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to the Union and the constitution, and, having become satisfied that both the whig and democratic parties were completely under the control of the slaveholders, established in 1840 the "liberty party," and at a national convention held at Albany nominated James G. Birney for president and Thomas Earle for vice-president. Their entire vote at the election of that year was 7,609. At the next presidential election in 1844 Mr. Birney was again nominated for president, with Thomas Morris for vice-president, and received 62,300 votes. These figures, however, imperfectly represented the numbers of the opponents of slavery, most of whom still maintained their connection with the two great parties, on whose action they had so powerful an influence, that while the Texas question was still pending 14 northern states protested, through their legislatures, in some cases by unanimous vote of all parties, against any enlargement of the area of slavery; and in 1846, during the Mexican war, a bill being before congress authorizing the president to use the sum of $2,000,000 in negotiating a peace, Mr. David Wilmot, a democratic representative from Pennsylvania, moved to add thereto the proviso, "That there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in any territory on the continent of America, which shall hereafter be acquired by or annexed to the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in any other manner whatsoever, except for crime of which the party shall have been duly convicted." This proviso was adopted in the house by a large majority, nearly all the members from the free states voting for it, but failed in the senate from want of time. At the next session, 1846"7, a similar bill appropriating $3,000,000 had the Wilmot proviso affixed to it by a vote of 115 to 106; but it was rejected by the senate by a vote of 31 to 21, and the bill being sent back to the house the proviso was abandoned by a vote of 102 to 97. On the termination of the war, the practical question involved in the Wilmot proviso, whether the introduction of slavery should be allowed or prohibited in the territories newly acquired from Mexico, became of prominent interest. In the whig national convention, held at Philadelphia in 1846, by which Gen. Taylor was nominated, there were several delegates from the northern states representing what were called "free soil" opinions, that is, opinions hostile to the extension of slavery, by whom after the nomination of candidates the following resolution was offered as an amendment to the platform of principles adopted by the convention: "Resolved, that while all power is denied to congress under the constitution to control or in any way interfere with the institution of slavery within the several states of the Union, it nevertheless has the power, and it is the duty of congress, to prohibit the introduction or existence of slavery in any territory now possess ed, or which may hereafter be acquired, by the United States." This was rejected, and several VOL. XV.-49

of the free soil delegates consequently withdrew from the convention, and subsequently separated themselves from the whig party. A similar schism had already taken place in the democratic national convention of the same year, the "barnburners," as the free soil democrats were termed, having seceded partly on antislavery and partly on personal grounds. An agreement was soon made between these seceding whigs and democrats and the liberty party to unite their forces in opposition to the extension of slavery; and a convention was accordingly held at Buffalo, Aug. 9, 1848, which was attended by delegates from all the free states and from Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. A free soil or free democratic party was formed, and Martin Van Buren was nominated for president and Charles Francis Adams for vice-president. A platform was adopted, declaring that the new party was formed "to maintain the rights of free labor against the aggressions of the slave power, and to secure free soil to a free people; that slavery, in the several states of this Union which recognize its existence, depends upon the state laws alone, which cannot be repealed or modified by the general government, and for which laws that government is not responsible; we therefore propose no interference by congress with slavery within the limits of any state; that the only safe means of preventing an extension of slavery into territory now free is to prohibit its extension in all such territory by an act of congress; that we accept the issue which the slave power has forced upon us, and to their demand for more slave states and more slave territory, our calm but final answer is, no more slave states and no more slave territory." Van Buren and Adams received at the presidental election, in Nov. 1848, a popular vote of 291,263, but secured no electoral vote. The democratic candidates, Cass and Butler, received 127 electoral votes; and the whig candidates, Taylor and Fillmore, received 163 electoral votes, and were consequently elected.-President Taylor was inaugurated on Monday, March 5, 1849, and appointed as his cabinet John M. Clayton, secretary of state; William M. Meredith, of the treasury; George W. Crawford, of war; William B. Preston, of the navy; Thomas Ewing, of the interior (an office created by congress two days before, March 3, 1849); Jacob Collamer, postmaster-general; and Reverdy Johnson, attorney-general. One of the earliest and most difficult of the questions which pressed on the new administration arose out of the acquisition of California and New Mexico. In Feb. 1848, gold began to be found in California in large quantities, and the news of its discovery created such an excitement in the United States that in a short time thousands of emigrants were on their way thither by land and water, and their numbers were soon sufficient to constitute a state. They held a convention at Monterey, and on Sept. 1, 1849, adopted a con

