subtle influences of a home and a wife dominated by Southern culture, were now to work upon him.  Constant intercourse with Southern men and women emancipated him from the narrowness of his hereditary environment.[298] He was bound to acquire an insight into the nature of Southern life; he was compelled to comprehend, by the most tender and intimate of human relationships, the meaning and responsibility of a social order reared upon slave labor.

A year had hardly passed when the death of Colonel Martin left Mrs. Douglas in possession of all his property in North Carolina.  It had been his desire to put his Pearl River plantation, the most valuable of his holdings, in the hands of his son-in-law.  But Douglas had refused to accept the charge, not wishing to hold negroes.  Indeed, he had frankly told Colonel Martin that the family already held more slaves than was profitable.[299] In his will, therefore, Colonel Martin was constrained to leave his Mississippi plantation and slaves to Mrs. Douglas and her children.  It was characteristic of the man and of his class, that his concern for his dependents followed him to the grave.  A codicil to his will provided, that if Mrs. Douglas should have no children, the negroes together with their increase were to be sent to Liberia, or to some other colony in Africa.  By means of the net proceeds of the last crop, they would be able to reach Africa and have a surplus to aid them in beginning planting.  “I trust in Providence,” wrote this kindly master, “she will have children and if so I wish these negroes to belong to them, as nearly every head of the family have expressed to me a desire to belong to you and your children rather than go to Africa; and to set them free where they are, would entail on them a greater curse, far greater in my opinion, as well as in that of the intelligent among themselves, than to have a humane master whose duty it would be to see they were properly protected ... and properly provided for in sickness as well as in health."[300]

The legacy of Colonel Martin gave a handle to Douglas’s enemies.  It was easy to believe that he had fallen heir to slave property.  That the terms of the bequest were imperfectly known, did not deter the opposition press from malevolent insinuations which stung Douglas to the quick.  It was fatal to his political career to allow them to go unchallenged.  In the midsummer of 1850, while Congress was wrestling with the measures of compromise, Douglas wrote to his friend, the editor of the Illinois State Register,” It is true that my wife does own about 150 negroes in Mississippi on a cotton plantation.  My father-in-law in his lifetime offered them to me and I refused to accept them. This fact is stated in his will, but I do not wish it brought before the public as the public have no business with my private affairs, and besides anybody would see that the information must have come from me.  My wife has no negroes except those in Mississippi.  We have other property in North Carolina, but no negroes.  It is our intention, however, to remove all our property to Illinois as soon as possible."[301] To correct the popular rumor, Douglas enclosed a statement which might be published editorially, or otherwise.