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THE 
 
 ELECTION 
 
 OF 
 
 MR. LII^C LF: 
 
 A NAERATIVE OF THE CONTEST IN 1860 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 , '"■ ";^\ 
 
 BY MONS^ C. CLARIGNY. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE " REVUE DES DEUX MONDES," 
 
 SIR WILLOUGHBY JONES, BART. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES EIDaWAY, PICCADILLY, W. 
 
 TEiJBNEE AND CO., PATEENOSTEE EOW. 
 
 Frice One Shilling, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The accompanying- narrative by Mons. Clarig-ny^ 
 appeared in the Revue des deux Mondes, for Dec. 
 1^ 1860. It contains a concise and g-raphic ac- 
 count of all the varied phases of that g-reat strug'g'le 
 which seems destined to result in a material in- 
 crease or diminution of Negro slavery, and thereby 
 to form an epoch in the social history of mankind. 
 It will be seen that the author does not share the 
 opinion entertained by many that the present crisis 
 will be fatal to the American confederation, and 
 that he anticipates for South Carolina a speedy sub- 
 mission after a short and nois}^ trial of quasi-inde- 
 pendence. But allowing' the soundness of his 
 arg-umentS; there yet remains one element of dis- 
 org-anization to which, perhaps, he has hardly g-iven 
 sufficient weight, it is the reig'n of terror of white 
 sans-culottcs in the Skxve States. Alread}^ the 
 ominous sound ^^ forced loan " is making- itself 
 heard, and symptoms show themselves which seem 
 to indicate the pressure on the body politic, of those 
 who have all to gain and nothing* to lose by a con- 
 vulsion. The evil effect of slavery is far more 
 
apparent and mol'e real on the poor man than it is 
 on the rich slave-owner. The latter has the occu- 
 pation and interests of wealth and authority, and 
 may in man}^ respects occupy the position and have 
 the virtues of a sort of feudal chief. The poor man 
 is born to labour, and that labour which constitutes 
 his birthright he finds branded with the stamp of 
 deo-radation. To work is to be a slave, to be like a 
 slave. He recoils from work, and falls back on 
 idleness and its concomitant misery, vice, and 
 political turbulence. Thus in the Slave States the 
 words " labouring- man," so expressive to our ears, 
 conveying- as it does the idea of that sound-headed 
 and sound -hearted class, who form the solid basis 
 of our social economy, is unknown ; the white man's 
 patrimony has been filched from him, to become the 
 curse of his black brother. 
 
 The one predominant overwhelming* idea of the 
 lazy, worthless white pauper, who forms the scum 
 of the Southern towns, is to obtain possession of a 
 Neg-ro whom he may fiog" and starve, and by whose 
 labour he may himself be supported. His political 
 panacea is therefore the reopening- of the Slave 
 Trade, or in other words, the dissolution of the 
 Union, by which means alone he can ever hope to 
 g-ratify his darling- wish. It is in this class that the 
 onl}^ real element of dang-er to the Confederation is 
 to be found. Statesmen will not fling- away the 
 labours of a life by destroying that g-lorious country 
 that they one day hope to govern. Landowners, 
 
professional men^ merchants, all the educated in- 
 tellig-ent classes are prepared to stand by the Union, 
 it is with the dangerous classes alone of the South 
 that her central Government will ultimately have to 
 deal. 
 
 South Carolina has deserted the Union. She has 
 cut the cable by which she was moored to her firm 
 anchorage— the Confederation. Should she persevere 
 in her secession, it would seem to be easy, by the 
 light of the past, to cast her political horoscope ; to 
 predict those troubles by which she is destined 
 
 " To leave a name at which the world turns pale. 
 To point a moral, or adorn a tale." 
 
 We shall soon be told that the Jwstility of the 
 North has rendered necessary the establishment of 
 a Committee of public safety. Then the cry of a 
 licentious multitude, uncurbed and desperate, will 
 arise for blood and gold. An endeavour will be 
 made to satiate the monster with Negro blood , but 
 he has revelled enough in that already ;* it palls on 
 
 * To those who would wish to know the extent of cruelty and 
 wickedness towards the free Negroes and slaves into which panic 
 has hurried the Legislatures of the Southern States, and espe- 
 cially South Carohna, the Translator would strongly recommend 
 the perusal of the article of M. EUsee Reclus, in the " Revue des 
 Deux Mondes," for Dec. 15, 1860. It contains a narrative of 
 thrilling interest and inconceivable iniquity, based upon authentic 
 documents. At the root of the whole lies the famous, or rather 
 infamous, Dred Scott decision, in which all these fountains of 
 bitterness take their rise. 
 
his palate ; and, besides, it bring'S no g'old. It will 
 then be found that the more respectable and opulent 
 citizens sympatJdze with the Northern States, and 
 when once this mine is opened, there will be no lack 
 of rich ore to satisfy' the popular craving'. If indeed, 
 in this case, we found together those two great safe- 
 guards which have never j^et failed, when combined, 
 in checking license and crime, Ang-lo-Saxon lineage 
 and free institutions, we might have hopes for the 
 young" republic. But we must remember that South 
 Carolina is fettered with passports, and gagged b}^ a 
 censorship, to a degree unknown in the most tyran- 
 nical European despotisms. The passport system 
 is not enforced by a regular, though stern, police, 
 but by the inexorable fiat of Judge Lynch ', while 
 the censorship does not coerce by fine and im- 
 prisonment, but by the tar-barrel, the bowie- 
 knife, and the cord. It was safer for a French- 
 man to have professed sympathy with Louis Capet 
 in 1793, than it would be now for a citizen of 
 Charleston to pity a forlorn slave, or acknowledge 
 his belief in the simplest truths demonstrable by 
 reason, or enforced by Christianity. Reasoning by 
 analogy, the spectacle in store for the world and for 
 civilization is the well-known drama of anarchy and 
 bloodshed ; and it is no marvel that the eyes and 
 thoughts of men should be rivetted upon it. It 
 remains to be seen what the effect of these antici- 
 l^ations will be on the other Southern States. They 
 will be attractive to the worst portion of the popu- 
 
lation j and the question is, have the upper classes 
 power enoug'h to resist the force with which the 
 multitude will endeavour to urg-e them along ? Self- 
 preservation and political cowardice will make many 
 converts 3 and unless all the power of the Federal 
 Government, of the North, and of the central Slave 
 States — deeply interested themselves in the pre- 
 servation of order — is broug-ht to bear on them, they 
 will probably be carried away by the current of 
 secession. Should this come to pass, we may ag^ain 
 by the lig-ht of the past predict the future. Foreig-n 
 war will be the safety-valve employed to stave off 
 massacre and confiscation at home. Cuba will be 
 invaded, and all the helpless South American re- 
 publics will be handed over to the murder and rapine 
 of a swarm of filibusters. 
 
 Such, in the event of a considerable secession, is 
 the prospect before us ; and for a few weeks, while 
 Mr. Buchanan holds the reins of power, we can 
 hardly expect that the Central Government will use 
 its influence to save the world from this possible 
 catastrophe. The recoil of anarchy in America 
 would be severely felt in these islands ; but this is 
 not the place to discuss our proper attitude in the 
 face of such a calamity. All we can now do is to 
 join our efforts and influence to those of all that is 
 g-ood and worthy in the United States ; to induce 
 the Southern States that have not yet seceded to 
 listen to the counsels of prudence and moderation. 
 
 To those who would wish to obtain a clear insight 
 
8 
 
 into the working- of American party, and the real 
 nature of American institutions, the Essay of 
 M. Clarig-ny cannot be otherwise than acceptable. 
 The deep interest of the episode which he narrates, 
 enables him to convey much information to the 
 reader without fatig'uing- him with dryness, or boring- 
 him with dog-matism. 
 
 At the end of the work a note has been added 
 containing" a short analysis of the Dred Scott case, 
 with extracts from the decision of the Court. 
 
 It would be un courteous to close these few words 
 of preface without acknowledging- the kindness and 
 urbanity with which the Editor of the ^^ Revue des 
 Deux Mondes" at once responded to the request of 
 the Translator, to be allowed to place M. Clarig'ny'& 
 Essay in the hands of the English pubhc. 
 
 Ckanmer Hall, 
 Jan. 21st, 1861. 
 
THE 
 
 ELECTION OF MR. LINCOLN. 
 
 The political crisis which recurs every four years 
 at the Election of a President has just passed over 
 the United States. On the 6th of November were 
 chosen simultaneously^ in all the States of the Union, 
 the electors who, in February 1861, will^ in their 
 turn, elect the President and Vice-President of the 
 Eepublic. As these electors are merely deleg-ates, 
 and as their vote is in consequence settled before- 
 hand, the contest is virtually at an end as soon as 
 they are nominated; unless, indeed, no candidate 
 has succeeded in obtaining* an absolute majority of 
 votes, in which case the nomination of the two first 
 officers of the Executive escheats to Cong-ress. 
 
 The summer preceding a Presidential Election is 
 always a period of agitation and political effer- 
 vescence ; for neither party will resign itself without 
 a desperate struggle to hand over for four years 
 political power and patronage to its adversaries. 
 On the present occasion, the battle has been fought 
 with more than usual bitterness ; and the fact that 
 four candidates went to the poll, stamps this election 
 as almost without precedent in American annals. 
 
10 
 
 Yet this o-reat part}" contest is far from presentiiio- 
 the peculiar features of interest that belong-ed to the 
 election of 1850. The present state of things is in 
 ftict only the result and inevitable development of a 
 moral revolution which took place four years ag'o^ 
 whose vast consequences and important bearing's 
 on the future of the Confederation was even then 
 apparent to thoughtful and far-seeing men. 
 
 I. 
 
 The election of 1850 will for ever be an epoch in 
 the histor}' of the United States ; it marks one of 
 those decisive moments which but rarely recur in 
 the history of any nation. Then indeed came to 
 pass an event^ foreseen and foreboded for twenty 
 years by American statesmen, an event which had 
 been predicted as the inevitable forerunner of the 
 dissolution of the Union. In all previous elections 
 universal suffrage had to decide between men, or 
 rather between political systems, whose supporters 
 and partizans were to be found in every portion of 
 the territory of the Confederation. In 1850, for the 
 first time, the Confederation divided itself into two 
 distinct portions : one-half of the Kepublic gave the 
 immense majorit}" of its votes to a candidate who 
 had not a single vote in the other half, nay more 
 whose very name was in itself a sufficient excuse 
 for bringing persecution and outrage on a suspected 
 supporter. South of a certain geographical line an 
 
11 
 
 elector, who voted for Colonel Fremont, would have 
 risked both liberty and life. The Southern States 
 loudly declared, that if the candidate of the Northern 
 States was elected they would secede from the 
 Union ; and the Governor of Virginia, Mr. H. A. 
 Wise, g-ave out, that, at the head of the MiHtia of 
 his State, he would march on Washing-ton, and 
 seize the Capitol and the Federal Archives. 
 
