We found that Douglas had settled himself handsomely with his young and charming wife.  He entertained a great deal, and was entertained in turn.  We dined back and forth with each other.  And because of Mrs. Douglas’ friendship Dorothy found her social pleasures assured and advanced.

Washington like other cities in America was struggling out of the earth.  The whole country was in a similar throe.  Everywhere were great dreams partly realized.  One could not help but imagine what the nation would become, just as one could not look at the unfinished Capitol at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue without completing its lines in imagination.

We had come to New York City by boat, as I had gone to Chicago by boat in 1833; but in New York we had taken a train to Philadelphia, claimed our baggage at the station, transferred to another station, and taken another train through Baltimore to Washington.  The cities of the East were now in telegraphic communication with each other:  Washington with Baltimore and New York; Philadelphia and Newark were joined.  Polk’s election had been flashed by the telegraph.  And news now came to Washington on every subject:  markets, fires, catastrophes, elections.  The public press was very active.  The country was in a ferment.  The great West agitated the more sensitive, the listening East.  From beyond the Atlantic news of thrilling import poured upon us.  In truth the whole world was trembling at the threshold of a new era.  Douglas was keenly conscious of these world changes.  They occupied my own thoughts.

In France Louis Philippe had been dethroned, a republic had been established with Louis Napoleon as President.  The ideas of the revolution had worked a democratic triumph as to the suffrage and the form of the government.  This was February, 1848, the same month that Douglas made his first speech in the Senate.

This February revolution in France had lighted the fires of liberty throughout Europe.  In England there was agitation and violence.  The people there were demanding the right to vote.  In Italy there was a cry for reform and free constitutions.  Mazzini was proclaiming the fact that the people in Spain, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Russia, were oppressed.  He called the cause of all peoples a common cause.  The French Revolution had announced the liberty, equality and fraternity of individual men; the new revolution should proclaim the liberty, equality and fraternity of nations.  Cavour and Garibaldi were getting ready to bring about the unification of Italy.  The Germans had gained some liberties in 1830.  But when Paris broke into shouts for freedom in 1848, the news went across the Rhine and the German liberals arose and demanded a constitutional government.  Metternich was obliged to flee the country.  The Emperor Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his nephew, and the people’s constitution was granted.  There were rioting and bloodshed in the streets of Berlin.