77/fi    STRONG. 
543 
claim.  Then  he  would  present  his  own  side 
of  the  case,  with  a  clearness,  a  candor,  an 
adroitness  of  statement  which  at  once  flattered 
and  convinced  the  jury,  and  made  even  the 
bystanders  his  partisans.  Sometimes  he  dis- 
turbed the  court  with  laughter  by  his  humor- 
ous or  apt  illustrations  ;  sometimes  he  excited 
the  audience  by  that  florid  and  exuberant 
rhetoric  which  he  knew  well  enough  how  and 
when  to  indulge  in ;  but  his  more  usual  and 
more  successful  manner  was  to  rely  upon  a 
clear,  strong,  lucid  statement,  keeping  details 
in  proper  subordination  and  bringing  forward, 
in  a  way  which  fastened  the  attention  of  court 
and  jury  alike,  the  essential  point  on  which 
he  claimed  a  decision.  "  Indeed,"  says  one 
of  his  colleagues,  "  his  statement  often  ren- 
dered argument  unnecessary,  and  often  the 
court  would  stop  him  and  say,  '  if  that  is  the 
case,  we  will  hear  the  other  side/  "  * 
Whatever  doubts  might  be  entertained  as 
to  whether  he  was  the  ablest  lawyer  on  the 
circuit,  there  was  never  any  dissent  from  the 
opinion  that  he  was  the  one  most  cordially 
and  universally  liked.  If  he  did  not  himself 
enjoy  his  full  share  of  the  happiness  of  life, 
he  certainly  diffused  more  of  it  among  his  fel- 
lows than  is  in  the  power  of  most  men.  His 
arrival  was  a  little  festival  in  the  county-seats 
where  his  pursuits  led  him  to  pass  so  much  of 
his  time.  Several  eye-witnesses  have  described 
these  scenes  in  terms  which  would  seem  ex- 
aggerated if  they  were  not  so  fully  confirmed. 
The  bench  and  bar  would  gather  at  the  tavern 
where  he  was  expected,  to  give  him  a  cordial 
welcome;  says  one  writer,!  "  He  brought 
light  with  him."  This  is  not  hard  to  under- 
stand. Whatever  his  cares,  he  never  inflicted 
them  upon  others.  He  talked  singularly  well, 
but  never  about  himself.  He  was  full  of  wit 
which  never  wounded,  of  humor  which  mel- 
lowed the  harshness  of  that  new  and  raw  life 
of  the  prairies.    He  never  asked  for  help,  but 
*  Raymond's  "  Life  of  Lincoln,"  p.  32. 
1 1.   N.   Arnold,  Speech  before  State  Bar  Associa- 
tion, January  7,  1881. 
%  Ibid. 
was  always  ready  to  give  it.  He  received 
everybody's  confidence,  and  rarely  gave  his 
own  in  return.  He  took  no  mean  advantages 
in  court  or  in  conversation,  and,  satisfied  with 
the  respect  and  kindliness  which  he  every- 
where met,  he  sought  no  quarrels  and  never 
had  to  decline  them.  He  did  not  accumulate 
wealth;  as  Judge  Davis  said,  "he  seemed 
never  to  care  for  it."  He  had  a  good  income 
from  his  profession,  though  the  fees  he  re- 
ceived would  bring  a  smile  to  the  well-paid 
lips  of  the  great  attorneys  of  to-day.  The 
largest  fee  he  ever  got  was  one  of  five  thou- 
sand dollars  from  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
way, and  he  had  to  bring  suit  to  compel  them 
to  pay  it.  He  spent  what  he  received  in  the 
education  of  his  children,  in  the  care  of  his  fam- 
ily, and  in  a  plain  and  generous  way  of  living. 
Onef  who  often  visited  him  writes,  referring 
to  "  the  old-fashioned  hospitality  of  Spring- 
field," "  Among  others  I  recall  with  a  sad 
pleasure,  the  dinners  and  evening  parties  given 
by  Mrs.  Lincoln.  In  her  modest  and  simple 
home,  where  everything  was  so  orderly  and 
refined,  there  was  always  on  the  part  of  both 
host  and  hostess  a  cordial  and  hearty  Western 
welcome  which  put  every  guest  perfectly  at 
ease.  Their  table  was  famed  for  the  excel- 
lence of  many  rare  Kentucky  dishes,  and  for 
the  venison,  wild  turkeys,  and  other  game, 
then  so  abundant.  Yet  it  was  her  genial  man- 
ner and  ever-kind  welcome,  and  Mr.  Lincoln's 
wit  and  humor,  anecdote  and  unrivaled  con- 
versation, which  formed  the  chief  attraction." 
Here  we  leave  him  for  a  while,  in  this 
peaceful  and  laborious  period  of  his  life  ;  en- 
gaged in  useful  and  congenial  toil ;  surrounded 
by  the  love  and  respect  of  the  entire  commu- 
nity ;  in  the  fullness  of  his  years  and  strength ; 
the  struggles  of  his  youth,  which  were  so  easy 
to  his  active  brain  and  his  mighty  muscles,  all 
behind  him,  and  the  titanic  struggles  of  his 
manhood  yet  to  come.  We  shall  now  try  to 
sketch  the  beginnings  of  that  tremendous  con- 
troversy which  he  was  in  a  few  years  to  take 
up,  to  guide  and  direct  to  its  wonderful  and 
tragical  close. 
THE    STRONG. 
DOST    deem    him    weak    that    owns    his 
strength  is  tried  ? 
Nay,  we  may  safest  lean  on  him  that  grieves  : 
The  pine  has  immemorially  sighed, 
Th'  enduring  poplar's  are  the  trembling  leaves. 
To  feel  and  bow  the  head  is  not  to  fear ; 
To   cheat   with  jest  —  that  is   the    coward's 
art. 
Beware  the  laugh  that  battles  back  the  tear ; 
He's  false  to  all  that's  traitor  to  his  heart. 
He  of  great  deeds  does  grope  amid  the  throng 
Like  him  whose  steps  toward  Dagon's  temple  bore ; 
There's  ever  something  sad  about  the  strong  — 
A  look,  a  moan,  like  that  on  ocean's  shore. 
John  Vance  Cheney.
RAWN BY E. W, KEMBLE. ENGRAVED BY T, SCHUSSLER. “MAKES A FIDDLE THESS TALK AN’ CRY?” (SEE PAGE 548.)
[BEGUN    IN    THE    NOVEMBER    NUMBER  j 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN  :     A    HISTORY.* 
BY   JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND    JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE     MOVEMENT     FOR     SLAVERY     EXTENSION. 
THE  BALANCE  OF  POWER. 
E  shall  see  in  the  course  of 
the  present  work  how  the 
life  of  Abraham  Lincoln 
divides  itself  into  three 
principal  periods,  with 
corresponding  stages  of 
his  intellectual  develop- 
ment: the  first,  of  about 
forty  years,  ending  with 
his  term  in  Congress ;  the  second,  of  about 
ten  years,  concluding  with  his  final  campaign 
of  political  speech-making  in  New  York  and 
New  England,  shortly  before  the  presidential 
nominations  of  i860 ;  and  the  last,  of  about 
five  years,  terminating  at  his  death.  We  have 
thus  far  traced  his  career  through  the  first 
period  of  forty  years.  In  the  several  stages  of 
frontier  experience  through  which  he  had 
passed,  and  which  in  the  main  but  repeated 
the  trials  and  vicissitudes  of  thousands  of  other 
boys  and  youths  in  the  West,  only  so  much 
individuality  had  been  developed  in  him  as 
brought  him  into  the  leading  class  of  his  con- 
temporaries. He  had  risen  from  laborer  to 
student,  from  clerk  to  lawyer,  from  politi- 
cian to  legislator.  That  he  had  lifted  him- 
self by  healthy  ambition  and  unaided  industry 
out  of  the  station  of  a  farm-hand,  whose  routine 
life  begins  and  ends  in  a  backwoods  log-cabin, 
to  that  representative  character  and  authority 
which  seated  him  in  the  national  Capitol  to  aid 
in  framing  laws  for  his  country,  was  already  an 
achievement  that  may  well  be  held  honora- 
bly to  crown  a  career  of  forty  years. 
Such  achievement  and  such  distinction,how- 
ever,  were  not  so  uncommon  as  to  appear 
phenomenal.  Hundreds  of  other  boys  born 
in  log-cabins  had  won  similar  elevation  in  the 
manly,  practical  school  of  western  public  life. 
Even  in  ordinary  times  there  still  remained 
within  the  reach  of  average  intellects  several 
higher  grades  of  public  service.  It  is  quite 
probable  that  the  superior  talents  of  Lincoln 
would  have  made  him  Governor  of  Illinois  or 
given  him  a  term  in  the  United  States  Senate. 
But  the  story  of  his  life  would  not  have  com- 
manded, as  it  now  does,  the  unflagging  atten- 
tion of  posterity  had  there  not  fallen  upon  his 
generation  the  unusual  conditions  and  oppor- 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay, 
Vol.  XXXIII.— 87. 
tunities  brought  about  by  a  series  of  remark- 
able convulsions  in  national  politics.  If  we 
would  correctly  understand  how  Lincoln  be- 
came, first  a  conspicuous  actor,  and  then  a 
chosen  leader,  in  a  great  strife  of  national  par- 
ties for  supremacy  and  power,  we  must  briefly 
study  the  origin  and  development  of  the  great 
slavery  controversy  in  American  legislation 
which  found  its  highest  activity  and  deci>ivc 
culmination  in  the  single  decade  from  1850  to 
i860.  We  should  greatly  err,  however,  if  we 
attributed  the  new  events  in  Lincoln's  career 
to  the  caprice  of  fortune.  The  conditions  and 
opportunities  of  which  we  speak  were  broadly 
national,  and  open  to  all  without  restriction 
of  rank  or  locality.  Many  of  his  contempo- 
raries had  seemingly  overshadowing  advan- 
tages, by  prominence  and  training,  to  seize 
and  appropriate  them  to  their  own  advance- 
ment. It  is  precisely  this  careful  study  of  the 
times  which  shows  us  by  what  inevitable  proc- 
ess of  selection  honors  and  labors  of  which 
he  did  not  dream  fell  upon  him ;  how,  indeed, 
it  was  not  the  individual  who  gained  the  prize, 
but  the  paramount  duty  which  claimed  the  man. 
It  is  now  universally  understood,  if  not  con- 
ceded, that  the  Rebellion  of  1861  was  insti- 
gated, begun,  and  carried  on  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  defending  and  preserving  to  the  seced- 
ing States  the  institution  of  African  slavery  and 
making  them  the  nucleus  of  a  great  slave  em- 
pire, which  in  their  ambitious  dreams  they 
hoped  would  include  Mexico,  Central  Amer- 
ica, and  the  West  India  Islands,  and  perhaps 
even  the  tropical  States  of  South  America. 
Both  a  real  and  pretended  fear  that  slavery 
was  in  danger  lay  at  the  bottom  of  this  design. 
The  real  fear  arose  from  the  palpable  fact,  im- 
possible to  conceal,  that  the  slave  system  was 
a  reactionary  obstacle  in  the  pathway  of  mod- 
ern civilization  and  its  political,  material,  phil- 
osophical, and  religious  development.  The 
pretended  danger  was  the  permanent  loss  of 
political  power  by  the  slave  States  of  the 
Union,  as  shown  in  the  election  of  Lincoln  to 
the  presidency,  which  they  averred  would  nec- 
essarily throw  all  the  forces  of  the  national  life 
against  the  "  peculiar  institution,"  and  crush 
it  under  forms  of  law.  It  was  by  magnifying 
this  danger  from  a  remote  into  an  immediate 
consequence  that  they  excited  the  population 
886.    All  rights  reserved.
686 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
of  the  cotton  States  to  resistance  and  rebel- 
lion. Seizing  this  opportunity,  it  was  their 
present  purpose  to  establish  a  slave  Confeder- 
acy, consisting  of  the  cotton  States,  which 
should  in  due  time  draw  to  itself,  by  an  irre- 
sistible gravitation  of  sympathy  and  interest, 
first,  the  border  slave  States,  and,  in  the  further 
progress  of  events,  the  tropical  countries  to- 
wards the  equator. 
The  popular  agitation,  or  war  of  words  be- 
tween the  North  and  the  South  on  the  subject 
of  slavery,  which  led  to  the  armed  insurrection 
was  threefold :  First,  the  economic  effort  to 
prevent  the  destruction  of  the  monetary  value 
of  four  millions  of  human  beings  held  in  bond- 
age, who  were  bought  and  sold  as  chattels, 
and  whose  aggregate  valuation,  under  cir- 
cumstances existing  at  the  outbreak  ofthe  civil 
war,  was  computed  at  $400,000,000 ;  second,  a 
moral  debate  as  to  the  abstract  righteousness 
or  iniquity  of  the  system ;  and,  third,  a  politic- 
al struggle  for  the  balance  of  power  in  gov- 
ernment and  public  policy,  by  which  the  se- 
curity and  perpetuity  of  the  institution  might 
be  guaranteed. 
This  sectional  controversy  over  the  institu- 
tion of  slavery  in  its  threefold  aspect  had 
begun  with  the  very  birth  of  the  nation,  had 
continued  with  its  growth,  and  become  inten- 
sified with  its  strength.  The  very  same  year 
which  saw  the  Mayflower  land  the  Pilgrims 
on  Plymouth  Rock  also  saw  a  Dutch  ship 
land  a  cargo  of  African  slaves  at  Jamestown, 
in  Virginia.  During  the  long  colonial  period 
the  English  Government  fostered  and  forced 
the  importation  of  slaves  to  America  equally 
with  English  goods.  In  the  original  draft  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson invoked  the  reprobation  of  mankind 
upon  the  British  King  for  his  share  in  this  in- 
human traffic.  On  reflection,  however,  this 
was  discovered  to  be  but  another  case  of 
Satan  rebuking  sin.  The  blood  money  which 
reddened  the  hands  of  English  royalty  stained 
equally  those  of  many  an  American  rebel. 
The  public  opinion  of  the  colonies  was  al- 
ready too  much  debauched  to  sit  in  unani- 
mous moral  judgment  on  this  crime  against 
humanity.  The  objections  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia  sufficed  to  cause  the  erasure 
and  suppression  of  the  obnoxious  paragraph. 
Nor  were  the  Northern  States  guiltless:  New- 
port was  yet  a  great  slave-mart,  and  the  com- 
merce of  New  England  drew  more  advantage 
from  the  traffic  than  did  the  agriculture  ofthe 
South.  All  the  elements  of  the  later  contro- 
versy already  existed.  wSlave  codes  and  fugi- 
tive-slave laws,*  abolition  societies  and  eman- 
cipation bills,  are  older  than  our  Constitution; 
*  Hurd,  "  Law  of  Freedom  and  Bondage,"  Vol.  I., 
pp.  228  to  311. 
and  negro  troops  fought  in  the  Revolutionary 
War  for  American  independence^  Liberal  men 
could  be  found  in  South  Carolina  who  hated 
slavery,  and  narrow  men  in  Massachusetts  who 
defended  it.  But  these  individual  instances 
of  prejudice  or  liberality  were  submerged  and 
lost  in  the  current  of  popular  opinion  spring- 
ing from  prevailing  interests  in  the  respective 
localities,  and  institutions  molded  principles, 
until  in  turn  principles  should  become  strong 
enough  to  reform  institutions.  In  short,  slav- 
ery was  one  of  the  many  "  relics  of  barbarism  " 
—  like  the  divine  right  of  kings,  religious  per- 
secution, torture  ofthe  accused,  imprisonment 
and  enslavement  for  debt,  witch-burning,  and 
kindred  "institutions" — which  were  trans- 
mitted to  that  generation  from  former  ages  as 
so  many  burdens  of  humanity,  for  help  in  the 
removal  of  which  the  new  nation  wras  in  the 
providence  of  God  perhaps  called  into  exist- 
ence. The  whole  matter  in  its  broader  aspects 
is  part  of  that  persistent  struggle  of  the  centu- 
ries between  despotism  and  individual  freedom ; 
between  arbitrary  wrong,  consecrated  by  tra- 
dition and  law,  and  the  unfolding  recognition 
of  private  rights ;  between  the  thralldom  of 
public  opinion  and  the  liberty  of  conscience ; 
between  the  greed  of  gain  and  the  Golden 
Rule  of  Christ.  Whoever,  therefore,  chooses 
to  trace  the  remote  origin  of  the  American 
Rebellion  will  find  the  germ  of  the  Union  ar- 
mies of  1 86 1-5  in  the  cabin  of  the  Mayflower, 
and  the  inception  of  the  Secession  forces  be- 
tween the  decks  of  that  Dutch  slaver  which 
planted  the  fruit  of  her  avarice  and  piracy  in 
the  James  River  colonies  in  1620. 
So  elaborate  and  searching  a  study,  however, 
is  not  necessary  to  the  purposes  of  this  work. 
A  very  brief  mention  of  the  principal  land- 
marks of  the  long  contest  will  serve  to  show 
the  historical  relation,  and  explain  the  phrase- 
ology, of  its  final  issues. 
The  first  of  these  great  landmarks  was  the 
ordinance  of  1787.  All  the  States  tolerated 
slavery  and  permitted  the  slave-trade  during 
the  Revolution.  But  in  most  of  them  the  moral- 
ity ofthe  system  was  strongly  drawn  in  ques- 
tion, especially  by  the  abolition  societies,  which 
embraced  many  ofthe  most  prominent  patriots. 
A  public  opinion,  not  indeed  unanimous,  but 
largely  in  the  majority,  demanded  that  the  "  nec- 
essary evil"  should  cease.  When  the  Conti- 
nental Congress  came  to  the  practical  work 
of  providing  a  government  for  the  "  Western 
lands,"  which  the  financial  pressure  and  the 
absolute  need  of  union  compelled  New  York 
and  Virginia  to  cede  to  the  General  Govern- 
ment, Thomas  Jefferson,  of  pronounced  anti- 
slavery  views,  proposed,  among  other  features 
t  Williams,  "Hist.  Negro  Race  in  America,"  Vol. 
!•>  PP-  333  to  369.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
in  his  plan  and  draft  of  1784,  to  add  a  clause 
prohibiting  slavery  in  all  the  North-west  terri- 
tory after  the  year  1800.  A  North  Carolina 
member,  however,  moved  to  strike  out  this 
clause.  The  form  of  the  question  put  by  the 
chairman  was,  "Shall  the  clause  stand?"  Six- 
teen members  voted  aye,  and  seven  members 
voted  no  ;  but  under  the  clumsy  legislative  ma- 
chinery of  the  confederation  these  seven  noes 
carried  the  question,  since  a  majority  of  States 
had  failed  to  vote  in  the  affirmative. 
Three  years  later,  July  13,  1787,  this  first 
ordinance  was  repealed  by  a  second,  establish- 
ing our  more  modern  form  of  territorial  gov- 
ernment. It  is  justly  famed  for  many  of  its 
provisions;  but  its  chief  value  is  conceded  to 
have  been  its  sixth  article,  ordaining  the  im- 
mediate and  perpetual  prohibition  of  slavery. 
Upon  this  all  the  States  present  in  Congress  — 
three  Northern  and  five  Southern  —  voted  in 
the  affirmative;  five  States  were  absent,  four 
Northern  and  one  Southern.  This  piece  of  leg- 
islation is  remarkable  in  that  it  was  an  entirely 
new  bill,  substituted  for  a  former  and  altogether 
different  scheme  containing  no  prohibition 
whatever,  and  that  it  was  passed  through  all 
the  forms  and  stages  of  enactment  in  the  short 
space  of  four  days.*  History  sheds  little  light 
on  the  official  transaction,  but  contemporary 
evidence  points  to  the  influence  of  a  powerful 
lobby.  Several  plausible  reasons  are  assigned 
why  the  three  slave  States  of  Maryland,  Vir- 
ginia, and  North  Carolina  voted  for  this  pro- 
hibition. First,  the  West  was  competing  with 
the  territory  of  Maine  for  settlers ;  second,  the 
whole  scheme  was  in  the  interest  of  the 
"  Ohio  Company,"  a  newly  formed  Massachu- 
setts emigrant  aid  society  which  immediately 
made  a  large  purchase  of  lands ;  third,  the  un- 
settled regions  south  of  the  Ohio  River  had  not 
yet  been  ceded  to  the  General  Government, 
and  were  therefore  open  to  slavery  from  the 
contiguous  Southern  States;  fourth,  little  was 
known  of  the  extent  or  character  of  the  great 
West;  and,  therefore,  fifth,  the  Ohio  River  was 
doubtless  thought  to  be  a  fair  and  equitable 
dividing  line.  The  ordinance  itself  provided 
for  the  formation  of  not  less  than  three  nor 
more  than  five  States,  and  under  its  shielding 
provisions  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan, 
and  Wisconsin  were  added  to  the  Union  with 
free  constitutions. 
It  does  not  appear  that  sectional  motives 
operated  for  or  against  the  foregoing  enact- 
ment; they  were  probably  held  in  abeyance 
by  other  considerations.  But  it  must  not  be 
inferred  therefrom  that  the  slavery  question 
was  absent  or  dormant  in  the  country.  There 
was  already  a  North  and  a  South.  At  that 
very  time  the  constitutional  convention  was 
*  Journals  of  Congress,  1787,  p.  63. 
in  session  in  Philadelphia.  George  Wash- 
ington   and    his    illustrious   fellow-delegates 
were  grappling  with  the  novel  problems  of 
government  which  the  happy  issue  of  the 
Revolution  and  the  lamentable  failure  of  the 
Confederation  forced  upon  the  country.  One 
of  these  problems  was  the  presence  of  over 
half  a  million  of  slaves,  nearly  all  in  five 
Southern  States.  Should  they  be  taxed  ? 
Should  they  be  represented  ?  Should  the 
power  to  regulate  commerce  be  allowed  to 
control  or  terminate  their  importation  ?  Vital 
questions  these,  which  went  not  merely  to  the 
incidents  but  the  fundamental  powers  of  gov- 
ernment. The  slavery  question  seemed  for 
months  an  irreconcilable  element  of  discord  in 
the  convention.  The  slave-trade  not  only,  but 
the  domestic  institution  itself,  was  character- 
ized in  language  which  Southern  politicians 
of  later  times  would  have  denounced  as  "  fa- 
natical "  and  "  incendiary."  Pinckney  wished 
the  slaves  to  be  represented  equally  with  the 
whites,  since  they  were  the  Southern  peasan- 
try. Gouverneur  Morris  declared  that  as  they 
were  only  property  they  ought  not  to  be  rep- 
resented at  all.  Both  the  present  and  the  fu- 
ture balance  of  power  in  national  legislation, 
as  resulting  from  slaves  already  in,  and  here- 
after to  be  imported  into,  old  and  new  States, 
were  debated  under  various  possibilities  and 
probabilities.  Out  of  these  divergent  views 
grew  the  compromises  of  the  Constitution.  1. 
The  slaves  were  to  be  included  in  the  enumer- 
ation for  representation,  jive  blacks  to  be 
counted  as  three  whites.  2.  Congress  should 
have  the  right  to  prohibit  the  slave-trade,  but 
not  till  the  lapse  of  twenty  years.  3.  Fugitive 
slaves  should  be  returned  to  their  owners. 
Each  State,  large  or  small,  was  allowed  two 
senators;  and  the  apportionment  of  repre- 
sentatives gave  to  the  North  thirty-five  mem- 
bers and  fourteen  senators,  to  the  South 
thirty  members  and  twelve  senators.  But 
since  the  North  was  not  yet  free  from  slavery, 
but  only  in  process  of  becoming  so,  and  as 
Virginia  was  the  leading  State  of  the  Union, 
the  real  balance  of  power  remained  in  the 
hands  of  the  South. 
The  newly  formed  Constitution  went  into 
successful  operation.  Under  legal  provisions 
already  made  and  the  strong  current  of  abo- 
lition sentiment  then  existing,  all  the  East- 
ern and  Middle  States  down  to  Delaware 
became  free.  This  gain,  however,  was  per- 
haps more  than  numerically  counterbalanced 
by  the  active  importation  of  captured  Afri- 
cans, especially  into  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  up  to  the  time  the  traffic  ceased  by 
law  in  1808.  Jefferson  had  meanwhile  pur- 
chased of  France  the  immense  country  west 
of  the    Mississippi  known  as  the   Louisiana
68S 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
Territory.  The  free  navigation  of  that  great 
river  was  assured,  and  the  importance  of  the 
West  immeasurably  increased.  The  old  French 
colonies  at  New  Orleans  and  Kaskaskia  were 
already  strong  outposts  of  civilization  and  the 
nuclei  of  spreading  settlements.  Attracted  by 
the  superior  fertility  of  soil,  by  the  limitless  op- 
portunities for  speculation,  by  the  enticing  spirit 
of  adventure,  and  pushed  by  the  restless  energy 
inherent  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  character,  the 
older  States  now  began  to  pour  a  rising  stream 
of  emigration  into  the  West  and  the  South-west. 
In  this  race  the  free  States,  by  reason  of 
their  greater  population,  wealth,  and  com- 
mercial enterprise,  would  have  outstripped 
the  South,  but  for  the  introduction  of  a  new 
and  powerful  influence  which  operated  exclu- 
sively in  favor  of  the  latter.  This  was  the  dis- 
covery of  the  peculiar  adaptation  of  the  soil 
and  climate  of  portions  of  the  Southern  States, 
combined  with  cheap  slave-labor,  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  cotton.  Half  a  century  of  experi- 
ment and  invention  in  England  had  brought 
about  the  concurrent  improvement  of  ma- 
chinery for  spinning  and  weaving,  and  of  the 
high-pressure  engine  to  furnish  motive  power. 