 No doubt much of this was mere bluster, never- 
 theless the quarrel of North and South seemed so 
 fraug'ht with peril to the best interests of the Re- 
 public, that a third party immediately started up, 
 which took for its motto the integ'rit}' of the Union. 
 It recruited its followers partly in the ranks of the 
 Democratic, and partly in those of the Anti-Slavery 
 Republican party. In the Southern States it enlisted 
 all the moderate men j and all those who, being* in 
 their hearts opposed to the growth of slavery, had 
 no opportunity allowed them of voting- according to 
 their convictions. In the North it obtained the 
 support of those men of Anti-Slavery opinions who 
 could not bring themselves to vote for the Demo- 
 crats, and who yet were frightened at the thought 
 of what might be the ulterior consequences of a 
 victory of the Republican party. Notwithstanding 
 this double support and the adhesion of several 
 eminent citizens, the " American " or Unionist party 
 only succeeded in carrying the suffrage of the single 
 State of Maryland 5 and while in some of the 
 Southern States it almost equalled in numbers the 
 
12 
 
 Democratic party^ in the g-reater pnrt of the North- 
 ern States it appeared in an insig'nificant minority. 
 Its influence^ however^ on the election was very 
 considerable, for by dividing- the anti-slavery votes 
 in the Central States, it g'ave to the Democratic 
 party the victor}^ in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
 Illinois, and Indiana. It had from the first been 
 clear to the Democrats, that a candidate of decidedly 
 pro-slavery principles would never g-o down in a 
 sing-le Northern State, and that their only chance 
 of success was by opposing* a Northern Citizen to 
 the Republican Candidate. Their choice fell on 
 Mr. Buchanan. They claimed for him, that by 
 birth, education, and interests he belonged to a Free 
 State — Pennsylvania ', that the g-reater part of his 
 life had been spent abroad in diplomatic pursuits ; 
 that in consequence he had kept aloof from the 
 contests and dissensions of home politics ; and that 
 therefore none so fit as he to carry out a policy of 
 concord and conciliation. The remnant of the Old 
 Whig' party, broken up in 1852, and all the mode- 
 rate men who had not g-iven in their adhesion to the 
 Unionists, allowed themselves to be persuaded by 
 these arguments, and, by giving- the Democrats the 
 majority in the Central States, they at the same 
 time g'ave them the preponderance in the whole 
 Union. 
 
 It was, therefore, to a pohcy of conciliation that 
 Mr. Buchanan owed his election in 1856. He 
 might, indeed, be said to owe it to the patriotism of 
 
13 
 
 former opponents, who put aside party feeling-j in the 
 hope that by so doing", they mig-ht terminate a dis- 
 sension formidable in its consequences to the very 
 existence of the Confederation. 
 
 The wishes of the American people manifested 
 themselves still more clearly in the elections to 
 Cong-ress. If all the States that voted for Colonel 
 Fremont had sent Republican representatives to 
 Cong-ress, the new President would have found him- 
 self face to face with a hostile legislature, and his 
 g-overnment would have been paralyzed. This, how- 
 ever, did not prove to be the case j the elections in 
 the North Western and Central States went in 
 favour of those candidates who, though opposed to 
 the extension of slaver}^, Avere yet ready to g'ive 
 the President a g-eneral support. Mr. Buchanan 
 thus obtained a majority of 35, at least, in the 
 House of Representatives, while the support of the 
 Senate, formed mainly of Democrats, was assured 
 to him. 
 
 It seemed that there could be but one line of 
 policy for the new President. He had only to re- 
 member how his election had been broug-ht about to 
 see the way clear before him. Evidently his onl}^ 
 course was strict impartiality on the slavery ques- 
 tion, and a soothing- and calming- policy towards the 
 Northern States. Mr. Buchanan, however, thoug*ht 
 he saw in his own success one more proof of the 
 irresistible ascendancy of the Slave States. He had 
 come into power with the idea of conquering- Cuba 
 
14 
 
 or Mexico, and encircling* his presidency w ith a halo 
 of g^ory ; and in the hope of obtaining- for his pet 
 scheme the support of the Southern States, he de- 
 termined to make use of his majority to decide in 
 their favour that question — the question of Kansas 
 — which, above all others, divided the North from 
 the South of the Union. The Southern States in- 
 sisted on introducing- slavery into that territory, 
 notwithstanding- the opposition of the majority of 
 the inhabitants. Mr. Buchanan g-ave them his 
 strenuous and S3"stematic support, thoug'h in so doing- 
 he ran the risk of lig-hting- ng-ain the hardly ex- 
 tinguished embers of two civil wars ; he determined 
 that Kansas should be received into the Confedera- 
 tion as a Slave State. The Presidentexpected to carry 
 the vote with a high hand, and he then hoped that the 
 inertia of public opinion would induce it to recog*- 
 nize an accomplished factj the result, however, 
 disappointed his expectations; his majority fliiled 
 him. The Northern Democrats who came to Con- 
 gress prepared to support the President, refused to 
 follow him in his pro-slavery campaig-n, for they felt 
 that to do so would be to fly in the face of their 
 constituents, and to close the doors of Cong-ress upon 
 themselves for ever. Mr. Stephen Douglas, Senator 
 for Illinois, a man of commanding- talent, and whose 
 prospects of the Presidency were bound up in the 
 form that the Slavery question mig-ht assume, was 
 the leader of this opposition to Mr. Buchanan. It 
 was he who had proposed the repeal of the Missouri 
 
Compromise^* and who by so doing- had, in truth, 
 originated the Kansas question j his initiative in 
 this matter had broug-ht him a great meed of popu- 
 larity in the Southern States, and at the elections 
 of 1852 and 1856 he had been the favourite candi- 
 date of those States for the Presidenc}^, — and it was 
 this very circumstance that had caused his name to 
 be withdrawn on the present occasion wdien it was 
 found to be necessary to conciliate the Free States. 
 Mr. Douglas aspired to succeed Mr. Buchanan in 
 the Presidency ; and his two previous disappoint- 
 ments, Col. Fremont's formidable majority in the 
 North, the growth of anti-slavery opinions in the 
 central States, where the Democratic party could no 
 longer make head against a possible coalition of 
 Unionists and Republicans, had taught him the lesson 
 that no candidate could succeed who had not the 
 support of some of the Central in addition to that of 
 the Southern States. Himself a Free-state man, 
 possessing a considerable fortune, having a para- 
 mount influence in his own State of IHinois, and 
 many friends in Indiana and New York, why 
 should not he in 1800 become the object of a com- 
 promise of the same nature as that which had just 
 seated Mr. Buchanan in the Presidential chair ? 
 He considered that he had done enouo-h to make 
 himself safe with the Southern States, his object 
 
 * The "Missouri Compromise " was an Act passed in 1821, 
 on tte occasion of Missouri being admitted into the Confedera- 
 tion. It enacted that Slavery could not legally be introduced 
 into any Territory north of 36° 30' of latitude. 
 
16 
 
 must now be to keep on terms with the North. He 
 endeavoured, therefore, to assume that mediatorial 
 position whichj properly speakino-^ oug-ht to have 
 belong'ed to the President. The more Mr. Bu- 
 chanan, irritated at tlie opposition he encountered, 
 insisted upon coercing- Kansas, the w ider the breach 
 became between them. When the bill to admit 
 Kansas into the Union as a slave State was broug-ht 
 before Congress, Mr. Doug-las resolutely opposed it, 
 and all the Northern Democrats followed him into 
 opposition. He had, he said, proposed the repeal of 
 the Missouri Compromise to enable the inhabitants 
 of the newly settled territories to decide the slavery 
 question for themselves, and not for the purpose of 
 allowina* them to be coerced into slave institutions 
 ao-ainst their will ; the inhabitants of Kansas de- 
 clined to admit slaver}', their decision oug-ht to be 
 respected. The opposition of Mr. Doug-las and his 
 friends threw out the bill, on which hing-ed the 
 whole policy of the President, and by so doing- 
 evoked in a fiercer and more bitter form the old 
 antajronism of North and South. 
 
 When the Conservatives of the Central States, 
 who had voted for Mr. Buchanan, saw their champion 
 resign his position of independence and neutrality, 
 and assume, in its place, that of the Apostle and 
 Advocate of Slavery, give up his guardianship of 
 the national interests to become the head of a part}^, 
 they once for all broke with his administration. 
 Already the greater part of the Unionists had gone 
 
17 
 
 over to the Republicans^ or had amalgamated with 
 them. From this time forward all the local elec- 
 tions went against the Government ; even in Penn- 
 sylvania^ his native state, Mr. Buchanan saw the 
 electors reject every representative who had voted 
 for his measures^ and among* them his oldest and 
 dearest friends. On the other hand, he endeavoured 
 in vain to oppose the re-election of Mr. Douglas in 
 Illinois, his adversary re-entered the Senate in 
 triumph, at the close of an election which had at- 
 tracted the attention of the Avhole Union. 
 
 At the opening of the Session of 1860, Mr. 
 Buchanan's majority had disappeared. The Eepub- 
 licans, though still in a minority in the Senate, of 
 which only a sixth part is annually re-elected, 
 formed the half of the House of Representatives. 
 To prevent their getting the Speakership, it became 
 necessary either that the Northern Democrats 
 should vote for a Southern man, or else that the 
 members from the South should vote for a supporter 
 of Mr. Douglas. Neither party was prepared to 
 make this sacrifice of their opinions. While, there- 
 fore, the Senate was debating with much violence 
 upon a proposed committee on the Harper Ferry 
 affair, the responsibility of which it was endeavoured 
 to saddle on the Republican party, the House of 
 Representatives was wasting its time in fruitless 
 divisions for the Speakership. This state of things 
 continued for three months, at the end of which 
 time, one member went over from the Southern 
 
 Ji 
 
18 
 
 party, and by so doing* g-ave to the Republican 
 Candidate the number required to form an absolute 
 majority. The greater part of the Session having* 
 been thus employed, Cong-ress had hardly proceeded 
 to business, when it was oblig-ed to virtuall}^ pro- 
 rog'ue itself, for the purpose of allowing- its members 
 to take part in the preliminary meeting's of the g-reat 
 presidential electoral campaig*n. And here it will 
 be necessar}' to explain briefly the nature of Ame- 
 rican party-organization. 
 
