old Joshua E.
Giddings should raise a colony in Ohio and settle down in Louisiana,
he would be the strongest advocate of slavery in the whole South; he
would find when he got there, his opinion would be very much modified;
he would find on those sugar plantations that it was not a question
between the white man and the negro, but between the negro and the
crocodile." "The Almighty has drawn the line on this continent, on one
side of which the soil must be cultivated by slave labor; on the other
by white labor."[777]

At New Orleans, he repeated more emphatically much the same thought.
"There is a line, or belt of country, meandering through the valleys
and over the mountain tops, which is a natural barrier between free
territory and slave territory, on the south of which are to be found
the productions suitable to slave labor, while on the north exists a
country adapted to free labor alone.... But in the great central
regions, where there may be some doubt as to the effect of natural
causes, who ought to decide the question except the people residing
there, who have all their interests there, who have gone there to live
with their wives and children!"[778]

It was characteristic of the man that he thought politics even when he
was in pursuit of health. Advised to take an ocean voyage, he decided
to visit Cuba so that even his recreative leisure might be politically
profitable, for the island was more than ever coveted by the South and
he wished to have the advantage of first-hand information about this
unhappy Spanish province. Landing in New York upon his return, he was
given a remarkable ovation by the Democracy of the city; and he was
greeted with equal warmth in Philadelphia and Baltimore.[779] Even a
less ambitious man might have been tempted to believe in his own
capacity for leadership, in the midst of these apparently spontaneous
demonstrations of regard. At the capital, however, he was less
cordially welcomed. He was not in the least surprised, for while he
was still in the South, the newspapers had announced his deposition
from the chairmanship of the Committee on Territories. He knew well
enough what he had to expect from the group of Southern Democrats who
had the ear of the administration.[780] Nevertheless, his removal from
a position which he had held ever since he entered the Senate was a
bitter pill.

For the sake of peace Douglas smothered his resentment, and, for a
brief time at least, sought to d