The  Revolutionary  War  was  scarcely  ended 
when  there  came  from  the  mother-country  a 
demand  for  the  raw  fiber,  which  promised  to 
be  almost  without  limit.  A  few  trials  sufficed 
to  show  Southern  planters  that  with  their  soil 
and  their  slaves  they  could  supply  this  de- 
mand, not  only  with  a  quality  of  cotton  which 
would  defy  competition,  but  at  a  profit  to  them- 
selves far  exceeding  that  of  any  other  product 
of  agriculture.  An  insurmountable  obstacle, 
however,  seemed  now  to  interpose  itself  be- 
tween them  and  their  golden  harvest.  The 
tedious  work  of  cleaning  the  fiber  from  the 
seed  apparently  made  its  cheap  preparation  for 
export  in  large  quantities  impossible.  A  negro 
woman  working  the  whole  day  could  only 
clean  a  single  pound. 
It  so  happened  that  at  this  juncture,  No- 
vember, 1792,  an  ingenious  Yankee  student 
*  Memoir  of  Eli  Whitney,  American  Journal  Science, 
1832. 
t  The  Virginia  price  of  a  male  "field  hand"  in  1790 
was  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars ;  in  i860  his  value 
in  the  domestic  market  had  risen  to  sixteen  hundred 
dollars. —  Sherrard  Clemens,  in  H.  R.  App.  Globe, 
1860-61,  104-5. 
t  Compendium,  8th  census,  p.  13. 
§  No  word  of  the  authors  could  add  to  the  force  and 
eloquence  of  the  following  from  a  recent  letter  of  the 
son  of  the  inventor  of  the  cotton-gin  (to  the  Art  Super- 
intendent of  The  Century),  stating  the  claims  of  his 
father's  memory  to  the  gratitude  of  the  South,  hitherto 
apparently  unfelt,  and  certainly  unrecognized  : 
"New  Haven,  Conn.,  Dec.  4,  1886. 
"...    I  send  you  a  photograph  taken  from  a  por- 
trait of  my  father,  painted  about   the  year  1821,  by 
King,  of  Washington,  when  my  father,  the  inventor 
from  Massachusetts  was  boarding  in  the  house 
of  friends  in  Savannah,  Georgia,  occupying 
his  leisure  in  reading  law.  A  party  of  Georgia 
gentlemen  from  the  interior,  making  a  visit  to 
this  family,  fell  into  conversation  on  the  pros- 
pects and  difficulties  of  cotton-culture  and  the 
imperative  need  of  a  rapidly  working  clean- 
ing-machine. Their  hostess,  an  intelligent 
and  quick-witted  woman,  at  once  suggested 
an  expedient.  "  Gentlemen,"  said  Mrs.  Greene, 
"  apply  to  my  young  friend,  Mr.  Eli  Whitney  j 
he  can  make  anything."  *  The  Yankee  student 
was  sought,  introduced,  and  had  the  me- 
chanical problem  laid  before  him.  He  mod- 
estly disclaimed  his  hostess's  extravagant 
praises,  and  told  his  interviewers  that  he  had 
never  seen  either  cotton  or  cotton-seed  in  his 
life.  Nevertheless,  he  went  to  work  with  such 
earnestness  and  success,  that  in  a  few  months 
Mrs.  Greene  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  able 
to  invite  a  gathering  of  gentlemen  from  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  State  to  behold  with  their 
own  eyes  the  working  of  the  newly  invented 
cotton-gin,  with  which  a  negro  man  turning 
a  crank  could  clean  fifty  pounds  of  cotton  per 
day.  This  solution  of  the  last  problem  in 
cheap  cotton-culture  made  it  at  once  the  lead- 
ing crop  of  the  South.  That  favored  region 
quickly  drove  all  competitors  out  of  the  mar- 
ket ;  and  the  rise  of  English  imports  of  raw 
cotton,  from  thirty  million  pounds  in  1790  to 
over  one  thousand  million  pounds  in  i860, 
shows  the  development  and  increase  of  that 
special  industry,  with  all  its  related  interests.! 
It  was  not  till  sixteen  years  after  the  inven- 
tion of  the  cotton-gin  that  the  African  slave- 
trade  ceased  by  limitation  of  law.  Within 
that  period  many  thousands  of  negro  captives 
had  been  added  to  the  population  of  the  South 
by  direct  importation,  and  nearly  thirty  thou- 
sand slave  inhabitants  added  by  the  acquisi- 
tion of  Louisiana,^  and  the  formation  of  new 
slave  States  south  of  the  Ohio  River  hastened 
in  due  proportion^ 
It  is  a  curious  historical  fact   that,  under 
of  the  cotton-gin,  was  fifty-five  years  old.  He  died 
January  25th,  1825.  The  cotton-gin  was  invented  in 
1 793  5  an(l  though  it  has  been  in  use  for  nearly  one 
hundred  years,  it  is  virtually  unimproved.  .  .  .  Hence 
the  great  merit  of  the  original  invention.  It  has  made 
the  South,  financially  and  commercially.  It  has  made 
England  rich,  and  changed  the  commerce  of  the  world. 
Lord  Macaulay  said  of  Eli  Whitney  :  'What  Peter  the 
Great  did  to  make  Russia  dominant,  Eli  Whitney's 
invention  of  the  cotton-gin  has  more  than  equaled  in 
its  relation  to  the  power  and  progress  of  the  United 
States.'  He  has  been  the  greatest  benefactor  of  the 
South,  but  it  never  has,  to  my  knowledge,  acknowl- 
edged his  benefaction  in  a  public  manner  to  the  ex- 
tent it  deserves  —  no  monument  has  been  erected  to 
his  memory,  no  town  or  city  named  after  him,  though 
the  force  of  his  genius  has  caused  many  towns  and 
cities  to  rise  and  flourish  in  the  South.    .    .    . 
"Yours  very  truly,         E.  W.  Whitney."
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
the  very  remarkable  material  growth  of  the 
United  States  which  now  took  place,  the  polit- 
ical influence  remained  so  very  evenly  balanced 
between  the  North  and  the  South  lor  more  than 
a  generation.  Other  grave  issues  indeed  ab- 
sorbed the  public  attention,  but  the  abeyance 
of  the  slavery  question  is  due  rather  to  the  fact 
that  no  considerable  advantage  as  yet  fell  to 
either  side.  Eight  new  States  were  organ- 
ized, four  north  and  four  south  of  the  Ohio, 
and  admitted  in  nearly  alternate  order :  Ver- 
mont in  ijgi,  free;  Kentucky  in  1792,  slave; 
Tennessee  in  1796,  slave ;  Ohio  in  1802,  free  ; 
Louisiana  in  181 2,  slave;  Indiana  in  1816, 
free ;  Mississippi  in  18 17,  slave;  Illinois  in 
181 8,  free.  Alabama  was  already  authorized 
to  be  admitted  with  slavery,  and  this  would 
make  the  number  of  free  and  slave  States 
equal,  giving  eleven  States  to  the  North  and 
eleven  to  the  South. 
The  territory  of  Missouri,  containing  the  old 
French  colonies  at  and  near  St.  Louis,  had  at- 
tained a  population  of  60,000,  and  was  eager 
to  be  admitted  as  a  State.  She  had  made  ap- 
plication in  18 1 7,  and  now  in  1819  k  was  pro- 
posed to  authorize  her  to  form  a  constitution. 
Arkansas  was  also  being  nursed  as  an  appli- 
cant, and  the  prospective  loss  by  the  North 
and  gain  by  the  South  of  the  balance  of  power 
caused  the  slavery  question  suddenly  to  flare 
up  as  a  national  issue.  There  were  hot  debates 
in  Congress,  emphatic  resolutions  by  State 
legislatures,  deep  agitation  among  the  whole 
people,  and  open  threats  by  the  South  to  dis- 
solve the  Union.  Extreme  Northern  men  in- 
sisted upon  a  restriction  of  slavery  to  be  applied 
to  both  Missouri  and  Arkansas;  radical  South- 
ern members  contended  that  Congress  had  no 
power  to  impose  any  conditions  on  new  States. 
The  North  had  control  of  the  House,  the  South 
of  the  Senate.  A  middle  party  thereupon  spran  g 
up,  proposing  to  divide  the  Louisiana  purchase 
between  freedom  and  slavery  by  the  line  of  360 
30',  and  authorizing  the  admission  of  Missouri 
with  slavery  out  of  the  northern  half.  Fasten- 
ing this  proposition  upon  the  bill  to  admit 
Maine  as  a  free  State,  the  measure  was,  after  a 
struggle,  carried  through  Congress  (in  a  sepa- 
rate act  approved  March  6,  1820),  and  became 
the  famous  Missouri  Compromise.  Maine  and 
Missouri  were  both  admitted.  Each  section 
thereby  not  only  gained  two  votes  in  the  Sen- 
ate, but  also  asserted  its  right  to  spread  its 
peculiar  polity  without  question  or  hindrance 
within  the  prescribed  limits;  and  the  motto, 
"  No  extension  of  slavery,"  was  postponed 
forty  years,  to  the  Republican  campaign  of 
i860. 
From  this  time  forward,  the  maintenance 
of  this  balance  of  power, —  the  numerical 
equality  of  the  slave  States  with  the  free, — 
though  not  announced  in  platforms  as  a  party 
doctrine,  was  nevertheless  steadily  followed  as 
a  policy  by  the  representatives  of  the  South. 
In  pursuance  of  this  system,  Michigan  and 
Arkansas,  the  former  a  free  and  the  latter  a 
slave  State,  were,  on  the  same  day,  June  15, 
1836,  authorized  to  be  admitted.  These  tactics 
were  again  repeated  in  the  year  1845,  when, 
on  the  3d  of  March,  Iowa,  a  free  State,  and 
Florida,  a  slave  State,  were  authorized  to  be 
admitted  by  one  act  of  Congress,  its  approval 
being  the  last  official  act  of  President  Tyler. 
This  tacit  compromise,  however,  was  accom- 
panied by  another  very  important  victory  of 
the  same  policy.  The  Southern  politicians  saw 
clearly  enough  that  with  the  admission  of 
Florida  the  slave  terntory  was  exhausted, 
while  an  immense  untouched  portion  of  the 
Louisiana  purchase  still  stretched  away  north- 
westwardly toward  the  Pacific  above  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  line,  which  consecrated  it 
to  freedom.  The  North,  therefore,  still  had  an 
imperial  area  from  which  to  organize  future 
free  States,  while  the  South  had  not  a  foot  more 
of  territory  from  which  to  create  slave  States. 
Sagaciously  anticipating  this  contingency, 
the  Southern  States  had  been  largely  instru- 
mental in  setting  up  the  independent  State  of 
Texas,  and  were  now  urgent  in  their  demand 
for  her  annexation  to  the  Union.  Two  days 
before  the  signing  of  the  Iowa  and  Florida 
bill,  Congress  passed,  and  President  Tyler 
signed,  a  joint  resolution,  authorizing  the  ac- 
quisition, annexation,  and  admission  of  Texas. 
But  even  this  was  not  all.  The  joint  resolution 
contained  a  guarantee  that  "  new  States,  of 
convenient  size,  not  exceeding  four  in  number, 
in  addition  to  the  said  State  of  Texas,"  and  to 
be  formed  out  of  her  territory,  should  here- 
after be  entitled  to  admission  —  the  Missouri 
Compromise  line  to  govern  the  slavery  ques- 
tion in  them.  The  State  of  Texas  was,  by 
a  later  resolution,  formally  admitted  to  the 
Union,  December  29,  1845.  At  this  date, 
therefore,  the  slave  States  gained  an  actual 
majority  of  one,  there  being  fourteen  free 
States  and  fifteen  slave  States,  with  at  least 
equal  territorial  prospects  for  the  future. 
If  the  North  was  alarmed  at  being  thus 
placed  in  a  minority,  there  was  ample  reason 
for  still  further  disquietude.  The  annexation 
of  Texas  had  provoked  the  Mexican  war,  and 
President  Polk,  in  anticipation  of  further  im- 
portant acquisition  of  territory  to  the  South 
and  West,  asked  of  Congress  an  appropriation 
of  two  millions  to  be  used  in  negotiations  to 
that  end.  An  attempt  to  impose  a  condition 
to  these  negotiations  that  slavery  should  never 
exist  in  any  territory  to  be  thus  acquired  was  the 
famous  Wilmot  Proviso.  This  particular  meas- 
ure failed,  but  the  war  ended,  and  New  Mexico
690 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
and  California  were  added  to  the  Union  as 
unorganized  territories.  Meanwhile  the  admis- 
sion of  Wisconsin  in  1S48  had  once  more  re- 
stored the  equilibrium  between  the  free  and  the 
slave  States,  there  being  now  fifteen  of  each. 
It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  important 
political  measures  and  results  thus  far  summa- 
rized were  accomplished  by  quiet  and  harmo- 
nious legislation.  Rising  steadily  since  1820, 
the  controversy  over  slavery  became  deep  and 
bitter,  both  in  Congress  and  the  country.  In- 
volving not  merely  a  policy  of  government, 
but  a  question  of  abstract  morals,  statesmen, 
philanthropists,  divines,  the  press,  societies, 
churches,  and  legislative  bodies  joined  in  the 
discussion.  Slavery  was  assailed  and  defended 
in  behalf  of  the  welfare  of  the  State,  and  in  the 
name  of  religion.  In  Congress  especially  it  had 
now  been  a  subject  of  angry  contention  for  a 
whole  generation.  It  obtruded  itself  into  all 
manner  of  questions,  and  clung  obstinately  to 
numberless  resolutions  and  bills.  Time  and 
again  it  had  brought  members  into  excited 
discussion,  and  to  the  very  verge  of  perso- 
nal conflict  in  the  legislative  halls.  It  had  oc- 
casioned numerous  threats  to  dissolve  the 
Union,  and  in  one  or  more  instances  caused 
members  actually  to  retire  from  the  House  of 
Representatives.  It  had  given  rise  to  resolu- 
tions of  censure,  to  resignations,  and  had  been 
the  occasion  of  some  of  the  greatest  legislative 
debates  of  the  nation.  It  had  virtually  created 
and  annexed  the  largest  State  in  the  Union. 
In  several  States  it  had  instigated  abuse,  in- 
tolerance, persecutions,  trials,  mobs,  murders, 
destruction  of  property,  imprisonment  of  free- 
men, retaliatory  legislation,  and  one  well-de- 
fined and  formidable  attempt  at  revolution. 
It  originated  party  factions,  political  schools, 
and  constitutional  doctrines,  and  made  and 
marred  the  fame  of  great  statesmen. 
New  Mexico,  when  acquired,  contained 
one  of  the  oldest  towns  on  the  continent,  and 
a  considerable  population  of  Spanish  origin. 
California,  almost  simultaneously  with  her  ac- 
quisition, was  peopled  in  the  course  of  a  few 
months  by  the  world-renowned  gold  discov- 
eries. Very  unexpectedly,  therefore,  to  politi- 
cians of  all  grades  and  opinions,  the  slavery 
question  was  once  more  before  the  nation  in 
the  year  1850,  over  the  proposition  to  admit 
both  to  the  Union  as  States.  As  the  result 
of  the  long  conflict  of  opinion  hitherto  main- 
tained, the  beliefs  and  desires  of  the  contend- 
ing sections  had  by  this  time  become  formu- 
lated in  distinct  political  doctrines.  The  North 
contended  that  Congress  might  and  should 
prohibit  slavery  in  all  the  territories  of  the 
Union,  as  had  been  done  in  the  Northern  half 
by  the  ordinance  of  1787  and  by  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.    The  South  declared  that 
any  such  exclusion  would  not  only  be  unjust 
and  impolitic,  but  absolutely  unconstitutional, 
because  property  in  slaves  might  go  and  must 
be  protected  in  the  territories  in  common  with 
all  other  property.  To  the  theoretical  dispute 
was  added  a  practical  contest.  By  the  existing 
Mexican  laws  slavery  was  already  prohibited 
in  New  Mexico,  and  California  promptly 
formed  a  free  State  constitution.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  North  now  sought  to  or- 
ganize the  former  as  a  territory,  and  admit  the 
latter  as  a  State,  while  the  South  resisted  and 
endeavored  to  extend  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise line,  which  would  place  New  Mexico  and 
the  southern  half  of  California  under  the  tute- 
lage and  influence  of  slavery. 
These  were  the  principal  points  of  differ- 
ence which  caused  the  great  slavery  agitation 
of  1850.  The  whole  country  was  convulsed 
in  discussion ;  and  again  more  open  threats 
and  more  ominous  movements  towards  dis- 
union came  from  the  South.  The  most  popu- 
lar statesman  of  that  day,  Henry  Clay  of 
Kentucky,  a  slaveholder  opposed  to  the  ex- 
tension of  slavery,  now,  however,  assumed  the 
leadership  of  a  party  of  compromise,  and  the 
quarrel  was  adjusted  and  quieted  by  a  com- 
bined series  of  Congressional  acts.  1.  Cali- 
fornia was  admitted  as  a  free  State.  2.  The 
territories  of  New  Mexico  and  Utah  were  or- 
ganized, leaving  the  Mexican  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  force.  3.  The  domestic  slave-trade 
in  the  District  of  Columbia  was  abolished. 
4.  A  more  stringent  fugitive-slave  law  was 
passed.  5.  For  the  adjustment  of  her  State 
boundaries  Texas  received  ten  millions  of 
dollars.  These  were  the  famous  compromise 
measures  of  1850.  It  has  been  gravely  as- 
serted that  this  indemnity  of  ten  millions,  sud- 
denly trebling  the  value  of  the  Texas  debt, 
and  thereby  affording  an  unprecedented  oppor- 
tunity for  speculation  in  the  bonds  of  that 
State,  was  "  the  propelling  force  whereby  these 
acts  were  pushed  through  Congress  in  defi- 
ance of  the  original  convictions  of  a  majority 
of  its  members."*  But  it  must  also  be  admitted 
that  the  popular  desire  for  tranquillity,  concord, 
and  union  in  all  sections  never  exerted  as 
much  influence  upon  Congress  as  then.  This 
compromise  was  not  at  first  heartily  accepted 
by  the  people ;  Southern  opinion  being  of- 
fended by  the  abandonment  of  the  "  property" 
doctrine,  and  Northern  sentiment  irritated  by 
certain  harsh  features  of  the  fugitive-slave  law. 
But  the  rising  Union  feeling  quickly  swept 
away  all  ebullitions  of  discontent,  and  during 
two  or  three  years  people  and  politicians 
fondly  dreamed  they  had,  in  current  phrase- 
ology, reached  a  "  finality  "  on  this  vexed 
quarrel.  Grave  doubts,  however,  found  occa- 
*  Greeley,  "Am.  Conflict,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  208.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
sional  expression  and  none  perhaps  more 
forcibly  than  in  the  following  newspaper  epi- 
gram describing  "Finality": 
"To  kill  twice  dead  a  rattlesnake, 
And  off  his  scaly  skin  to  take, 
And  through  his  head  to  drive  a  stake, 
And  every  bone  within  him  break, 
And  of  his  flesh  mincemeat  to  make, 
To  burn,  to  sear,  to  boil,  and  bake, 
Then  in  a  heap  the  whole  to  rake, 
And  over  it  the  besom  shake, 
And  sink  it  fathoms  in  the  lake  — 
Whence  after  all,  quite  wide  awake, 
Comes  back  that  very  same  old  snake  !  " 
Little  did  the  country  think  how  soon  the 
absurd  prediction  would  find  its  fulfillment. 
THE    REPEAL    OF    THE  MISSOURI  COMPROMISE. 
The  long  contest  in  Congress  over  the  com- 
promise measures  of  1850,  and  the  reluctance 
of  a  minority,  alike  in  the  North  and  the  South, 
to  accept  them,  had  in  reality  seriously  de- 
moralized both  the  great  political  parties  of 
the  country.  The  Democrats  especially,  de- 
feated by  the  fresh  military  laurels  of  General 
Taylor  in  1848,  were  much  exercised  to  dis- 
cover their  most  available  candidate  as  the 
presidential  election  of  1852  approached.  The 
leading  names,  Cass,  Buchanan,  and  Marcy, 
having  been  long  before  the  public,  were  be- 
coming a  little  stale.  In  this  contingency,  a 
considerable  following  grouped  itself  about  an 
entirely  new  man,  Stephen  A.  Douglas  of 
Illinois.  Emigrating  from  Vermont  to  the 
West,  Douglas  had  run  a  career  remarkable 
for  political  success.  Only  in  his  thirty-ninth 
year,  he  had  served  as  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture, as  Attorney-General,  as  Secretary  of  State, 
and  as  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  in  Illinois, 
and  had  since  been  three  times  elected  to  Con- 
gress and  once  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States.  Nor  did  he  owe  his  political  fortunes 
entirely  to  accident.  Among  his  many  quali- 
ties of  leadership  were  strong  physical  endur- 
ance, untiring  industry,  a  persistent  boldness, 
a  ready  facility  in  public  speaking,  unfail- 
ing political  shrewdness,  an  unusual  power 
in  running  debate,  with  liberal  instincts  and 
progressive  purposes.  It  was  therefore  not 
surprising  that  he  should  attract  the  admira- 
tion and  support  of  the  young,  the  ardent, 
and  especially  the  restless  and  ambitious  mem- 
bers of  his  party.  His  career  in  Congress  was 
sufficiently  conspicuous.  As  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Territories  in  the  Senate,  he 
had  borne  a  prominent  part  in  the  enactment 
of  the  compromise  measures  of  1850,  and  had 
just  met  and  overcome  a  threatened  party 
schism  in  his  own  State,  which  that  legislation 
had  there  produced. 
In  their  zeal  to  push  his  claims  to  the  presi- 
dency, the  partisans  of  Douglas  now  com- 
mitted a  great  error.     Rightly  appreciating 
the  growing  power  of  the  press,  they  obtained 
control  of  the  "Democratic  Review,"  a  monthly 
magazine  then  enjoying  prominent  repute  as 
a  party  organ,  and  published  in  it  a  series  of 
articles  attacking  the  rival  Democratic  can- 
didates in  very  flashy  rhetoric.  These  were 
stigmatized  as  "  old  fogies,"  who  must  give 
ground  to  a  nominee  of  "  Young  America." 
They  were  reminded  that  the  party  expects 
a  "  new  man."  :L  Age  is  to  be  honored,  but 
senility  is  pitiable  " ;  "  statesmen  of  a  previous 
generation  must  get  out  of  the  way  " ;  the 
Democratic  party  was  owned  by  a  set  of  "old 
clothes-horses";  "they  couldn't  pay  their 
political  promises  in  four  Democratic  admin- 
istrations"; and  the  names  of  Cass  and  Mar- 
cy, Buchanan  and  Butler,  were  freely  mixed 
in  with  such  epithets  as  "  pretenders,"  "huck- 
sters," "  intruders,"  and  "  vile  charlatans." 
Such  characterization  of  such  men  soon 
created  a  flagrant  scandal  in  the  Democratic 
party,  which  was  duly  aired  both  in  the  news- 
papers and  in  Congress.  It  definitely  fixed  the 
phrases  "  old  fogy,"  and  "  Young  America" 
in  our  slang  literature.  The  personal  friends 
of  Douglas  hastened  to  explain  and  assert  his 
innocence  of  any  complicity  with  this  political 
raid,  but  they  were  not  more  than  half  believed; 
and  the  war  of  factions,  begun  in  January,  raged 
with  increasing  bitterness  till  the  Democratic 
National  Convention  met  at  Baltimore  in  June, 
and  undoubtedly  exerted  a  decisive  influence 
over  the  deliberations  of  that  body. 
The  only  serious  competitors  for  the  nomi- 
nation were  the  "  old  fogies "  Cass,  Marcy, 
and  Buchanan  on  the  one  hand,  and  Doug- 
las, the  pet  of  "  Young  America,"  on  the 
other.  It  soon  became  evident  that  opinion 
was  so  divided  among  these  four  that  a  nomi- 
nation could  only  be  reached  through  long 
and  tedious  ballotings.  Beginning  with  some 
twenty  votes,  Douglas  steadily  gained  adhe- 
rents till  on  the  thirtieth  ballot  he  received 
ninety-two.  From  this  point,  however,  his 
strength  fell  away.  Unable  to  succeed  him- 
self, he  was  nevertheless  sufficiently  powerful 
to  defeat  his  adversaries.  The  exasperation 
had  been  too  great  to  permit  a  concentra- 
tion or  compromise  on  any  of  the  "  seniors." 
Cass  reached  only  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
one  votes;  Marcy,  ninety-eight;  Buchanan, 
one  hundred  and  four;  and  finally,  on  the 
forty-ninth  ballot,  occurred  the  memorable 
nearly  unanimous  selection  of  Franklin  Pierce 
—  not  because  of  any  merit  of  his  own,  but  to 
break  the  insurmountable  dead-lock  of  fac- 
tional hatred.  Young  America  gained  a  nom- 
inal triumph,  old  fogydom  a  real  revenge, 
and  the  South  a  serviceable  Northern  allv.
692 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
The  country  was  the  only  sufferer,  for  in  due 
time  Pierce  was  overwhelmingly  elected,  and 
the  nation  burdened  with  that  costly  luxury, 
an  administration  without  either  personal  or 
party  responsibility.  Douglas  and  his  friends 
were  discomfited  but  not  dismayed.  Their 
management  had  been  exceedingly  maladroit, 
as  a  more  modest  championship  would  with- 
out doubt  have  secured  him  the  coveted  nomi- 
nation. Yet  sagacious  politicians  foresaw  that 
on  the  whole  he  was  strengthened  by  his  defeat. 
From  that  time  forward  he  was  a.  recognized 
presidential  aspirant  and  competitor,  young 
enough  patiently  to  bide  his  time,  and  of  suffi- 
cient prestige  to  make  his  flag  the  rally ing-point 
of  all  the  free-lances  in  the  Democratic  party. 
It  is  to  this  presidential  aspiration  of  Mr. 
