shall be no
sectional contest. I do not see the end of that. I prefer that the
conflict shall be between the Federal Government and the lawless. I can
see the end of that. The law will triumph and the evil stop."

"We who pass this Kansas-Nebraska bill, both at the North and South,
intend to maintain its principles. We do not intend to be driven from
them by clamor nor by assault. We intend that the actual _bona fide_
settlers of Kansas shall be protected in the full exercise of all the
rights of freemen; that, unawed and uncontrolled, they shall freely and
of their own will legislate for themselves, to every extent allowed by
the Constitution, while they have a territorial government; and when
they shall be in a condition to come into the Union and may desire it,
that they shall come into the Union with whatever republican
constitution they may prefer and adopt for themselves; that in the
exercise of their rights they shall be protected from insurrection from
within and invasion from without."

In answer to Senator Hale of New Hampshire, Senator Toombs agreed that
the Territory of Kansas would certainly be a free State. Such, he
thought would be its future destiny. "The senator from New Hampshire,"
he said, "was unable to comprehend the principles of the bill. The
friends of the Kansas bill, North and South, supported the bill because
it was right, and left the future to those who were affected by it. The
policy of the Kansas bill wrongs no man, no section of our common
country. We have never asked the government to carry by force, or in any
way, slavery anywhere. We only demand that the inhabitants of the
Territories shall decide the question for themselves without the
interference of the government or the intermeddling of those who have no
right to decide."

Mr. Toombs and Senator Hale of New Hampshire seem to have been pitted
squarely against each other in this great debate.

In 1854, during the progress of the Kansas debate, Mr. Toombs occupied
Mr. Hale's desk, and alluded to the taunts which Mr. Hale had heaped
upon the heads of senators who had sustained the compromise measures of
1850. He had predicted that they would be driven from their seats; that
the mighty North would drive them from their benches. The distinguished
senator from Michigan, Mr. Cass, was the especial object of these
assaults. "But the result," said Mr. Toombs, looking about him, "is that
the gentleman who made these declarations is not he