Compromise. In his discussion of the legislative history of the
Missouri acts, he easily convicted both Chase and Seward of
misapprehensions; but he refused to recognize the truth of Chase's
words, that "the facts of the transaction taken together and as
understood by the country for more than thirty years, constitute a
compact binding in moral force," though expressed only in the terms of
ordinary statutes. So far had Douglas gone in his advocacy of his
measure that he had lost the measure of popular sentiment. He was so
confident of himself and his cause, so well-assured that he had
sacrificed nothing but an empty form, in repealing the slavery
restriction, that he forgot the popular mind does not so readily cast
aside its prejudices and grasp substance in preference to form. The
combative instinct in him was strong. He had entered upon a quarrel;
he would acquit himself well. Besides, he had supreme confidence that
popular intelligence would slowly approve his course.

Perhaps Douglas's greatest achievement on this occasion was in coining
a phrase which was to become a veritable slogan in succeeding years.
That which had hitherto been dubbed "squatter sovereignty," Douglas
now dignified with the name "popular sovereignty," and provided with a
pedigree. "This was the principle upon which the colonies separated
from the crown of Great Britain, the principle upon which the battles
of the Revolution were fought, and the principle upon which our
republican system was founded.... The Revolution grew out of the
assertion of the right on the part of the imperial government to
interfere with the internal affairs and domestic concerns of the
colonies.... I will not weary the Senate in multiplying evidence upon
this point. It is apparent that the Declaration of Independence had
its origin in the violation of the great fundamental principle which
secured to the people of the colonies the right to regulate their own