Part 5 (1/2)

The Democratic Platform, as usual, denounced the Abolitionists, and repeated its hollow promise of 1852, that the party would resist all attempts at renewing the agitation of the slavery question. It denounced the Republican Party as ”sectional, and subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation,” and it contained the following remarkable and artfully worded plank:

”_Resolved_, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a Const.i.tution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with other States.”

The ambiguous part of this plank was the insertion of the right of the inhabitants to form a Const.i.tution with or without domestic slavery. Mr.

Douglas and the other Democratic speakers argued in the North that this meant that the people of the Territory had the right to decide for or against slavery, but the South looked upon it as fully protecting slavery in any Territory until a Const.i.tution could be formed. In the North and South the plank obtained votes for the party, but the votes were cast in the respective sections on diametrically opposed grounds.

The political situation in this campaign was somewhat complicated at first by the presentation of so many candidates, for, in addition to the candidates already named, the Abolitionists presented a ticket, as did also a number of Americans, who seceded from the second convention of that party, but the situation gradually resolved itself into a contest between Buchanan, Fremont and Fillmore. No electoral tickets were presented for Fremont in the slave States, and the fact that Fillmore could not carry any of the free States weakened him in the South, and it was seen that Buchanan would receive the solid electoral vote of the South, and that the contest would therefore be between Buchanan and Fremont for the Northern electoral votes.

The struggle in Kansas was inseparably connected with the campaign of 1856. That struggle was virtually the opening of the Civil War, and while the North and South fought out the issue with bullets in Kansas, in the other States of the two sections the contest was no less bitter, although the means were less destructive. Before either of the great political conventions were held, Lawrence, Kansas, was captured and sacked by the Pro-Slavery Party, and on the following day (May 22d) Charles Sumner was struck down in the Senate by Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, because of his speech, ”The Crime against Kansas.” These events picture the feeling between the North and South which existed during this campaign. The South had probably already felt that if they went into the campaign solely on their cause they would be defeated, hence the nomination of a Northern Democrat from a necessary State, and the artful construction of their platform. The enthusiasm of the Republicans was probably more for their cause than for the candidate.

The Democrats in the North evaded the issue of slavery as much as possible, and denounced the candidacy of Fremont as sectional, and that his success would mean the dissolution of the Union, a weighty argument with thousands of voters, especially those who were attached to the South by financial and commercial bonds. The speeches of the Southern leaders and the press of the South abounded in threats of disunion in the event of Fremont's election. The Republicans, unhampered by a southern wing and advocating the restriction of a great moral wrong, went into the campaign with the earnestness and enthusiasm of a religious crusade. They carried on a clean campaign of education, and tons of political literature were scattered broadcast over the country.

The young men of the North were especially attracted to the Republican Cause, and it was recognized that their vote would be a great aid; and the influence of the women of the country was distinctly with the new party. The clergy, the religious press and most of the eminent professors and educated men of the North also lent their potent forces to the new party.

The issues presented in the campaign of 1856, like those of 1860, were the most remarkable in our political history, and a canva.s.s attended by such circ.u.mstances and so portentous in results could not but be exciting in the highest degree, and the bitterness of the situation grew in intensity as the days of the fall elections approached. All eyes now turned with anxiety on the few State elections which were to be held in the North prior to the presidential election in November, because they would unquestionably foreshadow the final result. Iowa came first, and, in August, went Republican, and was joined in September by Maine and Vermont, both overwhelmingly Republican. These successes were to the highest gratification of the members of the new party, and now came the final test, the October elections in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. The first of these States, with its twenty-seven electoral votes, was the most important. Thousands of dollars were poured into the campaign funds of the State by both sides, the Democratic Committee having the greater amount to spend and having the better organization. Several hundred speakers, representing both sides, traversed the State in all directions. The Democrats used the disunion argument with great effect, and added to it the campaign cry of ”Buck, Breck and Free Kansas,” and on October 14th Pennsylvania went Democratic by a very narrow majority.

Ohio, as was expected, went Republican, but Indiana was lost, and the result of the presidential issue was thus practically known before the election, on November 4th. Fremont received the electoral votes of Maine, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, one hundred and fourteen in all. Buchanan received the vote of all the slave States and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois and California, a total of one hundred and seventy-four votes; the eight votes of Maryland going to Fillmore, the only State won by the Know-Nothings. The popular vote gave Buchanan 1,838,169; Fremont 1,341,264; Fillmore 874,534. The popular vote of South Carolina is not included, as the electors in that State were chosen by her Legislature.

When the first wave of bitter disappointment pa.s.sed away, the Republicans saw the enormous headway that had been made and they immediately began to prepare for the national contest four years hence.

The Democrats had lost ten States which they carried in 1852, and their electoral vote of 254 in 1852 had shrunken to 174. The South elected Buchanan, and he became the tool of the Slave Power, and, as subsequent events developed, it was fortunate that the Republicans were not successful in the campaign.

[Ill.u.s.tration: William H. Seward.]

CHAPTER X.

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES.

”Can the people of a United States territory in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Const.i.tution?”

_Lincoln to Douglas_, _Freeport Debate_, _August_ 27, 1858.

