We debated every issue that had been debated in Congress.

They alleged the joint ownership the South had with the North in the common Territories of the nation; that slaves are property, and that they had a natural and inalienable right to take their property into any part of the national Territory, _and there to protect it by the strong right arm of power_, while I urged the terms of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and that under it free State men have a right to come into the Territory, and by their votes to make it a free State, if their votes will make it so.
At length an old man came near to me, and dropping his voice to a half-whisper, said in a confidential tone: "N-e-ow, Mr.Butler, I want to advise you as a friend, and for your own good, _when you get away, just keep away._" I knew this man was a Yankee, for I am a Yankee myself.

His name was Ira Norris.

He had been given an office in Platte county, Mo., and must needs be a partisan for the peculiar institution.

I gave my friend Norris to understand that I would try to attend to my own business.
Others sought to persuade me to promise to leave the country and not come back.