 Every party in the United States has an org-ani- 
 zation modelled on that of the Central Federal 
 Government. In each State a central committee is 
 established, which corresponds with the committees 
 in each of the electoral districts, which again have 
 under them committees in each localit}'. Whenever 
 an election is in prospect, either for a Town-coun- 
 cillor, or a member of the State Legislature, or a 
 member of the House of Representatives, the 
 committee, into whose attribute the vacancy 
 falls, assembles, and selects the candidate for 
 the part3\ When, therefore, it becomes neces- 
 sary to select a candidate for the place of Go- 
 vernor, Vice-Governor, Judge of the Supreme 
 Court, or any other position to which the appoint- 
 ment is made by a vote of the whole Union, a 
 " Conventioa" is called. The committees of counties 
 or districts each name the same number of delegates, 
 all these delegates assemble on a certain da\^, and 
 select, by the vote of the majority, the candidate of 
 
19 
 
 the party. The name thus chosen is pubhshed in the 
 newspapers, and the local committees call ^' ratifica- 
 tion meeting's," at which all the members of the 
 party are present. At these meeting's the vote of 
 the Convention is announced, a pompous eulog'ium 
 is passed upon the fortunate candidate, and the 
 meeting" is pledg-ed to his support. In the same 
 way every four years, about six months before the 
 Presidential election, a General Convention assembles 
 in some town fixed beforehand by the preceding- 
 Convention, and thither every State despatches a 
 number of delegates proportioned to the number of 
 federal electors that it has the rig'ht to appoint. 
 These deleg-ates arrive with their appointments in 
 due form, made out by the central committee of 
 their several States. The Convention adopts in 
 every respect the standing- orders of the House of 
 Representatives. Its first step is to appoint a com- 
 mittee composed of one delegate from every State, 
 whose business it is to draw up a " platform," that 
 is to say, a prog-ramme of the views and intentions 
 of the part}^, its rallying* cry in the coming* election. 
 Afterwards the candidates for President and Vice- 
 President are nominated by open voting*. It has 
 been a standing- order of the Democratic Convention 
 since 1844 that the successful candidate for their 
 nomination must obtain the votes of two-thirds of 
 their body. In every State the name selected by 
 the Convention is submitted to the ratification of the 
 people, on which occasion the party summons its 
 
 B 9 
 
20 
 
 most powerful speakers^ and endeavours to make 
 a demonstration as imposing- and formidable as 
 possible. 
 
 All this complicated org-anization is extremely 
 expensive. The candidates of every kind and their 
 supporters have to subscribe to pay Convention ex- 
 penses, correspondence, circulars, voting- tickets, 
 handbills, not to mention salvos of artillery, 
 serenades, torchlight processions, and all the other 
 accessories of an American election. A far greater 
 evil, however, is the absolute suppression of the 
 freedom of voting. In the United States, as in 
 Europe, the numerous class of busy intellig-ent men 
 has but little time to give to politics, and it rarely 
 happens that a man seriousl}^ occupied in business 
 or literature has time to attend reg-ularly a political 
 committee. These committees, particularly those of 
 the lowest order, have therefore fallen into the hands 
 of briefless barristers, doctors without patients, 
 g-eneral agents, and all the ruck of place-hunters 
 who devote themselves bod}^ and soul to a part}^ in 
 the hopes of obtaining* some small situation. Such 
 is the class, therefore, that nominates the dele- 
 g-ates who proceed to the Convention to select 
 the candidate of the party. The immense majority 
 of the citizens have no option, save either not to vote 
 at all, or else to vote for one of the candidates so 
 nominated. Sometimes it happens in an election 
 that a single ballot is to fill up a number of places 
 of different sorts, in that case the elector must 
 
accept blindly the ten or twelve names g-iven to him ; 
 the utmost he can do is to omit a name he dislikes, 
 and by so doing- lose one of his votes , it would be 
 hopeless to substitute the name of the most emi- 
 nent citizen, for he would thus give him only a 
 singie worthless vote. A subscriber to the ^ New 
 York Tribune ' applied lately for its advice in the 
 following- dilemma : he approved of the candidate 
 selected by his party for President, but he disap- 
 proved of the nomination for Vice-President, at the 
 same time the federal electors, for whom alone he 
 had personally a right to vote, were pledg-ed to both 
 these candidates J how was he in such case to vote 
 according* to his conscience? The newspaper was 
 unable to solve his difficulty. 
 
 No individual can hope for success in a strug-gie 
 ag-ainst a system whose ramifications extend over 
 the whole territory, and it has been often remarked 
 that AVashing-ton himself, if he returned to earth, 
 could not g-et himself elected villag-e sexton without 
 the patronag-e of some party. A man may enjoy 
 g-reat personal popularity, but that will not g'ive 
 him tbroug-hout the Confederation newspapers that 
 will write for him, speakers that will speak for him, 
 printers and bill-stickers who will work for him, 
 and, last not least, citizens who will stand as federal 
 electors on purpose to vote for him. He may pos- 
 sibly g-et the vote of one State or even two, De Witt 
 Clinton got the vote of New York, and Daniel 
 Webster of Massachusetts, but such votes were 
 
22 
 
 after all but a useless tribute of esteem given by 
 the State to an illustrious citizen. 
 
 The foreofoino- considerations will have shown 
 how absolute^ necessary it is to a public man to 
 belong' to one of those permanent organization s, 
 disposing of large funds, having at their command 
 a host of subordinate agents of every kind, and 
 powerful enough to raise to the Presidency men like 
 Messrs. Pierce and Polk^ whose fame had hardly 
 spread beyond their county, until intrigue, a happy 
 accident, and the impossibility of deciding between 
 rival candidates brought their names before a con- 
 vention. As soon, therefore, as Mr. Douglas had 
 finally broken with Mr. Buchanan, all the energies 
 of the President and of the extreme section of the 
 Southern men were devoted to proving that the 
 senator for Illinois had deserted his party, that he 
 had voluntarily separated himself from his political 
 friends, and that he had no longer a right to be in- 
 cluded among the Democrats. The question as to 
 the soundness of Mr. Douglas's democratic prin- 
 ciples led to endless discussions in the press and in 
 Congress. In his defence, Mr. Douglas did not for 
 a moment attempt to justif}' himself on public 
 grounds, he declared that all he had done was for 
 the interest of his party, that he had strictly kept 
 within the programme adopted at Cincinnati in 
 1 850, and that to read this programme in the light 
 of the Southern States wa^ to lose the free States, 
 and thus achieve the ruin of the democratic party. 
 
23 
 
 If they turned him out, he said, they must also turn 
 out all those men who had been the best defenders 
 of the Southern cause, who had fought the hardest 
 fight ag-ainst the Republicans, and to whom Mr. 
 Buchanan owed his election. Let the South stand 
 opposed to the unbroken phalanx of the North, 
 and they would soon learn the bitter lesson of 
 humiliation and defeat. To this the ultra party, 
 the "fire-eaters" as they were called, Jefferson 
 Davis, senator for Mississippi • Yancey, senator for 
 Alabama- Slidell and Benjamin, senators for 
 Louisiana, made answer, that in that case there 
 would be an end of the Union, that the South was 
 quite able to form a separate and independent 
 Confederation, that in the meanwhile it would not 
 suffer its interests to be sacrificed to the personal 
 ambition of any man, and that it would not endure 
 hesitation, equivocation, or treachery. At the same 
 time, Mr. Doug-las was reminded of the fate of 
 Mr. Yan Buren, whose attempt to divide the demo- 
 cratic party and desert the cause of the South, had 
 broug-ht upon himself an immediate and final ex- 
 clusion from office. 
 
 These discussions, repeated over and over ag'ain, 
 had filled the early months of the session of 1860 j 
 they foreshadowed the storms that would arise in 
 the convention about to assemble in April to choose 
 the candidate for the democratic party. On either 
 side there was equal confidence and equal animosity. 
 Mr. Douglas thought himself sure of the nomi- 
 
24 
 
 nation. He was in the democratic party the only- 
 important Northern man; no one could compare 
 with him for talent, reputation, or parliamentary 
 experience ', all-powerful in lUinois, and possessing" 
 g'reat influence in Indiana and Michigan, he alone 
 could bring' to the party a solid support ; in the 
 South he saw no one who had a chance of success 
 in the free States j he considered himself therefore 
 to be in fact the indispensable bond of union to the 
 two sections of the party. He was aware that he 
 possessed the almost unanimous support of the 
 Northern deleg-ates ; the ablest and most influential 
 men of the South, his colleag'ues in the Senate, were 
 his personal friends ; he therefore expected, not 
 indeed to escape violent attacks, but that when it 
 came to the vote he should have in his favour a 
 majority of the convention, and that to that ma- 
 jorit}" the recalcitrant ultras would be compelled to 
 bow . This confidence of Mr. Douglas g-reatl}^ in- 
 censed his opponents, they resented as an insult the 
 tone in which his newspapers announced his certain 
 triumph, and promised forgiveness to those who 
 after the contest might seek his pardon. In conse- 
 quence they spared no pains to obtain from the 
 committees of their several States the nomination 
 of delegates pledged against Mr. Douglas, and b}'' 
 the support of the Federal administration the}^ suc- 
 ceeded. The President himself, his character na- 
 turally obstinate and violent, untamed by age, his 
 heart overflowing with bitterness at the recollection 
 
25 
 
 of his defeats^ entered with all his soul into this plot 
 ag-ainst the man whom he considered to be his evil 
 g-enius. The g*overnment officers of ever}^ kind, 
 whether emplo3^ed in the revenue, post-office^ or any 
 other department, received notice, under pain of 
 dismissal, that the}'" must support the section of the 
 party opposed to Mr. Doug-las. 
 
 The Democratic convention assembled at Charleston 
 in South Carolina, on the 23rd of April, 1860. The 
 deleg-ates from the North- West arrived unanimously 
 pledged to support Mr. Doug-las, and to stick to him 
 to the last ; of those from the North-East, the ma- 
 jority were in his favour, the only exceptions being" 
 a limited number of g-overnment officials. The 
 deleg-ates from Mississippi, Texas, Louisiana, Flo- 
 rida, and Alabama, led by the Senators Slidell and 
 Yancey, declared war to the knife ag-ainst his pre- 
 tensions, and in this they were backed up by South 
 CaroHna and Georg-ia. The central States, Mis- 
 souri, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maryland were a 
 g-ood deal divided. At Charleston itself a strong" 
 feeling" of irritation prevailed ag-ainst the North, 
 and a considerable pressure was put upon the con- 
 vention by the populace of the town, reinforced by 
 the crowd of Southern visitors that throng-ed its 
 streets. 
 
 Mr. Douglases friends wished to come to a vote as 
 soon as possible. They calculated upon the moral 
 effect of a larg-e number of supporters at the first 
 round; they expected that two other candidates 
 
26 
 
 would be started, a moderate man by the central 
 States and an ultra by the Southern, that after two 
 or three rounds the friends of the former would see 
 that their case was hopeless and would transfer 
 their votes to Mr. Douglas, and that by this means 
 he would obtain the requisite majorit}^ of two-thirds ; 
 as to the bare majority they never doubted that 
 they should get it at the very first vote. The 
 ultras, however, were by no means equally anxious 
 to display their numerical inferiority. They de- 
 clared that they had no candidate either for the 
 Presidency or Vice-Presidency, that they did not 
 seek to nominate any one for either of these offices, 
 but that they were determined to have real guaran- 
 tees for the interests of the Southern States. A 
 compromise had been forced upon them in 1856, 
 which they were told was to work wonders for 
 them, and yet every political question had been de- 
 cided against them. They said they would not be 
 made fools of again ; let the North select for their 
 candidate a Southern man, and they pledged them- 
 selves to accept him be he who he might, with the 
 programme of '56, or even without any programme 
 at all; but in default of a candidate whose name 
 spoke for itself, they insisted upon a clear and un- 
 mistakeable programme, one that would calm every 
 apprehension and remedy every grievance of the 
 slaveholders. Mr. Douglas's friends could not pos- 
 sibly agree to a proposal especially aimed against 
 their candidate ; the ultras then proposed, and sue- 
 
27 
 
 ceeded in carrying*, a resolution that before pro- 
 ceeding* to a vote the convention should, according 
 to precedent, draw up the usual prog'ramme. 
 
