These ideas found expression in various newspapers during the month of December, 1853.
Though the authorship of the new theory is still a matter of dispute, it is well known that Stephen A.Douglas became its chief sponsor and champion.

The real motives and intentions of Douglas himself and of many of his supporters will always remain obscure and uncertain.

But no uncertainty attaches to the motives of Senator Atchison and the leaders of the Calhoun section of the Democratic party.

For ten years at least they had been laboring to get rid of the Missouri Compromise.

Their motive was to defend slavery and especially to forestall a successful movement for emancipation in the State of Missouri.
From early in January, 1854, until late in May, Douglas's Nebraska bill held the attention of Congress and of the entire country.