Douglas  that  we  must  look  as  the  key  or  ex- 
planation of  his  agency  in  bringing  about  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  —  per- 
haps the  most  momentous  legislative  act  in 
American  history.  As  already  said,  after  some 
factious  opposition  the  measures  of  1850  had 
been  accepted  by  the  people  as  a  finality  of 
the  slavery  questions.  Around  this  alleged  set- 
tlement, distasteful  as  it  was  to  many,  public 
opinion  gradually  crystallized.  Both  the  Na- 
tional Conventions  of  1852  solemnly  resolved 
that  they  would  discountenance  and  resist,  in 
Congress  or  out  of  it,  whenever,  wherever,  or 
however,  or  under  whatever  color  or  shape, 
any  further  renewal  of  the  slavery  agitation. 
This  determination  was  echoed  and  reechoed, 
affirmed  and  reaffirmed,  by  the  recognized  or- 
gans of  the  public  voice  —  from  the  village 
newspaper  to  thepresidential  message,  from  the 
country  debating  school  to  the  measured  utter- 
ances of  Senatorial  discussion.  In  support  of 
this  alleged  "  finality "  no  one  had  taken  a 
more  decided  stand  than  Senator  Douglas 
himself.  Said  he,  "  In  taking  leave  of  this  sub- 
ject I  wTish  to  state  that  I  have  determined 
never  to  make  another  speech  upon  the  slav- 
ery question;  and  I  will  now  add  the  hope 
that  the  necessity  for  it  will  never  exist.  .  .  . 
So  long  as  our  opponents  do  not  agitate  for 
repeal  or  modification,  why  should  we  agitate 
for  any  purpose  ?  We  claim  that  the  com- 
promise [of  1850]  is  a  final  settlement.  Is  a 
final  settlement  open  to  discussion  and  agita- 
tion and  controversy  by  its  friends  ?  What 
manner  of  settlement  is  that  which  does  not 
settle  the  difficulty  and  quiet  the  dispute?  Are 
not  the  friends  of  the  compromise  becoming 
the  agitators,  and  will  not  the  country  hold 
us  responsible  for  that  which  we  condemn  and 
denounce  in  the  abolitionists  andFree-soilers? 
These  are  matters  worthy  of  our  consideration. 
Those  who  preach  peace  should  not  be  the 
first  to  commence  and  reopen  an  old  quar- 
rel." *  In  his  Senate  speeches,  during  the  com- 
promise debates  of  1850,  while  generally  ad- 
vocating his  theory  of  "  non-intervention,"  he 
had  sounded  the  whole  gamut  of  the  slavery 
discussion,  defending  the  various  measures  of 
adjustment  against  the  attacks  of  the  Southern 
extremists,  and  specifically  defending  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise.  Nay,  more;  he  had  de- 
clared in  distinct  wrords  that  the  principle  of 
territorial  prohibition  was  no  violation  of 
Southern  rights;  and  denounced  the  proposi- 
tion of  Calhoun  to  put  a  "balance  of  power" 
clause  into  the  Constitution  as  "  a  retrograde 
movement  in  an  age  of  progress  that  would  as- 
tonish the  world."  f  These  repeated  affirma- 
tions, taken  in  connection  with  his  famous  de- 
scription of  the  Missouri  Compromise  in  1849, 
in  which  he  declared  it  to  have  had  "an  origin 
akin  to  the  Constitution,"  and  to  have  become 
"canonized  in  the  hearts  of  the  American 
people  as  a  sacred  thing  which  no  ruthless 
hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough  to  dis- 
turb,"! ani  seemed,  in  the  public  mind,  to  put 
it  beyond  the  reach  of  possibility  that  their  au- 
thor would  so  soon  become  the  subject  of  his 
own  anathemas. 
The  personal  details  of  this  most  remarka*- 
ble  of  all  our  political  intrigues  are  forever  lost 
to  history.  We  have  only  a  faint  and  shadowy 
outline  of  isolated  movements  of  a  few  chief 
actors,  a  few  vague  suggestions  and  fragmen- 
tary steps  in  the  formation  and  unfolding  of  the 
ill-omened  plot. 
As  the  avowed  representative  of  the  rest- 
less and  ambitious  elements  of  the  country,  as 
the  champion  of  "  Young  America,"  Douglas 
had  so  far  as  possible  in  his  Congressional 
career  made  himself  the  apostle  of  modern 
"  progress."  He  was  a  believer  in  "  manifest 
destiny  "  and  a  zealous  advocate  of  the  Mon- 
roe doctrine.  He  desired  —  so  the  newspapers 
averred  —  that  the  Carribbean  Sea  should  be 
declared  an  American  lake,  and  nothing  so 
delighted  him  as  to  pull  the  beard  of  the  British 
lion.  These  topics,  while  they  furnished  themes 
for  campaign  speeches,  for  the  present  led  to  no 
practical  legislation.  In  his  position  as  chair- 
man of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Territories, 
however,  he  had  control  of  kindred  measures 
of  present  and  vital  interest  to  the  people  of  the 
West;  namely,  the  opening  of  new  routes  of 
travel  and  emigration  and  of  new  territories  for 
settlement.  An  era  of  wonder  had  just  dawned, 
connecting  itself  directly  with  these  subjects. 
The  acquisition  of  California  and  the  discovery 
of  gold  had  turned  the  eyes  of  the  whole  civil- 
ized world    to   the  Pacific  coast.     Plains  and 
*  App.  Globe  of  185 1-2,  p.  68. 
t  Douglas,  Senate  speech,  March  13,  1850.  App. 
Globe,  Vol.  XXII.,  pt.  I.,  pp.  369  to  372. 
t  Douglas,  Springfield  speech,  October  23,  1849. 
Illinois  "  Register."
ABRAHAM   /JNCO/.N. 
FROM   A    PHOTOGRAPH, 
AFTER    A    PORTRAIT    BY    KING. 
ELI     WHITNEY     (1821),    AGED     FIFTY-FIVE. 
mountains  were  swarming  with  adventurers 
and  emigrants.  Oregon,  Utah,  New  Mexico, 
and  Minnesota  had  just  been  organized,  and 
were  in  a  feeble  way  contesting  the  sudden  fame 
of  the  Golden  State.  The  Western  border  was 
astir,  and  wild  visions  of  lands  and  cities  and 
mines  and  wealth  and  power  were  disturbing 
the  peaceful  dreams  of  the  pioneer  in  his  fron- 
tier cabin,  and  hurrying  him  off  on  the  long, 
romantic  quest  across  the  continent. 
Hitherto,  stringent  Federal  laws  had  kept 
settlers  and  unlicensed  traders  out  of  the  In- 
dian territory,  which  lay  beyond  the  western 
boundaries  of  Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Iowa, 
and  which  the  policy  of  our  early  Presidents 
Vol.  XXXIII.— 88. 
fixed  upon  as  the  final  asylum  of  the  red  men 
retreating  before  the  irresistible  advance  of 
white  settlers.  But  now  the  uncontrollable 
stream  of  emigration  had  broken  into  and 
through  this  reservation,  creating  in  a  few  years 
well-defined  routes  of  travel  to  New  Mexico, 
Utah,  California,  and  Oregon.  Though  from 
the  long  march  there  came  constant  cries  of 
danger  and  distress,  of  starvation  and  Indian 
massacre,  there  was  neither  halting  nor  delay. 
The  courageous  pioneers  pressed  forward  all 
the  more  earnestly,  and  to  such  purpose  that  in 
less  than  twenty-five  years  the  Pacific  Railroad 
followed  Fremont's  first  exploration  through 
the  South  Pass.
694 
ABRA HAM    LINCOLN. 
Douglas,  himself  a  migratory  child  of  tor- 
tune,  was  in  thorough  sympathy  with  this 
somewhat  premature  Western  longing  of  the 
people  ;  and  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on 
Territories  was  the  recipient  ot  all  the  letters, 
petitions,  and  personal  solicitations  from  the 
LEWIS     CASS.       (PHOTOGRAPHED    BY     I'.KADY.) 
various  interests  which  were  seeking  their  ad- 
vantage in  this  exodus  toward  the  setting  sun. 
He  was  the  natural  center  for  all  the  embryo 
mail  contractors.  office-holders,  Indian  traders, 
land-sharks,  and  railroad  visionaries  whose 
coveted  opportunities  lay  in  the  Western  terri- 
tories. It  is  but  just  to  his  fame,  however,  to 
say  that  he  comprehended  equally  well  the  true 
philosophical  and  political  necessities  which 
now  demanded  the  opening  of  Kansas  and 
Nebraska  as  a  secure  highway  and  protecting 
bridge  to  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  our  new- 
found El  Dorado,  no  less  than  as 
a  bond  of  union  between  the  older 
States  and  the  improvised  "  Young 
America "  on  the  Pacific  coast. 
The  subject  was  not  yet  ripe  for 
action  during  the  stormy  politics 
of  1850-51,  and  had  again  to  be 
postponed  for  the  presidential 
campaign  of  1852.  But  now  Pierce 
was  triumphantly  elected,  with  a 
Democratic  Congress  to  sustain 
him,  and  the  legislative  calm 
which  both  parties  had  adjured 
in  their  platforms  seemed  propi- 
tious for  pushing  measures  of  local 
interest.  The  control  of  the  terri- 
tories was  for  the  moment  com- 
pletely in  the  hands  of  Douglas. 
He  wras  himself  chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Senate ;  and  his 
special  personal  friend  and  politi- 
cal lieutenant  in  his  own  State, 
Richardson  of  Illinois,  was  chair- 
man of  the  Territorial  Committee 
of  the  House.  He  could  therefore 
choose  his  own  time  and  mode  of 
introducing  measures  of  this  char- 
acter in  either  house  of  Congress, 
under  the  majority  control  of  his 
party  —  a  fact  to  be  constantly 
borne  in  mind  when  we  consider 
the  origin  and  progress  of  "  the 
three  Nebraska  bills." 
The  journal  discloses  that  Rich- 
ardson of  Illinois,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Territories  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  on  Feb- 
ruary 2,  1853,  introduced  into  the 
House  "A  bill  to  organize  the 
Territory  of  Nebraska."*  After 
due  reference,  and  some  desultory 
debate  on  the  8th, f  it  was  taken 
up  and  passed  by  the  House  on 
the  ioth.J  From  the  discussion 
we  learn  that  the  boundaries  were 
the  Missouri  River  on  the  east,  the 
Rocky  Mountains  on  the  west,  the 
line  of  360  30'  or  southern  line  of 
Missouri  on  the  south,  and  the  line 
of  430,  or  near  the  northern  line  of  Iowa,  on  the 
north.  Several  members  opposed  it,  because  the 
Indian  title  to  the  lands  was  not  yet  extinguished, 
and  because  it  embraced  reservations  pledged 
to  Indian  occupancy  in  perpetuity;  also  on 
*  Globe,  ]).  474.      t  lb.,  pp.  542-4-      t  lb.,  p.  565.
A/i RAJ/AM   LINCOLN. 
PHOTOGRAPHED    BY    BRADY. 
FRANKLIN     PIERCE,    PRESIDENT,     1853-57. 
ENGRA\ED    BY   G.    KRL'ELL. 
the  general  ground  that  it  contained  but  few 
white  inhabitants,  and  its  organization  was 
therefore  a  useless  expense.  Howard  of  Texas 
made  the  moststrenuous  opposition,  urging  that 
since  it  contained  but  about  six  hundred  souls, 
its  southern  boundary  should  be  fixed  at  390 
30',  not  to  trench  upon  the  Indian  reservations. 
Hall  of  Missouri  replied  in  support  of  the  bill : 
"  We  want  the  organization  of  the  Territory  of 
Nebraska  not  merely  for  the  protection  of  the 
few  people  who  reside  there,  but  also  for  the 
protection  of  Oregon  and  California  in  time
696 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
WILLIAM     A.      RICHARDSON.       (PHOTOGRAPHED     BY     BRADY., 
of  war,  and  the  protection  of  our  commerce 
and  the  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  emigrants  who 
annually  cross  the  plains."  *  He  added  that  its 
limits  were  purposely  made  large  to  embrace  the 
great  lines  of  travel  to  Oregon,  New  Mexico, 
and  California ;  since  the  South  Pass  is  in  420 
30'.  the  territory  has  to  extend  to  430  north. 
The  incident,  however,  of  special  historical 
significance  had  occurred  in  the  debate  of  the 
8th,  when  a  member  rose  and  said :  "  I  wish 
to  inquire  of  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  [Mr. 
Giddings] ,  who,  I  believe,  is  a  member  of  the 
Committee  on  Territories,  why  the  ordinance 
of  1787  is  not  incorporated  in  this  bill?  I 
should  like  to  know  whether  he  or  the  com- 
mittee were  intimidated  on  account  of  the  plat- 
forms of  1852?"!  To  which  Mr.  Ciddings 
replied  that  the  south  line  of  the  territory  was 
360  3c/,  and  was  already  covered  by  the  Mis- 
souri Compromise  prohibition.  "  This  law 
stands  perpetually,  and  I  do  not  think  that  this 
act  would  receive  any  increased  validity  by  a 
reenactment.  There  I  leave  the  matter.  It 
is  very  clear  that  the  territory  included  in  this 
treaty  [ceding  Louisiana]  must  be  forever 
free  unless  the  law  be  repealed."  With  this 
explicit  understanding  from  a  member  of  the 
committee,  apparently  accepted  as  conclusive 
by  the  whole  House,  and  certainly  not  ob- 
*  Globe,  p.  559.     f  lb.,  p.  543.     X  lb.,  p.  565. 
jected  to  by  the  chairman,  Mr.  Richard- 
son, who  was  carefully  watching  the  cur- 
rent of  debate,  the  bill  passed  on  the  10th,  \ 
ninety-eight  yeas  to  forty-three  nays.  Led 
by  a  few  members  from  that  region,  in  the 
main  the  West  voted  for  it  and  the  South 
against  it ;  while  the  greater  number, 
absorbed  in  other  schemes,  were  wholly 
indifferent,  and  probably  cast  their  votes 
upon  personal  solicitation. 
On  the  following  day  the  bill  was  hur- 
ried over  to  the  Senate,  referred  to  Mr. 
Douglas's  committee,  and  by  him  re- 
ported back  without  amendment,  on  Feb- 
ruary 17th;  but  the  session  was  almost 
ended  before  he  was  able  to  gain  the 
attention  of  the  Senate  for  its  discussion. 
Finally,  on  the  night  before  the  inaugu- 
ration of  President  Pierce,  in  the  midst 
of  a  fierce  and  protracted  struggle  over 
the  appropriation  bills,  while  the  Senate 
was  without  a  quorum  and  impatiently 
awaiting  the  reports  of  a  number  of  con- 
ference committees,  Douglas  seized  the 
opportunity  of  the  lull  to  call  up  his 
Nebraska  bill.  Here  again,  as  in  the 
House,  Texas  stubbornly  opposed  it. 
Houston  undertook  to  talk  it  to  death 
in  a  long  speech ;  Bell  protested  against 
robbing  the  Indians  of  their  guaranteed 
rights.  The  bill  seemed  to  have  no  friend 
but  its  author  when,  perhaps  to  his  surprise, 
Senator  D.  R.  Atchison  of  Missouri  threw 
himself  into  the  breach. 
.AM    HOUSTON.
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
Prefacing  his  remarks  with  the 
statement  that  he  had  formerly 
been  opposed  to  the  measure,  he 
continued:  "Ihadtwoobjections 
to  it.    One  was  that  the  Indian 
title  in  that  territory  had    not 
been  extinguished,  or  at  least  a 
very  small  portion  of  it  had  been. 
Another  was  the  Missouri  Com- 
promise, or,  as  it  is  commonly 
called,  the   Slavery  Restriction. 
It  was  my  opinion  at  that  time 
—  and  I  am  not  now  very  clear 
on  that  subject  —  that  the  law 
of  Congress,  when  the  State  of 
Missouri  was  admitted  into  the 
Union,  excluding  slavery  from 
the  territory  of  Louisiana  north 
of  360  30',  would  be  enforced  in 
that  territory  unless  it  was  spe- 
cially rescinded ;   and  whether 
that  law  was  in  accordance  with 
the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States   or  not,  it  would  do  its 
work,  and  that  work  would  be 
to  preclude  slaveholders   from 
going  into  that  territory.    But 
when  I  came  to  look  into  that 
question,  I  found  that  there  was 
no  prospect,  no  hope,  of  a  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  ex- 
cluding slavery  from  that  terri- 
tory. ...  I  have  always  been  of 
opinion  that  the  first  great  error 
committed  in  thepolitical  history 
of  this  country  was  the  ordinance  of  1787, 
rendering  the  North-west  territory  free  terri- 
tory.   The  next  great  error  was  the  Missouri 
Compromise.    But  they  are  both  irremedia- 
ble.   There  is  no  remedy  for  them.    We  must 
submit  to  them.    I  am  prepared  to  do  it.    It  is 
evident  that  the  Missouri  Compromise  cannot 
be  repealed.    So  far  as  that  question  is  con- 
cerned, we  might  as  well  agree  to  the  admis- 
sion of  this  territory  now  as  next  year,  or  five 
or  ten  years  hence."  * 
Mr.  Douglas  closed  the  debate,  advocating 
DAVID    K.    ATCHISON.        (FROM     A     DAGUERREOTYPE.) 
ministers,  judges,  senators,  and  representatives, 
the  new  President  of  the  United  States  deliv- 
ered to  the  people  his  inaugural  address. 
High  and  low  were  alike  intent  to  discern  the 
opening  political  currents  of  the  new  adminis- 
tration, but  none  touched  or  approached  this 
particular  subject.  The  aspirations  of  "  Young 
America  "  were  not  toward  a  conquest  of  the 
North,  but  the  enlargement  of  the  South.  A 
freshening  breeze  filled  the  sails  of  "annexa- 
tion "and  "manifest  destiny."  In  bold  words 
the  President  said :  "  The  policy  of  my  admin- 
the  passage  of  the  bill  for  general  reasons,  and  istration  will  not  be  controlled  by  any  timid 
by  his  silence  accepting  Atchison's  conclu-  forebodings  of  evil  from  expansion.  Indeed, 
sions ;  but  as  the  morning  of  the  4th  of  March  it  is  not  to  be  disguised  that  our  attitude  as 
was  breaking,  an  unwilling  Senate  laid  the  a  nation  and  our  position  on  the  globe  ren- 
bill  on  the  table  by  a  vote  of  twenty-three  to  der  the  acquisition  of  certain  possessions  not 
seventeen,  here,  as  in  the  House,  the  West  be-  within  our  jurisdiction  eminently  important  for 
ing  for  and  the  South  against  the  measure.  It  our  protection,  if  not  in  the  future  essential 
is  not  probable,  however,  that  in  this  course  for  the  preservation  of  the  rights  of  commerce 
the  South  acted  with  any  mental  reservation  and  the  peace  of  the  world."  f  Reaching  the 
or  sinister  motive.  The  great  breach  of  faith  slavery  question,  he  expressed  unbounded 
was  not  yet  even  meditated.  Only  a  few  devotion  to  the  Union,  and  declared  slavery 
hours  afterward,  in  a  dignified  and  stately  recognized  by  the  Constitution,  and  his  pur- 
national  ceremonial,  in  the  midst  of  foreign  pose  to  enforce  the  compromise  measures  of 
*  Globe,  p.  1 1 13.  t  Pierce,  Inaugural  Address,  March  4,    1853.
69S 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
WILLIAM     AIKEN.        (PHOTOGRAPHED     BY     BRADY.) 
1850;  adding,  "I  fervently  trust  that  the 
question  is  at  rest,  and  that  no  sectional  or 
ambitious  or  fanatical  excitement  may  again 
threaten  the  durability  of  our  institutions,  or 
obscure  the  light  of  our  prosperity." 
When  Congress  met  again  in  the  follow- 
ing December  (1853),  the  annual  message  of 
President  Pierce  was,  upon  this  subject,  but  an 
echo  of  his  inaugural,  as  his  inaugural  had 
been  but  an  echo  of  the  two  party  platforms  of 
1852.  Affirming  that  the  compromise  meas- 
ures of  1850  had  given  repose  to  the  country, 
he  declared,  "  That  this  repose  is  to  suffer  no 
shock  during  my  official  term,  if  I  have  the 
power  to  avert  it,  those  who  placed  me  here 
may  be  assured."  In  this  spirit,  undoubtedly, 
the  Democratic  party  and  the  South  began  the 
session  of  1853-4;  but  unfortunately  it  was  very 
soon  abandoned.  The  people  of  the  Missouri 
and  I  owa  border  were  becoming  every  day  more 
impatient  toenter  upon  an  authorized  occupan- 
cy of  the  new  lands  which  lay  a  day's  journey  to 
the  west.  Handfuls  of  squatters  here  and  there 
had  elected  two  territorial  delegates,  who  has- 
tened to  Washington  with  embryo  credentials. 
The  subject  of  organizing  the  West  was  again 
broached;  an  Iowa  Senator  introduced  a  ter- 
ritorial bill.  Under  the  ordinary  routine  it  was 
referred  to  the  Committee  on  Territories,  and 
on  the  4th  day  of  January   Douglas  reported 
back  his  second  Nebraska  bill,  still 
without  any  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  His  elaborate  report, 
accompanying  this  second  bill,  shows 
that  the  subject  had  been  most  care- 
fully examined  in  committee.  The 
discussion  was  evidently  exhaustive, 
going  over  the  whole  history,  policy, 
and  constitutionality  of  prohibitory 
legislation.  Two  or  three  sentences 
are  quite  sufficient  to  present  the 
substance  of  the  long  and  wordy  re- 
port. First,  that  there  were  differences 
and  doubts;  second,  that  these  had 
been  finally  settled  by  the  compro- 
mise measures  of  1850;  and,  there- 
fore, third,  the  committee  had  ad- 
hered not  only  to  the  spirit  but  to  the 
very  phraseology  of  that  adjustment, 
and  refused  either  to  affirm  or  repeal 
the  Missouri  Compromise. 
This  was  the  public  and  legisla- 
tive agreement  announced  to  the 
country.  Subsequent  revelations  show 
the  secret  and  factional  bargain 
which  that  agreement  covered.  Not 
only  was  this  territorial  bill  search- 
ingly  considered  in  committee,  but 
repeated  caucuses  were  held  by  the 
Democratic  leaders  to  discuss  the 
party  results  likely  to  grow  out  of  it. 
The  Southern  Democrats  maintained  that  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognized 
their  right  and  guaranteed  them  protection  to 
their  slave  property,  if  they  chose  to  carry  it 
into  Federal  territories.  Douglas  and  other 
Northern  Democrats  contended  that  slavery 
was  subject  to  local  law,  and  that  the  people 
of  a  territory,  like  those  of  a  State,  could  estab- 
lish or  prohibit  it.  This  radical  difference,  if 
carried  into  party  action,  would  lose  them  the 
political  ascendency  they  had  so  long  main- 
tained, and  were  then  enjoying.  To  avert  a 
public  rupture  of  the  party,  it  was  agreed 
"that  the  territories  should  be  organized  with 
a  delegation  by  Congress  of  all  the  power  of 
Congress  in  the  territories,  and  that  the  extent 
of  the  power  of  Congress  should  be  deter- 
mined by  the  courts."*  If  the  courts  should 
decide  against  the  South,  the  Southern  Demo- 
crats would  accept  the  Northern  theory ;  if 
the  courts  should  decide  in  favor  of  the  South, 
the  Northern  Democrats  would  defend  the 
Southern  view.  Thus  harmony  would  be  pre- 
served, and  party  power  prolonged.  Here  we 
have  the  shadow  of  the  coming  Dred  Scott 
decision  already  projected  into  political  his- 
tory, though  the  speaker  protests  that  "none 
of  us  knew  of  the  existence  of  a  controversy 
*  Senator   Benjamin,  Senate   debate,    May  8,  i860. 
Globe,  p.  1966.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
then  pending  in  the  Federal 
courts  that  would  lead  almost 
immediately  to  the  decision  of 
that  question."*  This  was  prob- 
ably true ;  for  a  "  peculiar  pro- 
vision "  f  was  expressly  inserted 
in  the  committee's  bill,  allow- 
ing appeals  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  in 
all  questions  involving  title  to 
slaves,  without  reference  to  the 
usual  limitations  in  respect  to 
the  value  of  the  property, 
thereby  paving  the  way  to  an 
early  adjudication  by  the  Su- 
preme Court. 
Thus  the  matter  rested  till  the 
1 6th  of  January,  when  Senator 
Dixon  of  Kentucky,  apparently 
acting  for  himself  alone,  offered 
an  amendment  in  effect  repeal- 
ing the   Missouri  Compromise. 
Upon  this  provocation,  Senator 
Sumner   of   Massachusetts  the 
next  day  offered  anotheramend- 
ment  affirming  that  it  was  not 
repealed  by  the  bill.   Comment- 
ing on   these  propositions  two 
days  later,  the  administration  or- 
gan, the  "Washington  Union," 
declared  they  were  both  "  false 
lights,"   to    be    avoided  by   all 
good  Democrats.    By  this  time, 
however,   this   subject  of  "re- 
peal "  had  become  bruited  about 
the  Capitol  corridors,  the  hotels,  and  the  caucus 
rooms  of  Washington,  and  newspaper  corre- 
spondents were  on  the  qui  vive  to  obtain  the 
latest  developments  concerning  the  intrigue. 
The  secrets  of  the  Territorial  Committeeleaked 
out,   and   consultations  multiplied.    Could  a 
repeal  be  carried  ?    Who  would  offer  it  and 
lead  it  ?    What  divisions  or  schisms  would  it 
carry  into  the  ranks  of  the  Democratic  party, 
especially  in  the  pending  contest  between  the 
"  Hards  "  and  "  Softs  "  in  New  York  ?    What 
effect  would  it  have  upon  the  presidential  elec- 
tion of  1856?     Already  the  "Union"  sug- 
gested that  it  was  whispered  that  Cass  was 
willing  to  propose  and  favor  such  a  "repeal."! 
