Slavery Question in Oregon. ' 221 it. But when the time arrived for the meeting of the Thirty- fourth Congress, the current of events had carried the country beyond any thought of repeal. Squatter sovereignty was in the ail" and had come to stay. Many who had risen in wrath against the Nebraska Iniquity" had become reconciled to Senator Douglas's great principle of non-intervention by Congress with the slaver}^ question and permitting the people of the territories to settle it as applied to themselves. It was plausible; it sounded fair, and if only the white people of the territory were to be affected by their decision, it was undoubtedly democratic. It was heralded by the Senator as a measure of peace, but the experiment in Kansas was not reassuring to the admirers of orderly government. It was not a peaceful experiment governed by democratic methods, but an armed invasion from the beginning and aided and abetted by the pro-slavery administration at Washington. Senator Douglas, though declaring that he did not care whether slavery was voted up or voted down, was in favor of fair play for the "bona fide" residents of the territory— The Little Giant" protested in vain; the giant of slavery, like Bunyan's, covered the whole way. Evidently, if the people of Kansas were to have fair play, or indeed the people of any other territory, the pro-slavery Democratic party must be driven from its place of power and the general government put into the hands of those who would administer it to estab- lish justice and promote the general welfare. As the Whig party was, at best, never more than non- committal upon the slavery question, and now, by the with- drawal of its anti-slavery elements and its dissensions con- cerning the Know-nothing delusion, was in the throes of dis- solution, there was no alternative left for anti-slavery men but to organize such a party with this single purpose in view. Accordingly a call was issued for a convention to be held at Pittsburg on Washington's Birthday, at which time a com- mittee was appointed to draft an address to the people of the United States, and another meeting appointed for the 17th of June, to be held in Independence Hall, Philadelphia. At
