25 The motives which led Stephen Douglas to introduce his disastrous Kansas-Nebraska Bill have been much debated by historians. Without reviving that learned controversy here, it might be noted that Douglas meant his bill to be the basis of a new regional compromise, within which omnibus coalitions would continue to function.
Stephen Douglas himself aspired to be an omnibus candidate for his party. He was a native New Englander and a long resident of the west, who was closely tied by politics and marriage to leaders in both the coastal south and the southern highlands. His wife was related to Jefferson Davis. At the same time he was a leader of the movement called Young America, whose spread-eagled rhetoric appealed to voters in every region. Douglas’s motives were expressed in a regional calculus and compounded of both altruism and interest.