It  was  given  out  in  the  "  Baltimore  Sun  "  that 
Cass  intended  to  "  separate  the  sheep  from 
the    goats."    Both   statements   were    untrue ; 
but  they  perhaps  had  their  intended  effect,  to 
arouse  the  jealousy  and  eagerness  of  Doug- 
las.   The  political  air  of  Washington  was  heavy 
ARCHIBALD    DIXON.       (FROM    A    DAGUERREOTYPE.) 
gathering  for  and  against  the  ominous  prop- 
osition. 
So  far  as  history  has  been  allowed  a  glimpse 
into  these  secret  communings,  three  princi- 
pal personages  were  at  this  time  planning  a 
movement  of  vast  portent.  These  were  Stephen 
A.  Douglas,  chairman  of  the  Senate  Commit- 
tee on  Territories;  Archibald  Dixon,  Whig 
Senator  from  Kentucky;  and  David  R.  Atchi- 
son of  Missouri,  then  president  pro  tempore  of 
the  Senate,  and  acting  Vice-President  of  the 
United  States.  "  For  myself,"  said  the  latter 
in  explaining  the  transaction,  "  I  am  entirely 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  South,  and  I 
would  sacrifice  everything  but  my  hope  of 
heaven  to  advance  her  welfare."  He  thought 
the  Missouri  Compromise  ought  to  be  re- 
pealed; he  had  pledged  himself  in  his  public 
addresses  to  vote  for  no  territorial  organization 
that  would  not  virtually  annul  it;  and  with 
this  feeling  in  his  heart,  he  desired  to  be  the 
with  clouds  and  mutterings,  and  clans  were    chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on  Terri- 
tories when  a  bill  was  introduced.   With  this 
Benjamin,  Globe   May  8    i860  p    1966  bj      t   m      •  j        h    d         private    interview 
t  Douglas,  pamphlet  m  reply  to  Tudge  Black,  Octo-         .^    .,      ^        \  ,  .    _    v      ,  ,  .  r     , 
ber,  1859,  p.  6.  wltn  Mr.  Douglas,  and  informed  him  of  what 
X  "Washington  Union,"  January  19,  1854.  he   desired  —  the    introduction   of  a  bill  for
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
BANKS.      (PHOTOGRAPHED     EY     BRADY.) 
Nebraska  like  what  [sic]  he  had  promised  to 
vote  for,  and  that  he  would  like  to  be  the 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Territories  in 
order  to  introduce  such  a  measure;  and  if  he 
could  get  that  position,  he  would  immediately 
resign  as  president  of  the  Senate.  Judge 
Douglas  requested  twenty-four  hours  to  con- 
sider the  matter,  and  if  at  the  expiration  of 
that  time  he  could  not  introduce  such  a  bill  as 
he  (Mr.  Atchison)  proposed,  he  would  resign 
as  chairman  of  the  Territorial  Committee  in 
Democratic  caucus,  and  exert  his  influence  to 
get  him  (Atchison)  appointed.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  the  given  time,  Senator  Douglas  signi- 
fied his  intention  to  introduce  such  a  bill  as 
had  been  spoken  of."  * 
Senator  Dixon  is  no  less  explicit  in  his  de- 
scription of  these  political  negotiations.  "My 
amendment  seemed  to  take  the  Senate  by  sur- 
prise, and  no  one  appeared  more  startled  than 
Judge  Douglas  himself.  He  immediately  came 
to    my    seat    and     courteously   remonstrated 
*  Speech  at  Atchison  City,  September,  1854,  reported 
in  the  "Parkville  Luminary./'
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
701 
against  my  amendment,  suggesting  that  the 
bill  which  he  had  introduced  was  almost  in 
the  words  of  the  territorial  acts  for  the  organi- 
zation of  Utah  and  New  Mexico;  that  they 
being  a  part  of  the  compromise  measures  of 
1850,  he  had  hoped  that  1,  a  known  and 
zealous  friend  of  the  wise  and  patriotic  adjust- 
ment which  had  then  taken  place,  would  not 
be  inclined  to  do  anything  to  call  that  adjust- 
ment in  question  or  weaken  it  before  the 
country. 
"  I  replied  that  it  was  precisely  because  I 
had  been  and  was  a  firm  and  zealous  friend 
of  the  compromise  of  1850,  that  I  felt  bound 
to  persist  in  the  movement  which  I  had  origi- 
nated ;  that  I  was  well  satisfied  that  the  Mis- 
souri Restriction,  if  not  expressly  repealed, 
would  continue  to  operate  in  the  territory  to 
which  it  had  been  applied,  thus  negativing 
the  great  and  salutary  principle  of  non-inter- 
vention, which  constituted  the  most  prominent 
and  essential  feature  of  the  plan  of  settlement 
of  1850.  We  talked  for  some  time  amicably, 
and  separated.  Some  days  afterwards  Judge 
Douglas  came  to  my  lodgings,  whilst  I  was 
confined  by  physical  indisposition,  and  urged 
me  to  get  up  and  take  a  ride  with  him  in  his 
carriage.  I  accepted  his  invitation,  and  rode 
out  with  him.  During  our  short  excursion  we 
talked  on  the  subject  of  my  proposed  amend- 
ment, and  Judge  Douglas,  to  my  high  gratifi- 
cation, proposed  to  me  that  I  should  allow 
him  to  take  charge  of  the  amendment  and 
ingraft  it  on  his  territorial  bill.  I  acceded  to 
the  proposition  at  once,  whereupon  a  most 
interesting  interchange  occurred  between  us. 
"  On  this  occasion  Judge  Douglas  spoke  to 
me  in  substance  thus :  '  I  have  become  per- 
fectly satisfied  that  it  is  my  duty,  as  a  fair- 
minded  national  statesman,  to  cooperate  with 
you  as  proposed  in  securing  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  Compromise  restriction.  It  is  due  to 
the  South;  it  is  due  to  the  Constitution,  here- 
tofore palpably  infracted;  it  is  due  to  that 
character  for  consistency  which  I  have  here- 
tofore labored  to  maintain.  The  repeal,  if  we 
can  effect  it,  will  produce  much  stir  and  com- 
motion in  the  free  States  of  the  Union  for  a 
*  Archibald  Dixon  to  H.  S.  Foote,  October  1,  1858. 
"  Louisville  Democrat  "  of  October  3,  1858. 
t  Jefferson  Davis,  who  was  a  member  of  President 
Pierce's  Cabinet  (Secretary  of  War),  thus  relates  the 
incident :  "  On  Sunday  morning,  the  22d  of  January, 
1854,  gentlemen  of- each  committee  [House  and  Sen- 
ate Committees  on  Territories]  called  at  my  house,  and 
Mr.  Douglas,  chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee,  fully 
explained  the  proposed  bill,  and  stated  their  purpose 
to  be,  through  my  aid,  to  obtain  an  interview  on  that 
day  with  the  President,  to  ascertain  whether  the  bill 
would  meet  his  approbation.  The  President  was 
known  to  be  rigidly  opposed  to  the  reception  of  visits 
on  Sunday  for  the  discussion  of  any  political  subject ; 
but  in  this  case  it  was  urged  as  necessary,  in  order  to 
Vol.  XXXIIL— 8q. 
season.  1  shall  be  assailed  by  demagogues  and 
fanatics  there  without  stint  or  moderation. 
Every  opprobrious  epithet  will  be  applied  to 
me.  I  shall  be  probably  hung  in  effigy  in 
many  places.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
I  may  become  permanently  odious  among 
those  whose  friendship  and  esteem  I  have 
heretofore  possessed.  This  proceeding  may 
end  my  political  career.  But,  acting  under  the 
sense  of  the  duty  which  animates  me,  I  am 
prepared  to  make  the  sacrifice.  I  will  do  it.' 
"  Pie  spoke  in  the  most  earnest  and  touch- 
ing manner,  and  I  confess  that  I  was  deeply 
affected.  I  said  to  him  in  reply :  'Sir,  I  once 
recognized  you  as  a  demagogue,  a  mere  party 
manager,  selfish  and  intriguing.  I  now  find 
you  a  warm-hearted  and  sterling  patriot.  Go 
forward  in  the  pathway  of  duty  as  you  pro- 
pose, and  though  all  the  world  desert  you,  I 
never  will.'  "* 
Such  is  the  circumstantial  record  of  this 
most  remarkable  political  intrigue  left  by  two 
prominent  and  principal  instigators,  and  never 
denied  nor  repudiated  by  the  third.  Gradually, 
as  the  plot  was  developed,  the  agreement 
embraced  the  leading  elements  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  in  Congress,  reenforced  by  a 
majority  of  the  Whig  leaders  from  the  slave 
States.  A  day  or  two  before  the  final  intro- 
duction of  the  repeal,  Douglas  and  others 
held  an  interview  with  President  Pierce,f  and 
obtained  from  him  in  writing  an  agreement 
to  adopt  the  movement  as  an  administration 
measure.  Fortified  with  this  important  adhe- 
sion, he  took  the  fatal  plunge,  and  on  Janu- 
ary 23d  introduced  his  third  Nebraska  bill, 
organizing  two  territories  instead  of  one,  and 
declaring  the  Missouri  Compromise  "  inoper- 
ative." But  the  amendment — monstrous  Cal- 
iban of  legislation  as  it  was  —  needed  to  be 
still  further  licked  into  shape  to  satisfy  the 
grasping  rapacity  of  the  South  and  appease 
the  alarmed  conscience  of  the  North.  Two 
weeks  later,  after  the  first  outburst  of  debate, 
the  following  phraseology  was  substituted: 
"  Which  being  inconsistent  with  the  principle 
of  non-intervention  by  Congress  with  slavery 
in  the  States  and  territories,  as  recognized 
enable  the  committee  to  make  their  report  the  next 
day.  I  went  with  them  to  the  executive  mansion,  and, 
leaving  them  in  the  reception-room,  sought  the  Presi- 
dent in  his  private  apartments,  and  explained  to  him 
the  occasion  of  the  visit.  He  thereupon  met  the  gen- 
tlemen, patiently  listened  to  the  reading  of  the  bill  and 
their  explanations  of  it,  decided  that  it  rested  upon 
sound  constitutional  principles,  and  recognized  in  it 
only  a  return  to  that  rule  which  had  been  infringed  by 
the  compromise  of  1820,  and  the  restoration  of  which 
had  been  foreshadowed  by  the  legislation  of  1S50. 
This  bill  was  not,  therefore,  as  has  been  improperlv 
asserted,  a  measure  inspired  by  Mr.  Pierce  or  any  of 
his  Cabinet." — Davis,  "  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Confed- 
erate Government,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  28.
ABRAHAM  LIXCOLX 
by  the  Legislation  of  [850  (commonly  called 
the  Compromise  measures),  is  hereby  declared 
inoperative  and  void  ;  it  being  the  true  in- 
tent and  meaning  of  this  act  not  to  legislate 
slavery  into  any  territory  or  State,  nor  to  ex- 
e  it  therefrom,  but  to  leave  the  people 
eof  perfectly  tree  to  form  and   regulate 
tnestic  institutions  in  their  own  way, 
subject  only  to  the  Constitution" — a  change 
.  Benton  truthfully  characterized  as  "  a 
stump   speech  injected  into  the  belly  of  the 
1  bill." 
e  storm  oi  agitation  which  this  measure 
aroused  dwarfed  all  former  ones  in  depth  and 
intensity.     The  South  was  nearly  united  in  its 
If,  the  Xorth  sadly  divided  in  opposition. 
ast  protest  and  appeal,  under  legislative 
whip  and  spur,  with  the  tempting  smiles  and 
patronage  of  the  administration,  after  nearly 
a  four-months'  struggle,  the  plighted  faith  of 
aeration  was  violated,  and  the  repealing 
act  passed  —  mainly  by  the  great  influence  and 
example  of  Douglas,  who  had  only  five  years 
iously  so  fittingly  described  the  Missouri 
Compromise  as  being  "  akin  to  the  Constitu- 
tion."' and  "canonized  in  the  hearts  of  the 
American  people  as  a  sacred  thing  which  no 
ruthless  hand  would  ever  be  reckless  enough 
to  disturb." 
THE  DRIFT  OF  POLITICS. 
The  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise 
made  the  slavery  question  paramount  in  every 
State  of  the  Union.  The  boasted  finality  was 
a  broken  reed ;  the  life-boat  of  compromise 
a  hopeless  wreck.  If  the  agreement  of  a  gen- 
eration could  be  thus  annulled  in  a  breath, 
was  there  any  safety  even  in  the  Constitution 
f  ?  This  feeling  communicated  itself  to 
the  Northern  States  at  the  very  first  note  of 
warning,  and  every  man's  party  fealty  was  at 
once  decided  by  his  toleration  of  or  opposi- 
tion to  slavery.  While  the  fate  of  the  Ne- 
ka  bill  hung  in  a  doubtful  balance  in  the 
e  feeling  found  expression  in  letters, 
speeches,  meetings,  petitions,  and  remon- 
.  Men  were  for  or  against  the  bill  — 
her  political  subject  was  left  in  abey- 
ance. The  measure  once  passed,  and  the  Com- 
promise repealed,  the  first  natural  impulse  was 
to  combine,  organize,  and  agitate  for  its  resto- 
ration. This  was  the  ready-made,  common 
ground  of  cooperation. 
It  is  probable  that  this  merely  defensive 
energy  would  have  been  overcome  and  dissi- 
pated, had  it  not  just  at  this  juncture  been 
inspirited  and  led  by  the  faction  known  as  the 
Free-soil  party  of  the  country,  composed 
mainly  of  men  of  independent  antislavery 
views,  who  had  now  during  four  presidential 
campaigns  been  organized  as  a  distinct  politi- 
cal body,  with  no  near  hope  of  success,  but 
animated  mainly  by  the  desire  to  give  expres- 
sion to  their  deep  personal  convictions.  If 
there  were  demagogues  here  and  there  among 
them,  seeking  merely  to  create  a  balance  of 
power  for  bargain  and  sale,  they  were  unim- 
portant in  number,  and  only  of  local  influence, 
and  soon  became  deserters.  There  was  no 
mistaking  the  earnestness  of  the  body  of  this 
faction.  A  lew  fanatical  men,  who  had  made 
it  the  vehicle  of  violent  expressions,  had  kept 
it  under  the  ban  of  popular  prejudice.  It  had 
long  been  held  up  to  public  odium  as  a  rev- 
olutionary band  of  "  abolitionists."  All  the 
abolitionists  were  doubtless  in  this  party,  but 
the  party  was  not  all  composed  of  abolition- 
ists. Despite  all  objurgation  and  contempt, 
however,  it  had  become  since  1840  a  constant 
factor  and  a  growing  influence  in  politics.  It 
had  operated  as  a  negative  balance  of  power 
in  the  last  two  presidential  elections,  causing, 
by  its  diversion  of  votes,  and  more  especially 
by  its  relaxing  influence  upon  parties,  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Whig  candidate,  General  Taylor, 
in  1848,  and  the  Democratic  nominee,  Frank- 
lin Pierce,  in  1852. 
This  small  army  of  antislavery  veterans,  over 
one  hundred  and  fifty-eight  thousand  voters  in 
the  aggregate,  and  distributed  in  detachments 
of  from  three  thousand  to  thirty  thousand  in 
twelve  of  the  free  States,  now  came  to  the  front 
with  spirit  and  alacrity,  and  with  its  newspa- 
pers and  speakers  trained  in  the  discussion  of 
the  subject,  and  its  committees  and  affiliations 
already  in  action  and  correspondence,  bore 
the  brunt  of  the  fight  against  the  repeal.  Hith- 
erto its  aims  had  appeared  Utopian,  and  its 
resolves  had  been  denunciatory  and  exasper- 
ating. Now,  however,  combining  wisdom  with 
opportunity,  it  became  conciliatory,  and,  abat- 
ing something  of  its  abstractions,  made  itself 
the  exponent  of  a  demand  for  a  present  and 
practical  reform  —  a  simple  return  to  the  an- 
cient faith  and  landmarks.  It  labored  specially 
to  bring  about  the  dissolution  of  the  old  party 
organizations  and  the  formation  of  a  new  one, 
based  upon  the  general  policy  of  resisting  the 
extension  of  slavery.  Since,  however,  the  re- 
peal had  shaken  but  not  obliterated  old  party 
lines,  this  effort  succeeded  only  in  favorable 
localities. 
For  the  present,  party  disintegration  was 
slow ;  men  were  reluctant  to  abandon  their 
old-time  principles  andassociations.  The  united 
efforts  of  Douglas  and  the  administration  held 
the  body  of  the  Northern  Democrats  to  his  fatal 
policy,  though  protests  and  defections  became 
alarmingly  frequent.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
great  mass  of  Northern  Whigs  promptly  op- 
posed the  repeal,  and  now  formed  the  bulk  of
7°3 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Toty or aPAaDUg'yT z IEE TS 224) OL UOLSSAPP 841 Jo OLDIE YL 9AYNDPPUL Pa ee, yD 4-+ enigl pa] ouIpUul SIGESINGEGL OL 8TOtAIdd = PADIS D JO MADDY) AUPUN AAT Py "FON ODTXAY PUD S2ZDI SPJ] IY) UIIMIAY ALOPUNOYT IY, me Su eee TW IOTITVIS 913 AMOLIYMIL 4O SNOISSIODY SNOIUYA 3Hi DNIMOHS bSSLNI SHIVIS CaO AHLAIO dVWIVIOIHOLSIH oan =O: 2y2 PY spon ET i KS We oo Tees ey iar C8 UoTMueedy 06 wo C6 399M ~—dOOT:”~=«s apmmy3u07] cot
7<M 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN, 
the  opposition,  nevertheless  losing  perhaps  as 
many  pro-slavery  Whigs  as  they  gained  anti- 
j  Democrats.  The  real  and  effective  gain, 
therefore,  was  the  more  or  less  thorough  alii- 
of  the  Wing  party  and  the  Free-soil  party 
.    Northern  States:  wherever  that  wassuc- 
.1  it  gave  immediate  and  available  ma- 
>  the  opposition,  which  made  their 
felt  even  in  the  very  opening  of  the 
ular  contest   following  the  congressional 
al. 
I:  happened  that  this  was  a  year  for  elect- 
ngressmen.     The  N ebraska  bill  did  not 
id  o\  May,  and  the  political  ex- 
citement was  at  once  transferred  from  Wash- 
rj  I  i  every  district  of  the  whole  country. 
It  may  be  said  with  truth  that  the  year  1854 
formed    one    continuous  and    solid    political 
campaign  from  January  to  November,  rising 
in  interest  and  earnestness  from  first  to  last, 
and   1  g  in  the    discussion   more    fully 
than  had  ever  occurred  in  previous  American 
history  all  classes  and  constituent  elements  of 
our  whole  population. 
In  the  Southern  States  the  great  majority  of 
j  welcomed,  supported,  and  defended  the 
1  of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  it  being 
consonant  with  their  pro-slavery  feelings,  and 
apparently  favorable  to  their  pro-slavery  in- 
I       ;ts.    The  Democratic  party  in  the  South, 
controlling  a  majority  of  slave  States,  was  of 
course  a  unit  in  its  favor.    The  Whig  party, 
however,  having  carried  two  slave  States  for 
Scott  in  1852,  and  holding  a  strong  minority 
n  the  remainder,  was  not  so  unanimous.  Seven 
lern   Representatives  and  two  Southern 
tors  had  voted  against  the  Nebraska  bill, 
and  many  individual  voters  condemned  it  as 
an  act  of  bad  faith  —  as  the  abandonment  of 
the  accepted  "  finality,"  and  as  the  provoca- 
tion of  a  dangerous  antislavery  reaction.   But 
•pinion    in    that    part  of  the  Union 
was  fearfully  tyrannical  and  intolerant;  and 
m    dared  only  to  manifest  itself  to 
Democratic  party  organization  —  not  to  these 
I  ic  party  measures.  The  Whigs  of  the 
South   were  therefore  precipitately  driven  to 
ion.  Those  of  extreme  pro-slavery  views, 
like  Dixon  of  Kentucky, — who,  when  he  intro- 
duced his  amendment,  declared,  "  Upon  the 
of  slavery  I  know  no  Whiggery  and 
," — went  boldly  and  at  once  over 
into  the  ic  <  amp,  while  those  who 
retained  their  traditional  party  name  and  flag 
sundered  from  their  ancient  allies  in  the 
Northern  States  by  th<   impossibility  of  taking 
up  the  latter's  antislavery  war-cry. 
At  this  juncture  the  political  situation  was 
further  complicated  by  the  sudden  rise  of  an 
entirely  new  factor  in  politics,  the  American 
party,  popularly  called  the  "  Know-Nothings. " 
Essentially,  it  was  a  revival  of  the  extinct 
"  Native-American"  faction  of  1835-7,  based 
upon  a  jealousy  of  and  discrimination  against 
foreign-born  voters,  desiring  an  extension  of 
their  period  of  naturalization,  and  their  exclu- 
sion from  the  franchise  of  office;  also  upon  a 
certain  hostility  to  the  Roman  Catholic  re- 
ligion. It  had  been  reorganized  as  a  secret 
order  in  the  year  1853;  and  seizing  upon  the 
political  disappointments  following  General 
Scott's  overwhelming  defeat  for  the  presidency 
in  1852,  and  profiting  by  the  disintegration 
caused  by  the  Nebraska  bill,  it  rapidly  gained 
recruits  both  North  and  South.  Operating  1
and  organizing  in  entire  secrecy,  the  country 
was  startled  by  the  sudden  appearance  in  one 
locality  after  another,  on  election  day,  of  a 
potent  and  unsuspected  political  power,  which 
in  many  instances  pushed  both  the  old  organ- 
izations not  only  to  disastrous  but  even  to 
ridiculous  defeat.  Both  North  and  South  its 
forces  were  recruited  mainly  from  the  Whig 
party,  though  malcontents  from  all  quarters 
rushed  to  group  themselves  upon  its  narrow 
platform,  and  to  participate  in  the  exciting 
but  delusive  triumphs  of  its  temporary  and 
local  ascendency. 
When,  in  the  opening  of  the  anti-Nebraska 
contest,  the  Free-soil  leaders  undertook  the 
formation  of  a  new  party  to  supersede  the 
old,  they  had,  because  of  their  generally  demo- 
cratic antecedents,  with  great  unanimity  pro- 
posed that  it  be  called  the  "  Republican " 
party,  thus  reviving  the  distinctive  appella- 
tion by  which  the  followers  of  Jefferson  were 
known  in  the  early  days  of  the  republic.  Con- 
sidering the  fact  that  Jefferson  had  originated 
the  policy  of  slavery  restriction  in  his  draft  of 
the  ordinance  of  1784,  the  name  became 
singularly  appropriate,  and  wherever  the  Free- 
soilers  succeeded  in  forming  a  coalition  it  was 
adopted  without  question.  But  the  refusal  of 
the  Whigs  in  many  States  to  surrender  their 
name  and  organization,  and  more  especially  the 
abrupt  appearance  of  the  Know-Nothings  on 
the  field  of  parties,  retarded  the  general  coali- 
tion between  the  Whigs  and  the  Free-soilers 
which  so  many  influences  favored.  As  it  turned 
out,  a  great  variety  of  party  names  were  re- 
tained or  adopted  in  the  congressional  and 
State  campaigns  of  1854,  the  designation  of 
"anti-Nebraska"  being  perhaps  the  most 
common,  and  certainly  for  the  moment  the 
most  serviceable,  since  denunciation  of  the 
Nebraska  bill  was  the  one  all-pervading  bond 
of  sympathy  and  agreement  among  men  who 
differed  very  widely  on  almost  all  other  political 
topics.  This  affiliation,  however,  was  confined 
exclusively  to  the  free  States.  In  the  slave 
States,  the  opposition  to  the  administration 
dared  not  raise  the  anti- Nebraska  banner,  nor
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
70S 
could  it  have  found  followers ;  and  it  was  not 
only  inclined  but  forced  to  make  its  battle 
either  under  the  old  name  of  Whigs,  or,  as 
became  more  popular,  under  the  new  appella- 
tion of  "Americans,''  which  grew  into  a  more 
dignified  synonym  for  Know-Nothings. 
Thus  confronted,  the  Nebraska  and  anti- 
Nebraska  factions,  or,  more  philosophically 
speaking,  the  pro-slavery  and  antislavery 
sentiment  of  the  several  American  States,  bat- 
tled for  political  supremacy  with  a  zeal  and 
determination  only  manifested  on  occasions 
of  deep  and  vital  concern  to  the  welfare  of  the 
republic.  However  languidly  certain  elements 
of  American  society  may  perform  what  they 
deem  the  drudgery  of  politics,  they  no  longer 
shrink  from  it  when  they  hear  warning  of  real 
danger.  The  alarm  of  the  nation  by  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise  was  serious  and 
startling.  All  ranks  and  occupations  therefore 
joined  with  a  new  energy  in  the  contest  it  pro- 
voked. Particularly  was  the  religious  senti- 
ment of  the  North  profoundly  moved  by  the 
moral  question  involved.  Perhaps  for  the  first 
time  in  our  modern  politics,  the  pulpit  vied 
with  the  press,  and  the  Church  with  the  cam- 
paign club,  in  the  work  of  debate  and  propa- 
gandism. 