stitution with a clause prohibiting slavery. When congress assembled in December, the question of slavery gave rise to excited debates, in which several of the southern members threatened secession and civil war in case the institution was excluded from the newly acquired territories. Much agitation existed throughout the country, especially in the states on the gulf of Mexico, where the disunion party possessed considerable popular strength. An address to the people of the South, signed by most of the southern members of congress, was published, which was far from conciliatory in its tone; the legislatures of South Carolina and Mississippi issued a call for a southern congress to frame a government for a "United States South;" and a disunion convention of delegates from the southern states actually as sembled at Nashville. In the North the agitation was directed not against the Union, but for its preservation, and great meetings were held in all the principal cities to protest against any further interference with slavery. President Taylor, in a message to congress, Jan. 21, 1850, stated that he had himself advised the people of California to form a constitution, and he urged congress to receive and favorably consider their application for admission into the Union. This, however, continued to be opposed by the South, and a parliamentary struggle ensued, the most violent and protracted in American history. The extreme slavery party, led by Mr. Calhoun, demanded not only the rejection of California, but, among other concessions, an amendment of the constitution that should equalize the political power of the free and slave states. The question was still further complicated by the application of New Mexico for admission, and by a claim brought forward by Texas to a western line of boundary which would include a large portion of New Mexico. Finally a compromise was proposed by Henry Clay in the senate as a final settlement of the whole question of slavery, and after a long discussion the result aimed at by Mr. Clay was attained by separate acts, which provided for: 1, the admission of California as a free state; 2, territorial governments for New Mexico and Utah without excluding slavery, but leaving its exclusion or admission to the local population; 3, the settlement of the Texas boundary question; 4, the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia; 5, the enactment of a stringent law for the arrest and return of fugitive slaves. Ten of the southern senators, including Messrs. Mason and Hunter of Virginia, Soulé of Louisiana, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, published a final protest against the admission of California after the vote was taken; and the free soil party at the North denounced the concessions to Texas and the refusal to prohibit slavery in New Mexico and Utah as unjust and unwise, and proclaimed the fugitive slave law as immoral and cruel, and unconstitutional on the ground that the constitution gives congress no power to legislate

on the subject, but leaves the rendition of fugitives from justice and labor to the individual states. Nevertheless the great body of the people North and South acquiesced in the compromise as a final settlement of a dangerous question; and the fugitive slave law, though resisted in a few instances by mobs, was practically enforced by the authorities in all the free states where fugitives were arrested. While the compromise bills were yet before congress, President Taylor died after a few days' illness, July 9, 1850, and was succeeded by the vice-president, Millard Fillmore, who on July 15 reconstructed the cabinet as follows: Daniel Webster, secretary of state; Thomas Corwin, of the treasury; Charles M. Conrad, of war; Alexander H. H. Stuart, of the interior; William A. Graham, of the navy; Nathan K. Hall, postmaster-general; and John J. Crittenden, attorney-general. The compromise bills were signed by Mr. Fillmore Sept. 9, and the whole weight of his administration was given to their support, and especially to the enforcement of the fugitive slave law. During the remainder of his term the events of most importance were the invasion of Cuba, in Aug. 1851, by a band of "fillibusters" from New Orleans, led by Gen. Lopez, who was speedily defeated, captured, and executed with many of his followers; the visit of Louis Kossuth to the United States in Dec. 1851; a dispute with England on the subject of the fisheries in 1852, which was settled by mutual concessions; and lastly the negotiation of a treaty with Japan by Commodore Perry, in command of an American fleet, by which the commerce of that empire was thrown open to the world.-On the approach of the presidential election of 1852 it became evident that, notwithstanding the apparent acquiescence of the great mass of the people in the compromise measures of 1850, the question of slavery was still a source of political agitation. The democrats of the South were divided into "Union men" and "southern rights men," the latter maintaining the right of a state to secede from the Union whenever its rights were violated by the general government. On the other hand, the whigs of the South were mostly Union men and satisfied with the compromise measures, while a majority of the whigs of the North were opposed to the fugitive slave law, though not offering resistance to its execu tion, and were still desirous of preventing the extension of slavery by national legislation. The democratic national convention met at Baltimore, June 1, 1852, and, after balloting for 4 days, on the 49th ballot nominated for president Gen. Franklin Pierce of New Hamp shire, who had commanded a brigade in the Mexican war, and was known to hold opinions satisfactory to the South on the subject of slavery. Lewis Cass and James Buchanan were the leading candidates in the previous ballotings; and William L. Marcy and Stephen A. Douglas also received considerable support.

