Part 9 (1/2)

”Yours of the 15th is just received I wrote you the sa to pay according to et others to pay I have been on expense so long without earning anything that I am absolutely without money now for even household purposes Still, if you can put up 250 forthe debt of the committee, I will allohen you and I settle the private matter between us This, hat I have already paid, and with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my subscription of 500 This, too, is exclusive ofadded to my loss of time and business, bears pretty heavily on one no better off in world's goods than I; but as I had the post of honor, it is not forbadly--'And this, too, shall pass away' Never fear”

CHAPTER XVI

GROWING AUDACITY OF THE SLAVE POWER

So closely is the life of Lincoln intertwined with the growth of the slave power that it will be necessary at this point to give a brief space to the latter It was the persistent, the ever-increasing, the imperious demands of this power that called Lincoln to his post of duty The feeling upon the subject had reached a high degree of tension at the period we are now considering To understand this fully, we h the period already treated

There are three salient points of developitive slave law At the adoption of the Constitution it was arranged that there should be no specific approval of slavery For this reason the word ”slave” does not appear in that document But the idea is there, and the phrase, ”person held to service or labor,” fully covers the subject Slaves were a valuable property The public opinion approved of the institution To set up one part of the territory as a refuge for escaped slaves would be an infringe friction between the various parts of the country

In 1793, which happens to be the year of the invention of the cotton gin, the fugitive slave laas passed This was for the purpose of enacting ht be recaptured This law continued in force to 1850 As the years passed, the operation of this law produced results not dreamed of in the outset There came to be free states, communities in which the very toleration of slavery was an abomination The conscience of these coh these people were content to leave slavery un the horrors of slave-hunting thrust upon them In other words, they were unable to reside in any locality, no ent the laere in behalf of freedom, where they were not liable to be invaded, their very homes entered, by the institution of slavery in its onisitive slaves to escape to Canada Men living at convenient distances along the route were in coitives were passed secretly and with great skill along this line

These societies were known as the Underground Railway The appropriateness of this naitive slaves were said to keep stations on that railway

This organized endeavor to assist the fugitives was met by an increased imperiousness on the part of the slave power Slavery is imperious in its nature It almost inevitably cultivates that disposition in those ield the power So that the case was rendered itive slave law Nothing could have been devised more surely adapted to infla or conscience, opposed to slavery, than this law of 1850 This was a reenactulations The concealhly penal Any hoht be invaded and searched

No hearth was safe froro could not testify in his own behalf It was practically impossible to counteract the oath or affidavit of the pretended master, and a premium was practically put upon perjury The pursuit of slaves becaular business, and its operation was often indescribably horrible These cruelties were emphasized chiefly in the presence of those ere known to be averse to slavery in any for scenes

The culmination of this was in what is known as the Dred Scott decision Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri He was by his , now in the state of Minnesota, then in the territory of Wisconsin This was free soil, and the slave was, at least while there, free With the consent of his former master he married a free woman who had formerly been a slave Two children were born to theroes He here clai on slave soil, were restored to the condition of slavery

Scott sued for his freedom and won his case It was, however, appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States The first opinion of the court ritten by Judge Nelson This treated of this specific case only Had this opinion issued as the finding of the court, it would not have aroused general attention

But the court was then do down general principles on the subject of slavery could not be resisted The decision ritten by Chief Justice Taney, and reaches its clihts which the white ht says that much injustice was done to Chief Justice Taney by the erroneous statehts which the white man was bound to respect” But while this al e citizen, it is a distinction without a difference, or, at best, with a very slight difference The Judge was giving what, in his opinion, was the law of the land It was his opinion, nay, it was his decision Nor was it the unani of the court Two justices dissented The words quoted are picturesque, and are well suited to a battle-cry On every side, with oro had no rights which the white reatest exhibition of audacity on the part of the slave power

There was another exhibition of the spirit of slavery which deserves special mention This is the history of the settle froraph, for its narration It is alination of those who live in an orderly, law-abiding community, to conceive that such a condition of affairs ever existed in any portion of the United States The story of ”bleeding Kansas” will long reer than fiction

The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, opened up to this free territory the possibility of co into the Union as a slave state It was to be left to the actual settlers to decide this question This principle was condensed into the phrase ”squatter sovereignty” The only resource left to those ished Kansas to come in as a free state was to settle it with an anti-slavery population

With this purpose in view, societies were for as far east as the Atlantic coast, to assist erants Frorants poured into Kansas But the slave party had the advantage of geographical location The slave state of Missouri was only just across the river It was able, at short notice and with little expense, to pour out its population in large numbers This it did Many went froer part went only te a disturbance These were popularly called ”border ruffians” Their excesses of ruffianism are not easily described They went into the territory for the purpose of driving out all the settlers who had corant aid societies Murder was common At the elections, they practised intimidation and every form of election fraud then known Every election was contested, and both parties always claiislatures, adopted two constitutions, established two capitals For several years, civil war and anarchy prevailed

There is no doubt, either reasonable or unreasonable,--there is no doubt whatever that the anti-slavery overnors were appointed by Presidents Pierce and Buchanan These were uniforovernor quickly caet out of the way

The pro-slavery men, after the farce of a pretended vote, declared the Lecoovernor at that time was Walker, of Mississippi, who had been appointed as a sure friend of the interests of slavery But even he revolted at so gross an outrage, and ainst it It was at this point, too, that Senator Douglas broke with the ad majority of anti-slavery settlers in the state, Kansas was not aduration of Abraha was the slave power Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they first make mad The slave power had reached the reckless point ofto its own destruction These three itive-slave law, the Dred Scott decision, and the anarchy in Kansas,--though they were revolting in the extreme and indescribably painful, hastened the end

CHAPTER XVII

THE BACKWOODSMAN AT THE CENTER OF EASTERN CULTURE