The  very  inception  of  the  struggle  had  pro- 
voked bitter  words.  Before  the  third  Nebraska 
bill  had  yet  been  introduced  into  the  Senate, 
the  then  little  band  of  "  Independent  Demo- 
crats "  in  Congress  —  Chase,  Sumner,  Gid- 
dings,  and  three  others  — had  issued  a 
newspaper  address  calling  the  repeal "  a  gross 
violation  of  a  sacred  pledge  " ;  "  a  criminal 
betrayal  of  precious  rights  " ;  "  an  atrocious 
plot,"  "  designed  to  cover  up  from  public 
reprehension  meditated  bad  faith,"  etc.  Doug- 
las, seizing  only  too  gladly  the  pretext  to  use 
denunciation  instead  of  argument,  replied  in 
his  opening  speech,  in  turn  stigmatizing  them 
as  "  abolition  confederates  "  "  assembled  in 
secret  conclave  "  "  on  the  holy  sabbath  while 
other  Senators  were  engaged  in  divine  worship  " 
—  "  plotting,"  "  in  the  name  of  holy  religion  " ; 
f  perverting,"  and  "  calumniating  the  com- 
mittee"; "appealing  with  a  smiling  face  to 
his  courtesy  to  get  time  to  circulate  their  docu- 
ment before  its  infamy  could  be  exposed,"etc.# 
The  key-notes  of  the  discussion  thus  given 
were  well  sustained  on  both  sides,  and  crimina- 
tion and  recrimination  increased  with  the  heat 
and  intensity  of  the  campaign.  The  gradual 
disruption  of  parties,  and  the  new  and  radical 
attitudes  assumed  by  men  of  independent 
thought,  gave  ample  occasion  to  indulge  in 
such  epithets  as  "  apostates,"  "  renegades," 
and  "  traitors."  Unusual  acrimony  grew  out 
of  the  zeal  of  the  Church  and  its  ministers. 
*  Sheahan's  "Life  of  Douglas,"  p.  194. 
The  clergymen  of  the  Northern  States  not  only 
spoke  against  the  repeal  from  their  pulpits,  but 
forwarded    energetic    petitions    against    it  to 
Congress,  three  thousand  and  fifty  clergymen 
of  New  England  of  different  denominations 
joining  their  signatures  in  one  protest.  "  We 
protest  against  it,"  they  said,  "as  a  great  moral 
wrong,  as  a  breach  of  faith  eminently  unjust  to 
the  moral  principles  of  the  community,  and 
subversive  of  all  confidence  in  national  engage- 
ments; as  a  measure  full  of  danger  to  the  peace 
and  even  the  existence  of  our  beloved  Union, 
and  exposing  us  to  the  righteous  judgment  of 
the  Almighty."  t  In  return,  Douglas  made  a 
most  virulent  onslaught  on  their  political  action. 
"  Here  we  find,"  he  retorted,  "that  a  large  body 
of  preachers,  perhaps  three  thousand,  follow- 
ing the  lead  of  a  circular  which  was  issued  by 
the  abolition  confederates  in  this  body,  calcu- 
lated to  deceive  and  mislead  the  public,  have 
here  come  forward  with  an  atrocious  false- 
hood, and  an  atrocious  calumny  against  this 
Senate,  desecrated  the  pulpit,  and  prostituted 
the  sacred  desk  to  the  miserable  and  corrupt- 
ing influence  of  party  politics."  All  his  news- 
papers and  partisans  throughout  the  country 
caught  the  style  and  spirit  of  his  warfare,  and 
boldly  denied  the  moral  right  of  the  clergy  to 
take  part  in  politics  otherwise  than  by  a  silent 
vote.  But  they,  on  the  other  hand,  persisted 
all  the  more  earnestly  in  justifying  their  in- 
terference in  moral  questions  wherever  they 
appeared,  and  were  clearly  sustained  by  the 
public  opinion  of  the  North. 
Though  the  repeal  was  forced  through  Con- 
gress under  party  pressure,  and  by  the  sheer 
weight  of  a  large  Democratic  majority  in  both 
branches,  it  met  from  the  very  first  a  decided 
and  unmistakable  popular  condemnation  in 
the  free  States.  While  the  measure  was  yet 
under  discussion  in  the  House  in  March, 
New  Hampshire  led  off  by  an  election  com- 
pletely obliterating  the  eighty-nine  Democratic 
majority  in  her  Legislature.  Connecticut  fol- 
lowed in  her  footsteps  early  in  April.  Long  be- 
fore November  it  was  evident  that  the  political 
revolution  among  the  people  of  the  North 
was  thorough,  and  that  election  day  was  anx- 
iously awaited  merely  to  record  the  popular 
verdict  long  since  decided. 
The  influence  of  this  result  upon  parties,  old 
and  new,  is  perhaps  best  illustrated  in  the 
organization  of  the  Thirty-fourth  Congress, 
chosen  at  these  elections  during  the  year  1854, 
which  witnessed  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
Compromise.  Each  Congress,  in  ordinary 
course,  meets  for  the  first  time  about  one  year 
after  its  members  are  elected  by  the  people, 
and  the  influence  of  politics  during  the  in- 
terim needs  always  to  be  taken  into  account, 
t  Globe,  March  14,  1854,  p.  617.
706 
IN   THE   LANE. 
In  this  particular  instance  this  effect  had,ifany- 
g,  been  slightly  reactionary,  and  the  great 
test  for  the  Speakership  during  the  winter 
[855-6  may  therefore  be  taken  as  a  fair 
manifestation  of  the  spirit  of  politics  in  1854. 
The  strength  of  the  preceding   House  of 
.  e  s.w  hich  met  in  December,i853, 
been:  Whigs,  71;  Free-soilers,  4;  Demo- 
.   159  —  a  clear   Democratic  majority  of 
In  the  new  Congress  there  were  in  the 
House,  as  nearly  as  the  classification  could 
be  made,  about  108  anti-Nebraska  members, 
nearly  40  Know-Nothings, and  about  75  Dera- 
.-;  the  remaining  members  were  unde- 
nt  The  proud  Democratic  majority  of  the 
Pierce  election  was  therefore  annihilated. 
But  as  vet  the  new  party  was  merely  incho- 
ate, its  elements  distrustful,  jealous,  and  dis- 
long  and  determined  push  for  success.  But 
his  highest  range  of  votes  was  about  74  to 
76;  while  through  121  ballotings,  having  con- 
tinued from  December  3d  to  January  23d, 
the  opposition  remained  divided,  Mr.  Banks, 
the  anti- Nebraska  favorite,  running  at  one 
time  up  to  106  —  within  seven  votes  of  an 
election.  At  this  point,  Richardson,  finding 
it  a  hopeless  struggle,  withdrew  his  name  as 
a  candidate,  and  the  Democratic  strength  was 
transferred  to  another,  but  with  no  better  pros- 
pects. Finally,  seeing  no  chance  of  otherwise 
terminating  the  contest,  the  House  yielded  to 
the  inevitable  domination  of  the  slavery  ques- 
tion, and  resolved,  on  February  2d,  by  a  vote 
of  113  to  104,  to  elect  under  the  plurality  rule 
after  the  next  three  ballotings.  Under  this 
rule,  notwithstanding  the  most  strenuous  ef- 
t;  the  feuds  and  battles  of  a  quarter  of  a  forts  to  rescind  it,  Nathaniel    P.    Banks    of 
were  not  easily  forgotten  or  buried.  The  Massachusetts  was  chosen    Speaker  by  103 
Democratic  members,  boldly  nominating  Mr.  votes,    against   100  votes  for  William  Aiken 
Richardson,  the  House  leader  on  the  Nebraska  of  South  Carolina,  with    30  scattering.    The 
bill,  as  their  candidate  for  Speaker,  made  a  "  ruthless  "  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
*  Whig  Almanac  185  s  p.  4.  linse    nac^    effectually  broken   the    legislative 
t  "  Tribune  "  Almanac,  1857,  p.  29. 
power  of  the  Democratic  party. 
[We  wish  to  note  our  obligation  to  Mr.  J.  Smith  Speed  (since  deceased)  and  to  Mr.  Thomas  Speed  and 
Mr.  R.  J.  Menefee  for  valuable  assistance  in  illustrating  early  chapters  of  the  Life  of  Lincoln. —  Editor.] 
¥ 
euLtS^u 
IN   THE   LANE. 
\  ND  art  thou  then,  my/eart,  too  old 
^  *    Ever  to  leap  with  love  again, 
To  feel  the  strong  blood-torrent  rolled 
Through  heaving  breast  and  teemingbrain  ? 
Is  it  no  more,  my  heart,  for  thee 
Life's  one  unquestioned  ecstasy  ? 
faded  quite  those  dim,  fai  days 
When  music  mothered  every  sound, 
"W "hen  up  and  down  youth's  happy  ways 
on  eternal  round  ? 
Has  (  hill  of  years  killed  every  joy 
That  bios  omed  for  the  wandering  boy  ? 
These  are  the  trees  once  known  so  well 
We  felt  to  them  all  but  bcknown; 
Their  very  shadow  we  could  tell 
by  the  forest  thrown. 
The  same  glad  songs  from  bush  and  bough - 
As  once  we  heard,  we  hear  them  now. 
And  these  sweet  flowers  beneath  my  feet, 
Their  young  eyes  greet  us  as  of  yore. 
The  hope,  there  !  Still  they  think  to  meet 
Her  glance  that  shall  not  answer  more  : 
To  us  alone  it  cannot  be 
They're  looking  up  so  tenderly. 
This  is  the  same  gray  path  we  took 
Behind  the  slowly  going  day ; 
As  they  do  now,  the  light  leaves  shook 
When  evening  breezes  blew  this  way  ; 
And  there's  the  glow  upon  the  dome, 
And  here  the  cows  are  coming  home. 
Ah,  no,  good  heart,  thou  still  canst  stir, 
Still  lives  the  love  first  bid  thee  leap : 
Still  are  we  at  the  side  of  her 
They  laid  away  'neath  yonder  steep. 
Though  clods  be  on  her  and  a  stone, 
In  the  dear  old  lane  we're  not  alone. 
John  Vance  Cheney.
. 
[A AY,' UN   IN    THE    NOVEMBER    NUMBER  | 
ABRAHAM    LINCOLN:     A    HISTORY.* 
N.     B.    JUDD. 
PHOTOGRAPH    BY    H.    ROCHER. 
BY   JOHN    G.    NICOLAY    AND   JOHN    HAY,    PRIVATE    SECRETARIES    TO    THE    PRESIDENT. 
THE     TERRITORIAL     EXPERIMENT. 
readily  became  converts  to  the  thrift  and 
order  of  free  society ;  but  as  a  class  they 
never  gave  up  or  conquered  their  intense 
hatred  of  antislavery  convictions  based  on 
merely  moral  grounds,  and  which  they  com- 
prehensively and  somewhat  indiscriminately 
stigmatized  as  "  abolitionism."  Impelled  by 
this  hatred  the  lawless  elements  of  the  com- 
munity were  often  guilty  of  persecution  and 
violence  in  minor  forms,  and  in  1837,  as  al- 
ready related,  it  prompted  the  murder  of 
Lovejoy  in  the  city  of  Alton  by  a  mob,  for 
persisting  in  his  right  to  publish  his  antislavery 
convictions.  This  is  its  gravest  crime.  But  a 
narrow  spirit  of  intolerance  extending  even 
down  to  the  Rebellion  kept  on  the  statute 
books  a  series  of  acts  prohibiting  the  settle- 
ment of  free  blacks  in  the  State. 
It  was  upon  this  field  of  radically  diverse 
sentiment  that  in  the  year  1854  Douglas's 
sudden  project  of  repeal  fell  like  a  thunder- 
bolt out  of  a  clear  sky.  A  Democratic  gov- 
ernor had  been  chosen  two  years  before ;  a 
Democratic  Legislature,  called  together  to  con- 
sider merely  local  and  economic  questions, 
was  sitting  in  extra  session  at  Springfield. 
There  was  doubt  and  consternation  over  the 
new  issue.  The  governor  and  other  prudent 
partisans  avoided  a  public  committal.  But 
the  silence  could  not  be  long  maintained. 
Douglas  was  a  despotic  party  leader,  and 
President  Pierce  had  made  the  Nebraska  bill 
an  administration  question.  Above  all,  in 
Illinois,  as  elsewhere,  the  people  at  once  took 
up  the  discussion,  and  reluctant  politicians 
were  compelled  to  avow  themselves.  The 
Nebraska  bill  with  its  repealing  clause  had 
been  before  the  country  some  three  weeks  and 
was  yet  pending  in  Congress  when  a  member 
of  the  Illinois  Legislature  introduced  resolu- 
tions indorsing  it.  Three  Democratic  State 
senators,  two  from  northern  and  one  from 
central  Illinois,  had  the  courage  to  rise  and 
oppose  the  resolutions  in  vigorous  and  start- 
ling speeches.  They  were  N.  B.  Judd  of 
Chicago,  B.  C.  Cook  of  La  Salle,  and  John  M. 
Palmer  of  Macoupin.  This  was  an  unusual 
party  phenomenon  and  had  its  share  in  hasten- 
ing the  general  agitation  throughout  the 
State.    Only  two  or  three  other  members  took 
LINCOLN    AND     TRUMBULL. 
THE  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  at 
Douglas's  instigation,  and  the  consequent 
oss  of  the  Democratic  majority  in  Congress, 
lave  been  described.  To  follow  closely  the 
:hain  of  events,  we  must  now  examine  its  effect 
ipon  the  political  fortunes  of  that  powerful 
eader  in  his  own  State  of  Illinois.  In  this  the 
■eader  will  be  materially  aided  by  a  prelimi- 
lary  glance  at  some  of  the  characteristics  and 
sentiments  of  the  people  of  that  State. 
The  extreme  length  of  Illinois  from  north 
:o  south  is  three  hundred  and  eighty-five 
niles;  in  geographical  situation  it  extends 
Tom  the  latitude  of  Massachusetts  and  New 
York  to  that  of  Kentucky  and  Virginia.  The 
*reat  westward  stream  of  emigration  in  the 
United  States  has  generally  followed  the  par- 
illels  of  latitude.  The  pioneers  planted  their 
lew  homes  as  nearly  as  might  be  in  a  climate 
ike  the  one  they  had  left.  In  process  of  time, 
:herefore,  northern  Illinois  became  peopled 
with  settlers  from  northern  or  free  States, 
bringing  their  antislavery  traditions  and  feel- 
ings ;  southern  Illinois,  with  those  from  south- 
ern or  slave  States,  who  were  as  naturally  pro- 
slavery.     The    Virginians    and    Kentuckians 
*  Copyright  by  J.  G.  Nicolay  and  John  Hay,  1SS6.     All  rights  reserved.
8  c  8 
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN 
I*  
*- 1 
r 
B.     C.     COOK. 
PHOTOGRAPH    BY   A.    GARDNER. 
part  in  the  discussion  ;  the  Democrats  avoided 
the  issue ;  the  Whigs  hoped  to  profit  by  the 
dissension.  There  was  the  usual  rush  of 
amendments  and  of  parliamentary  strategy, 
and  the  indorsing  resolutions  which  finally 
passed  in  both  Houses  in  ambiguous  language 
and  by  diminished  vote  were  therefore  shorn 
of  much  of  their  political  significance. 
Party  organization  was  strong  in  Illinois, 
and  for  the  greater  part,  as  the  popular  discus- 
sion proceeded,  the  Democrats  sustained  and 
the  Whigs  opposed  the  new  measure.  In  the 
northern  counties,  where  the  antislavery  sen- 
timent was  general,  there  were  a  few  successful 
efforts  to  disband  the  old  parties  and  create  a 
ined  opposition  under  the  new  name  of 
Republicans.  This,  it  was  soon  apparent,  would 
make  serious  inroads  on  the  existing  Demo- 
cratic majority.  Hut  an  alarming  counter-move- 
ment in  the  central  counties,  which  formed  the 
Whig  stronghold,  soon  began  to  show  itself. 
I  touglas's  violent  denunciation  of  "  abolition- 
ists "  and  "abolitionism"  appealed  with  sin- 
'jutar  power  to  Whigs  from  slave  States.  The 
party  was  without  a  national  leader;  Clay  had 
died  two  years  before,  and  Douglas  made 
skillful  quotations  from  the  great  statesman's 
i  lie-;  to  bolster  up  his  new  prooagandism. 
In  Congress  only  a.  little  handful  of  Southern 
Whigs  opposed  the  repeal,  and  even  these  did 
dare  place  their  opposition  on  antislavery 
grounds.  And  especially  the  familiar  voice  and 
example  of  the  neighboring  Missouri  Whigs 
were  given  unhesitatingly  to  the  support  of  the 
Douglas  scheme.  Under  these  combined  in- 
fluences one  or  two  erratic  but  rather  promi- 
nent Whigs  in  central  Illinois  declared  their 
adherence  to  \ebraskaism,and  raised  the  hope 
that  the  Democrats  would  regain  in  the  center 
and  south  all  they  might  lose  in  the  northern 
half  of  the  State. 
One  additional  circumstance  had  its  effect 
on  public  opinion.  As  has  been  stated,  in  the 
opposition  to  Douglas's  repeal  the  few  avowed 
abolitionists  and  the  many  pronounced  Free- 
soilers,  displaying  unwonted  activity,  came  sud- 
denly into  the  foreground  to  rouse  and  organ- 
ize public  opinion,  making  it  seem  for  the 
moment  that  they  had  really  assumed  leader- 
ship and  control  in  politics.  This  class  of  men 
had  long  been  held  up  to  public  odium.  Some 
of  them  had,  indeed,  on  previous  occasions  used 
intemperate  and  offensive  language;  but  more 
generally  they  were  denounced  upon  a  gross 
misrepresentation  of  their  utterance  and  pur- 
pose. It  so  happened  that  they  were  mostly 
of  Democratic  antecedents,  which  gave  them 
great  influence  among  antislavery  Democrats, 
but  made  their  advice  and  argument  exceed- 
ingly distasteful  in  strong  Whig  counties  and 
communities.  The  fact  that  they  now  became 
more  prudent,  conciliatory,  and  practical  in 
their  speeches  and  platforms  did  not  immedi- 
ately remove  existing  prejudice  against  them. 
A  few  of  these  appeared  in  Illinois.  Cassius 
M.  Clay  published  a  letter  in  which  he  advo- 
cated the  fusion  of  anti-Nebraska  voters  upon 
"  Benton,  Seward,  Hale,  or  any  other  good  citi- 
zen," and  afterwards  made  a  series  of  speeches 
in  Illinois.  When  he  came  to  Springfield,  the 
Democratic  officers  in  charge  refused  him  the 
CASSIUS     M.    CLAY. 
FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH    BY    BRADY.
ABRAJ/AM  LINCOLN. 
use  of  the  rotunda  of  the  State  House,  a  circum- 
stance, however,  which  only  served  to  draw  him 
a  larger  audience  in  a  neighboring  grove.  Lat- 
er in  the  summer  (iiddings  and  Chase  of  Ohio 
made  a  political  tour  through  the  State,  and 
at  Springfield  the  future  Secretary  and  Chief- 
Justice  addressed  an  unsympathetic  audience 
of  a  few  hundreds  in  the  dingy  little  court- 
house, almost  unheralded,  save  by  the  epithets 
of  the  Democratic  newspapers.  A  few  local 
speakers  of  this  class,  of  superior  address  and 
force,  now  also  began  to  signalize  themselves 
by  a  new-born  zeal  and  an  attractive  eloquence. 
Conspicuous  among  these  was  Owen  Lovejoy 
of  northern  Illinois,  brother  of  the  man  who 
for  opinion's  sake  had  been  so  shamefully 
murdered  at  Alton. 
While  thus  in  the  northern  half  of  Illinois  the 
public  condemnation  of  Douglas's  repeal  was 
immediate  and  sweeping,  the  formation  of  op- 
position to  it  was  tentative  and  slow  in  the  cen- 
tral and  southern  counties,  where  among  Whigs 
of  southern  birth  it  proceeded  rather  upon 
party  feeling  than  upon  moral  conviction.  The 
new  question  struck  through  party  lines  in  such 
a  manner  as  to  confuse  and  perplex  the  masses. 
But  the  issue  would  not  be  postponed.  This 
was  the  year  for  electing  Congressmen,  and  the 
succession  of  events  rather  than  the  leadership 
of  politicians  gradually  shaped  the  campaign. 
After  a  most  exciting  parliamentary  struggle 
the  repeal  was  carried  through  Congress  in 
May.  Encouraged  by  this  successful  domina- 
tion over  Representatives  and  Senators,  Doug- 
las prepared  to  force  its  unquestioned  accept- 
ance by  the  people.  "  I  hear  men  now  say," 
said  he,  "  that  they  are  willing  to  acquiesce  in 
it.  .  .  .  It  is  not  sufficient  that  they  shall  not 
seek  to  disturb  Nebraska  and  Kansas ;  but 
they  must  acquiesce  also  in  the  principle."*  In 
the  slave  States  this  was  an  easy  task.  The 
most  prominent  Democrat  who  had  voted 
against  the  Nebraska  bill  was  Thomas  H. 
Benton.  The  election  in  Missouri  was  held  in 
August,  and  Benton  was  easily  beaten  by  a 
Whig  who  was  as  fierce  for  repeal  as  Doug- 
las himself.  In  the  free  States  the  case  was 
altogether  different.  In  Illinois  the  Demo- 
crats gradually,  but  at  last  with  a  degree  of 
boldness,  shouldered  the  dangerous  dogma. 
The  main  body  of  the  party  rallied  under 
Douglas,  excepting  a  serious  defection  in  the 
north;  on  the  other  hand,  the  Whigs  in  a  body 
declared  against  him,  but  were  weakened  by 
a  scattering  desertion  in  the  center  and  south. 
Meanwhile  both  retained  their  distinctive  party 
names  and  organizations. 
Congress   adjourned  early  in  August,  but 
*  Douglas's  speech  before  the  Union  Democratic  Club 
of  New  York,  June  3d,  1854.  New  York  "  Herald," 
June  5th,  1854. 
Douglas  delayed  his  return  to  Illinois.    'I  be 
first  of  September  had  come,  when  it  was  an- 
nounced he  would  return  to  his  home  in 
Chicago.  This  was  an  antislavery  city,  and  the 
THOMAS     H.    BENTON. 
current  of  popular  condemnation  and  exaspera- 
tion was  running  strongly  against  him.  Public 
meetings  of  his  own  former  party  friends  had 
denounced  him.  Street  rowdies  had  burned 
him  in  effigy.  The  opposition  papers  charged 
him  with  skulking  and  being  afraid  to  meet 
his  constituents.  On  the  afternoon  of  his 
coming  many  flags  in  the  city  and  on  the  ship- 
ping in  the  river  and  harbor  were  hung  at  half- 
mast.  At  sunset  sundry  city  bells  were  tolled 
for  an  hour  to  signify  the  public  mourning  at 
his  downfall.  When  he  mounted  the  platform 
at  night  to  address  a  crowd  of  some  five  thou- 
sand listeners  he  was  surrounded  by  a  little 
knot  of  personal  friends,  but  the  audience  be- 
fore him  was  evidently  cold  if  not  actively 
hostile. 
He  began  his  speech,  defending  his  course 
as  well  as  he  could.  He  claimed  that  the 
slavery  question  was  forever  settled  by  his 
great  principle  of  popular  sovereignty,  which 
took  it  out  of  Congress  and  gave  it  to  the 
people  of  the  territories  to  decide  as  they 
pleased.  The  crowd  heard  him  in  sullen  si- 
lence for  three-quarters  of  an  hour,  when  their 
patience  gave  out,  and  they  began  to  ply  him 
with  questions.  He  endured  their  fire  of  in- 
terrogatory for  a  little  while  till  he  lost  his 
own  temper.  Excited  outcry  followed  angry 
repartee.    Thrust  and  rejoinder  were  mingled
86o 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
with  cheers  and  hisses.  The  mayor,  who  pre- 
sided, tried  to  calm  the  assemblage,  but  the 
passions  oi  the  crowd  would  brook  no  control. 
Douglas,  of  short,  sturdy  build  and  imperious 
and  controversial  nature,  stood  his  ground 
courageously,  with  flushed  and  lowering  coun- 
tenance hurling  defiance  at  his  interrupters, 
calling  them  a  mob,  and  shaking  his  fist  in 
their  faces  :  in  reply  the  crowd  groaned, 
hooted,  yelled,  and  made  the  din  of  Pande- 
monium. The  tumultuous  proceeding  con- 
tinued until  half-past  ten  o'clock  at  night,  when 
the  baffled  orator  was  finally  but  very  reluc- 
tantly persuaded  by  his  friends  to  give  up  the 
contest  and  leave  the  stand.  It  was  trum- 
peted abroad  by  the  Democratic  newspapers 
that  "in  the  order-loving,  law-abiding  aboli- 
tion-ridden city  of  Chicago,  Illinois's  great 
statesman  and  representative  in  the  United 
States  Senate  was  cried  down  and  refused  the 
privilege  of  speaking"  ;  *  and  as  usual  the  inde- 
cent intolerance  produced  its  natural  reaction. 
But  now  a  newr  actor  came  forward  on  the 
political  stage  in  central  Illinois ;  or  rather, 
an  old  favorite  reappeared.  This  w^as  Abra- 
ham Lincoln.  Since  his  return  to  Springfield 
from  his  single  term  of  service  in  Congress, 
1847  to  1849,  though  by  no  means  entirely 
withdrawn  from  politics,  his  active  work  had 
been  greatly  diminished.  His  congressional 
life  had  largely  increased  the  horizon  of  his 
observation.  Perhaps  it  had  also  extended 
the  bounds  of  his  ambition.  He  had  doubt- 
less discovered  many  of  his  own  defects,  and 
not  unlikely  had  diligently  sought  to  remedy 
them.  The  period  following  had  for  him  been 
years  of  work,  study,  and  reflection.  His  pro- 
fession of  law  had  become  a  deeper  science 
*"  State  Register,"  Sept.  4th,  1854. 
^##?v 
OWEN     LOVEJOY. 
PHOTOGRAPH    IN    POSSESSION    OF 
LYMAN     TRUMBULL. 
FROM    A    PHOTOGRAPH    BY    BRAOY. 
and  a  higher  responsibility.  His  practice,  re- 
ceiving his  undivided  attention,  brought  him 
more  important  and  more  remunerative  cases. 
