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226 DOUGLAS by hard work, and he abandoned the occu- pation. He then attended Brandon academy a year. His mother about this time married Mr. Granger of Ontario co., N. Y., and young Douglas removed with her to Canandaigua and entered the academy at that place. He studied law at the same time that he pursued his academical course, and in the spring of 1833 went to the west. At Jacksonville, 111., he found his funds reduced to 37$ cents, and accordingly walked to Winchester, 16 miles, where he hoped to get employment as a teacher. He found there a large crowd assembled to attend an auction. The auctioneer was with- out a clerk, and perceiving that Douglas, who stood among the spectators, looked like a man who could keep accounts, requested him to serve in that capacity. He acted as clerk du- ring the three days of the sale, and received $6 for his services. With this capital he open- ed a school, and obtained 40 pupils, whom he taught for three months, devoting his evenings to the study of law, and on Saturday after- noons practising in petty cases. In March, 1834, he opened an office and began practice in the higher courts, having been admitted to the bar. He was remarkably successful, and within a year from his admission, while not yet 22 years of age, was elected by the legisla- ture attorney general of the state. This office he resigned in December, 1835, in consequence of having been elected to the legislature. He took his seat in the house of representatives, the youngest member of that body. In 1837 he was appointed by President Van Buren register of the land office at Springfield, 111., a post which he resigned in 1839. In November, 1837, he received the democratic nomination for con- gress, although he was under the requisite age of 25 years, which however he attained before the day of election in the following August. His congressional district was then the most populous in the United States, and the canvass was conducted with extraordinary zeal and energy. More than 36,000 votes were cast, and the whig candidate was declared elected by a majority of only five votes. After this defeat Douglas devoted himself exclusively to his profession till 1840, when he entered into the famous presidential campaign of that year with much ardor. In December, 1840, he was ap- pointed secretary of state of Illinois. In the following February he was elected by the legis- lature a judge of the supreme court, which office he resigned in 1843 to accept the demo- cratic nomination for congress. He was chosen by upward of 400 majority, and was reflected in 1844 and in 1846. But before taking his seat under the last election he was chosen to the senate of the United States for six years from March 4, 1847. In the house of repre- sentatives he was prominent among those who, in the Oregon controversy with Great Britain, maintained that our title to the whole of Ore- gon up to lat. 54 40' was "clear and unques- tionable." He declared that " he never would, now or hereafter, yield up one inch of Oregon, either to Great Britain or any other govern- ment." He advocated the policy of giving no- tice to terminate the joint occupation ; of es- tablishing a territorial government over Ore- gon, protected by a sufficient military force ; and of putting the country at once in a state of preparation, so that if war should result from the assertion of our just rights, we might drive " Great Britain and the last vestiges of royal authority from the continent of North America, and make the United States an ocean-bound republic." He was among the earliest advocates of the annexation of Texas, and after the treaty for that object had failed in the senate, he was one of those who introduced propositions, in the form of joint resolutions, as a substitute for it. As chairman of the committee on territories in 1846 he reported the joint resolution declaring Texas to be one of the United States of America, and he vig- orously sustained the administration of Presi- dent Polk in the prosecution of the war with Mexico, which was the ultimate consequence of that act. As chairman of the territorial committee, first in the house of representa- tives and afterward in the senate, he reported and carried through the bills to organize the territories of Minnesota, Oregon, New Mex- ico, Utah, Washington, Kansas, and Nebraska, and also the bills for the admission into the Union of the states of Iowa, Wisconsin, Cali- fornia, Minnesota, and Oregon. On the ques- tion of slavery in the territories he early took the position that congress should not interfere on the one side or the other, but that the peo- ple of each territory and state should be allow- ed to regulate their domestic institutions to suit themselves. In accordance with this prin- ciple he opposed the " Wilmot proviso " when first passed in the house of representatives in 1847, and afterward in the senate when offered as an amendment to the bill for the organiza- tion of the territory of Oregon. In August, 1848, however, he offered an amendment to the Oregon bill, extending the Missouri com- promise line to the Pacific ocean, thus prohib- iting slavery in all the territory north of the parallel of 36 30', and by implication recog- nizing its existence south of that line. This amendment was adopted in the senate by a decided majority, receiving the support of every southern together with several northern senators, but was defeated in the house of rep- resentatives by nearly a sectional vote. The refusal of the senate to adopt the policy of con- gressional prohibition of slavery in all the ter- ritories, and the rejection in the house of rep- resentatives of the proposition to extend the Missouri compromise to the Pacific ocean, gave rise to the sectional agitation of 1849-'50, which was temporarily quieted by the legisla- tion known as the compromise measures of 1850. Mr. Douglas supported these measures ; and on his return to his home in Chicago, find- . ing them assailed with great violence, he de-