The  Kansas  trouble  is  a  long  and  bloody  disser
tation  on  the  theme  of  popular  sovereignty.  The
immigrants  from  the  free  States  had  won  the  day
against  slavery.  Kansas  was  saved,  not  by  the
Eepublican  party,  nor  by  the  abolitionists,  who
talked  and  agitated,  but  by  the  men  who  went  to
the  spot  to  express  their  "  sovereignty "  and  to
fight  for  freedom.  It  must  be  confessed  that,  as
far  as  saving  the  Territories  from  becoming  slave
States  is  concerned,  popular  sovereignty  had  not
been  unsuccessful.  But  no  one  cared  to  see  again
the  disgraceful  scramble  and  the  rough-and-tumble
contest  for  vantage  ground.  By  the  beginning  of
Buchanan's  administration  many  Democrats  began
to  deny  that  the  people  of  a  Territory  had  a  right
to  regulate  the  subject  of  slavery,  save  by  determin-


320  LEWIS   CASS.
ing,  at  the  moment  of  their  entering  the  Union,
whether  they  should  come  in  as  a  free  or  a  slave
State.  To  the  people  of  the  South  popular  sover
eignty  had  become  so  objectionable,  because  of  its
failure  for  their  purposes,  that  it  was  openly
spurned,  and  recourse  was  had  to  the  solid  ground
of  Calhoun's  dogmas:  that  slaves  were  property,
and  that  the  United  States  government  was  in  duty
bound  to  protect  such  property  everywhere.  Op
posed  to  this  was  the  assertion  of  the  Republicans :
that  slaves  were  not  property  save  by  the  "  muni
cipal  "  law  of  certain  States ;  that  Congress  could
not  and  must  not,  by  act  or  omission  to  act,  allow
the  Territories  of  the  Union  to  be  sullied  by  the
foot  of  a  slave.