Losing  nothing  of  his  genial  humor,  his  char- 
acter took  on  the  dignity  of  a  graver  manhood. 
He  was  still  the  center  and  the  idol  of  every 
social  group  he  encountered,  whether  on  the 
street  or  in  the  parlor.  Serene  and  buoyant 
of  temper,  cordial  and  winning  of  language, 
charitable  and  tolerant  of  opinion,  his  very 
presence  diffused  a  glow  of  confidence  and 
kindness.  Wherever  he  went  he  left  an  ever- 
widening  ripple  of  smiles,  jests,  and  laughter. 
His  radiant  good  fellowship  was  beloved  and 
sought  alike  by  political  opponents  and  parti- 
san friends.  His  sturdy  and  delicate  integrity, 
recognized  far  and  wide,  had  long  since  won 
him  the  blunt  but  hearty  sobriquet  of  "  Hon- 
est Old  Abe."  But  it  became  noticeable  that 
of  late  years  he  was  less  among  the  crowd  and 
more  in  the  solitude  of  his  office  or  his  study, 
and  that  he  seemed  ever  in  haste  to  leave  the 
eager  circle  he  was  entertaining. 
It  was  in  the  midsummer  of  1854  that  we 
find  him  reappearing  upon  the  stump  in  cen- 
tral Illinois.  The  rural  population  always 
welcomed  his  oratory,  made  up  of  ready  wit, 
apt  illustration,  simple  statement,  forcible 
logic.  His  diction  was  familiar  to  the  ear,  his 
stories  were  racy  of  the  soil.  He  never  lacked 
for  invitations  to  address  the  public.  His  first 
speeches  on  the  new  and  all-absorbing  topic 
were  made  in  the  neighboring  towns,  and  in 
the  counties  adjoining  his  own.  Towards  the 
end  of  August  the  candidates  for  Congress  in 
that  district  were,  in  Western  phrase, "  on  the 
track."  Yates,  afterwards  one  of  the  famous 
"  war  governors,"  sought    a    reelection  as  a
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
86 1 
Whig.  Harris  as  a  Douglas-Democrat  strove 
to  supplant  him.  Local  politics  became  act- 
ive, and  Lincoln  was  sent  for  in  all  directions 
to  address  the  people.  When  he  went,  how- 
ever, he  distinctly  announced  that  he  did  not 
purpose  to  take  up  his  time  with  this  personal 
and  congressional  controversy.  His  intention 
was  to  discuss  the  principles  of  the  Nebraska 
bill. 
Once  launched  upon  this  theme,  men  were 
surprised  to  find  him  imbued  with  a  new  and 
unwonted  seriousness.  They  heard  from  his 
lips  fewer  anecdotes  and  more  history.  Care- 
less listeners  who  came  to  laugh  at  his  jokes 
sat  spell-bound  by  the  strong  current  of  his 
reasoning  and  the  flashes  of  his  earnest  elo- 
quence, and  were  lifted  up  by  the  range  and 
tenor  of  his  argument  into  a  fresher  and  purer 
political  atmosphere.  The  new  discussion  was 
fraught  with  deeper  questions  than  the  im- 
provement of  the  Sangamon,  protective  tariffs, 
or  the  origin  of  the  Mexican  war.  Down 
through  incidents  of  legislation,  through  his- 
tory of  government,  even  underlying  cardinal 
maxims  of  political  philosophy,  it  touched  the 
very  bed-rock  of  primary  human  rights.  Such 
a  subject  furnished  material  for  the  inborn 
gifts  of  the  speaker,  his  intuitive  logic,  his  im- 
pulsive patriotism,  his  pure  and  poetical  con- 
ception of  legal  and  moral  justice. 
Douglas,  since  his  popular  rebuff  at  Chi- 
cago on  September  ist,  had  begun,  after  a  few 
days  of  delay  and  rest,  a  tour  of  speech- 
making  southward  through  the  State.  At 
these  meetings  he  had  at  least  a  respectful 
hearing,  and  as  he  neared  central  Illinois  the 
reception  accorded  him  became  more  enthu- 
siastic. The  chief  interest  of  the  campaign 
finally  centered  in  a  sort  of  political  tourna- 
ment which  took  place  at  the  capital,  Spring- 
field, during  the  first  week  of  October;  the 
State  Agricultural  Fair  having  called  together 
great  crowds,  and  among  them  the  prin- 
cipal politicians  of  Illinois.  This  was  Lin- 
coln's home,  in  a  strong  Whig  county,  and  in 
a  part  of  the  State  where  that  party  had 
hitherto  found  its  most  compact  and  trust- 
worthy forces.  As  yet  Lincoln  had  made  but  a 
single  speech  here  on  the  Nebraska  question. 
Of  the  Federal  appointments  under  the  Ne- 
braska bill,  Douglas  secured  two  for  Illinois, 
one  of  which,  the  office  of  surveyor-general, 
he  had  caused  to  be  given  to  John  Calhoun, 
the  same  man  who,  in  the  pioneer  days  twenty 
years  before,  was  county  surveyor  in  Sanga- 
mon and  had  employed  Abraham  Lincoln  as 
his  deputy.  He  was  also  the  same  who  three 
years  later  received  the  sobriquet  of  "  John 
Candlebox  Calhoun,"  having  acquired  unen- 
viable notoriety  from  his  reputed  connection 
with  the  "  Cincinnati  Directory  "  and  "  Can- 
Vol.  XXXIII.— no. 
dlebox  "  election  frauds  in  Kansas,  and  with 
the  famous  Lecompton  Constitution.  Calhoun 
was  still  in  Illinois  doing  campaign  work  in 
propagating  the  Nebraska  faith.  He  wax 
ognized  as  a  man  of  considerable  professional 
and  political  talent,  and  had  made  a  speech  in 
Springfield  to  which  Lincoln  had  replied.  It 
was,  however,  merely  a  casual  and  local  affair 
and  was  not  described  or  reported  by  the 
newspapers. 
The  meetings  at  the  State  Fair  were  of  a 
different  character.  The  audiences  were  com- 
posed of  leading  active  men  from  nearly  all 
the  counties  of  the  State.  Though  the  discus- 
sion of  party  questions  had  been  going  on  all 
the  summer  with  more  or  less  briskness,  yet 
such  was  the  general  confusion  in  politics 
that  many  honest  and  intelligent  voters  and 
even  leaders  were  still  undecided  in  their 
opinions.  The  fair  continued  nearly  a  whole 
week.  Douglas  made  a  speech  on  the  first 
day,  Tuesday,  October  3d.  Lincoln  replied  to 
him  on  the  following  day,  October  4th.  Doug- 
las made  a  rejoinder,  and  on  that  night  and 
the  succeeding  day  and  night  a  running  fire 
of  debate  ensued,  in  which  John  Calhoun, 
Judge  Trumbull,  Judge  Sidney  Breese,  Col- 
onel E.  D.  Taylor,  and  perhaps  others  took 
part. 
Douglas's  speech  was  doubtless  intended  by 
him  and  expected  by  his  friends  to  be  the 
principal  and  the  conclusive  argument  of  the 
occasion.  But  by  this  time  the  Whig  party  of 
the  central  counties,  though  shaken  by  the 
disturbing  features  of  the  Nebraska  question, 
had  nevertheless  re-formed  its  lines,  and  as- 
sumed the  offensive  to  which  its  preponderant 
numbers  entitled  it,  and  resolved  not  to  sur- 
render either  its  name  or  organization.  In 
Sangamon  county, its  strongest  men,  Abraham 
Lincoln  and  Stephen  T.  Logan,  were  made 
candidates  for  the  Legislature.  The  term  of 
Douglas's  colleague  in  the  United  States  Sen- 
ate, General  James  Shields,  was  about  to  ex- 
pire, and  the  new  Legislature  would  choose 
his  successor.  To  the  war  of  party  principles 
was  therefore  added  the  incentive  of  a  brill- 
iant official  prize.  The  Whigs  were  keenly 
alive  to  this  chance  and  its  influence  upon 
their  possible  ascendency  in  the  State. 
Lincoln's  Whig  friends  had  therefore  seen 
his  reappearance  in  active  discussion  with 
unfeigned  pleasure.  Of  old  they  knew  his  pe- 
culiar hold  and  influence  upon  the  people  and 
his  party.  His  few  speeches  in  the  adjoining 
counties  had  once  more  shown  them  his  ma- 
turing intellect,  his  expanding  power  in  de- 
bate. Acting  upon  himself,  this  renewed 
practice  on  the  stump  crystallized  his  thoughts 
and  brought  method  to  his  argument.  The 
opposition  newspapers  had  accused  him  of
862 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
"  mousing  about  the  libraries  in  the  State 
House.'"  The  charge  was  true.  Where  others 
were  content  to  take  statements  at  second 
hand,  he  preferred  to  verity  citations  as  well 
as  to  rind  new  ones.  His  treatment  of  his 
theme  was  therefore  not  only  bold  but 
original. 
By  a  sort  of  common  consent  he  was  looked 
to,  to  answer  Douglas's  speech.  This  was  no 
light  task,  and  no  one  knew  it  better  than 
Lincoln.  Douglas's  real  ability  was,  and  re- 
mains, unquestioned.  In  many  qualities  of  in- 
tellect he  was  truly  the  "  Little  Giant"  which 
popular  fancy  nicknamed  him.  It  was  no 
mere  chance  that  raised  the  Vermont  cabinet- 
maker's apprentice  from  a  penniless  stranger 
in  Illinois  in  1833  to  a  formidable  competitor 
for  supreme  leadership  in  the  great  Democratic 
party  of  the  nation  in  1852.  When  after  the 
lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  we  measure 
him  with  the  veteran  chiefs  whom  he  aspired 
to  supplant,  we  see  the  substantial  basis  of  his 
confidence  and  ambition.  His  great  error  of 
statesmanship  aside,  he  stands  forth  more  than 
the  peer  of  associates  who  underrated  his 
power  and  looked  askance  at  his  pretensions. 
In  the  six  years  of  perilous  party  conflict  which 
followed,  every  conspicuous  party  rival  disap- 
peared in  obscurity,  disgrace,  or  rebellion. 
Battling  while  others  feasted,  sowing  where 
others  reaped,  abandoned  by  his  allies  and 
persecuted  by  his  friends,  Douglas  alone 
emerged  from  the  fight  with  loyal  faith  and 
unshaken  courage,  bringing  with  him  through 
treachery,  defeat,  and  disaster  the  unflinching 
allegiance  and  enthusiastic  admiration  of 
nearly  three-fifths  of  the  rank  and  file  of  the 
once  victorious  army  of  Democratic  voters. 
He  had  not  only  proved  himself  its  most  trust- 
worthy guide  and  most  gallant  chief,  but  as 
a  final  crown  of  merit  he  led  his  still  powerful 
contingent  of  followers  to  a  patriotic  defense 
of  the  Constitution  and  government  which 
some  of  his  unworthy  compeers  put  into  such 
mortal  jeopardy. 
We  find  him  here  at  the  beginning  of  this 
severe  conflict  in  the  full  flush  of  hope  and 
ambition.  He  was  winning  in  personal  man- 
ner, brilliant  in  debate,  aggressive  in  party 
strategy.  To  this  he  added  an  adroitness  in 
evasion  and  false  logic  perhaps  never  equaled, 
and  in  his  defense  of  the  Nebraska  measure 
this  questionable  but  convenient  gift  was  ever 
his  main  reliance.  Besides,  his  long  official 
career  gave  to  his  utterances  the  stamp  and 
glitter  of  oracular  statesmanship.  But  while 
Lincoln  knew  all  Douglas's  strong  points  he 
was  no  less  familiar  with  his  weak  ones.  They 
had  come  to  central  Illinois  about  the  same 
time,  and  had  in  a  measure  grown  up  to- 
gether.   Socially  they  were  on  friendly  terms; 
politically  they  had  been  opponents  for  twenty 
years.  At  the  bar,  in  the  Legislature,  and  on 
the  stump  they  had  often  met  and  measured 
strength.  Each  therefore  knew  the  temper  of 
the  other's  steel  no  less  than  every  joint  in  his 
armor. 
It  was  a  peculiarity  of  the  early  West  — 
perhaps  it  pertains  to  all  primitive  communi- 
ties —  that  the  people  retained  a  certain  frag- 
ment of  the  chivalric  sentiment,  a  remnant 
of  the  instinct  of  hero-worship.  As  the  ruder 
athletic  sports  faded  out,  as  shooting-matches, 
wrestling-matches,  horse-races,  and  kindred 
games  fell  into  disuse,  political  debate  became, 
in  a  certain  degree,  their  substitute.  But  the 
principle  of  championship,  while  it  yielded 
high  honor  and  consideration  to  the  victor, 
imposed  upon  him  the  corresponding  obliga- 
tion to  recognize  every  opponent  and  accept 
every  challenge.  To  refuse  any  contest,  to 
plead  any  privilege,  would  be  instant  loss  of 
prestige.  This  supreme  moment  in  Lincoln's 
career,  this  fateful  turning  of  the  political  tide, 
found  him  fully  prepared  for  the  new  battle, 
equipped  by  reflection  and  research  to  permit 
himself  to  be  pitted  against  the  champion  of 
Democracy  —  against  the  very  author  of  the 
raging  storm  of  parties ;  and  it  displays  his 
rare  self-confidence  and  consciousness  of  high 
ability  to  venture  to  attack  such  an  antagonist 
at  such  a  time. 
Douglas  made  his  speech,  according  to  no- 
tice, on  the  first  day  of  the  fair,  Tuesday 
October  3d.  "  I  will  mention,"  said  he  in  his 
opening  remarks,  "  that  it  is  understood  by 
some  gentlemen  that  Mr.  Lincoln,  of  this 
city,  is  expected  to  answer  me.  If  this  is  the 
understanding,  I  wish  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would 
step  forward  and  let  us  arrange  some  plan 
upon  which  to  carry  out  this  discussion."  Mr. 
Lincoln  was  not  there  at  the  moment,  and  the 
arrangement  could  not  then  be  made.  Unpro- 
pitious  weather  had  brought  the  meeting  to 
the  Representative's  Hall  in  the  State  House, 
which  was  densely  packed.  The  next  day 
found  the  same  hall  filled  as  before  to  hear 
Mr.  Lincoln.  Douglas  occupied  a  seat  just  in 
front  of  him  and  in  his  rejoinder  he  explained 
that  "  my  friend  Mr.  Lincoln  expressly  in- 
vited me  to  stay  and  hear  him  speak  to-day,  as 
he  heard  me  yesterday,  and  to  answer  and  de- 
fend myself  as  best  I  could.  I  here  thank  him 
for  his  courteous  offer."  The  occasion  greatly 
equalized  the  relative  standing  of  the  cham- 
pions. The  familiar  surroundings,  the  pres- 
ence and  hearty  encouragement  of  his  friends, 
put  Lincoln  in  his  best  vein.  His  bubbling 
humor,  his  perfect  temper,  and  above  all  the 
overwhelming  current  of  his  historical  arraign- 
ment extorted  the  admiration  of  even  his 
political  enemies.  "  His  speech  was  four  hours
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
in  length,"  wrote  one  of  these,*  "  and  was  con- 
ceived and  expressed  in  a  most  happy  and 
pleasant  style,  and  was  received  with  abun- 
dant applause.  At  times  he  made  statements 
which  brought  Senator  Douglas  to  his  feet, 
and  then  good-humored  passages  of  wit 
created  much  interest  and  enthusiasm."  All 
reports  plainly  indicate  that  Douglas  was  as- 
tonished and  disconcerted  at  this  unexpected 
display  of  oratorical  power,  and  that  he  strug- 
gled vainly  through  a  two  hours'  rejoinder  to 
break  the  force  of  Lincoln's  victory  in  the 
debate.  Lincoln  had  hitherto  been  the  fore- 
most man  in  his  district.  That  single  effort 
made  him  the  leader  in  his  State. 
The  fame  of  this  success  brought  Lincoln 
urgent  calls  from  all  the  places  where  Doug- 
las was  advertised  or  expected  to  make  a 
speech.  Accordingly,  twelve  days  afterwards, 
October  16th,  they  once  more  met  in  debate, 
at  Peoria.  Lincoln,  as  before,  gave  Douglas 
the  opening  and  closing  speech,  explaining 
that  he  was  willing  to  yield  this  advantage 
in  order  to  secure  a  hearing  from  the  Demo- 
ocratic  portion  of  his  listeners.  The  audience 
was  a  large  one,  but  not  so  representative  in 
its  character  as  that  at  Springfield.  The  occa- 
sion is  made  memorable,  however,  by  the  fact 
that  when  Lincoln  returned  home  he  wrote 
out  and  published  his  speech.  We  have  there- 
fore the  exact  and  revised  text  of  his  argu- 
ment, and  are  able  to  estimate  its  character 
and  value.  Marking  as  it  does  with  unmistak- 
able precision  a  step  in  the  second  period  of 
his  intellectual  development,  it  deserves  the 
careful  attention  of  the  student  of  his  life. 
After  the  lapse  of  a  quarter  of  a  century  the 
critical  reader  still  finds  it  a  model  of  brevity, 
directness,  terse  diction,  exact  and  lucid  his- 
torical statement,  and  full  of  logical  proposi- 
tions so  short  and  so  strong  as  to  resemble 
mathematical  axioms.  Above  all  it  is  pervaded 
by  an  elevation  of  thought  and  aim  that  lifts  it 
out  of  the  commonplace  of  mere  party  contro- 
versy. Comparing  it  with  his  later  speeches, 
we  find  it  to  contain  not  only  the  argument  of 
the  hour,  but  the  premonition  of  the  broader 
issues  into  which  the  new  struggle  was  destined 
soon  to  expand. 
The  main,  broad  current  of  his  reasoning 
was  to  vindicate  and  restore  the  policy  of  the 
fathers  of  the  country  in  the  restriction  of 
slavery ;  but  running  through  this  like  a  thread 
of  gold  was  the  demonstration  of  the  essential 
injustice  and  immorality  of  the  system. 
"This  declared  indifference,"  said  lie,  "  but,  as  I 
must  think,  covert  zeal  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I  can- 
not but  hate.  I  hate  it  because  of  the  monstrous  in- 
justice of  slavery  itself.    I  hate  it  because  it  deprives 
*  Correspondence  "  Missouri  Republican,"  October 
6th,  1854. 
our  republican  example  of  its  just  influence  in  the 
world;  enables  the  enemies  of  free  institutions  with 
plausibility  to  taunt  us  as  hypocrites  ;  causes  the  real 
friends  of  freedom  to  doubt  our  sincerity;  and 
cially  because  it  forces  so  many  really  good  men  among 
ourselves  into  an  open  war  with  the  very  fundamental 
principles  of  civil  liberty,  criticising  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  and  insisting  that  there  is  no  right 
principle  of  action  but  self-interest. 
"The  doctrine  of  self-government  is  right, —  abso- 
lutely and  eternally  right, —  but  it  has  no  just  applica- 
tion as  here  attempted.  Or  perhaps  I  should  rather 
say  that  whether  it  has  such  just  application,  depends 
upon  whether  a  negro  is  not,  or  is,  a  man.  If  he  is  not 
a  man,  in  that  case  he  who  is  a  man  may  as  a  matter  of 
self-government  do  just  what  he  pleases  with  him. 
But  if  the  negro  is  a  man,  is  it  not  to  that  extent  a 
total  destruction  of  self-government  to  say  that  he  too 
shall  not  govern  himself?  When  the  white  man  gov- 
erns himself,  that  is  self-government ;  but  when  he 
governs  himself  and  also  governs  another  man,  that  is 
more  than  self-government  —  that  is  despotism. 
"  What  I  do  say  is,  that  no  man  is  good  enough  to 
govern  another  man  without  that  other's  consent. 
"The  master  not  only  governs  the  slave  without  his 
consent,  but  he  governs  him  by  a  set  of  rules  alto- 
gether different  from  those  which  he  prescribes  for 
himself.  Allow  all  the  governed  an  equal  voice  in  the 
government ;  that,  and  that  only,  is  self-government. 
"  Slavery  is  founded  in  the  selfishness  of  man's  nature 
—  opposition  to  it  in  his  love  of  justice.  These  prin- 
ciples are  an  eternal  antagonism  ;  and  when  brought 
into  collision  so  fiercely  as  slavery  extension  brings 
them,  shocks  and  throes  and  convulsions  must  cease- 
lessly follow.  Repeal  the  Missouri  Compromise  — 
repeal  all  compromise  —  repeal  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  —  repeal  all  past  history  —  still  you 
cannot  repeal  human  nature. 
"I  particularly  object  to  the  new  position  which  the 
avowed  principle  of  this  Nebraska  law  gives  to  slav- 
ery in  the  body  politic.  I  object  to  it  because  it  as- 
sumes that  there  can  be  moral  right  in  the  enslaving 
of  one  man  by  another.  I  object  to  it  as  a  dangerous 
dalliance  for  a  free  people, —  a  sad  evidence  that  feel- 
ing prosperity,  we  forget  right, —  that  liberty  as  a  prin- 
ciple we  have  ceased  to  revere. 
"  Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as  man's  march  to  the 
grave,  we  have  been  giving  up  the  old  for  the  new 
faith.  Near  eighty  years  ago  we  began  by  declaring  that 
all  men  are  created  equal ;  but  now  from  that  begin- 
ning we  have  run  down  to  the  other  declaration  that 
for  some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a  '  sacred  right  of 
self-government.'  These  principles  cannot  stand  to- 
gether.   They  are  as  opposite  as  God  and  mammon. 
"  Our  Republican  robe  is  soiled  and  trailed  in  the 
dust.  Let  us  repurify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it 
white,  in  the  spirit  if  not  the  blood  of  the  Revolution. 
Let  us  turn  slavery  from  its  claims  of  '  moral  right ' 
back  upon  its  existing  legal  rights,  and  its  arguments 
of  'necessity.'  Let  us  return  it  to  the  position  our 
fathers  gave  it,  and  there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us 
readopt  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  the 
practices  and  policy  which  harmonize  with  it.  Let 
North  and  South  — let  all  Americans — let  all  lovers 
of  liberty  everywhere  — join  in  the  great  and  good 
work.  If  we  do  this,  we  shall  not  only  have  saved  the 
Union,  but  we  shall  have  so  saved  it,  so  as  to  make  and 
to  keep  it  forever  worthy  of  the  saving.  We  shall 
have  so  saved  it  that  the  succeeding  millions  of  free, 
happy  people,  the  world  over,  shall  rise  up  and  call 
us  blessed  to  the  latest  generations."
S6+ 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
The  election  which  occurred  November  7th 
resulted  disastrously  for  Douglas.  It  was  soon 
found  that  the  Legislature  on  joint  ballot 
would  probably  give  a  majority  tor  Senator 
against  Shields,  the  incumbent,  or  any  other 
Democrat  who  had  supported  the  Nebraska 
bill.  Who  might  become  his  successor  was 
more  problematical.  The  opposition  majority 
was  made  up  of  anti-Nebraska  Democrats,  of 
what  were  then  called  "  abolitionists"  (  Love- 
joy  had  been  elected  among  these),  and  finally 
of  Whigs,  who  numbered  by  far  the  largest 
portion.  But  these  elements,  except  on  one 
single  issue,  were  somewhat  irreconcilable.  In 
this  condition  of  uncertainty  a  host  of  candi- 
dates sprang  up.  There  was  scarcely  a  mem- 
ber of  Congress  from  Illinois  —  indeed,  scarce- 
ly a  prominent  man  in  the  State  of  any  party  — 
who  did  not  conceive  the  flattering  dream  that 
he  himself  might  become  the  lucky  medium 
of  compromise  and  harmony. 
Among  the  Whigs,  though  there  were  other 
aspirants,  Lincoln,  whose  speeches  had  con- 
tributed so  much  to  win  the  election,  was  the 
natural  and  most  prominent  candidate.  Ac- 
cording to  Western  custom,  he  addressed  a 
short  note  to  most  of  the  Whig  members  elect 
and  to  other  influential  members  of  the  party 
asking  their  support.  Generally  the  replies 
were  not  only  affirmative  but  cordial  and  even 
enthusiastic.  But  a  dilemma  now  arose.  Lin- 
coln had  been  chosen  one  of  the  members  from 
Sangamon  county  by  some  six  hundred  and 
fifty  majority.  The  Constitution  of  Illinois  con- 
tained a  clause  disqualifying  members  of  the 
Legislature  and  certain  other  designated  offi- 
cials from  being  elected  to  the  Senate.  Good 
lawyers  generally  believed  this  provision  re- 
pugnant to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  and  that  the  qualifications  of  Senators 
and  Representatives  therein  prescribed  could 
be  neither  increased  nor  diminished  by  a  State. 
But  the  opposition  had  only  a  majority  of  one 
or  two.  If  Lincoln  resigned  his  membership 
in  the  Legislature  this  might  destroy  the  ma- 
jority. If  he  refused  to  resign,  such  refusal 
might  carry  some  member  to  the  Democrats. 
At  last,  upon  full  deliberation,  Lincoln  re- 
signed his  seat,  relying  upon  the  six  or  seven 
hundred  majority  in  Sangamon  county  to  elect 
another  \\  nig.  It  was  a  delusive  trust.  A  re- 
action in  the  Whig  ranks  against  "  abolition- 
ism "  sudd-nly  set  in.  A  listless  apathy  suc- 
ceeded the  intense  excitement  and  strain  of 
*  Their  resolutions  were  radical  for  that  day  hut  not 
so  extreme  as  was  generally  feared.  On  the  slavery 
question  they  declared  their  purpose  :  to  restore  Kan- 
sas and  Nebraska  to  the  position  of  free  territories; 
that  as  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  vests  in 
the  States  and  not  in  Congress  the  power  to  legislate 
for  the  rendition  of  fugitives  from  labor,  to  repeal  and 
entirely  abrogate  the   fugitive  slave  law;    to  restrict 
the  summer's  canvass.  Local  rivalries  forced 
the  selection  of  an  unpopular  candidate. 
