Lecompton juggle created a profound impression in the north,
and divided the Democratic party to a greater extent than did the
Kansas-Nebraska bill, especially in the northwest and in Ohio,
where the feeling of resentment was almost universal. Mr. Douglas,
the great leader for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, took
immediate ground against the pro-slavery plan, and protested to
the President against it. An open breach occurred between them.

When Congress assembled, the Lecompton scheme became the supreme
subject for debate. Mr. Douglas assumed at once the leadership of
the opposition to that measure. He said: "Up to the time of
meeting of the convention, in October last, the pretense was kept
up, the profession was openly made, and believed by me, and I
thought believed by them, that the convention intended to submit
a constitution to the people, and not to attempt to put a government
into operation without such a submission." But instead of that,
"All men must vote for the constitution, whether they like it or
not, in order to be permitted to vote for or against slavery."
Again he said: "I have asked a very large number of the gentlemen
who framed the constitution, quite a number of delegates, and still
a larger number of persons who are their friends, and I have received
the same answer from every one of them. . . . They say if they
allowed a negative vote the constitution would have been voted down
by an overwhelming majority, and hence the fellows should not be
allowed to vote at all." He denounced it as "a trick, a fraud upon
the rights of the people."

Governor Walker declared: "I state it as a fact, based on a long
and intimate association with the people of Kansas, that an
overwhelming majority of that people are opposed" to the Lecompton
constitution, "and my letters state that but one out of twenty of
the press of Kansas sustains it. . . . Any attempt by Congress to
force this constitution upon the people of Kansas will be an effort
to substitute the will of a small minority for that of an overwhelming
majority of the people."

On the 28th of January, 1858, during the debate on the Lecompton
constitution, I made an elaborate speech, entering fully into the
history of that constitution and the events that preceded it, and
closed as follows:

"In conclusion, allow me to impress the south with two important
warnings she has received in her struggle for Kansas. One is, that
though her able an