 Havings succeeded thus far, the next step of Mr. 
 Douglas's opponents was to endeavour to draw up 
 a progTamme that that g'entleman could not possibly 
 accept. The Southern deleg-ates instructed their 
 representatives in the Platform Committee to take 
 for their point of departure the resolutions that had 
 been laid before the Senate of the United States 
 by Mr. Jefferson Davis, of Misvsissippi, and which 
 affirmed it to be a duty incumbent on Cong-ress to 
 protect slavery in the Territories. It was impossible 
 to take a line more directly adverse to Mr. Douglas. 
 When, in fact, he had proposed the repeal of the 
 Missouri Compromise, he had done it upon the 
 ground that Congress had no more right to forbid 
 than it had to impose slavery upon the newly settled 
 Territories, and that any step it might take in favour 
 of either party would be an interference with the 
 right of the colonists to decide for themselves. 
 When on former occasions he had been accused in 
 the Northern States of being a partizan of slavery, 
 Mr. Douglas had always distinctly denied the 
 charge. It had been his wish, he had stated, to 
 leave such questions, which indeed were no concern 
 of Congress, to be settled by nature and by the will 
 of the population. Wherever slave labour was 
 more profitable than free labour, self-interest stronger 
 than Congress would employ it j wherever, on the 
 
28 
 
 other hand, the converse was true, it was useless to 
 try to force in slavery by legislative enactment. 
 Why then not allow the question to be settled by 
 the simple rules of political economy, by which, do 
 what they might, it would be decided at last ? For 
 his own part, he added, in all that he had done, he 
 had had but one object in view, to put a stop to 
 irritating' debates b}'^ forbidding- Cong-ress to inter- 
 fere in a matter in which it was powerless for g'ood, 
 and where all interference was a violation of the 
 rig'ht of the citizens to g-overn themselves. This 
 simple solution, which promised to put an end to the 
 everlasting' bickering-s of the pro and anti-slaver}^ 
 parties, was immense^ popular among- the Conser- 
 vative population of the Central and Western States, 
 and though much carped at by the Republicans, who 
 nick-named it the principle of Squatter Sovereignty, 
 it proved a tower of strength to Mr. Douglas in the 
 Valle}' of the Mississippi in 18.5G, when, after with- 
 drawing from the contest himself, he promoted by 
 ever}^ means in his power the cause of Mr. Buchanan, 
 supposing' that he was thereby fighting his own 
 battle for 1860. 
 
 There is no convincing angr}- men ; the wisest of 
 the Southern party would willing^ have accepted 
 Mr. Douglas's solution as perfectl}^ satisfactory. It 
 insured them against anj- endeavour to forbid sla- 
 very in the provinces they might some da}'^ conquer 
 or annex from Mexico. The ultras, however, 
 pointed out a danger in this doctrnie of squatter 
 
29 
 
 sovereig'nty ; it permitted, indeed, the inhabitants of 
 the Territories to introduce slavery, if such was their 
 pleasure, but on the other hand it enabled them to 
 forbid it if they liked, and that was a stretch of 
 authority these g-entlemen could never allow. If Con- 
 gress, they arg'ued, has not the rig'ht to forbid slavery 
 how can the provisional g-overnments, established by 
 its authority in the Territories, its own creatures, have 
 a power which it does not itself possess j slavery, 
 therefore, cannot be forbidden in the Territories, and 
 hence it exists in all of them by rig-ht. When one 
 of these infant communities has arrived at ag'e of 
 discretion, and thereby has acquired the rig-ht to 
 enter the Confederation as an independent State, she 
 can, in the plenitude of her power, permit or abolish 
 slavery, but until that solemn coming- of ag-e, she 
 has no power to reject slavery from her soil. If, 
 then, one of these infant States ventures to interfere 
 with the property of the slave-owners it is the ne- 
 cessary duty of Cong-ress to compel her to acknow- 
 ledge their rig-hts. The judgment pronounced by 
 the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott Case was 
 quoted in support of this view. In this judgment it 
 was laid down that no difference existed between a 
 slave and any other property, and further that all 
 citizens had a right to convey themselves and their 
 property to any part of the United States, and to 
 obtain for such property the protection of the laws. 
 The resolutions before mentioned of Mr. Jefferson 
 Davis, which had been occupying the time of the 
 
30 
 
 Senate, to the exclusion of public business for two 
 months, had this object in view, that the Senate 
 should resolve that it was the dut}- of Congress 
 without delay to vote the necessary laws for the 
 protection of slavery in the Territories. 
 
 It is easy to see how far an arg-ument of this 
 kind can be carried 5 the republican party, in their 
 opposition to Mr. Douglas, did not fail to push it to 
 its extreme consequences, and then hold them up 
 as the result of denying- the power of Cong-ress. 
 The}^ arg'ued that logic was altog-ether on the side 
 of Jefferson Davis ; that if Congress had not the 
 power to legislate against slaver}^ that institution 
 was legal wherever the American Constitution ex- 
 tended, that freedom was the exception and slavery 
 the rule, inasmuch as the former could only exist by 
 virtue of a special act and declared will of the people. 
 And in any case the will of the people was subjected 
 to considerable restrictions. A Northern citizen could 
 certainly take his goods and chattels to the South, 
 and when there either keep them or sell thera as he 
 thought best. Did it not therefore follow, in ac- 
 cordance with the law as laid down by the Supreme 
 Court, that a Southern planter had a right to come 
 to New York or Boston Avith his bevy of slaves, and 
 either use them for his domestic purposes, or if he 
 preferred it put them up for sale. Thus in vain had 
 the Free States made it illegal for their citizens to 
 possess slaves, they had not by so doing enfranchized 
 their territory. A Southern man might still, if he 
 
31 
 
 liked, inflict upon them the sig-ht of slavery, and of 
 its hideous concomitant the sale of human beino-s. 
 That this was not an impossible case was proved by 
 a cause pending- at the time before the Supreme 
 Court. A Yirg'inian named Lemmon, on his way 
 to Texas with two slaves, had arrived at New York 
 to take the steamer to New Orleans. His slaves 
 had been taken from him by virtue of the laws of 
 New York, which forbid slavery within the limits of 
 the State ; they had been declared free by a decree 
 of the Court of New York, confirmed on appeal by 
 the Supreme Court at Albany. A subscription had 
 been opened among- the New York merchants, who 
 w^ished to hush up this unpleasant business, and 
 Lemmon had been compensated for his loss : but at 
 this point the State of Yirg-inia had interfered, and 
 had appealed to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, on the g-round that the Courts of New York 
 had no jurisdiction over a Yirg-inian citizen. With 
 the well-known leaning- of the Supreme Court, in 
 which sat a majority of Democrats, there could be 
 no doubt how the decision would g'o. Such then 
 was the pass to which Mr. Doug-las had broug-ht 
 them by limiting- the power and authority of Con- 
 g-ress. Beginning- with the attempt to allow the 
 inhabitants of the Territories to decide for themselves 
 between slavery and freedom, they had, step by step, 
 arrived at the log-ical conclusion that slave-owners 
 mig-ht force their institution even on Sovereign 
 States who desired to be free. 
 
Nothing- could be more proper than such a pros- 
 pect to foster the gTowing anti-slavery feeling" of the 
 North. To insert Mr. Jefferson Davis's resolutions, 
 or even the substance of them in the programme of 
 the Democratic part}^, would be to deprive the can- 
 didate of that part}^, who must accept their pro- 
 g-ramme, of every vote without the limits of the Slave 
 States. Mr. Douglas himself could not give his 
 adhesion without repudiating* every act and word of 
 the last six years, and ruining- for ever his influence, 
 even m his own state of Illinois. Now this was 
 exactly what his opponents wanted ; they wished to 
 place him in the dilemma, of either withdrawing, or 
 else eating- his own words. Mr. Slidell from Wash- 
 ing'ton sent to the delegate of Louisiana a series of 
 resolutions of the most irritating- kind, while, on the 
 other hand, Mr. Douglas desired his friends to 
 stick to the programme of 1856, or, at all events, 
 not to give way beyond a simple adhesion to the 
 terms of the Dred Scott decision. It seemed likel}^ 
 that the Platform Committee would never be able to 
 a£»Tee to any statement of principles j the fifteen 
 delegates from the Slave States all voted together, 
 while the Northern delegates tried to conciliate by 
 proposing- three or four forms, all drawn up with the 
 view of satisfying- the South, and at the same time 
 shirking- an absolute adhesion to the black code. 
 At last Mr. Avery, of North Carolina, substituted a 
 milder version for Mr. Slidell's irritating- formula, 
 which was carried by 17 to 10, in consequence of 
 
33 
 
 the deleo'ates of Ores'on and California votins: with 
 the Southj on the understanding- that General Lane, 
 senator for Oreg'on^ should be the candidate for the 
 Vice-Presidency. 
 
 In laying- the report of the majority of the Com- 
 mittee before the ConventioUj Mr. Avery spoke out 
 strono'ly and resolutel3\ He said, the time for half 
 measures and shilly-shallying- was past, that the 
 South had carried concession to the utmost limit, 
 and that from the present she must have full and 
 complete satisfaction • that the doctrine of squatter- 
 sovereignty was a more dangerous, because less 
 open, attack thaji the Wilmot proviso.* Mr. Payne, 
 in the name of the minority of the committee, de- 
 fended that doctrine, saying- that it was a principle 
 dear to the North and one that it would not abandon. 
 If the Democratic party chose to repudiate it, that 
 party must make up its mind to extinction, as it 
 could no longer count upon the vote of a single free 
 State. These speeches, delivered with perfect calm- 
 ness and self-command on either side, evidenced a 
 degTee of rooted antag-onism between the two sec- 
 tions that g-reatly impressed the meeting-. Mr. King*, 
 formerly Governor of Missouri, then rose^ in the 
 hope of stilling- the coming- storm. He pronounced 
 
 * During the last war against Mexico, Mr. Wilmot and other 
 free-soilers introduced into all the measures passed, either for con- 
 tinuing the war or defining terms of peace, a clause or proviso 
 that slavery could never be introduced into any province that 
 might be ceded by Mexico. 
 
