James Redpath, The Public Life of Captain John Brown

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[76] Kansas and Nebraska thrown open for settlement. The vital and moral question of the extension of slavery, it was pretended, in justice to “the people,” should be settled solely, and could only constitutionally be determined by the first inhabitants themselves. This atrocious doctrine, so revolting to every Christian or manly heart, was euphoniously designated, in the act of repeal and organization, the right to “form their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the constitution of the United States.” Thus the nation solemnly repudiated the validity of the will of God, disregarded the principles of the Revolutionary Fathers, and ignored the venerated maxim of the common law, that all immoral statutes are void. The enslaving of God's poor children; the traffic in human souls and bodies; the forced, frequent, and final separation of families; the violation of all marital obligations — all the crimes of which slavery is the source, and by which it is supported: the expansion and perpetuation of the sum of all villanies, were questions, this instrument declared, which should be settled by the squatters alone, “subject only to the constitution of the United States.” For, that the authors of the bill intended nothing else or more, was admitted in all their subsequent discussions; by the President in his message; and by the South and the Government, in all their actions. Non-intervention was the order of the day. Great and undisguised was the rejoicing at the South; for they thought that Kansas was now secured to them forever.

But, in the North, the indignation of the people,