William R. King of Alabama was nominated for vice-president. A platform was adopted by the convention declaring resistance to "all attempts at renewing in congress or out of it the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made;" and also a determination to "abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the acts known as the compromise measures settled by the last congress, the act reclaiming fugitives from service or labor included." The whig national convention met at Baltimore, June 16, and on the 53d ballot nominated for president Gen. Winfield Scott. The other candidates for the nomination were Millard Fillmore and Daniel Webster, the former receiving the votes of most of the southern delegates nearly to the close, while Scott and Webster were chiefly supported by the northern delegates. William R. Graham was nominated for vice-president. The platform adopted by the convention declared that "the series of acts of the 32d congress, the act known as the fugitive slave law included, are received and acquiesced in by the whig party of the United States as a settlement in principle and substance of the dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace; and we deprecate all further agitation of the question thus settled, as dangerous to our peace, and will discountenance all efforts to continue or renew such agitation, whenever, wherever, or however the attempt may be made." Mr. Webster and his especial friends did not cordially acquiesce in the nomination of Gen. Scott, and attempts were made in various places to bring Mr. Webster forward as an independent candidate for the presidency, chiefly by whigs who considered Gen. Scott and his intimate political friends as lukewarm in their support of the compromises; but the death of Mr. Webster, Oct. 24, 1852, before the election, rendered these demonstrations useless. The national convention of the free soil party was held at Pittsburg, Aug. 11, all the free states being represented, together with Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. John P. Hale was nominated for president and George W. Julian for vice-president. A platform was adopted declaring "that the acts of congress known as the compromise measures of 1850, by making the admission of a sovereign state contingent upon the adoption of other measures demanded by the special interest of slavery; by their omission to guarantee freedom in the free territories; by their attempt to impose unconstitutional limitations on the power of congress and the people to admit new states; and by their invasion of the sovereignty of the states and the liberties of the people through the enactment of an unjust, oppressive, and unconstitutional fugitive slave law, are proved to be inconsistent with all the principles and maxims of democracy, and wholly inadequate to the settlement of the questions of which they are claimed to be an adjustment. That no permanent settlement

of the slavery question can be looked for except in the practical recognition of the truth that slavery is sectional and freedom national; by the total separation of the general government from slavery, and the exercise of its legitimate and constitutional influence on the side of freedom; and by leaving to the states the whole subject of slavery and the extradition of fugitives from justice." At the election, Nov. 5, 1852, the democratic candidates, Pierce and King, received the votes of 27 states, casting 254 electoral votes. Scott and Graham received the votes of Vermont, Massachusetts, Kentucky, and Tennessee, with 42 electoral votes. The popular vote for Pierce and King was 1,587,256, for Scott and Graham 1,384,577, and for Hale and Julian 157,296. President Pierce was inaugurated March 4, 1853, and appointed as his cabinet William L. Marcy, secretary of state; James Guthrie, of the treasury; Jefferson Davis, of war; James C. Dobbin, of the navy; Robert McClelland, of the interior; James Campbell, postmaster-general; and Caleb Cushing, attorney-general. Mr. Buchanan was sent as minister to England and Mr. Soulé to Spain. One of the first questions that occupied the administration was a boundary dispute with Mexico concerning a tract of land between New Mexico and Chihuahua, which finally by negotiation and purchase became a part of the United States under the name of Arizona. In 1853, under the direction of Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, various expeditions were sent out to explore the routes proposed for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Pacific. Congress assembled in Dec. 1853, and in the following January Mr. Douglas, chairman of the senate committee on territories, introduced a bill for the organization of two new territories, Kansas and Nebraska, in the region west of Missouri and north of lat. 36° 30'. By this bill the Missouri compromise act of 1820 was repealed, and slavery allowed to enter where it had been formally and for ever excluded. The measure was warmly supported by the administration and by the leaders of the democratic party, and was strenuously opposed in debates of unprecedented length and interest by Chase and Wade of Ohio, Everett and Sumner of Massachusetts, Seward of New York, Fessenden of Maine, Houston of Texas, and Bell of Tennessee, in the senate, where it finally passed by a vote of 37 to 14. In the house it was opposed among others by Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, who, for 30 years a senator, had now become a representative; but it passed by a vote of 113 to 100, and the bill became a law on the last day of May. This bill roused great excitement and indignation in the free states, where it was denounced as a flagrant breach of faith, and its enactment greatly increased the strength of the anti-slavery party. Much dissatisfaction also was caused in those states by a conference at Ostend between the U. S. ministers to England, France, and Spain, in the circular

