of an ocean-bound republic; to that manifest destiny he had dedicated his talents, not by any self-conscious surrender, but by the irresistible sweep of his imagination, always impressed by things in the large and reinforced by contact with actual Western conditions.  Finance, the tariff, and similar public questions of a technical nature, he was content to leave to others; but those which directly concerned the making of a continental republic he mastered with almost jealous eagerness.  He had now attained a position, which, for fourteen years, was conceded to be indisputably his, for no sooner had he entered the Senate than he was made chairman of a similar committee.  His career must be measured by the wisdom of his statesmanship in the peculiar problems which he was called upon to solve concerning the public domain.  In this sphere he laid claim to expert judgment; from him, therefore, much was required; but it was the fate of nearly every territorial question to be bound up more or less intimately with the slavery question.  Upon this delicate problem was Douglas also able to bring expert testimony to bear?  Time only could tell.  Meantime, the House Committee on Territories had urgent business on hand.

Texas was now knocking at the door of the Union, and awaited only a formal invitation to become one of the family of States, as the chairman was wont to say cheerily.  Ten days after the opening of the session Douglas reported from his committee a joint resolution for the admission of Texas, “on an equal footing with the original states in all respects whatever."[209] There was a certain pleonasm about this phrasing that revealed the hand of the chairman:  the simple statement must be reinforced both for legal security and for rhetorical effect.  Six days later, after but a single speech, the resolution went to a third reading and was passed by a large majority.[210] Voted upon with equal dispatch by the Senate, and approved by the President, the joint resolution became law, December 29, 1845.

While the belligerent spirit of Congress had abated somewhat since the last session, no such change had passed over the gentleman from Illinois.  No sooner had the Texas resolution been dispatched than he brought in a bill to protect American settlers in Oregon, while the joint treaty of occupation continued.  He now acquiesced, it is true, in the more temperate course of first giving Great Britain twelve months’ notice before terminating this treaty; but he was just as averse as ever to compromise and arbitration.  “For one,” said he, “I never will be satisfied with the valley of the Columbia, nor with 49 deg., nor with 54 deg. 40’; nor will I be, while Great Britain shall hold possession of one acre on the northwest coast of America.  And, Sir, I never will agree to any arrangement that shall recognize her right to one inch of soil upon the northwest coast; and for this simple reason:  Great Britain never did own, she never did have a valid title to one inch of the country."[211] He moved that the question of title should not be left to arbitration.[212] His countrymen, he felt sure, would never trust their interests to European arbitrators, prejudiced as they inevitably would be by their monarchical environment.[213] This feeling was, indeed, shared by the President and his cabinet advisers.