 C 
 
84 
 
 himself ^g-ainst the prolamine of the majority : he 
 said that it would not. indeed, lose them the vote of 
 Missourij but that it must inevitably deprive them 
 of everv Free State vote, and by so doin^ extingnish 
 the part v. This brought up Mr. Yancey, the leader of 
 the ultras, and the cheers that greeted him from the 
 <rallerie5 showed on which side was the popular feel- 
 ins* in the South, he protested, he said^ at what had 
 fallen from the representative of a Slave State, and 
 especially of a State the most exposed to the plots 
 of the abolitionists. Energy and resolution were 
 henceforward the only means of safety for the 
 South. Was it possible, that after the lesson of 
 1856, with its sequence of humiliation and defeat, 
 anv one could recommend them to fall back on the 
 old policy of trimming and expediency ? Ko, better 
 a hundred times for the South to fall, proclaiming 
 her principles and demanding her rights, than for 
 her to buy an inglorious and useless victory by the 
 sacrifice of those rights and principles. If the 
 Southern men were capable of such weakness, if for 
 the empty glorification of electing their own candi- 
 date the}' chose to be the humble servants of a party 
 of intriguers, and the wilhng tools of unprincipled 
 ambition, they deserved to be hung- on a jribbet 
 hio^her than that of Haman. This insultino- and 
 irritating speech produced a warm reply from Mr. 
 Pugh, senator for Ohio, an intimate friend of Mr. 
 Douglas. Retracing events for a few years, Mr, 
 Pugh proved, by unanswerable quotations, that 
 
35 
 
 Y.'ithin that period every important Southern States- 
 man^ including- Mr. Yancey himself, had eag-erly 
 supported the doctrines they now attacked, and had 
 stigmatized as inadmissible, senseless, and unconsti- 
 tutional, the claims that now they advocated. It 
 was with their own words and their own arg'uments 
 that he opposed their impudent and unjustifiable 
 pretensions. 
 
 Thus ever}' speech in the debate ag'g-ravated the 
 quarrel, and when Mr. Big-ler, of Pennsylvania, 
 proposed a third form, and moved that it be referred 
 to the committee, he succeeded in carrying- his mo- 
 tion. This attempt to stave olF, if not to prevent, a 
 breach that all felt to be imminent, also failed. The 
 committee could not come to an understanding-, 
 and returned with two reading's almost iden- 
 tical with those that they had before presented. 
 The question was put to the vote in a storm of 
 confusion. The result was that the programme 
 of the majorit}', that is the prog-ramme of the 
 Slave States was rejected by the Charleston con- 
 vention by lOo ag-ainst 138. The programme 
 of the Free States was then put to the meeting and 
 carried article by article, the greater number of the 
 Southern delegates declining to vote. When the 
 final question, that the programme be adopted, was 
 about to be put to the vote, Mr. AValker, delegate 
 from Alabama, addressed the meeting. Having* 
 read a written protest against the decision of the 
 majority, he said, that in obedience to his instruc- 
 
 c2 
 
36 
 
 tions, he and all the other delegates from Alabama, 
 retired from the Convention. Similar declarations 
 were made, amidst profound silence, by the delegates 
 of Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida, 
 Texas, and Arkansas ; the deleg-ates of Yirg-inia, 
 Georg-ia, and Kentucky required time to consult on 
 the proper course to adopt, and the meeting- ad- 
 journed. When the Convention next assembled 
 for business, the delegates of the seven seceding 
 States absented themselves, and it was determined to 
 select a candidate for the Presidency at once ; the 
 first vote gave no result, nor did any of the follow- 
 inof votes, for Mr. Douo-las, who from the first, had 
 the bare majority, could never get beyond it, much 
 less obtain the suffrao*es of two-thirds of the meet- 
 ing. After, therefore, fifty-seven useless divisions, 
 an adjournment was carried by 166 to 88 ; the Con- 
 vention decided to re-assemble on the 18th of June, 
 and that the place of assembly should this time be 
 Baltimore. 
 
 The abortive result of the Charleston Democratic 
 Convention produced a profound sensation through- 
 out the Union. The Republicans hailed it as a 
 pledge of the success of their candidate, and as a 
 proof of the spread of their opinions. This great 
 Democratic party, so proud of its universality, had 
 then at last come to cut itself in half according to 
 a geographical line of demarcation ! It had become 
 divided on this very question of slavery which it 
 boasted to exclude from politics altogether. After 
 
37 
 
 having" so often reproached the Republicans with 
 keeping" alive irritating- debates unnecessarity and 
 from merely factious motives, it was itself a prey to 
 this very agitation which it had stig-matized as gra- 
 tuitous ; and after havino;- been the willino- tool of 
 the passions, the pretensions, and the terrors of the 
 South, it had ended by breaking* asunder bonds too 
 g-alling- to be any long-er endured. Would not this 
 prove to the nervous Conservatives of the North, 
 who in 1856 had deserted their opinions and given 
 victory to the Democrats, how mistaken they were ? 
 Would not this convince them that there was no 
 limit to the demands of the South, and that nothing- 
 short of the sacrifice of the constitution itself could 
 ever satisfy her ? Thank God, the men of the 
 North beg-an to see their way clearh', and returnino* 
 to the wholesome doctrines of the founders of the 
 republic, they would now rally round the standard 
 of freedom. 
 
 The exultation of the Republicans naturally occa- 
 sioned a corresponding' depression on the part of their 
 opponents. Every one noticed the line adopted by 
 the Constitution, of Washing-ton, the especial org-an 
 of Mr. Buchanan. This paper would onl3' see in what 
 had happened a defeat of Mr. Doug-las, upon which 
 it dwelt with considerable complacency. What- 
 ever people may think, said that paper, of what 
 has happened at Charleston, one thing- is clear 
 and undeniable, that is, that the squatter sovereig-nty 
 candidate has completely failed, and that his sup- 
 
38 
 
 porters have no resource but to find another candi- 
 date who may be acceptable to the Democratic 
 States. Any one who takes the trouble to inquire 
 will be soon satisfied that Mr. Doug-las has no means 
 of getting- over the opposition to himself on the part 
 of the Democratic party in States which will cer- 
 tainly^ vote for a Democrat at the coming- election . 
 Any endeavour to contest this patent fact can only 
 end in his political annihilation. This article of the 
 " Constitution" was at once answered by the " Cin- 
 cinnati Enquirer/' one of the principal Democratic 
 journals in the North ; they arg-ued that the defeat 
 was for those who had endeavoured to chang-e the 
 nature of the party creed^ and who had not been able 
 to accomplish their wishes either by intrigue or by 
 force. They had proved to a certainty that the 
 part}' would never allow to be introduced into its 
 proiz'ramme that miserable heresy, that the citizens 
 of a Territory had no right to exclude slavery, if such 
 was their desire^ and that it is the duty of Cong-ress 
 to force it upon them by a special law. "As to Mr. 
 Doug-las," continued the " Enquirer," " the candi- 
 date and favourite of the people, althoug-h he had 
 to contend against the open and combined opposi- 
 tion of all the other pretenders to the Presidency, of 
 the Central Government, and of the Southern Sepa- 
 ratists, he yet obtained in more than fifty divisions 
 three-fifths of all the votes g-iven. He had obtained 
 152 votes, while all the other candidates put tog-e- 
 ther did not poll 100 j he had an actual majority of 
 
39 
 
 the Convention, even if all the States had been pre- 
 sent, and had voted. His nomination had only been 
 prevented by adopting* a rule which required two- 
 thirds of the votes to constitute a due election. If 
 the streno-th and mao-nitude of the forces combined 
 ag'ainst him be taken into consideration, it is assur- 
 edly one of the most remarkable personal triumphs 
 on record. If the politicians who sat in the Con- 
 vention had really represented the will of the people, 
 Mr. Doug-las would have been unanimously nomi- 
 nated at the first vote. It would seem to be impos- 
 sible that the Convention, when it meets at Balti- 
 more, can ig-nore such a liict, or mistake its mean- 
 ing." 
 
 Such was also the opinion of the " Bang-or Union" 
 and the " Albany Argus," two influential papers, 
 one of the State of Maine, the other of New York ; 
 they thought the adjournment would serve Mr. 
 Doug"las. They considered that reflection would 
 show the Southern men that they had g'one too far, 
 that by breaking* up the Democratic party they onW 
 handed over the victory to their enemies the Eepub- 
 licans, and tied their own hands. In fact all the 
 Northern Democratic journals protested that conces- 
 sion had reached its limits, and that non-intervention 
 must remain the fundamental principle of their 
 party. " To abandon that principle," said the '^ Buf- 
 falo Courier," " would be worse than suicide ; it 
 would be the heig-ht of cowardice, meanness, and 
 ignominy." 
 
40 
 
 The Southern papers, however, showed no sig-ns of 
 repentance. " The Charleston Mercury" ncknowledo-ed 
 that thoug'h Mr. Doug-las could not himself be no- 
 minated at the next nieetino- of the Democratic Con- 
 vention, yet he certainly had the power of preventing- 
 the nomination of any one else, inasmuch as he pos- 
 sessed half the votes. Everything- therefore pointed 
 to the conclusion that the Baltimore Convention 
 would have the same result as that at Charleston. 
 Tlie " Mercury" was g'ratified at the prospect. It 
 was far better, in their opinion, to have to do with 
 an open enemy than with an enemy disg'uised under 
 the semblance of friendship. A unanimous nomina- 
 tion could only take place b}^ both parties consent- 
 ing- to contaminate themselves with equivocation and 
 folsehood ; it Avas unworthy of the South to take any 
 part in this wretched farce. She must have her 
 rig-hts acknowledg'ed, and break with any party that 
 would not acknowledge them openly. The " Chroni- 
 cle" of Aug-usta, in Georgia, declared the rig"hts of 
 the South to be incompatible with the squatter sove- 
 reig'uty espoused by the Northern Democrats, and 
 that those rights could not be abandoned ; while the 
 " Mississip})ian" of Jackson loudly applauded the 
 conduct of the deleg-ates at Charleston, and declared 
 that to have submitted to a sectional majority of the 
 Convention would have been the death-blow to 
 Democracy in the Southern States. 
 
