While Northern Democratic Senator Stephen Douglas introduced the bill solely to organize the Western Territory to build railroads in his home state of Illinois, the South seized the opportunity to push their expansion agenda. Knowing that Douglas needed Southern Democrats to pass his bill, the senators "would no longer tolerate the maintenance of the Missouri Compromise's declaration that slavery be 'forever prohibited' in Nebraska." They needed to erase this “maintenance” because slavery would not remain trapped in the South. Douglas gave them the opportunity to demand change. The growing number of slaves pushed politicians to seize this opportunity to improve their chances of expansion, and therefore survival