issued by which it was proposed to buy Cuba from Spain for $120,000,000, or, if necessary to prevent emancipation in the island, to take it by force. The attempt to obtain Cuba was regarded at the North as prompted, like the repeal of the Missouri compromise, chiefly by a desire to extend and strengthen the slaveholding influence in the United States. So also were the fillibuster expeditions against Nicaragua led by William Walker, whose envoy, Vijil, at Washington was formally recognized by the president in 1856. (See WALKER, WILLIAM.) As, by the terms of the Kansas and Nebraska act, the people of those territories were to be left free to determine for themselves whether or not slavery should be tolerated there, a struggle soon began in Kansas, to which chiefly emigration was directed, between the anti-slavery and pro-slavery parties, which, after many acts of violence and a long period of confusion amounting almost to civil war, terminated in the adoption by the people of Kansas of a state constitution excluding slavery. (See KANSAS.) In the course of the debates on the Kansas question Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts made in the senate, May 20, 1856, a speech containing a vehement attack on South Carolina and some of her representatives, for which two days afterward he was assailed in the senate chamber by Preston S. Brooks of that state, and so much injured that he was not able to resume his duties in the senate during that and the succeeding session. This event increased still further the anti-slavery feeling at the North, and when the canvass for president began in 1856, an anti-slavery party appeared in the field of far more formidable dimensions than any previous organization of the kind. This party assumed the name of republican, and absorbed the entire free soil party, the greater part of the whig party, and considerable accessions from the democratic party. The first decisive exhibition of its strength was the election in the congress of 1855-'6 of N. P. Banks, a former democrat, as speaker of the house of representatives. The whig party about this period disappeared from the field, that portion of it opposed to anti-slavery measures having been merged, especially in the South in an organization at first popularly known as the "Know-Nothing party," and then as the American party from its opposition to foreign influence, and particularly to Roman Catholic influence, in our political affairs. This party held a national convention at Philadelphia in Feb. 1856, and, after adopting a platform virtually recognizing the principles of the KansasNebraska act and approving the fugitive slave law, nominated Millard Fillmore for president. The democratic national convention met at Cincinnati, June 2, and reaffirmed the Baltimore platform of 1852, with the addition of resolutions condemning the principles of the American party, recognizing the Kansas-Nebraska act as the only safe solution of the slavery question, affirming the duty of upholding

state rights and the Union, and assenting generally to the doctrines of the Ostend circular. The candidates for the nomination for president were Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Stephen A. Douglas, and Lewis Cass. On the 17th ballot Mr. Buchanan was unanimously nominated, and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky was also unanimously chosen candidate for the vice-presidency. The republican national convention met at Philadelphia, June 17, and adopted a platform declaring that "the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the declaration of independence and embodied in the federal constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the federal constitution, the rights of the states, and the union of the states shall be preserved;" and that "the constitution confers upon congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government, and in the exercise of this power it is the right and the duty of congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." John C. Fremont was nominated for president by 359 votes, against 196 for John McLean; and William L. Dayton was nominated for vice-president, his principal competitors being Abraham Lincoln, N. P. Banks, Charles Sumner, and David Wilmot. After an animated canvass, the election resulted in the choice of Buchanan and Breckinridge by 174 electoral votes against 114 for Fremont and 8 for Fillmore. The popular vote for Buchanan was 1,838,169, for Fremont 1,341,264, and for Fillmore 874,534. Fillmore received the vote of Maryland, Buchanan the votes of all the other slave states and of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, and California, and Fremont those of the 11 remaining free states.-President Buchanan appointed as his cabinet Lewis Cass, secretary of state; Howell Cobb, of the treasury; John B. Floyd, of war; Isaac Toucey, of the navy; Jacob Thompson, of the interior; Aaron V. Brown, postmaster-general; and Jeremiah S. Black, attorney-general. With the exception of a rebellion of the Mormons in Utah in 1857-8, which was suppressed without bloodshed, of the admission into the Union of Minnesota in 1858 and of Oregon in 1859, and of an unsuccessful attempt to purchase Cuba, the chief interest of Mr. Buchanan's administration cen tred around the slavery controversy, which still continued in Kansas, in the halls of congress, and in the legislatures of the free states. Several of the latter bodies, under the influence of a public opinion which had been gradually growing in opposition to the jus tice and constitutionality of the fugitive slave law, passed acts designed to impede its oper ation, and to secure to alleged fugitives the right to trial by jury and to the legal assistance usually given to those charged with criminal offences. These acts were commonly called personal liberty laws, and though they have never in any case been put in practical opera

