From The New York Tribune, February, 13, 1854

We have already recorded the holding of several important public meetings to protest against the passage of the Territorial bill now before the Senate, and this morning we give at some length the proceeding of one held at Chicago, the residence of Mr. Douglas, and counting among its prominent members many influential persons who have hitherto been the friends and supporters of that Senator. We commend this example to the men of the North of every party, except that miserable few whose souls what there is of them, are the property of their superiors in office. It is time that a great and powerful expression of northern opinion should be brought to bear on this question. The apathy caused in many quarters by the belief that the Administration will certainly be able to carry through the bill is mistaken, and should be taken off. . . .

There are a number of Whig Representatives from the slave States who would like to vote against the bill of whom the account is taken in this calculation. What is wanted among them is a still-backed and influential leader. Several are new men who do not like to take the responsibility of leading off when those who should do so, are playing shy. And among these members from the North who are counted on in the above estimate, are several who are not indisposed to wait, and take things leisurely in order to see what may turn up. They have no particular love for the Administration, or Mr. Douglas, or the bill itself.

If an energetic and inflexible opposition is therefore made to this piece of infernal rascality at once, throughout the North, there is a chance to defeat the scheme. But there is not time to be lost. Some lucky turn of events may strengthen the opposition from the South, and weaken the support of the bill from the North. There is enough in the prospect ahead, under its most unfavorable aspect, to encourage the most determined exertions to avert the lamentable and far-reaching consequences of this nefarious plot. But the people must move. The circumstances of the present bill are totally unlike those of the adjustment measures of 1850, whose supporters increased during their discussion by the gloomy prognostications and fierce threatenings which were to be realized from the failure of their passage. Nothing of the sort exists now. Every day's delay is a gain, and every speech weakens the bill. It has no recuperative power, and every hour's deliberation over it tends to create and deepen convictions of the dangers and disasters which will inevitably follow its train. Still a vote taken on it to day in the House would insure its passage by a decided majority.

Do the friends of freedom and the friends of the Union realize from this brief and unvarnished statement the tremendous responsibility that rests upon them at this moment? Let this bill pass and their services may hardly be needed in the future except for far more desperate endeavors. Let the People move while it is time! Hold public meetings everywhere and pour in upon Congress petitions against the bill.

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