Upon these the Democrats could confidently rely, for
they already had, in Douglas in the North and Toombs in the
South, two master politicians who knew this type and its impulses
intimately, because they themselves belonged to it. But the
Democrats needed the support of a third group. If they could
only win over the Northern remnant of the Whigs that was still
unattached, their position would be secure. In their efforts to
obtain this additional and very necessary reinforcement, they
decided to appear as temperate and restrained as possible--a well
bred party which all mild and conservative men could trust.
This attitude they formulated in connection with Kansas, which at
that time had two governments: one, a territorial government, set
up by emigrants from the South; the other, a state government,
under the constitution drawn up at Topeka by emigrants from the
North. One authorized slavery; the other prohibited slavery; and
both had appealed to Washington for recognition. It was with
this quite definite issue that Congress was chiefly concerned in
the spring of 1856. During the summer Toombs introduced a bill
securing to the settlers of Kansas complete freedom of action and
providing for an election of delegates to a convention to draw up
a state constitution which would determine whether slavery or
freedom was to prevail--in other words, whether Kansas was to be
annexed to the South or to the North.
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