Part 41 (2/2)
[Sidenote: Fraudulent election. _Source-Book_, 287-289.]
353. Settlement of Kansas.--In the debate on the Kansas-Nebraska bill Senator Seward of New York said to the Southerners: ”Come on, then.... We will engage in compet.i.tion for the soil of Kansas, and G.o.d give the victory to the side that is strong in numbers as it is in right.” Seward spoke truly. The victory came to those opposed to the extension of slavery. But it was a long time in coming. As soon as the act was pa.s.sed, armed ”Sons of the South” crossed the frontier of Missouri and founded the town of Atchison. Then came large bands of armed settlers from the North and the East. They founded the towns of Lawrence and Topeka. An election was held. Hundreds of men poured over the boundary of Missouri, outvoted the free-soil settlers in Kansas, and then went home. The territorial legislature, chosen in this way, adopted the laws of Missouri, slave code and all, as the laws of Kansas. It seemed as if Kansas were lost to freedom.
[Sidenote: Free-state const.i.tution.]
[Sidenote: The Senate refuses to admit Kansas.]
354. The Topeka Convention.--The free-state voters now held a convention at Topeka. They drew up a const.i.tution and applied to Congress for admission to the Union as the free state of Kansas. The free-state men and the slave-state men each elected a Delegate to Congress. The House of Representatives now took the matter up and appointed a committee of investigation. The committee reported in favor of the free-state men, and the House voted to admit Kansas as a free state. But the Senate would not consent to anything of the kind. The contest in Kansas went on and became more bitter every month.
[Sidenote: Origin of the Republican party. _McMaster_, 352-355.]
[Sidenote: Anti-Nebraska men.]
355. The Republican Party.--The most important result of the Kansas-Nebraska fight was the formation of the Republican party. It was made up of men from all the other parties who agreed in opposing Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska policy. Slowly they began to think of themselves as a party and to adopt the name of the old party of Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe--Republican.
[Sidenote: Presidential candidates, 1856.]
[Sidenote: Buchanan.]
[Sidenote: Fremont.]
356. Buchanan elected President, 1856.--The Whigs and the Know-Nothings nominated Millard Fillmore for President and said nothing about slavery. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan of Pennsylvania for President and John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky for Vice-President.
They declared their approval of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and favored a strict construction of the Const.i.tution. The Republicans nominated John C. Fremont. They protested against the extension of slavery and declared for a policy of internal improvements at the expense of the nation. The Democrats won; but the Republicans carried all the Northern states save four.
[Sidenote: Dred Scott decision, 1857. _McMaster_, 355-357; _Source-Book_, 290-291]
[Sidenote: Opinions of the judges.]
357. The Dred Scott Decision, 1857.--The Supreme Court of the United States now gave a decision in the Dred Scott case that put an end to all hope of compromise on the slavery question. Dred Scott had been born a slave. The majority of the judges declared that a person once a slave could never become a citizen of the United States and bring suit in the United States courts. They also declared that the Missouri Compromise was unlawful. Slave owners had a clear right to carry their property, including slaves, into the territories, and Congress could not stop them.
[Sidenote: Lincoln's policy.]
[Sidenote: His debates with Douglas. _McMaster_, 388-389; _Source-Book_, 290-294.]
358. The Lincoln and Douglas Debates, 1858.--The question of the reelection of Douglas to the Senate now came before the people of Illinois. Abraham Lincoln stepped forward to contest the election with him. ”A house divided against itself cannot stand,” said Lincoln. ”This government cannot endure half slave and half free.... It will become all one thing or all the other.” He challenged Douglas to debate the issues with him before the people, and Douglas accepted the challenge. Seven joint debates were held in the presence of immense crowds. Lincoln forced Douglas to defend the doctrine of ”popular sovereignty.” This Douglas did by declaring that the legislatures of the territories could make laws hostile to slavery. This idea, of course, was opposed to the Dred Scott decision. Douglas won the election and was returned to the Senate. But Lincoln had made a national reputation.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HARPER'S FERRY.]
[Sidenote: Civil war in Kansas. _McMaster_, 357.]
[Sidenote: John Brown.]
[Sidenote: The slave const.i.tution.]
[Sidenote: Douglas opposes Buchanan.]
359. ”Bleeding Kansas.”--Meantime civil war had broken out in Kansas, Slavery men attacked Lawrence, killed a few free-state settlers, and burned several buildings. Led by John Brown, an immigrant from New York, free-state men attacked a party of slave-state men and killed five of them. By 1857 the free-state voters had become so numerous that it was no longer possible to outvote them by bringing men from Missouri, and they chose a free-state legislature. But the fraudulent slave-state legislature had already provided for holding a const.i.tutional convention at Lecompton. This convention was controlled by the slave-state men and adopted a const.i.tution providing for slavery. President Buchanan sent this const.i.tution to Congress and asked to have Kansas admitted as a slave state. But Douglas could not bear to see the wishes of the settlers of Kansas outraged. He opposed the proposition vigorously and it was defeated. It was not until 1861 that Kansas was admitted to the Union as a free state.
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