Shrewdly  noting  all  these  signs  the  Democrats 
of  Sangamon  now  organized  what  is  known 
in  Western  politics  as  a  "  still-hunt."  They 
made  a  feint  of  allowing  the  special  election  to 
go  by  default.  They  made  no  nomination. 
They  permitted  an  independent  Democrat, 
known  under  the  sobriquet  of  "  Steamboat 
Smith,"  to  parade  his  own  name.  Up  to  the 
very  day  of  election  they  gave  no  public  sign, 
although  they  had  in  the  utmost  secrecy  in- 
structed and  drilled  their  precinct  squads.  On 
the  morning  of  election  the  working  Democrats 
appeared  at  every  poll,  distributing  tickets 
bearing  the  name  of  a  single  candidate  not 
before  mentioned  by  any  one.  They  were  busy 
all  day  long  spurring  up  the  lagging  and  in- 
different, and  bringing  the  aged,  the  infirm, 
and  the  distant  voters  in  vehicles.  Their  ruse 
succeeded.  The  Whigs  were  taken  completely 
by  surprise,  and  in  a  remarkably  small  total 
vote,  McDaniels,  Democrat,  was  chosen  by 
some  sixty  majority.  The  Whigs  in  other  parts 
of  the  State  were  furious  at  the  unlooked-for 
result,  and  the  incident  served  greatly  to  com- 
plicate the  senatorial  canvass. 
Nevertheless  it  turned  out  that  even  after 
this  loss  the  opposition  to  Douglas  would  have 
a  majority  on  joint  ballot.  But  how  unite  this 
opposition  made  up  of  Whigs,  of  Democrats, 
and  of  so-called  abolitionists  ?  It  was  just  at  that 
moment  in  the  impending  revolution  of  parties 
when  everything  was  doubt,  distrust,  uncer- 
tainty. Only  these  abolitionists,  ever  aggres- 
sive on  all  slavery  issues,  were  ready  to  lead  off 
in  new  combinations,  but  nobody  was  willing 
to  encounter  the  odium  of  acting  with  them. 
They,  too,  were  present  at  the  State  Fair,  and 
heard  Lincoln  reply  to  Douglas.  At  the  close 
of  that  reply,  and  just  before  Douglas's  rejoin- 
der, Lovejoy  had  announced  to  the  audience 
that  a  Republican  State  Convention  would  be 
immediately  held  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  ex- 
tending an  invitation  to  delegates  to  join  in 
it.  But  the  appeal  fell  upon  unwilling  ears. 
Scarcely  a  corporal's  guard  left  the  discussion. 
The  Senate  Chamber  presented  a  discourag- 
ing array  of  empty  benches.  Only  some  twen- 
ty-six delegates  were  there  to  represent  the 
great  State  of  Illinois.  Nothing  daunted,  they 
made  their  speeches  and  read  their  platform 
to  each  other.*  Particularly,  however,  in  their 
addresses  they  praised  Lincoln's  great  speech 
slavery  to  those  States  in  which  it  exists ;  to  prohibit  the 
admission  of  any  more  slave  States ;  to  abolish  slavery 
in  the  District  of  Columbia ;  to  exclude  slavery  from 
all  territories  over  which  the  General  Government  has 
exclusive  jurisdiction,  and  finally  to  resist  the  acquire- 
ment of  any  more  territories  unless  slavery  shall  have 
been  therein  forever  prohibited.
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
which  they  had  just  heard,  notwithstanding 
his  declarations  differed  so  essentially  from 
their  new-made  creed.  "  Ichabod  raved,"  said 
the  Democratic  organ  in  derision,  "  and  Love- 
joy  swelled,  and  all  indorsed  the  sentiments  of 
that  speech."  Not  content  with  this,  with- 
out consent  or  consultation,  they  placed  Lin- 
coln's name  in  the  list  of  their  State  Central 
Committee. 
Matters  remained  in  this  attitude  until  their 
chairman  called  a  meeting  and  notified  Lin- 
coln to  attend.  In  reply  he  sent  the  following 
letter  of  inquiry  : 
"  While  I  have  pen  in  hand  allow  me  to  say  that  I 
have  been  perplexed  some  to  understand  why  my 
name  was  placed  on  that  committee.  I  was  not  con- 
sulted on  the  subject,  nor  was  I  apprised  of  the  ap- 
pointment until  I  discovered  it  by  accident  two  or 
three  weeks  afterwards.  I  suppose  my  opposition  to 
the  principle  of  slavery  is  as  strong  as  that  of  any 
member  of  the  Republican  party ;  but  I  had  also  sup- 
posed that  the  extent  to  which  I  feel  authorized  to 
■carry  that  opposition  practically  was  not  at  all  satis- 
factory to  that  party.  The  leading  men  who  organized 
that  party  were  present  on  the  4th  of  October  at  the 
discussion  between  Douglas  and  myself  at  Springfield 
and  had  full  opportunity  to  not  misunderstand  my  po- 
sition.   Do  I  misunderstand  them?  "  * 
Whether  this  letter  was  ever  replied  to  is 
uncertain,  though  improbable.  No  doubt  it 
led  to  conferences  during  the  meeting  of  the 
Legislature,  early  in  the  year  1855,  when  the 
senatorial  question  came  on  for  decision.  It 
has  been  suggested  that  Lincoln  made  dis- 
honorable concessions  of  principle  to  get  the 
votes  of  Lovejoy  and  his  friends.  The  state- 
ment is  too  absurd  to  merit  serious  contradic- 
tion. The  real  fact  is  that  Mr.  Giddings,  then 
in  Congress,  wrote  to  Lovejoy  and  others  to 
support  Lincoln.  Various  causes  delayed  the 
event,  but  finally,  on  February  8th,  1855,  the 
Legislature  went  into  joint  ballot.  A  number 
of  candidates  were  put  in  nomination,  but  the 
contest  narrowed  itself  down  to  three.  Abra- 
ham Lincoln  was  supported  by  the  Whigs  and 
Free-soilers ;  James  Shields  by  the  Douglas- 
Democrats.  As  between  these  two,  Lincoln 
would  have  easily  succeeded,  had  not  five  anti- 
Nebraska  Democrats  refused  under  any  cir- 
cumstances to  vote  for  him  or  any  other  Whig,f 
*  Lincoln  to  Codding,  Nov.  27th,  1854.  MS. 
t  "  All  that  remained  of  the  anti-Nebraska  force, 
excepting  Judd,  Cook,  Palmer,  Baker,  and  Allen  of 
Madison,  and  two  or  three  of  the  secret  Matteson  men, 
would  go  into  caucus,  and  I  could  get  the  nomination 
of  that  caucus.  But  the  three  Senators  and  one  of  the 
two  Representatives  above  named  'could  never  vote 
for  a  Whig,'  and  this  incensed  some  twenty  Whigs  to 
*  think  '  they  would  never  vote  for  the  man  of  the  five." 
—  [Lincoln  to  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne,  February  9th, 
1855.  MS.] 
%  "In  the  mean  time  our  friends,  with  a  view  of  de- 
taining our  expected  bolters,  had  been  turning  from  me 
to  Trumbull  till  he  had  risen  to  thirty-five  and  I  had 
been  reduced  to  fifteen.  These  would  never  desert  me 
and  steadily  voted  during  six  ballots  for  Ly- 
man Trumbull.  The  first  vote  stood :  Lincoln, 
forty-five  ;  Shields,  forty-one  ;  Trumbull,  five  ; 
scattering,  eight.  Two  or  three  Whigs  had 
thrown  away  their  votes  on  this  first  ballot, 
and  though  they  now  returned  and  adhered  to 
him,  the  demoralizing  example  was  imitated 
by  various  members  of  the  coalition.  On  the 
sixth  ballot  the  vote  stood:  Lincoln,  thirty-six  ; 
Shields,  forty-one  ;  Trumbull,  eight ;  scatter- 
ing, thirteen. 
At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  the  Doug- 
las-Democrats executed  a  change  of  front, 
and,  dropping  Shields,  threw  nearly  their  full 
strength,  forty-four  votes,  for  Governor  Joel  A. 
Matteson.  The  maneuver  was  not  unexpected, 
for  though  the  governor  and  the  party  news- 
papers had  hitherto  vehemently  asserted  he 
was  no  candidate,  the  political  signs  plainly 
contradicted  such  statement,  Matteson  had 
assumed  a  quasi-independent  position;  kept 
himself  non-committal  on  Nebraska,  and  op- 
posed Douglas's  scheme  of  tonnage  duties  to 
improve  Western  rivers  and  harbors.  Like  the 
great  majority  of  Western  men  he  had  risen 
from  humble  beginnings,  and  from  being  a 
gold-hunter,  emigrant,  farmer,  contractor,  and 
speculator  had  become  governor.  In  office 
he  had  devoted  himself  specially  to  the  eco- 
nomical and  material  questions  of  Illinois,  and 
in  this  role  had  a  certain  popularity  with  all 
classes  and  parties. 
The  substitution  of  his  name  proved  a 
shrewd  and  promising  device.  The  ninth  bal- 
lot gave  him  forty-seven  votes.  The  opposi- 
tion under  the  excitement  of  non-partisan  ap- 
peals began  to  break  up.  Of  the  remaining 
votes  Lincoln  received  fifteen,  Trumbull  thirty- 
five,  scattering  one.  In  this  critical  moment 
Lincoln  exhibited  a  generosity  and  a  sagacity 
above  the  range  of  the  mere  politician's  vision. 
He  urged  upon  his  Whig  friends  and  support- 
ers to  drop  his  own  name  and  join  without 
hesitation  or  conditions  in  the  election  of 
Trumbull.  J  This  was  putting  their  fidelity 
to  a  bitter  trial.  Upon  every  issue  but  the 
Nebraska  bill  Trumbull  still  avowed  himself 
an  uncompromising  Democrat.    The  faction 
except  by  my  direction;  but  I  became  satisfied  that  if 
we  could  prevent  Matteson's  election  one  or  two  bal- 
lots more,  we  could  not  possibly  do  so  a  single  ballot 
after  my  friends  should  begin  to  return  to  me  from 
Trumbull.  So  I  determined  to  strike  at  once ;  and  ac- 
cordingly advised  my  remaining  friends  to  go  for  him. 
which  they  did,  and  elected  him  on  that,  the  tenth  ballot. 
Such  is  the  way  the  thing  was  done.  I  think  you  would 
have  done  the  same  under  the  circumstances,  though 
Judge  Davis,  who  came  down  this  morning,  declares 
he  never  would  have  consented  to  the  forty-seven 
[opposition]  men  being  controlled  by  the  five.  I 
regret  my  defeat  moderately,  but  am  not  nervous 
about  it." — [Lincoln  to  Washburne,  Februarv  9th, 
1855.  MS.]
866 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
oi  five  had  been  stubborn  to  defiance  and 
disaster.  They  would  compel  the  mountain  to 
go  to  Mahomet.  It  seemed  an  unconditional 
surrender  of  the  Whig  party.  But  such  was 
Lincoln's  influence  upon  his  adherents  that 
at  his  request  they  made  the  sweeping  sacri- 
fice, though  with  the  lingering  sorrow  of  men 
at  the  burial  of  a  near  and  dear  friend.  The 
proceedings  had  wasted  away  a  long  afternoon 
of  most  tedious  suspense.  Evening  had  come ; 
the  gas  was  lighted  in  the  hall,  the  galleries 
were  tilled  with  beautiful  and  eager  women, 
the  lobbies  were  packed  with  restless  and 
nervously  anxious  men.  All  had  forgotten 
the  lapse  of  hours,  their  fatigue  and  their  hun- 
ger, in  the  absorption  of  the  fluctuating  con- 
test. The  roll-call  of  the  tenth  ballot  still 
showed  fifteen  votes  for  Lincoln,  thirty-six  for 
Trumbull,  forty-seven  for  Matteson.  Amid 
an  excitement  which  was  becoming  painful, 
and  in  a  silence  where  spectators  scarcely 
breathed,  Judge  Stephen  T.  Logan,  Lincoln's 
nearest  and  warmest  friend,  arose  and  an- 
nounced the  purpose  of  the  remaining  Whigs 
to  decide  the  contest,  whereupon  the  entire 
fifteen  changed  their  votes  to  Trumbull.  This 
gave  him  the  necessary  number  of  fifty- one, 
and  elected  him  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States. 
At  that  early  day  an  election  to  the  United 
States  Senate  must  have  seemed  to  Lincoln  a 
most  brilliant  political  prize,  the  highest,  per- 
haps, to  which  he  then  had  any  hopes  of  ever 
attaining.  To  school  himself  to  its  loss  with 
becoming  resignation,  to  wait  hopefully  during 
four  years  for  another  opportunity,  to  engage 
in  the  dangerous  and  difficult  task  of  persuad- 
ing his  friends  to  leave  their  old  and  join  a 
new  political  party  only  yet  dimly  foreshad- 
owed, to  study  the  chances  of  maintaining  his 
party  leadership,  furnished  sufficient  occupa- 
tion for  the  leisure  afforded  by  the  necessities 
of  his  law  practice.  It  is  interesting  to  know 
that  he  did  more ;  that  amid  the  consideration 
of  mere  personal  interests,  he  was  vigilantly 
pursuing  a  study  of  the  higher  phases  of  the 
great  moral  and  political  struggle  on  which  the 
nation  was  just  entering.  A  letter  of  his  written 
to  a  friend  in  Kentucky  in  the  following  year 
shows  us  that  he  had  nearly  reached  a  matur- 
ity of  conviction  on  the  nature  of  the  slavery 
conflict —  his  belief  that  the  nation  could  not 
permanently  endure  half  slave  and  half  free  — 
which  he  did  not  publicly  express  until  the  be- 
ginning of  his  famous  senatorial  campaign  of 
1858: 
"Springfield,  Ills.,  August  15,  1855. 
"Hon.  Geo.  Robertson,  Lexington,  Ky. 
"My  Dear  Sir  :  The  volume  you  left  for  me  has 
been  received.  I  am  really  grateful  for  the  honor  of 
your  kind  remembrancers  well  as  for  the  book.  The 
partial  reading  I  have  already  given  it  has  afforded 
me  much  of  both  pleasure  and  instruction.  It  was  new 
to  me  that  the  exact  question  which  led  to  the  Missouri 
Compromise  had  arisen  before  it  arose  in  regard  to 
Missouri,  and  that  you  had  taken  so  prominent  a  part 
in  it.  Your  short  but  able  and  patriotic  speech  on 
that  occasion  has  not  been  improved  upon  since  by 
those  holding  the  same  views ;  and,  with  all  the  lights 
you  then  had,  the  views  you  took  appear  to  me  as  very 
reasonable. 
"  You  are  not  a  friend  of  slavery  in  the  abstract.  In 
that  speech  you  spoke  of  '  the  peaceful  extinction  of 
slavery  '  and  used  other  expressions  indicating  your 
belief  that  the  thing  was,  at  some  time,  to  have  an  end. 
Since  then  we  have  had  thirty-six  years  of  experience ; 
and  this  experience  has  demonstrated,  I  think,  that 
there  is  no  peaceful  extinction  of  slavery  in  prospect 
for  us.  The  signal  failure  of  Henry  Clay  and  other 
good  and  great  men,  in  1849,  to  effect  anything  in  fa- 
vor of  gradual  emancipation  in  Kentucky,  together 
with  a  thousand  other  signs,  extinguishes  that  hope 
utterly.  On  the  question  of  liberty,  as  a  principle,  we 
are  not  what  we  have  been.  When  we  were  the  polit- 
ical slaves  of  King  George,  and  wanted  to  be  free,  we 
called  the  maxim  that  '  all  men  are  created  equal ' 
a  self-evident  truth;  but  now  when  we  have  grown 
fat,  and  have  lost  all  dread  of  being  slaves  ourselves, 
Ave  have  become  so  greedy  to  be  masters  that  we  call 
the  same  maxim  '  a  self-evident  lie.'  The  Fourth  of 
July  has  not  quite  dwindled  away ;  it  is  still  a  great  day 
for  burning  fi}'e-crackeis  ! 
"  That  spirit  which  desired  the  peaceful  extinction  of 
slavery  has  itself  become  extinct  with  the  occasion 
and  the  men  of  the  Revolution.  Under  the  impulse  of 
that  occasion,  nearly  half  the  States  adopted  systems  of 
emancipation  at  once  ;  and  it  is  a  significant  fact  that 
not  a  single  State  has  done  the  like  since.  So  far  as 
peaceful,  voluntary  emancipation  is  concerned,  the  con- 
dition of  the  negro  slave  in  America,  scarcely  less  ter- 
rible to  the  contemplation  of  a  free  mind,  is  now  so  fixed 
and  hopeless  of  change  for  the  better  as  that  of  the 
lost  souls  of  the  finally  impenitent.  The  Autocrat  of  all 
the  Russias  will  resign  his  crown  and  proclaim  his  sub- 
jects free  republicans,  sooner  than  will  our  American 
masters  voluntarily  give  up  their  slaves. 
"  Our  political  problem  now  is, '  Can  we  as  a  nation 
continue  together  permanently — forever —  half  slaves, 
and  half  free  ?  '  The  problem  is  too  mighty  for  me. 
May  God  in  his  mercy  superintend  the  solution.  Your 
much  obliged  friend,  and  humble  servant, 
"A.  Lincoln." 
The  reader  has  doubtless  already  noted  in 
his  mind  the  curious  historical  coincidence 
which  so  soon  followed  the  foregoing  specu- 
lative affirmation.  On  the  day  before  Lin- 
coln's first  inauguration  as  President  of  the 
United  States,  the  "Autocrat  of  all  the  Rus- 
sias," Alexander  II.,  by  imperial  decree  eman- 
cipated his  serfs ;  while  six  weeks  after  the 
inauguration,  the  "American  masters,"  headed 
by  Jefferson  Davis,  began  the  greatest  war  of 
modern  times,  to  perpetuate  and  spread  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery. 
THE  BORDER  RUFFIANS. 
The  passage  of  the  Nebraska  bill  and  the 
hurried  extinction  of  the  Indian  title  opened 
nearly  fifteen  million  acres  of  public  lands  to 
settlement  and  purchase.  The  whole  of  this 
vast  area  was  yet  practically  tenantless.    In
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
all  of  Kansas  there  were  only  three  military 
posts,  eight  or  ten  missions  or  schools  attached 
to  Indian  reservations,  and  some  scores  of 
roving  hunters  and  traders  or  squatters  in  the 
vicinity  of  a  few  well-known  camping  stations 
on  the  two  principal  emigrant  and  trading 
routes,  one  leading  southward  to  New  Mexico, 
the  other  northward  toward  Oregon.  But  such 
had  been  the  interest  created  by  the  political 
excitement,  and  so  favorable  were  the  news- 
paper reports  of  the  location,  soil,  and  climate 
of  the  new  country,  that  a  few  months  sufficed 
to  change  Kansas  from  a  closed  and  prohib- 
ited Indian  reserve  to  the  emigrant's  land  of 
promise. 
Douglas's  oracular  "  stump  speech  "  in  the 
Nebraska  bill  transferred  the  struggle  for 
slavery  extension  from  Congress  to  the  newly 
organized  territories.  "  Come  on,  then,  gentle- 
men of  the  slave  States,"  said  Seward  in  a 
Senate  discussion ;  "  since  there  is  no  escaping 
your  challenge,  I  accept  it  in  behalf  of  Free- 
dom. We  will  engage  in  competition  for  the 
virgin  soil  of  Kansas,  and  God  give  the  victory 
to  the  side  that  is  stronger  in  numbers  as  it  is 
in  right."  With  fifteen  millions  in  the  North 
against  ten  millions  in  the  South,  the  result 
could  not  be  in  doubt. 
Feeling  secure  in  the  evident  advantage,  the 
North,  in  general,  trusted  implicity  to  the  or- 
dinary and  natural  movement  of  emigration. 
To  the  rule,  however,  there  were  a  few  excep- 
tions. Some  members  of  Congress,  incensed 
at  the  tactics  of  the  Nebraska  leaders,  formed 
a  Kansas  Aid  Society  in  Washington  City  and 
contributed  money  to  assist  emigrants.*  Be- 
yond this  initiatory  step  they  do  not  seem  to 
have  had  any  personal  participation  in  it,  and 
its  office  and  working  operations  were  soon 
transferred  to  New  York.  Sundry  similar  or- 
ganizations were  also  formed  by  private  indi- 
viduals. The  most  notable  of  these  was  a 
Boston  company  chartered  in  March,  named 
"  The  Massachusetts  Emigrant  Aid  Company." 
The  charter  was  soon  abandoned,  and  the 
company  reorganized  June  13th,  under  private 
articles  of  association ;  f  and  in  this  condition 
it  became  virtually  the  working  agency  of  phil- 
anthropic citizens  of  New  England,  headed 
by  Hon.  Eli  Thayer.  There  were  several 
auxiliary  societies  and  a  few  independent  asso- 
ciations.J  But  from  what  then  and  afterwards 
came  to  light,  it  appears  that  Mr.  Thayer's  soci- 
ety was  the  only  one  whose  operations  reached 
any  degree  of  success  deserving  historical 
notice.  This  company  gave  publicity,  through 
newspaper  advertisements  and  pamphlets, 
of  its  willingness  to  organize  emigrants  into 
companies,  to  send  them  to  Kansas  in  charge 
*  Testimony  of  Hon.  Daniel  Mace. 
t  Hale's  "  Kansas  and  Nebraska,"  p.  229. 
of  trustworthy  agents,  and  to  obtain  trans- 
portation for  them  at  reduced  rates.  It  also 
sent  the  machinery  for  a  few  saw-mills,  and  the 
types  and  presses  for  two  or  three  newspapers, 
and  erected  a  hotel  or  boarding-house  to  ac- 
commodate new-comers.  It  purchased  and 
held  only  the  land  necessary  to  locate  these 
business  enterprises.  It  engaged  in  no  specu- 
lation, paid  no  fare  of  any  emigrants,  and  ex- 
pressly disavowed  the  requirement  of  any  oath 
or  pledge  of  political  sentiment  or  conduct. 
All  these  transactions  were  open,  honest,  and 
lawful,  carefully  avoiding  even  the  implication 
of  moral  or  political  wrong. 
Under  the  auspices  of  this  society  a  pioneer 
company  of  about  thirty  persons  arrived  in 
Kansas  in  July,  1854,  and  founded  the  town 
of  Lawrence.§  Other  parties  followed  from 
time  to  time,  sending  out  offshoots,  but  mainly 
increasing  the  parent  settlement,  until  next 
to  Fort  Leavenworth,  the  principal  military 
post,  Lawrence  became  the  leading  town  of 
the  territory.  The  erection  of  the  society  ho- 
tel, the  society  saw-mills,  and  the  establishment 
of  a  newspaper  also  gave  it  leadership  in  busi- 
ness and  politics  as  well  as  population.  This 
humane  and  praiseworthy  enterprise  has  been 
gravely  charged  with  the  origin  and  responsi- 
bility of  the  political  disorders  which  followed 
in  Kansas.  Nothing  could  be  further  from  the 
truth.  Before  it  had  assisted  five  hundred  per- 
sons to  their  new  homes,  the  territory  had  by 
regular  and  individual  immigration,  mainly 
from  the  Western  States,  acquired  a  population 
of  8501  souls,  as  disclosed  by  the  official  cen- 
sus taken  after  the  first  summer's  arrivals,  and 
before  those  of  the  second  had  begun.  It  needs 
only  this  mere  statement  to  refute  the  political 
slander  so  industriously  repeated  in  high  places 
against  the  Lawrence  immigrants. 
Deeper  causes  than  the  philanthropy  or 
zeal  of  a  few  Boston  enthusiasts  were  actively 
at  work.  The  balance  of  power  between  the 
free  and  the  slave  States  had  been  destroyed 
by  the  admission  of  California.  To  restore 
that  balance  the  South  had  consummated  the 
repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  as  a  first 
and  indispensable  step.  The  second  equally 
indispensable  step  was  to  seize  the  political 
control  of  the  new  territory. 
Kansas  lay  directly  west  of  the  State  of  Mis- 
souri. For  a  frontier  State,  the  pro-slavery 
sentiment  of  Missouri  was  very  pronounced 
and  ultra,  especially  along  the  Kansas  border. 
The  establishment  of  slavery  in  this  new 
region  had  formed  the  subject  of  public  and 
local  discussion  before  the  Nebraska  bill,  and 
Senator  Atchison  had  promised  his  western 
Missouri  constituents  to  labor  for  such  a  result 
t  "Tribune"  Almanac,  1856,  p.  28. 
§Phillips:s  "Conquest  of  Kansas,"  p.  27.
868 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
From  the  time  the  unlooked-for  course  of 
Senator  Douglas  made  it  a  practical  possibil- 
ity. Atchison  was  all  zeal  and  devotion  to  this 
object,  which  he  declared  was  almost  as  dear  to 
him  as  his  hope  of  heaven.  When  it  finally 
became  a  question  to  be  decided  perhaps  by  a 
single  frontier  election,  his  zeal  and  work  in 
that  behalf  were  many  times  multiplied. 
Current  reports  and  subsequent  develop- 
ments  leave  no  doubt  that  this  Senator,  be- 
ing then  acting  Vice-President  of  the  United 
States,*  immediately  after  the  August  adjourn- 
ment oi  Congress  hurried  away  to  his  home  in 
Platte  county,  Missouri,  and  from  that  favor- 
able situation  personally  organized  a  vast  con- 
spiracy, running  through  nearly  all  the  counties 
of  his  State  adjoining  the  Kansas  border,  to 
decide  the  slavery  question  for  Kansas  by 
Missouri  votes.  Secret  societies  under  various 
names,  such  as  "  Blue  Lodges,"  "  Friends  So- 
ciety," ^Social  Band,"  "  Sons  of  the  South," 
were  organized  and  affiliated,  with  all  the  nec- 
essary machinery  of  oaths,  grips,  signs,  pass- 
words, and  badges.  The  plan  and  object  of 
the  movement  were  in  general  kept  well 
concealed.  Such  publicity  as  could  not  be 
avoided  served  rather  to  fan  the  excitement, 
strengthen  the  hesitating,  and  frown  down  all 
dissent  and  opposition.  Long  before  the  time 
for  action  arrived,  the  idea  that  Kansas  must 
be  a  slave  State  had  grown  into  a  fixed  and 
determined  public  sentiment. 