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tion, their existence soon became a subject of complaint on the part of the South against the northern states. A constitution for Kansas framed at Lecompton in 1857 was laid before congress in the session of 1857-'8, and was strongly opposed by the republicans on the ground that it had been fraudulently concocted by the pro-slavery party there, that it did not represent the wishes of the people of Kansas, and that some of its provisions were cunningly framed for the purpose of forcing slavery into the new state in spite of the opposition of the inhabitants. A powerful section of the democratic party, headed by Stephen A. Douglas, sided with the republicans in this matter; but the so called "Lecompton bill," after a parliamentary struggle of extraordinary intensity and duration, was passed by congress by the votes of the democratic majority, led in the house by Alexander H. Stephens of Georgia, and in the senate by Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, John M. Mason of Virginia, and John Slidell of Louisiana. The president lent all his influence to the measure, on the ground that it would pacify the country, and would not prevent Kansas from becoming a free state if the people desired to exclude slavery. This contest, however, resulted in a schism in the democratic party, and eventually in its division into two bodies, one of which looked upon Mr. Douglas as its leader, while the other supported for the presidency John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. An attempt to excite the slaves to insurrection, made at Harper's Ferry in Oct. 1859, by John Brown of Kansas, for which he was hanged by the authorities of Virginia, Dec. 2, created a profound sensation throughout the country, and caused especial excitement at the South, where it was looked upon by many as indicative of a settled purpose at the North to destroy slavery. (See HARPER'S FERRY.)-The democratic national convention met at Charleston, April 23, 1860, and after a stormy session of 10 days the southern delegates withdrew on the refusal of the northern delegates to agree to a platform conceding to their fullest extent the claims of the slaveholders to carry slavery into the territories. The convention reassembled at Baltimore, June 18, but could not agree, and another secession took place, embracing most of the southern delegates. The convention, however, continued in session, and nominated for president Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois, and for vice-president Herschel V. Johnson of Georgia. The seceders also met in convention on June 28, and nominated for president John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky, and for vice-president Joseph Lane of Oregon. The "constitutional union party, composed mainly of the American party, held its national convention at Baltimore May 9, and nominated for president John Bell of Tennessee, and for vice-president Edward Everett of Massachusetts. This party declared that it recognized "no political principle other than the constitution of the country, the union of the states, and the enforce

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ment of the laws." The republican national convention assembled at Chicago on May 16, and nominated for president Abraham Lincoln of Illinois. His principal competitors for the nomination were W. H. Seward, Simon Cameron, Edward Bates, and S. P. Chase. Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for vice-president, the other candidates being Cassius M. Clay, N. P. Banks, A. H. Reeder, and John Hickman. The platform adopted by the convention declared that "the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the declaration of independence and embodied in the federal constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the constitution, the Union, and the rights of the states must and shall be preserved;" and "that the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, and especially of the right of each state to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depends." The platform also denounced John Brown's invasion of Virginia as lawless and unjustifiable, declared that "the new dogma that the constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the territories of the United States, is a dangerous political heresy," and denied "the authority of congress, of a territorial legislature, or of any individuals to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States." The result of the presidential election of Nov. 1860, was that Mr. Lincoln received the electoral votes of all the free states (except three votes in New Jersey, which were given to Mr. Douglas), to the number of 180, and was elected. Mr. Bell received the votes of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee, 39; Mr. Douglas the 9 votes of Missouri, which added to 3 from New Jersey gave him a total of 12 votes; and the remaining southern states cast their 72 electoral votes for Breckinridge. The popular vote for Lincoln was 1,857,610, for Douglas about 1,365,976, for Breckinridge 847,952, and for Bell 590,631. On Nov. 10, when this result was known, the legislature of South Carolina ordered the election of a convention to consider the question of secession. The convention assembled Dec. 17, and on Dec. 20 adopted a secession ordinance, declaring that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other states, under the name of the United States of America, is hereby dissolved." A declaration of the reasons for secession was issued by the convention, in which it was said: "We assert that 14 of the states have deliberately refused for years past to fulfil their constitutional obligations, and we refer to their own statutes for proof. In many of these states the fugitive is discharged from the service of labor claimed, and in none of them has the state government complied with the stipulations made in the constitution. Thus the constitutional compact has been deliberately broken and disregarded by the non

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