New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-02-09

was as little cbecrfuineSs III -; ,i,-os Tbo~,
there was incentive to it in their ives Inc, ihneS
.ne d, WI hurst out into wild lrollc. which
easily assumed the form OF comic ;i nS;SiI9ed
OF the sustained cheerfulness oI So ,hi gonnric
!; 90 tho, rno1y very little. Beues uhle ecne1o
le tney kne ,m0eanchoy very many Of the pioneers
wore subject in early life TO maiaiial III III,
the effect Of which remained wiIl n cnY these mn
,vIoIoso physical conditions were especiaiS
Wnoieso.e P"' Abraham was exposed through
ali The earlier part of his lie 10 o G,c, hoW Of
influences which made, dnrlng goti n Of Peruvian
ms ceh'u luz, Of the daily food OF the people OF
I5f PonS Illinois In many instances .l,is
miasmatic poison did not aes'l 81 those who ab
or ma'eriaS LII youth: but the effects remained
~ nerioaical attacks of gloom anaoIpsnshe tn
snirits which would seem IntoF and which
spl,,,n healthy ORGANIZATIONS t uIu .. AZ;
gradually lcssencd IN iniuO''
appear entirely in old age ,.-,
This sounds deep not. Wneh one o,,'.,~o .o ~
:, IN connection with certain ligh,ness VI speon
.ta, so,ootimcs Mt grave moments s'ruch 'i' n'V',
ori.;cs en- unfavorahly one Is nan renihus"
% N1aoorlo,,s saving about the tests Vi 'hc
,,.uo,ohod and the follies of the Wise ~
" 20, lincoln was a candidate for the wing
'.ua.;o, for Congress from the Springfield us
,r;ot but failed to get it. Ills opponeh'o oa,u'
among other things more or less a'nu9ins W ~
nd 20 nc that he was the candidate OF the ar'S-
tocracv whoever that might mean ho"eNci' ."o
yeors LATER he received the unanimous
ord was elected ny n majority larger .n''n V'''
-. %. orv Whir candidate in the district III
si,,oor years. This was the Congress that saw
49, ond ~ tl,e Mexican War, and the Small pc
,inrirc NJ the final stand against slavery Oh I't
limos Of the brief now almost iorgot.oh, pau
rronb known rs the "Wilmot provlso. us op-
icct was to exclude slavery IRON any uerriVoiS
that might be acquired from Mexico hii"'i'i
used 70 saw that he had voted Tor IL lor'S-,Wo
times: but nothing came of II save 'hte Wv
South rose against it to a man. Inc iirsUs slsni'-
cant cleavage in the solid ranks OF the Demo
Gratis followed and the last fight for slavery pe-
gan. Il, !,
we'll as the country, had fortunate escape IN
his failure TO obtain from President Taylor the
.oo,.otod commitment of Commissioner Of the Cen
oral Land Office in the newly created Depart
ment of the Interior Any one at all familiar
with the fale of bureau officers and realize what
srccoss must have meant The six years that
followed are thus sketched in his own words
- From fs4g TO 1854 both inclusive, l practlsed
law more assiduously than ever. was losing
interest in politics when the repeal OF the Mis-
souri, Compromise aroused me again" In iact'
no left the bar only for the Presidency. Inc
South. recovering from the bitterness OF seeing
n free State carved out Of California once more
became seized with the appetite Tor more slave
States and to that end, with some convenient
assistance from the North. laid hands on the
solemn compromise by which the question was
thought TO have been forever settled III ls2o
Then the leaders of thought and the leaders OF
action in the North. not already mOrtgaged to
the South. began to sec that life struggle lay
bofore tbcm. There was, as Seward said, an
q. irreprcssible conflict" between save-holdng and
free labor In the words of Lincoln, the country
could not permanently exist half-free and half
slave: il must either be all free or all slave
The Southern leaders were practically determined
that either the country should be all slave OF
the South should 60 out of it. From That mo-
ment dates the downfall of slavery. Up to that
moment, though many words had been Spoken
not a finger had been raised against it.
Hardly had the echoes of the debates that, un-
der the guidance of Clay and Webster, led TO
the compromise measure of 1850 died away when
the ambition of Douglass, turning to the South
for the food denied it or given too slowly in the
North. led him straight into the pitfal of the
Kansas and Nebraska bill. In the same hole
Pierce made haste to engulf his Administration.
The Missouri Compromise must go. The people
of the Territories must be left to say whether
they should come into the Union with slavery
or without slavery as the fundamental law. 10
assist the free cLoce of the people of Kansas armed
bands crossed over from Missouri until to many
easy-eoing persons bleeding Kansas" became n
tiresome by-word yet Kansas never became a
slave State
Slowly the North rose, ar first to certain
comprehension of the state of affairs: at last
and by many gradual steps, to action. First
came the Republican party with Fremont for its
earliest mllying point in $50. Lincoln was men
toned as a candidate for Nice-Presdent on that
ticket, lut his time was rot yet come. His
business was to beat Douglas, and in beating him
to solidify the new and growing power Of the
West in the politics of tie Nation. The South
had had its will of Douglas, and of Pierce, too,
and after its fashion had now no use or room
for either But Douglas was not to be shelved
in this way. There are few better passages in
the " History than those in which the character,
the mind and the ambitions Of this most masterful
and ingenious Of politicians are brought wildly
before the reader Douglas, too, had to rails,
the West for his strong self and his weak alb
stractons How Lincoln met him. ranged along
side him and quietly passed ahead of him is all
admirably told. Lincoln was beaten for the Sen
atorship from Illinois but the contest made him
the National convention of the party met at Chi
cago in 1860 two things were soon evident to
the most reluctant. The first was that the Re
publican candidate, whoever he might be- would
stand a strong chance of being elected.
The other was that the nomination would
go to the States that had the power to elect
Seward came into the convention the lcadinc
candidate, but to the surprise of that part of the
political world that had grown accustomed In the
old distribution of power, the pivotal States could
not be got to unite upon any Eastern candidate
The West a unit Lincoln; the waters
broke up, and taken at the food led on to fortune
Wilfully split as the Democratic party was by
the secesSonist intrgues, the election of Lincoln
was assured
This brings us out of the less familiar bypaths
and lanes of private and half public life to the
broad and common highway of history. The pace
is quickened, but the distances grow greater
Lincoln had already shown himself one Of the