 Thus in the press the battle was foug'ht with the 
 same vig'our and animosity as in the Convention ; it 
 
41 
 
 soon also made its entry into tlie Senate. Mr. 
 Jefferson Davis^ in a motion having- reference to his 
 resolutions, made a violent personal attack on Mr. 
 Doug-las. Mr. Clingman, of North Carolina, de- 
 fended him, urg-ing- the Democratic party not to 
 divide itself if it wished to preserve a chance of 
 success ; Mr. Benjamin, of Louisiana, followed, pro- 
 testing- ag-ainst the sacrifice of principle to electoral 
 success, or to the personal ambition of any indi- 
 vidual j give me, said he, a programme that insures 
 my rig-hts and satisfies my fellow citizens, and then- 
 select an}^ candidate you please who can honourably 
 adopt it ; the man you select shall be my candidate, 
 I will canvass my State for him, I will devote to his 
 service my time and my streng'th, I will speak for 
 him whenever and wherever his friends may call on 
 me to do so, nothing- shall stop me ; but I confess I 
 have no heart to fig-ht when I am to choose as my 
 champion either a man who fairly and openly denies 
 my rig-hts, or one who acknowledg-es them indeed 
 but wishes to cheat me out of them. I will endure 
 neither the one nor the other. Mr. Benjamin made 
 no secret of his hope that when the Northern Demo- 
 crats knew all the truth they would not hesitate to 
 form an alliance with the South, by the sacrifice of 
 Mr. Doug-las. He then narrated, at considerable 
 leng-th, a circumstance up to that time kept secret. 
 It was that the dissension of the two sections of the 
 party dated from the time when by their joint action 
 they had carried the repeal of the Missouri Compro- 
 
42 
 
 niise. In 1856^ they nearly failed in coming to an 
 understanding- on a proo-ramme ; a ru})ture had been 
 prevented b}' adopting' an ambig-uous formula which 
 admitted, and had received, different interpretations 
 in the North and in the South 5 with the understand- 
 ing*, however, that a judgment of the Supreme Court 
 should be obtained which should bind the whole 
 party. That judg-ment had been obtained in the 
 Dred Scott case, and therefore there could no long-er 
 be any question about squatter sovereig-uty. This 
 curious revelation explained why the South would 
 not accept the Cincinnati prog-ramme without adding- 
 a rider to it, and it also gave a key to those re- 
 proaches of treachery and bad faith which the South 
 showered on Mr. Douglas, and which Mr. Benjamin 
 did not spare him. Mr. Douglas, of course, seized 
 the opportunity of answering- all the attacks that 
 had been made upon him. He spoke last j he went 
 fully into the history of the Democratic party, show- 
 ino- that the South had not always been so exacting-^ 
 but that every victory gained for her by the Northern 
 Democrats had been made the starting point for new 
 pretensions. Reverting to the contests of 1850, he 
 showed that he alone had stood up for the South 
 against Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster, and that at 
 that period the South strove in vain for the principle 
 they now so utterly repudiated, the non-intervention 
 of Cono-ress in the Territories. It was not himself, 
 or the Northern Democrats, that had changed their 
 principles, it was the South who now combated w^hat 
 
43 
 
 tliey had so long- desired ; in vain did Mr. Davis, 
 and his friends, try to contradict these facts, a series 
 of unanswerable quotations silenced them. The in- 
 consistency of his opponents was lashed by Mr. 
 Douglas with polished sarcasm and afforded him an 
 oratorical triumph ; but there his advantag'e ended^ 
 for the wounds he had g-iven were not easily healed^ 
 and his speech had rendered irremediable a quarrel 
 as fatal to himself as it was to his opponents. 
 
 III. 
 
 While the Senate was absorbed in these fiery 
 debates, a Unionist Convention assembled at Balti- 
 more and completed its labours in two days. This 
 via-media party, which had voted for Mr. Millard 
 Filmore in 1856, had been torpid for three years. 
 Its only remains of vitality were to be found in the 
 Southern States, where it served as a rallying* point 
 to all who declined to support the extreme views 
 of Mr. Buchanan. The general emotion caused 
 throughout the Union by the John Brown invasion 
 had appeared, however, to give it some renewal of 
 life in the North. Great meetings had been held at 
 Boston, New York and Philadelphia, to protest 
 against the violent attack that had been made upon 
 a Southern State, and to proclaim the principle of 
 obedience to the laws and constitution. Men of in- 
 fluence had taken the initiative in these demonstra- 
 tions, and Statesmen who in former days had held 
 the highest places in the Northern States, and who 
 
44 
 
 wero supposed to have retired from politicnl life, re- 
 appeared upon the scene. It looked almost like a 
 resurrection of the old Whi^- party, and the earnest- 
 ness with which the commercial classes, so closely 
 identified with the South, went into the movement, 
 deceived man}' as to its importance and probable 
 duration. It was resolved to re-organize at once the 
 Unionist party, and hopes were entertained that it 
 mig'ht have a powerful influence on the approaching* 
 Presidential campaign. It Avas the Convention of 
 this revived party that met at Baltimore on the 9th 
 of May, under the presidency of Mr. W. Hunt, 
 formerly Governor of the State of New York. This 
 meeting, if judged b}' the social position, the cha- 
 racter and antecedents of its members, formed a far 
 more important gathering than that which had just 
 broken up at Charleston, or indeed, any meeting of 
 the kind that had ever assembled in the United 
 States ; but it had the misfortune to represent no 
 policy, to have no definite idea, and its members, 
 though individually most highly respected, had been 
 too long removed from the turmoil of political life 
 to exercise any real influence on the masses of the 
 population. It was an army of Generals, while the 
 crisis called for millions of soldiers ! Doubtless no 
 parallel can be drawn between Mr. Hunt who re- 
 presented New York at Baltimore, and Captain 
 Bynders the delegate of the same town at Charles- 
 ton. The former by birth, education, intellect and 
 fortune, belonged to the first class of American 
 
45 
 
 societ}^ He had obtained all the honours that 
 Universal SiifFrag'e can confer ; successively mem- 
 ber of the New York Legislature, member of Con- 
 g-ress, and Governor of his State, he had in every 
 position acquired the reputation of an honourable 
 and able man. On the other hand the latter, abso- 
 lutely uneducated, but gifted with a stentorian 
 voice, and making- up for his ignorance by coarse 
 and ready wit, was a stump orator long in the pay 
 of the Democratic party. Made a lieutenant of 
 police as a reward for his political services, he was 
 strongly suspected of taking bribes from the crimi- 
 nals who ought to have come under his clutches* 
 This man, however, frequenting the water-side 
 taverns, knowing by name all the newspaper 
 hawkers, bill-stickers, all the paid cheerers and 
 getters up of manifestations, was himself a power, 
 and did not over-rate his influence when he said he 
 had 10,000 votes in his waistcoat pocket. There 
 was the weak point of the party of " old gentle- 
 men " and ^' silvery heads " as they were nicknamed 
 by both sides ; excellent well intentioned men, they 
 tried to make up a party by drawing-room gossip, 
 a few speeches, and a few newspaper articles, while 
 they possessed no means of acting upon the masses 
 of their countrymen. 
 
 The Unionists could not even fall back upon one 
 of those appeals which tell upon the imagination, 
 and are a substitute for argument. It was impos- 
 sible for them to draw up a programme without 
 
40 
 
 leanino; to one or other of the two g-reat parties, out 
 of which they wanted to enhst their adherents. It 
 required, therefore, very little debate to induce the 
 Convention at Baltimore to decide tliat they would 
 put out no prog-ramme ; in its stead they issued a 
 party cry, " The Union, the constitution, and obe- 
 dience to the laws, for ever !" It certainly was an 
 ing-enious way of g'etting* out of the difficult}' of 
 deciding- betw^een North and South ; but unluckily 
 all sides could appro])riate this party watchword, 
 Democrats and llepublicans, both sides professed 
 themselves to be devoted to the Union, the constitu- 
 tion, and obedience to the laws ; only they differed 
 about the meanino; of the word "Constitution," and 
 each party hoped to make use of " obedience to the 
 laws,'' to accomplish their own ends. With this 
 vaofue formula the Unionists were certain to offend 
 nobody, but they also ran the risk of g-aining* no 
 adherents. 
 
 The Unionist Convention selected as its candidate 
 Mr. John Bell, an old pupil of Henry Clay, and for 
 many years member of Cong'ress for Tennessee. Born 
 at Nashville, in 1797, Mr. Bell adopted the bar as 
 his profession, and devoting* himself earl}' in life to 
 politics, at the ag-e of twenty had a seat in the legis- 
 lature of the State. In 18C7, he was elected 
 member of Congress for Tennessee, he sat for four- 
 teen consecutive years, and ultimately became 
 Speaker. Like Henry Clay, he beg-an as a demo- 
 crat, joined the Whig- party on the question of the 
 
47 
 
 Federal Bank, and stuck to them ever after. It 
 was as a Whig* that he became War Minister, 
 under the short administration of President Harri- 
 son. He afterwards represented Tennessee, in the 
 Senate, until March, 1859. Thoug-h citizen of a 
 slave state, and himself a slave owner, Mr. Bell had 
 always been conspicuous for the liberality and 
 moderation of his views. While member of Con- 
 g-ress, he had on two memorable occasions voted 
 that petitions ag'ainst slavery oug-ht to be received 
 by the House, not that he approved of the petitions, 
 ]but because he thought the attempt on the part of 
 the slave party to induce the House to reject them 
 was an unconstitutional interference with public 
 rig-hts. As a supporter and defender of the Com- 
 promise of 1850,* he had voted against the Kansas 
 Bill, the ^^ fons et origo mali" of the present crisis, 
 and his sturdy opposition to Mr. Buchanan had 
 cost him his seat in the Senate. If Mr. Bell's 
 political friends may have been able to lay to his 
 charge some moments of vacillation, and some slight 
 political inconsistencies, easily explained in a man 
 who was voting" almost invariably ao-ainst the 
 opinions of a majority of his fellow-citizens, no one 
 ever for a moment suspected him either of interested 
 views or of being biassed by private ambition. All 
 parties alike acknowledged his talent, his high cha- 
 
 * This Compromise, suggested by Mr. Clay, was to regulate 
 the affairs of the Provinces detached from Mexico, and thereby 
 put an end to the agitation against the Wilmot proviso. 
 
48 
 
 racter, his inteo-rity, and his patriotism. As ashive- 
 owner, Mr. Bell could not be suspected by the 
 South, while the North was sure to hail with en- 
 thusiasm a man who on several occasions had g'iven 
 his vote in favour of liberty, and who had sacrificed 
 his position in public life at the shrine of his poli- 
 tical convictions. Besides this Mr. Bell had stood 
 by the economical principles of the Whig- party, he 
 was a decided protectionist, and as such acceptable 
 to the manufacturing- interests of Pennsylvania, New 
 Jersey, and Indiana, States w^hose votes had decided 
 the election of 1850, and who seemed destined to 
 exercise the same influence on that of 18G0. 
 
 For theVice-Presidency the choice of the Conven- 
 tion fell upon a Northern man, Mr. Edward Everett, 
 whose reputation in literature and in politics has 
 crossed the Atlantic. Member of Cong-ress from 
 1824 to 1834, Governor of Massachusetts during^ 
 four years. Ambassador in London from 1841 to 
 1845, afterwards President of Harvard University, 
 Mr. Webster's successor as Foreig-u Minister and 
 Senator, Mr. Everett had in turn filled with credit 
 all the high positions of his country. In 1853 he 
 retired from politics, with the intention of devoting- 
 himself to literature. The John Brown invasion 
 recalled him from his retirement. During- all the 
 winter of 1859 he took an active part in the Unionist 
 demonstrations, and his character for eloquence shed 
 considerable cclut on their proceeding's. Whether 
 in consequence of his age and the important public 
 
49 
 
 positions he had filled, Mr. Everett expected to be 
 selected for the Presidency, or whether success ap- 
 peared to him to be hopeless, or whether he doubted 
 his own popularity in the face of an electoral con- 
 test, must remain a question ; but certain it is that 
 he hesitated long- in g'ivin^ his consent to become 
 candidate for the Yice-Presidency, and that he onh^ 
 yielded at last to the repeated solicitations of his 
 friends. 
 
