Excerpt from A Discourse on the Proposed Repeal of the Missouri Compromise: Delivered on Fast Day, April 6, 1854, in the First Congregational Church, in Leicester, Mass There are subjects which under ordinary circumstances do not so appropriately belong to writings or discourses purely religious as to those which are of a more secular nature. The subject of slavery, for example, regarded merely in its political aspects, may be one of this character, but regarded as a moral question - as one of right or wrong - as one deeply affecting the interests of humanity, it always comes within the legitimate scope of the pulpit and the press. Nay, regarded as a political question, there are times and seasons when it may assume such an attitude - when the evil to which it relates portends so wide a sweep of wrong, and Oppression, and injury, that it demands the attention of the whole religious community, and summons all its voices and all its activities in order, seasonably to expose, and, if possible, to ward off the dangers which it threatens. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

One hundred and fifty years after Kansas was admitted to the Union, we still find ourselves fascinated by the specter of "Bleeding Kansas" and the violence that preceded the American Civil War by five years. Although ample attention has been devoted to understanding why territorial violence broke out in Kansas in 1856, of equal concern but less illuminated is the question of why government, both local and national, allowed the violence to continue unstanched for so long. This question is fundamentally about governance-its existence, exercise, limits, and continuance-and its study has ramifications for understanding both Kansas events and why the American experiment in government failed in 1861. In addition, the book also sheds light on the nature of democracy, the challenges of implanting it in distant environs, the necessity of cooperation at the various levels of government, and the value of strong leadership. To Govern the Devil in Hell uses the prism of governance to investigate what went wrong in territorial Kansas. From the first elections in late 1854 and early 1855, local government was tarnished with cries of illegitimacy that territorial officials could not ameliorate. Soon after, a shadow government was created which further impeded local management of territorial challenges. Ultimately, this book addresses why Presidents Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan failed to act, what hindered Congress from stepping into the void, and why and how the lack of effective governance harmed Kansas and later the United States.