Studies in American History 
401 
slavery agitation — one of these “final settlements”. Is Kansas in the 
Union? Has she formed a constitution that she is likely to come in 
under? Is not the slavery agitation still open in the Territory? Has the 
voting down of that constitution put an end to all of the trouble? Is 
that more likely to settle it than every one of these previous attempts to 
settle the slavery agitation? Now, at this day in the history of the 
world we can no more foretell where the end of this slavery agitation will 
be than we can see the end of the world itself. The Nebraska-Kansas 
bill was introduced four years and a half ago, and if the agitation is 
ever to come to an end, we may say that we are four years and a 
half nearer the end. So too we can say we are four years and a half 
nearer the end of the world; and we can just as clearly^see the end of 
the world as we can see the end of this agitation. The Kansas settle- 
ment did not conclude it. If Kansas should sink today, and leave a 
great vacant space in the earth’s surface, this vexed question would still 
be among us. I say then, there is no way of putting an end to the 
slavery agitation amongst us but to put it back upon the basis where 
our fathers placed it, no way but to keep it out of our new Territories — 
to restrict it forever to the Old States where it now exists. Then the 
public mind will rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 
extinction. This is one way of putting an end to the slavery agitation.^"’ 
It is true that the application of the principle of popular 
sovereignty had not brought to an end the agitation of the 
slavery question. It had, however, settled the slavery ques- 
tion for Kansas, and, under the existing conditions, the further 
advocacy of the Wilmot Proviso principle was to lead straight 
to secession and war. Douglas had not foreseen the Kansas 
conflict. Lincoln did not now foresee the Civil War. 
It is not surprising that Lincoln and his party did not com- 
prehend the fact that popular sovereignty had proved to be an 
antislavery principle, when the intensity of the feelings 
aroused by the struggle for Kansas are considered. The rapid 
growth and the many successes of the Republican party 
thruout the North were also factors in the situation. It 
was only natural that a new and powerful party, born out 
of the agitation produced by the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, and developed in the midst of the passions growing 
out of the Kansas conflict, the execution of the Fugitive 
Slave Law, and the conflicting opinions regarding the Dred 
Scott decision should resist the influence of the outcome of the 
Lecompton contest and the triumph of the free-state element 
in Kansas. Nevertheless, these developments were very 
significant and influenced the course of events in the South 
Ibid., I, 407-408. Rejoinder (Charleston), September 18, 1858. 