 The Baltimore convention had chosen wisely. 
 Never had men been broug-ht forward more worthy 
 to fill the two highest offices of the State j and the 
 cordial reception given by the upper classes to the 
 names of Bell and Everett may for a moment have 
 deluded the Unionist party with visions of success. 
 They did not indeed hope or expect that their cham- 
 pions Avould be elected b}^ popular vote, but thes^ 
 fancied themselves able to prevent the election of 
 any other candidates. The Southern States, even 
 if unanimous, were unable of themselves to form a 
 majority ; now the Unionists counted on Mar^dand 
 which, in 1856, had voted for Fillmore, on Tennessee 
 because a candidate was always sure of his native 
 state, on Kentucky because it always voted with 
 Tennessee ; besides this they had hopes of Louisiana 
 and South Carolina, in both of which States Fillmore 
 had obtained a considerable number of votes, and 
 where a split in the Democratic party mig'ht g-ive 
 them the majority. If three Slave States, and a 
 fortiori five, voted for Bell, the Southern candidate, 
 
50 
 
 be he who he mig'ht, could not obtain the majo- 
 rity. As for the Eepubhcan candidate they ac- 
 knowledg-ed the impossibihty of wresting- from him 
 any of the New Eng-land States; but even sup- 
 posing- he had in his favour the fourteen States that 
 had voted for Colonel Fremont including New York, 
 those fourteen States would only g-ive him 114 
 votes ; and to obtain 152, which constitutes the bare 
 majorit3',he must have in addition Pennsylvania with 
 its 27 votes, and besides either Indiana or Illinois. 
 The Unionists flattered themselves that Mr. Everett 
 would give them Massachusetts ; and they reckoned, 
 as in 1850, to get votes enough in Indiana and 
 Pennsylvania to prevent the Republican candidate 
 from carrying- it in either of those States. Thus in 
 default of any candidate g-etting- an absolute majority 
 the nomination would fall to Congress, and there the 
 two parties were so evenly balanced, that the chance 
 Avas altos'ether in favour of a via-7nedia candidate. 
 
 There was a savour of probability about all these 
 calculations that could not escape the Republican 
 party, they exercised, therefore, considerable influ- 
 ence upon the decisions of the Republican convention, 
 which assembled at Chicago eight days after the 
 Unionist convention at Baltimore. The g-eneral 
 expectation was that Mr. Seward would be the can- 
 didate, and on many gTounds a better selection 
 could not have been made. Mi*. Seward was \Aith- 
 out doubt the first man of the Republican party. 
 Senator for the State of New York, of w hicli he 
 
51 
 
 had formerly been Governor ; he stood pre-eminent 
 among" the speakers in Congress. His clear and 
 philosophic turn of mind enabled him to trace out 
 with irresistible power the consequences that flowed 
 from any principle, and his lang-uag-e, g-rave, firm, 
 and convincing', and free from personality, influenced 
 even those whom it did not persuade. His hig-h 
 character, the purity of his public and private life, 
 his earnestness and sincerity, had won for him the 
 esteem both of friends and enemies. He mig'ht 
 almost be said to embody in himself the Eepublican 
 party. For years he had stood almost alone in the 
 Senate, fighting* the battle of freedom ag'ainst a 
 majority' of slaveholders, and never for a moment 
 had he flinched from the contest. Constantly as- 
 sailed with the most violent and bitter personal 
 attacks, branded as a traitor, burnt in effigy, and 
 threatened with death b}' the Southern men, he had 
 never shown himself either intimidated or discou- 
 raged. It was, therefore, only justice in the Repub- 
 lican party to give to this valiant champion, who 
 had foug'ht so many g"Ood fights on her behalf, the 
 highest recompense it was in her power to bestow. 
 Friends and enemies alike expected it. And besides 
 his other claims, the nomination of Mr. Seward en- 
 sured to the Republican party the State of New 
 York with its thirt3^-five votes, more than one- fifth 
 of the total number of votes required to carry the 
 election. It seemed, therefore, certain if Mr. 
 Seward had not the mnjority on the first division, 
 
 D 'J 
 
5-3 
 
 that most of the States who mig-ht, as was g-enerally 
 the case, have voted at the first round for one of 
 their own citizens, would on the second division 
 transfer their votes to him and g-ive him a tri- 
 umphant majority. 
 
 In a democracy, however, no one can arrive at 
 pre-eminence with impunit}"; great talent must be 
 atoned for like any other superiority, and it seems 
 not unlikely that Mr. Seward will afford another 
 instance of that fatality which has kept from the 
 Presidential chair the three most remarkable men 
 that America has produced for the last fifty years — 
 Cla}', Calhoun, and \A'ebster. The Southern men 
 findino- him always foremost in the fio'ht, had 
 concentrated upon his head all their hatred and 
 animosit}' ; they had come to identify him with his 
 party, the Seward party, as they called them. 
 Every trifling* word that fell from him was com- 
 mented upon and distorted. In a meeting* at 
 Rochester^ Mr. Seward, in speaking' of the anta- 
 g"onism of slavery and freedom, happened to say 
 that it was a contest that could have no end. The 
 expression that he applied to a contest of principles, 
 was at once taken to refer to a contest of parties. 
 He was accused of urging on a civil war. The 
 name of Seward had in fact become a bug-bear in 
 the South, and was never mentioned without threats 
 and curses. Unjust and unfounded as were these 
 aspersions, well might the Republican party hesitate 
 
63 
 
 before it took upon itself so g-reat a load of hatred 
 and terror ! 
 
 Some local elections that came off during March 
 in Rhode Island and in Connecticut were also a 
 warning- for the part}^ These two New Eng-land 
 States had g-iven in 1856 considerable majorities to 
 Fremont^ and the Republicans considered them safe. 
 In Rhode Island, however, the Republicans had 
 now barely escaped a defeat, and in Connecticut 
 their candidate for g*overnor, Mr. Burling'ham, had 
 only been elected by a majority of 600 on 80,000 
 recorded votes j his election, even by that small 
 mnjorit}^, being- due to his g-reat personal popularity, 
 and the well known moderation of his character and 
 opinions. These two elections had shown them 
 how much care was necessary, even in these old 
 Puritan States, not to run counter to the con- 
 servative instincts of the masses. How much more, 
 then, was it necessary to be careful with reference 
 to those free States which, in 1856, had voted for 
 Mr. Buchanan, and those who were bound to the 
 South by the ties of neighbourhood and commerce ; 
 such States, for instance, as Indiana, New York, 
 New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Nevertheless, Mr. 
 Seward's friends arrived at the Convention of Chi- 
 cag"o confident, of success. They expected indeed 
 that at the first vote Pennsylvania would vote for 
 General Cameron, Ohio for Mr. Chase, Illinois for 
 Mr. Lincoln, and Missouri for Mr. Bates ; but, 
 feeling' sure of New England, they were satisfied 
 
54 
 
 that their candidate would obtain far more votes 
 than an}' other, and that all the g-reat States, after 
 having- separately paid a compliment to one of their 
 own citizens by voting* for him, would at the second 
 round hand over their votes collective!}' to Mr. 
 Seward. They were g-rievously mistaken ! Mr. 
 Lane and Mr. Curtin, the Eepublican candidates 
 for the governorship in Indiana and Pennsylvania 
 respectively, men well acquainted Avith public 
 opinion in their States, declared that Mr. Seward's 
 nomination would ruin their onn prospects of suc- 
 cess, and that it would bring* about in their States a 
 defeat like that of 1856. Indiana, which had no 
 local candidate, at once adopted the nomination of 
 Mr. Lincoln candidate for Illinois ; Pennsylvania 
 did the same at the second round, and Ohio at the 
 third. Mr. Lincoln, who tied Mr. Se\\ard at the 
 second round, had, at the third round, a consider- 
 able majority. For the Vice-Presidency there was a 
 strong* feeling* in favour of one of the Pennsylvania 
 candidates, but the New Eng-land delegates, by way 
 of reprisals, voted unanimously for Mr. Hannibal 
 Hamlin, of Maine, who was elected at the second 
 round. After carrying* unanimously the pro- 
 g-ramme that was laid before them, the Republican 
 Convention dissolved itself, having* completed its 
 business in a sing'le day. 
 
 More than thirty thousand persons from the 
 nei^hbourino- states had gathered tof>*ether at Chi- 
 cago, anxious to obtain the earliest possible intclli- 
 
55 
 
 §•61106 of the choice of the Convention. The name 
 of Mr. Lincoln was received by this vast multitude 
 with frantic exclamations of delig'ht. The Avhole 
 valley of the Mississippi seemed to be delirious with 
 enthusiasm. This was the first occasion on which 
 a candidate for the Presidency had been selected from 
 without the limits of the old States. That Mr. Lin- 
 coln should be preferred to one of the most illus- 
 trious statesmen of the confederation appeared to be 
 a solemn recognition of the fact that the Western 
 States had attained their political majorityj a homag-e 
 rendered by the nation at large to the g-rowing* pros- 
 perity and future preponderance of those vig'orous 
 young- communities. This feeling' showed itself by 
 a long" series of noisy ovations, in which the constant 
 rattle of fire-arms and roar of cannon g-ave utter- 
 ance to the popular enthusiasm. This effervescence 
 of the West, in itself an unforeseen omen of success, 
 went far towards reconcilino- the Atlantic States to 
 the choice of the Convention, and when the romantic 
 and interesting' early life of Mr. Lincoln became 
 g-enerally known the masses in those states warmly 
 espoused the cause. 
 
