"There were, however, a few of the supporters of the bill who to the last contended that the intemperate demonstrations of opposition at the North were but the ebullitions of temporary excitement, which would subside as soon as the equitable and just principles of the bill should be exhibited in their practical operation in Kansas. On what flimsy grounds that delusion was indulged, and how soon and under what circumstances it vanished, I need not recount. The recollection of every patriot must still be painfully impressed with them. It is enough to say, that soon after these principles were put in operation in Kansas, disorder, anarchy, and civil war, ensued in rapid succession. It required the strong arm of the government of the United States and the interposition of the military force to sustain the territorial government; and even now, after the lapse of four years, we still find that the presence of a military force is necessary to maintain peace. So much for the effect of that measure on Kansas and the country. How has it been in Congress? Need I ask that question? Has not the subject of slavery in the territory been the absorbing subject of our thoughts and discussions at every session of Congress since the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act? And as for the character and temper of the debates upon this subject, have they not, in asperity and fierceness, far exceeded those of any antecedent period of our history? * * * * * "I now ask the attention of the Senate to the effect of the experiment of localizing slavery agitation in the territories, made in 1854, in changing the complexion of parties both in Congress and in the country. In the Congress which passed the Kansas-Nebraska bill, we have seen that there was at the commencement of the session, in December, 1853, a Democratic majority of eighty-four in the House of Representatives, and only four Free-Soilers, and in the Senate a like number--so small, yet so distinct in their principles, that neither of the two great parties then known to the country knew well how to arrange them on committee. "MR. HALE.--You left them off.