to the Union, and hence the restrictive section of the Missouri Compromise was void. (19 Howard, 393. See American Conflict, 253, 256.) The executive, the legislative and the judicial departments of the Union were brought into perfect accord upon the one constitutional view always held by the South , and almost if not quite equally held by the conservatives of the North, that the power to exclude slavery from the common territories had not been granted to Congress in the Constitution. The decision was made by able lawyers after principles strictly legal. The bar of the Union, by great majority at least, agreed with the court so far as that particular dictum was concerned.
But the decision of the Supreme court was directly in the way of agitation and hence it was at once assailed with a violence never before shown against any opinion of that august body. (American Conflict, 251; Stephens, 200.)
Coincident with the troubles in Kansas, occurred the great contest between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas for the Senatorship of Illinois. Mr. Douglas had dulled the ax of Republican resentment by his opposition to the admission of Kansas with a pro-slavery constitution, which he regarded as irregular; but his views did not accord with theirs in regard to Congressional intervention, and besides he had declared in public speech that he "cared not whether slavery was voted up or voted down. They were, therefore, not inclined to allow his return to the Senate if he could be successfully opposed. Abraham Lincoln was persuaded to meet him in a contest for the Senatorial responsibility, and the warm discussion between these well matched debaters soon drew not only great crowds in Illinois, but, through the public press, the whole Union was included in the audience and involved in the heat of the strife.
Mr. Lincoln was then and continued to be the ablest politician produced by the anti-slavery agitation. More prudent than Garrison or Giddings, wiser than Hale or