The Buchanan Administration began on March 4, 1857, and the Slave Power, through the Democratic Party, found itself in complete and absolute control of every branch of the Government, legislative, executive and judicial. Two days after the inauguration came the famous Dred Scott decision. The arguments in this case had been heard before the election, but the court adjourned until after the election. The decision, delivered by Chief Justice Taney, fixed the legal status of the negro in the United States, and declared that he could not claim any of the rights and privileges of a citizen, and ”had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.” Then, traveling out of the record, the Court declared that the Missouri Compromise was unauthorized by the Const.i.tution, and was null and void, and that Congress had no right to keep slavery out of any Territory. It was apparent at once that this decision completely nullified Douglas' doctrine of popular sovereignty, and the South lost no time in abandoning that doctrine, and declaring that she would insist as a Const.i.tutional right that slaves taken into any Territory must be protected like any other property. The North was stunned for the moment by this sweeping decision; the South was jubilant beyond all bounds, and instantly prepared to take advantage of the new dogma to the utmost. While under this decision the Slave Power seemed all triumphant, it was, in fact, to produce its destruction, and slavery was to lose its power by the very thing which seemed to strengthen it. The Dred Scott decision was bound to produce a split in the Democratic Party and the moment that occurred the success of the Republican Party was a.s.sured. The South spread thousands of copies of the decision throughout the country, and when the North recovered from the shock and saw what a revolution the decision would cause in the Democratic Party, it joined in giving it the utmost publicity.

The attempt to force Kansas into the Union as a slave State under the infamous Lecompton Const.i.tution now began. In that Territory the Free-State settlers had rapidly been gaining in strength, and the Slave Power, in desperate straits, resorted to trickery. Several attempts of the Free-State Legislature to meet were prevented by the Federal troops, but finally, in 1857, the Free-State men voted at the regular election and obtained control of the Territorial Legislature; but before they could act, a pro-slavery Convention, previously chosen, concluded its work at Lecompton and submitted the Lecompton Const.i.tution to the people, not permitting them, however, to vote for or against the Const.i.tution, but ”For the Const.i.tution with Slavery,” or ”For the Const.i.tution without Slavery.” The Free-State men refused to vote at this election, and the Lecompton Const.i.tution was adopted, with Slavery.

When Congress a.s.sembled, on December 7, 1859, President Buchanan, in his message, approved the Lecompton Const.i.tution, and recommended the admission of Kansas under it. It had been rumored for some time that Senator Douglas would oppose the Administration in its attempt to force the Lecompton Const.i.tution upon the people of Kansas, and this, indeed, proved to be true, when, on December 9th, Douglas announced his opposition to the action of the Administration as contrary to his doctrine of popular sovereignty. It is unnecessary to go into the motives that actuated Senator Douglas, but it may be stated that his re-election to the Senate was to depend on the election in Illinois in 1858, and unless he did something to counteract the feeling against him he was almost certain of defeat. The apostasy of Douglas was as a thunderbolt to the South, but the North received it with great delight, and in the early months of 1858 Douglas was easily the most popular man in the North. The new Legislature in Kansas met in December and ordered another election at which the people of the Territory could vote for or against the Lecompton Const.i.tution, and on January 9, 1858, that Const.i.tution was rejected by ten thousand majority. Notwithstanding this emphatic condemnation by the people of the Territory, the Administration persisted in its course to force Kansas in under the Lecompton Const.i.tution. The Senate was for the admission of Kansas, but the House opposed it, and in a joint conference the infamous English Bill was agreed on, in which the people of Kansas were offered a bribe in the form of large land grants if they would accept the Lecompton Const.i.tution. This they subsequently refused to do by a large majority, and Kansas remained a Territory until 1861. The Dred Scott decision and the attempt to force in Kansas under the Lecompton Const.i.tution helped the Republican Party greatly, and its prospects were brighter in 1858 than they had been in 1857, in which year there was a reaction from the enthusiasm created by the presidential campaign of the preceding year.

A legislature was to be chosen in Illinois in 1858 which would select the successor to Senator Douglas. Douglas' action in opposing the Administration had aroused public interest in him in the North, and many of the Republican leaders desired that he should have no opposition in Illinois, but the Republicans of that State were not of that opinion.

The Democratic Convention in Illinois met in April and endorsed Douglas; the Republican Convention, on June 16th, resolved ”That Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate, as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas.” In his speech that evening to the Convention Mr. Lincoln made the remarkable and daring statement, ”A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall; but I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

Senator Douglas reached Chicago on July 9th, and, amid the plaudits of his friends, delivered an elaborate speech, which was listened to with great interest by Mr. Lincoln, who was present; on the next evening Mr.

Lincoln answered in the presence of a large and enthusiastic audience.

Senator Douglas then spoke at Bloomington, and was answered by Mr.

Lincoln at Springfield, and the public interest that had been aroused, not only in Illinois but throughout the country, caused the Republican leaders to induce Mr. Lincoln to challenge Senator Douglas to a series of debates on the great question of the hour. Privately Senator Douglas was averse to meeting Mr. Lincoln in this manner, but publicly he promptly accepted the challenge and named seven places in different Congressional Districts in which neither had spoken, as the places where the debates were to be held. These great debates began at Ottawa on August 21, 1858, and were followed by meetings at Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and concluded on October 15th at Alton, the entire State having been traversed.

As they read and pondered on the arguments of Mr. Lincoln, it gradually dawned upon the people of the North that a great leader had been found, for it was early seen and felt that Senator Douglas was not holding his own. No greater or clearer exposition of the Northern views of slavery and the questions connected with it had ever been p.r.o.nounced than Mr.