Petitions were received at the first session of the thirty-second Congress (1851–2) for organizing the territory west of Missouri, but no action was taken upon them. At the next session Mr. Willard P. Hall, of Missouri, introduced a bill[1] in the House to organize the same territory, together with that west of Iowa, under the name of Platte, which was referred to the Committee on Territories. From this Committee a report was presented[2] organizing the same territory under the name of Nebraska. This, on going to the Committee of the Whole, encountered a strong Southern opposition and was reported[3] back to the House with a recommendation for its rejection. After the failure of a motion to lay it on the table, the bill passed by 98 yeas to 43 nays. On arriving[4] in the Senate it was referred to the Committee on Territories, of which Mr. Stephen A. Douglas was chairman. From this committee it was reported without amendment, but was never acted upon though several unsuccessful efforts were made to have it taken up in the latter days of the session. Thus the Southern members stoutly refused to organize this territory at that time, which, in the next Congress, was an object that they earnestly sought to accomplish. But it is a note-worthy fact that the existence and validity of the Missouri Compromise had not, as yet, been questioned, and no one had discovered that the legislation of 1850 had superceded that of 1820; the only objection urged being that it would infringe upon the rights of the Indians to organize this territory.
In the thirty-third Congress (1853–4), agreeable to a previous notice, Mr. Dodge, of Iowa, introduced[5] a bill into the Senate to organize the Territory of Nebraska without any reference to slavery, which, after being read twice, was referred to the Committee on Territories, from which it was reported back by the chairman, Mr. Douglas, with various amendments. In the report of Mr. Douglas, which accompanied the bill, although he raised the question as to the
