hinking.
The American laborer was not brought up to believe it "a crime to
think in opposition to the consecrated errors of olden times."[595] It
was impossible for a man so thinking to look with favor upon the
slave-labor system of the South. He might tolerate the presence of
slavery in the South; but in his heart of hearts he could not desire
its indefinite extension.

Douglas belonged to his section, too, in his attitude toward the
disposition of the public domain. He was one of the first to advocate
free grants of the public lands to homesteaders. His bill to grant one
hundred and sixty acres to actual settlers who should cultivate them
for four years, was the first of many similar projects in the early
fifties.[596] Southern statesmen thought this the best "bid" yet made
for votes: it was further evidence of Northern demagogism. The South,
indeed, had little direct interest in the peopling of the Western
prairies by independent yeomen, native or foreign. Just here Douglas
parted company with his Southern associates. He believed that the
future of the great West depended upon this wise and beneficial use of
the national domain. Neither could he agree with Eastern statesmen who
deplored the gratuitous distribution of lands, which by sale would
yield large revenues. His often-repeated reply was the quintessence
of Western statesmanship. The pioneer who went into the wilderness, to
wrestle with all manner of hardships, was a true wealth-producer. As
he cleared his land and tilled the soil, he not only himself became a
tax-payer, but he increased the value of adjoining lands and added to
the sum total of the national resources.[597]

Douglas gave his ungrudging support to grants of land in aid of
railroads and canals. He would not regard such grants, however, as
mere donations, but rather as wise provisions for increasing the value
of government lands. "The government of the United States is a great
land owner; she has vast bodies of land which she has had in market
for thirty or forty years; and experience proves that she cannot sell
them.... The difficulty in the way of the sale does not arise from the
fact that the lands are not fertile and susceptible to cultivation,
but that they are distant from market, and in many cases destitute of
timber."[598] Therefore he gave his voice and vote for nearly all land
grant bills, designed to aid the construction of railroads and canals
that would bring these public lands into