The things we do!

Most
of these immigrants settled in the free country of the North, and
as the railways were now so hurriedly crowding westward, it was to
be seen that the ancient strife between North and South must grow
and not lessen, for these new-comers were bitterly opposed to
slavery. Swiftly the idea national was growing. The idea
democratic, the idea of an actual self-government--what, now, was
to be its history?
North of the fated compromise line, west of the admitted slave
state of Missouri, lay other rich lands ripe for the plow, ready
for Americans who had never paid more than a dollar an acre for
land, or for aliens who had never been able to own any land at all.
Kansas and Nebraska, names conceived but not yet born,--what would
they be? Would the compromise of this last summer of 1850 hold the
balances of power even? Could it save this republic, still young
and needy, for yet a time in the cause of peace and growth? Many
devoutly hoped it. Many devoutly espoused the cause of compromise
merely for the sake of gaining time.


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