It was at his suggestion that Milton Brown of Tennessee proposed resolutions providing for the admission of not more than four States besides Texas, out of the territory acquired.  If these States should be formed south of the Missouri Compromise line, they were to be admitted with or without slavery, as the people of each should determine.  Northern men demurred, but Douglas saved the situation by offering as an amendment, “And in such States as shall be formed north of said Missouri Compromise line, slavery or involuntary servitude, except for crime, shall be prohibited."[195] The amendment was accepted, and thus amended, the joint resolution passed by an ample margin of votes.  In view of later developments, this extension of the Missouri Compromise line is a point of great significance in the career of Douglas.

Not long after Douglas had voiced his vision of “an ocean-bound republic,” he was called upon to assist one of the most remarkable emigrations westward, from his own State.  The Mormons in Hancock County had become the most undesirable of neighbors to his constituents.  Once the allies of the Democrats, they were now held in detestation by all Gentiles of adjoining counties, irrespective of political affiliations.  The announcement of the doctrine of polygamy by the Prophet Smith had been accompanied by acts of defiance and followed by depredations, which, while not altogether unprovoked, aroused the non-Mormons to a dangerous pitch of excitement.  In the midst of general disorder in Hancock County, Joseph Smith was murdered.  Every deed of violence was now attributed to the Danites,