The  fact  is  not  singular  if  we  remember 
the  peculiar  situation  of  that  locality.  It  was 
before  the  great  expansion  of  railroads,  and 
western  Missouri  could  only  be  conveniently 
approached  by  the  single  commercial  link 
of  steamboat  travel  on  the  turbid  and  dan- 
gerous Missouri  River.  Covering  the  rich 
alluvial  lands  along  that  majestic  but  erratic 
stream  lay  the  heavy  slave  counties  of  the 
State,  wealthy  from  the  valuable  slave  products 
of  hemp  and  tobacco.  Slave  tenure  and  slavery 
traditions  in  Missouri  dated  back  a  full  cen- 
tury, to  the  remote  days  when  the  American 
Bottom  opposite  St.  Louis  was  one  of  the  chief 
bread  and  meat  producing  settlements  of  New 
France,  sending  supplies  northward  to  Mack- 
inaw, southward  to  New  Orleans,  and  east- 
ward to  Fort  Duquesne.  When  in  1763  "  the 
Illinois"  country  passed  by  treaty  under  the 
British  flag,  the  old  French  colonists,  with  their 
slaves,  almost  in  a  body  crossed  the  Mississippi 
into  then  Spanish  territory,  and  with  fresh  ad- 
ditions from  New  Orleans  founded  St.  Louis 
and  its  outlying  settlements ;  and  these,  grow- 
ing with  a  steady  thrift,  extended  themselves 
up  the  Missouri  River.    Slavery  was  thus  iden- 
*  By  virtue  of  his  office  as  President  pro  tempore  of 
the  United  States  Senate.  The  Vice-Presidency  was  va- 
cant; Mr.  King,  chosen  with  President  Pierce, had  died. 
tified  with  the  whole  history  and  also  with  the 
apparent  prosperity  of  the  State ;  and  it  had  in 
recent  times  made  many  of  these  Western  coun- 
ties rich.  The  free  State  of  Iowa  lay  a  hundred 
miles  to  the  north,  and  the  free  State  of  Illinois 
two  hundred  to  the  east;  a  wall  of  Indian 
tribes  guarded  the  west.  Should  all  this  secur- 
ity be  suddenly  swept  away,  and  their  runa- 
ways find  a  free  route  to  Canada  by  simply 
crossing  the  county  line  ?  Should  the  price  of 
their  personal  "  chattels  "  suddenly  fall  one- 
half  for  want  of  a  new  market  ?  With  nearly  fif- 
teen million  acres  of  fresh  land  to  choose  from 
for  the  present  outlay  of  a  trifling  preemption 
fee,  should  not  the  poor  white  compel  his  single 
"  black  boy  "  to  follow  him  a  few  miles  west, 
and  hoe  his  tobacco  for  him  on  the  new  fat 
bottom-lands  of  the  Kaw  River  ?  Even  such 
off-hand  reasoning  was  probably  confined  to 
the  more  intelligent.  For  the  greater  part 
these  ignorant  but  stubborn  and  strong-willed 
frontiersmen  were  moved  by  a  bitter  hatred 
of"  abolitionism,"  because  the  word  had  now 
been  used  for  half  a  century  by  partisans  high 
and  low, —  Governors,  Senators,  Presidents, — 
as  a  term  of  opprobrium  and  a  synonym  of 
crime.  With  these  as  fathers  of  the  faith  and 
the  Vice-President  of  the  United  States  as 
an  apostle  to  preach  a  new  crusade,  is  it  as- 
tonishing that  there  was  no  lack  of  listeners, 
converts,  and  volunteers?  Senator  Atchison 
spoke  in  no  ambiguous  words. 
"When  you  reside  in  one  day's  journey  of  the  ter- 
ritory," said  he,  "and  when  your  peace,  your  quiet, 
and  your  property  depend  upon  your  action,  you  can 
without  an  exertion  send  five  hundred  of  your  young 
men  who  will  vote  in  favor  of  your  institutions. 
Should  each  county  in  the  State  of  Missouri  only  do 
its  duty,  the  question  will  be  decided  quietly  and 
peaceably  at  the  ballot-box.  If  we  are  defeated,  then 
Missouri  and  the  other  Southern  States  will  have 
shown  themselves  recreant  to  their  interests  and  will 
deserve  their  fate."t 
Western  water  transportation  found  its  nat- 
ural terminus  where  the  Kaw  or  Kansas 
river  empties  itself  into  the  Missouri.  From 
this  circumstance  that  locality  had  for  years 
been  the  starting-point  for  the  overland  cara- 
vans or  wagon-trains.  Fort  Leavenworth  was 
the  point  of  rendezvous  for  those  going  to 
California  and  Oregon;  Independence  the 
place  of  outfit  for  those  destined  to  Santa  Fe. 
Grouped  about  these  two  points  were  half 
a  dozen  heavy  slaveholding  counties  of  Mis- 
souri,—  Platte,  Clay,  Ray,  Jackson,  Lafayette, 
Saline,  and  others.  Platte  county,  the  home  of 
Senator  Atchison,  was  their  western  outpost, 
and  lay  like  an  outspread  fan  in  the  great  bend 
t  Speech  in  Platte  county.  Phillips's  "  Conquest  of 
Kansas, v  p.  43.
ABRAHAM   LINCOLN. 
of  the  Missouri,  commanding  from  thirty  to 
fifty  miles  of  river  front.  Nearly  all  of  Kansas 
attainable  by  the  usual  water  transportation 
and  travel  lay  immediately  opposite.  A  glance 
at  the  map  will  show  how  easily  local  senti- 
ment could  influence  or  dominate  commerce 
and  travel  on  the  Missouri  River.  In  this  con- 
nection the  character  of  the  population  must 
be  taken  into  account. 
The  spirit  of  intolerance  which  once  per- 
vaded all  slaveholding  communities,  in  what- 
ever State  of  the  Union,  was  here  rampant  to 
an  unusual  degree.  The  rural  inhabitants  were 
marked  by  the  strong  characteristics  of  the 
frontier, — fondness  of  adventure,  recklessness 
of  exposure  or  danger  to  life,  a  boastful  assertion 
of  personal  right,  privilege,  or  prowess,  a  daily 
and  hourly  familiarity  with  the  use  of  fire-arms. 
These  again  were  heightened  by  two  special 
influences, —  the  presence  of  Indian  tribes 
whose  reservations  lay  just  across  the  border, 
and  the  advent  and  preparation  of  each  sum- 
mer's emigration  across  the  great  plains.  The 
"  Argonauts  of  '49 "  were  not  all  gamblers 
and  cut-throats  of  border  song  and  story. 
Generally,  however,  they  were  men  of  decision 
and  will,  all  mere  drift-wood  in  the  great  cur- 
rent of  gold-seekers  being  soon  washed  ashore 
and  left  behind.  Until  they  finished  their  last 
dinner  at  the  Planter's  House  in  St.  Louis, 
the  fledgelings  of  cities,  the  lawyers,  doctors, 
merchants,  and  speculators,  were  in  or  of  civ- 
ilization. Perhaps  they  even  resisted  the  con- 
tamination of  cards  and  drink,  profanity  and 
revolver  salutations,  while  the  gilded  and  tin- 
seled Missouri  River  steamboat  bore  them  for 
three  days  against  its  muddy  current  and 
boiling  eddies  to  meet  their  company  and 
their  outfit.  But  once  landed  at  Independence 
or  Leavenworth,  they  were  of  the  frontier, 
of  the  wilderness,  of  the  desert.  Here  they 
donned  their  garments  of  red  flannel  and 
coarse  cloth  or  buckskin,  thrust  the  legs  of  their 
trousers  inside  the  tops  of  their  heavy  boots, 
and  wore  their  bowie-knife  or  revolver  in 
their  outside  belt.  From  this  departure  all 
were  subject  to  the  inexorable  equality  of  the 
camp.  Eating,  sleeping,  standing  guard,  tug- 
ging at  the  wheel  or  defending  life  and  prop- 
erty,— there  was  no  rank  between  captain  or 
cook,  employer  or  employed,  savant  or  igno- 
ramus, but  the  distribution  of  duty  and  the 
assignment  of  responsibility.  Toil  and  expos- 
ure, hunger  and  thirst,  wind  and  storm,  danger 
in  camp  quarrel  or  Indian  ambush,  were  the 
familiar  and  ordinary  vicissitudes  of  a  three 
months'  journey  in  a  caravan  of  the  plains.  To 
the  common  hazards  of  the  frontier  was  thus 
added  the  recklessness  of  a  doubtful,  often  a 
desperate,  throw  in  the  game  of  life. 
All  this  movement  created  business  for  these 
Vol.  XXXIII.— hi. 
Missouri  River  towns.  Their  few  inhabitants 
drove  a  brisk  trade  in  shirts  and  blankets, 
gunsand  powder,  hard-bread  and  bacon,  wag- 
ons and  live  stock.  Petty  commerce  busies 
itself  with  the  art  of  gain  rather  than  with  the 
labor  of  reform.  Indian  and  emigrant  traders 
did  not  too  closely  scan  their  sources  of  profit. 
The  precepts  of  the  divine  and  the  penalties 
of  the  human  law  sat  lightly  upon  them.  As 
yet  many  of  these  frontier  towns  were  small 
hamlets,  without  even  a  pretext  of  police 
regulations.  Passion,  therefore,  ran  compara- 
tively a  free  course,  and  the  personal  redress 
of  private  wrongs  was  only  held  in  check 
by  the  broad  and  acknowledged  right  of  self- 
defense.  Since  1849  and  1850,  when  the  gold 
fever  was  at  its  height,  emigration  across  the 
plains  had  slackened,  and  the  eagerness  for  a  re- 
vival of  this  local  traffic  undoubtedly  exerted  its 
influence  in  procuring  the  opening  of  the  ter- 
ritories in  1854.  The  noise  and  excitement 
created  by  the  passage  of  the  Kansas-Nebraska 
Act  awakened  the  hope  of  frontier  traders  and 
speculators,  who  now  greedily  watched  all  the 
budding  opportunities  of  gain.  Under  such  cir- 
cumstances these  opportunities  to  the  shrewd, 
to  the  bold,  and  especially  to  the  unscrupu- 
lous, are  many.  Cheap  lands,  unlimited  town 
lots,  eligible  trading  sites,  the  multitude  of 
franchises  and  privileges  within  the  control  of 
a  territorial  legislature,  the  offices  to  be  dis- 
tributed under  party  favoritism,  offer  an  abun- 
dant lure  to  enterprise  and  far  more  to  craft.  It 
was  to  such  a  population  and  undersuch  a  con- 
dition of  things  that  Senator  Atchison  went  to 
his  home  in  Platte  county  in  the  summer  of 
1854  to  preach  his  pro-slavery  crusade  against 
Kansas.  His  personal  convictions,  his  party 
faith,  his  senatorial  reelection,  and  his  financial 
fortunes,  were  all  involved  in  the  scheme.  With 
the  help  of  the  Stringfellows  and  other  zeal- 
ous co-workers,  the  town  of  Atchison  was 
founded  and  named  in  his  honor,  and  the 
"  Squatter  Sovereign"  newspaper  established, 
which  displayed  his  name  as  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency.  The  good- will  of  the  Admin- 
istration was  manifested  by  making  one  of  the 
editors  postmaster  at  the  new  town. 
President  Pierce  appointed  as  Governor  of 
Kansas  territory  Andrew  H.  Reeder.  a  mem- 
ber of  his  own  party,  from  the  free  State  of 
Pennsylvania.  He  had  neither  prominent  rep- 
utation nor  conspicuous  ability,  though  under 
trying  circumstances  he  afterwards  showed 
diligence,  judgment,  integrity,  and  more  than 
ordinary  firmness  and  independence.  It  is  to 
be  presumed  that  his  fitness  in  a  partisan  light 
had  been  thoroughly  scrutinized  by  both  Presi- 
dent and  Senate.  Upon  the  vital  point  the  in- 
vestigation was  deemed  conclusive.  "  He  was 
appointed,"  the  "Washington  Union"  naively
870 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
THE   GILLIS    HOUSE  ;     LANDING-PLACE   AND   HEADQUARTERS    OF 
THE    EMIGRANT   AID   COMPANY    ON    THE    MISSOURI    RIVER, 
ON    THE   SITE   OF   KANSAS    CITY. 
FROM   A    RECENT   PHOTOGRAPH. 
stated  when  the  matter  was  first 
called  in  question,  "under  the 
strongest  assurance  that  he  was 
strictly  and  honestly  a  national 
man.  We  are  able  to  state  further, 
on  very  reliable  authority,  that 
whilst  Governor  Reeder  was  in  Washington,  at 
the  time  of  his  appointment,  he  conversed  with 
Southern  gentlemen  on  the  subject  of  slavery, 
and  assured  them  that  he  had  no  more  scruples 
in  buying  a  slave  than  a  horse,  and  regretted 
that  he  had  not  money  to  purchase  a  number 
to  carry  with  him  to  Kansas."  With  him  were 
appointed  three  Federal  judges,  a  secretary, 
a  marshal,  and  an  attorney  for  the  territory,  all 
doubtless  considered  equally  trustworthy  on 
the  slavery  question.   The  organic  act  invested 
the  governor  with  very  comprehensive  pow- 
ers to  initiate  the  organization  of  the  new  ter- 
ritory. Until  the  first  legislature  should  be 
duly  constituted,  he  had  authority  to  fix  elec- 
tion days,  define  election  districts,  direct  the 
mode  of  returns,  take  a  census,  locate  the 
temporary  seat  of  government,  declare  va- 
cancies, order  new  elections  to  fill  them,  be- 
side other  usual  and  permanent  powers  of  an 
executive. 
Arriving  at  Leavenworth  in  October,  1854, 
Governor  Reeder  was  not  long  in  discover- 
ing the  designs  of  the  Missourians.  He  was 
urged  to  order  the  immediate  election  of  a 
territorial  legislature.*  The  conspirators  had 
already  spent  some  months  in  organizing 
their  "  Blue  Lodges,"  and  now  desired  to 
be  promptly  put  in  possession  of  the  politi- 
cal power  of  the  territory.  But  the  Governor 
had  too  much  manliness  to  become  the  mere 
pliant  tool  they  wished  to  make  him.  He  re- 
sented their  dictatorship  ;  made  a  tour  of  in- 
spection through  the  new  settlements;  and 
acting  on  his  own  proper  judgment,  on  his 
return  issued  a  proclamation  for  a  simple  elec- 
tion of  a  delegate  to  Congress.  At  the  appear- 
ance of  this  proclamation  Platte  county  took 
the  alarm,  and  held  a  meeting  on  the  Kansas 
side  of  the  river,  to  intimidate  him  with  vio- 
lent speeches  and  a  significant  memorial.  The 
governor  retorted  in  a  letter  that  the  meeting 
was  composed  of  Missourians,  and  that  he 
should  resist  outside  interference  from  friend, 
ELI     THAYER     (i860). 
*  Reports  of  Committee  H, 
34th  Cong.  Vol.  II.  Reeder 
Report,"  pp.  933-935. 
R.    1st  and  2d   Sess. 
Deposition,    "Howard
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
871 
PREEMPTION    HOUSE    BUILT  ON   THE  TOWN   SITE   OF   LAWRENCE   IN    1854. 
FROM    PHOTOGRAPH    IN    POSSESSION    OF  THE    KANSAS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 
foe,  or  faction.*  Pocketing  this  rebuff  as  best 
they  might,  Senator  Atchison  and  his  "  Blue 
Lodges  "  nevertheless  held  fast  to  their  pur- 
pose. Paper  proclamation  and  lectures  on 
abstract  rights  counted  but  little  against  the 
practical  measures  they  had  matured.  No- 
vember 29th,  the  day  of  election  for  delegate, 
finally  arrived,  and  with  it  a  formidable  in- 
vasion of  Missouri  voters  at  more  than  half 
the  polling  places  appointed  in  the  governor's 
proclamation. 
In  frontier  life  it  was  an  every-day  expe- 
rience to  make  excursions  for  business  or 
pleasure,  singly  or  in  parties,  requiring  two 
or  three  consecutive  days,  perhaps  a  night  or 
two  of  camping  out,  and  for  which  saddle- 
horses  and  farm- wagons  furnished  ready  trans- 
portation; and  nothing  was  more  common 
than  concerted  neighborhood  efforts  for  im- 
provement, protection,  or  amusement.  On 
such  occasions  neighborly  sentiment  and  com- 
ity required  every  man  to  drop  his  axe,  or  un- 
hitch from  the  plow  in  the  furrow,  to  further 
the  real  or  imaginary  weal  of  the  community. 
In  urgent  instances  non-compliance  was  fatal 
*  Reeder  to  Gwiner  and  others,  Nov.  21,  1854; 
copied  into  "National  Era,"  Jan.  4,  1855. 
to  the  peace  and  comfort  and  sometimes  to 
the  personal  safety  of  the  settler.  The  move- 
ment described  above  had  been  in  active  prep- 
aration for  weeks,  controlled  by  strong  and 
secret  combinations,  and  many  unwilling  par- 
ticipants were  doubtless  swept  into  it  by  an 
excited  public  opinion  they  dared  not  resist. 
A  day  or  two  before  the  election  the  whole 
Missouri  border  was  astir.  Horses  were 
saddled,  teams  harnessed,  wagons  loaded  with 
tents,  forage,  and  provisions,  bowie-knives 
buckled  on,  revolvers  and  rifles  loaded,  and 
flags  and  inscriptions  flung  to  the  breeze  by 
the  more  demonstrative  and  daring.  Cross- 
ing the  river-ferries  from  the  upper  counties, 
and  passing  unobstructed  over  the  State  line 
by  the  prairie-roads  and  trails  from  the  lower, 
many  of  them  camped  that  night  at  the 
nearest  polls,  while  others  pushed  on  fifty  or 
a  hundred  miles  to  the  sparsely  settled  elec- 
tion districts  of  the  interior.  As  they  passed 
along,  the  more  scrupulous  went  through  the 
empty  form  of  an  imaginary  settlement,  by 
nailing  a  card  to  a  tree,  driving  a  stake  into 
the  ground,  or  inscribing  their  names  in  a 
claim  register,  prepared  in  haste  by  the  in- 
vading party.  The  more  indifferent  satisfied 
themselves  with  a  mere  mental  resolve  to  be- 
come a  settler.  The  utterly  reckless  silenced 
all  scruples  in  profanity  and  drunkenness.  On 
election  morning  the  few  real  squatters  of 
Kansas,  endowed  with  Douglas's  delusive 
boon  of  "popular  sovereignty,"  witnessed  with 
mixed  indignation  and  terror  acts  of  summary 
usurpation.  Judges  of  election  were  dispos- 
sessed and  set  aside  by  intimidation  or  strata- 
gem, and  pro-slavery  judges  substituted  with- 
out the  slightest  regard  to  regularity  or  law ; 
judges'  and  voters'  oaths  were  declared  unnec- 
PREEMPTION    HOUSE    BUILT   BY   W.    R.    LYKINS,    LAWRENCE,    185+.- FROM    PHOTOGRAPH    IN    POSSESSION    OF  THE    KANSAS   HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 
IN    MARCH,    1855,   THIS   HOUSE   WAS  THE   POLLING-PLACE   AT  THE   ELECTION    OF  THE    FIRST  TERRITORIAL   LEGISLATURE,    WHEN    A  THOUSAND   ARMED   MISSOURIANS   VOTED.
872 
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
I  KNKYING     MISSOURI     VOTERS     TO     THE     KANSAS     SHORE. 
essary,  or  explained  away  upon  newly-invented 
phrases  and  absurd  subtleties.  "  Where  there's  a 
will,  there's  a  way," in  wrong  and  crime,  as  well 
as  in  honest  purpose  and  deed ;  and  by  more 
dishonest  devices  than  history  can  stop  fully 
to  record  the  ballot-boxes  were  filled,  through 
invasion,  false  swearing,  riot,  and  usurpation, 
with  ballots  for  Whitfield,  the  pro-slavery 
candidate  for  delegate  to  Congress,  at  nine 
out  of  the  seventeen  polling  places  —  show- 
ing, upon  a  careful  scrutiny  afterward  made 
by  a  committee  of  Congress,  an  aggregate  of 
1729  illegal  votes,  and  only  11 14  legal  ones. 
This  mockery  of  an  election  completed,  the 
valiant  Knights  of  the  Blue  Lodge,  the  fra- 
ternal members  of  the  Social  Band,  the  phil- 
anthropic groups  of  the  Friends  Society,  and 
the  chivalric  Sons  of  the  South  mounted 
their  horses  and  wagons,  and  with  cheers,  and 
salvos  from  revolver  and  rifle,  returned  to 
their  axe  and  plow,  society  lodge  and  bar- 
room haunt,  to  exult  in  a  victory  for  Missouri 
and  slavery  over  the  "  Abolition  hordes  and 
nigger  thieves  of  the  Emigrant  Aid  Society." 
The  "  Border  Ruffians"  of  Missouri  had  writ- 
ten their  preliminary  chapter  in  the  annals  of 
Kansas.    The    published    statements    of  the 
Emigrant  Aid  Society  show  that  up  to  the 
date  of  election  it  had  sent  only  a  few 
hundred  men,  women,  and  children  to  the 
territory.  Why  such  a  prodigious  effort  was 
deemed  necessary  to  control  the  votes  and 
influence  of  this  paltry  handful  of  "  paupers 
who  had  sold  themselves  to  Eli  Thayer  and 
Co."  was  never  explained. 
THE    BOGUS    LAWS. 
As  the  event  turned  out,  the  invasion  of 
border  ruffians  to  decide  the  first  election  in 
Kansas  had  been  entirely  unnecessary.  Even 
without  counting  the  illegal  votes,  the  pro- 
slavery  candidate  for  delegate  was  chosen  by 
a  plurality.  He  had  held  the  office  of  Indian 
Agent,  and  his  acquaintance,  experience,  and 
the  principal  fact  that  he  was  the  favorite  of 
the  conspirators  gave  him  an  easy  victory. 
Governor  Reeder  issued  his  certificate  of  elec- 
tion without  delay,  and  Whitfield  hurried  away 
to  Washington  to  enjoy  his  new  honors,  taking 
his  seat  in  the  House  of  Representatives  within 
three  weeks  after  his  election.  Atchison,  how- 
ever, did  not  follow  his  example.  Congress  met 
on  the  first  Monday  of  December,  and  the  ser-
ABRAHAM  LINCOLN. 
vices  of  the  Acting  Vice-President  were  needed 
in  the  Senate  Chamber.  But  of  such  importance 
did  he  deem  the  success  of  the  conspircy  in 
which  he  was  the  leader,  that  a  few  weeks  before 
the  session  he  wrote  a  short  letter  to  the  Senate, 
giving  notice  of  his  probable  absence  and  advis- 
ing the  appointment  of  a  new  presiding  officer. 
As  a  necessary  preliminary  to  organizing 
the  government  of  the  territory,  Governor 
Reeder,  under  the  authority  of  the  organic 
"popular  sovereignty."  Hut  his  short  expe- 
rience with  Atchison's  Border  Ruffians  had 
already  rudely  shaken  his  partisanship.  The 
events  of  the  November  election  exposed  the 
designs  of  the  pro-slavery  conspiracy  beyond 
all  doubt  or  concealment,  and  no  course  was 
left  him  but  to  become  either  its  ally  or  its 
enemy.  In  behalf  of  justice,  as  well  as  to 
preserve  what  he  still  fondly  cherished  as  a 
vital  party  principle,  he  determined  by  every 
ANDREW     H.     REED5 
FROM     A     PHOTOGRAPH     BY     R. 
act,  proceeded  to  take  a  census  of  its  inhab- 
itants.* This  work,  carried  on  and  completed 
in  the  months  of  January  and  February,  1855, 
disclosed  a  total  population  of  8601  souls,  of 
whom  2905  were  voters.  With  this  enumera- 
tion as  a  definite  guide,  the  governor  made 
an  apportionment,  established  election  dis- 
tricts, and,  appointing  the  necessary  officers 
to  conduct  it,  fixed  upon  the  30th  of  March, 
1855,  as  the  day  for  electing  the  territorial 
legislature.  Governor  Reeder  had  come  to 
Kansas  an  ardent  Democrat,  a  firm  friend  of 
the  Pierce  administration,  and  an  enthusias- 
tic disciple  of  the  new  Democratic  dogma  of 
*  Reeder  Testimony,  "  Howard  Report,"  p.  934. 
means  in  his  power  to  secure  a  fair  election. 
Party  lines  in  the  territory  had  become  sharply 
defined  upon  the  single  issue  of  "  free  State  " 
and  "  slave  State."  In  his  appointment  of 
election  officers,  census-takers,  justices  of  the 
peace,  and  constables,  he  was  careful  to  make 
his  selections  from  both  factions  as  fairly  as 
possible,  excepting  that,  as  a  greater  and  nec- 
essary safeguard  against  another  invasion,  he 
designated  in  the  several  election  districts 
along  the  Missouri  border  two  "free-State" 
men  and  one  pro-slavery  man  to  act  as  judges 
at  each  poll,  f  He  prescribed  distinct  and  rigid 
rules  for  the  conduct  of  the  election ;  ordering 
t  Reeder  Instructions,  "  Howard  Report,"  pp.  107, 
935.