 The g-randfather of Abraham Lincoln was one of 
 the hardy squatters, who with Daniel Boone mi- 
 g-rated from Yirg-inia to settle in Kentucky, and who 
 paid with their lives the conquest of that '^' land of 
 blood.'' He was killed b}- the Indians. His son 
 died young- in 1815, leaving- a widow in poverty, and 
 several sons, of whom Abraham Lincoln, at that 
 
56 
 
 time six years of age, was the eldest. The family 
 soon after moved into Indiana, where Lincoln went 
 throiig-h the hard apprenticeship of a squatter's life. 
 He had but little schoohng-, some six months or so, 
 but he learned to be master of the rifle, the axe, and 
 the ploug-h. Asheg'ot older and strong'er he became 
 first a shepherd boy, afterwards workman in a saw 
 mill, then a boatman on the Wabash and Mississippi, 
 and ultimately a railway platelayer. At the age of 
 twenty-one he emigrated into Illinois^ which was 
 rapidly settling- at that time, and for about a year 
 worked as day-labourer on a farm near Spring-field. 
 He devoted his leisure time to self-education, and 
 his next promotion was to be clerk in a store. He 
 took part as a volunteer in the war against the Black- 
 hawk Indians, and was elected captain of his com- 
 pany. Two years after that he was elected a member 
 of the State legislature, in which he sat for four 
 consecutive sessions ; he also at this time beg-an to 
 practise, with considerable success, as a barrister. 
 Thenceforward he became one of the leaders of the 
 Whig' ])arty in Illinois, and took an active part in all 
 l)oliticiil contests. Elected to Cong-ress in 1846, he 
 withdrew in 1849, for the purpose of devoting" his 
 time to the practice of his profession and the educa- 
 tion of his children. In 1859 the Repubhcans drew 
 him from his retirement, and set him up as candidate 
 for the Senate, in opposition to Mr. Douglas. 
 During- nearly two months the rival candidates can- 
 vassed Illinois, making a fresh speech every day, 
 
57 
 
 often coming" across each other, and on such occa- 
 sions eng-ag'ing-in one of those oratorical duels which 
 are the dehght of the American people. In this 
 contest Mr. Lincoln showed to considerable advan- 
 tag-e, though he had for his opponent one of the most 
 renowned public speakers in the Union ; he actually 
 received 3000 more votes than his opponent, thoug-h 
 the unequal population of the electoral districts g-ave 
 the latter the victor}^ It was this contest that 
 broug-ht Mr. Lincoln prominently before the Western 
 populations, and that g-ained for him their support 
 at Chicago. His very moderate and conservative 
 opiniojis, evidenced by his conduct in Cong-ress where 
 he was a staunch supporter of Henr}^ Cla}", tended 
 to re-assure the most timid politicians ; his protec- 
 tionist principles endeared him to the manufacturing- 
 States ', and the working- classes hailed him as one of 
 themselves, a self-made man, whohad known the hard- 
 ships and trials of povert}^, and who by intelligence, 
 toil, and honesty, had raised himself from the lowest 
 sphere to the noblest and most exalted position that 
 could be held by the citizen of a g-reat country. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's nomination was a heavy blow to 
 Mr. Douglas. It was on his influence, supposed or 
 real, in the Valley of the Mississippi, that the 
 latter principally relied. With a Western man op- 
 posed to him this influence was much shaken, and 
 without the united support of the Democratic party 
 he was not sure to escape defeat, even in Illinois. 
 These considerations revived the hopes of his per- 
 
68 
 
 sonal enemies whose courag-e had been somewhat 
 damped by his oratorical triumph in the Senate^ and 
 by testimonies of S3'mpathy that had reached him 
 from the South. In his g'reat speech Mr. Doug-las 
 had cut off his own retreat, by declaring* that 
 nothino' on earth would induce him to o'ive in to the 
 principle that CongTess had a right to interfere in 
 the Territories j at the same time the Senate had 
 adopted Jefferson Davis's resolutions, and by so 
 doino- had o-iven the warrant of its authoritv to the 
 
 DO 
 
 principle he so resolutely opposed. The leading- 
 demao-oo'ues of the South came, therefore, to an 
 understanding- as to the course the}' should follow in 
 the Democratic Convention about to assemble on the 
 18th June, at Baltimore, in consequence of the 
 resolution come to some weeks before at Charleston. 
 Tlie deleo-ates who had seceded at Charleston had 
 had a private meeting- at Richmond • it was ex- 
 pected that the}' would have nominated candidates, 
 the}' were, however, too wise to make a mistake which 
 would have deprived them of the rig-ht to vote at 
 Baltimore, and rendered Mr. Douo-las's nomination 
 a certainty. They arrived therefore, in due time at 
 Baltimore, and claimed their right to sit in the Con- 
 vention. Their re-admission would have deprived 
 Mr. Douo-las of all chance of obtaininof the neces- 
 sary majority of two-thirds, it was therefore opposed 
 by both jN^orthern and Southern Democrats, and 
 after long- stormy debates, their demand Avas re- 
 jected. On the other hand, the Convention ad- 
 
69 
 
 mitted two sets of delegates nominated by Mr. 
 Doiio'las's friends in Alabama and Louisiana. This 
 unfair proceeding' was followed at once b3"the seces- 
 sion of the deleg'ates of Yirg-inia^ and of the Southern 
 deleg'ates almost in a body^ and with them seceded 
 a certain number of Northern deleg-ates^ including- 
 the Chairman, Caleb Cushing-, of Massachusetts. 
 While Mr. Douglas's friends, having* succeeded in 
 silencing all opposition, proceeded to nominate their 
 candidate unanimously, the seceders adjourned to a 
 room hard by, which had been prepared for them in 
 expectation of what would happen, and there pro- 
 ceeded to oro-anize a rival convention. The candi- 
 dates the}^ selected were not, as might have been 
 supposed, extreme men, they were Mr. Breckin- 
 ridge of Kentucky, and Senator Lane of Oregon. 
 These nominations bore witness to considerable pru- 
 dence and forethouo-ht. General Lane's nomination 
 was in fulfilment of a promise made to the delegates 
 of Oregon and California in return for their support, 
 while that of Mr. Breckinridge was wisely con- 
 ceived for the purpose of detaching from Mr. Doug-- 
 las the senators and moderate men, inasmuch as 
 the candidate, besides being Vice-President at the 
 time, was an amiable kindly man, very popular 
 with the Democratic party. 
 
 The seceders were 125 in number, out of a con- 
 vention of 300 delegates, they, however, I'epresented 
 the whole of the South, the only States in which the 
 Democratic candidate was safe, and therefore in 
 
GO 
 
 fact they constituted in themselves the streng-th of 
 the part}'. Mr. Doug-las soon found this to his cost ; 
 his friends had selected Mr. Fitzpatrick of Alabama 
 for the Vice-Presidency ; this g-entleraan^ however^ 
 who at an early ag-e had become Governor of his 
 State and senator^ courteously refused the in- 
 tended honour, and in his place the party were com- 
 pelled to fall back upon Mr. Herschel Johnson of 
 Georgia, who accepted the post. Unluckily, how- 
 ever, the first time he attempted to address the 
 people in his own State, of wliich he had been 
 Governor, he was hooted and mobbed, and narrowly 
 escaped personal injur}^ Mr. Douglas had ima- 
 gined that he could confidently reckon on the more 
 moderate and enlightened of the Southern men, in 
 this also he was mistaken, their zeal on his behalf 
 had arisen not from preference for himself, but 
 merely because they thought his name to be the only 
 one that would awaken an}' sympath}- in the Free 
 States ; now that a final rupture had taken place, 
 and that no further good could be done, they were 
 no lono-er inclined to incur odium amono- their 
 neighbours for a cause which they felt was lost. 
 They either declined altogether to vote, or else gave 
 in their adhesion to Mr. Breckinridge. Mr. Bu- 
 chanan, whose vengeance was not even 3'et satiated, 
 gave audience to a deputation of the seceding con- 
 vention, approved highly the choice the}' had made, 
 and promised the most zealous co-operation on the 
 part of the government. To give proof of his zeal 
 
61 
 
 in the cause a subscription was opened in the minis- 
 terial departments for Mr. Breckinridg-e, and all the 
 officials were recommended to g'ive fifteen daj's' pay 
 as their quota, while a g-ood many employees who 
 had been unlucky enoug-h to promise Mr. Douglas 
 their support were summarily dismissed. Where- 
 ever the influence of g"Overnment could make itself 
 felt the local Democratic committees pronounced for 
 Mr. Breckinridofe. 
 
 ly. 
 
 The severance so long- foreboded was at last ac- 
 complished and irrevocable. The vast importance 
 of this fact was not to be measured by its influence 
 on the chance of success of this or that candidate, 
 it had a far wider and more extended bearino*. The 
 election of 1856 had shown that a g'reat majorit}^ of 
 the citizens of the Northern States were radically 
 hostile to slavery j but at that time there existed, 
 even in New England, a party ready to make 
 common cause with the South, viz. the Northern 
 Democrats, who had for a time given their support 
 to Mr. Douglas, and whose influence had been 
 powerful enough to carry the votes of several States. 
 The election of 1860 was destined to make manifest 
 the extinction of this intermediate party, the rupture 
 of this last bond of union between the two divisions 
 of the republic. Not only was it hopeless to at- 
 tempt to get the vote of a single Free State for a 
 
G2 
 
 candidate supported b}' the South, but such a can- 
 didate would have opposed to him the energetic 
 popuhition of the North in one homog'eneous and 
 unanimous mass. The crisis then which was to 
 decide the fate of the Union had at hist reall}^ and 
 truly arrived. AVhen Mr. AViiifiill, senator for 
 Texas, in advocatino* the cause of Mr. Breckinrido-e 
 before the citizens of Wheeling-, told them that if 
 an}' other candidate was elected the}^ must look for 
 storms, that the confederation might indeed continue 
 to exist, but would onl}' include thirt3'-three States, 
 his audience may have felt that his forebodings were 
 true, but they must have felt also that Mr. Breck- 
 inrido'e had not a shadow of a chance of success. 
 However much people may have been prepared for 
 the breaking-up of the Democratic party, an event 
 so preg'nant with future consequences could not 
 take place without profoundly ag-itating- the public 
 mind. 
 
 These part}^ dissensions were, however, g-ratifv- 
 ing' to the Unionists. They thought they were 
 sure of all those Southern States in which in 1856 
 they had ecpialled the Democratic party at that time 
 unanimous, and they therefore hoped that their can- 
 didate would come before Cong-ress ^\•it]l more votes 
 than Mr. Breckinridg-e, an important item in his 
 prospects of success. In reality, however, it was the 
 llepublican party that reaped the fruit of all these 
 divisions, to them the confhct in the Central States 
 would no long-er be ag-ainst a compact phalanx of 
 
63 
 
 adversaries, but ag-ainst a demoralized and disor- 
 g-anized mob. Their hopes of victory became strong-er 
 day by day, and to their g-reat joy the first fruit of 
 all this discord was to convert a portion of their 
 enemies into allies. Since Mr. Van Buren and the 
 free-soilers had been excommunicated from the De- 
 mocratic party on the gToundof suspected orthodoxy 
 on the slavery question, the " fire-eaters" had had 
 it all their own way in the South, and had manag-ed 
 not only the politics of the part}^, but also the tone 
 of its newspapers. Slavery, therefore, in the opinion 
 of these scribes was no long-er as it used to be twenty 
 years ag-o, an evil, necessary indeed, but 3'et an evil ; 
 on the contrary, it was now the corner-stone of the 
 Constitution, a civilizing- moral institution useful 
 alike to black and white, its propag-andism was 
 preached j to suppress slavery, exclaimed at Charles- 
 ton Mr. Goulden of Georg-ia, would be to make 
 American civilization retrograde two centuries ! 
 When Mr. Jefferson Davis was aro'uino- that Con- 
 gress ought to support the extension of slavery he 
 dared to invoke the interests of humanit}'. The 
 rigorous censorship, which stops at the frontier of 
 the Southern States the books and newspapers of 
 the North, which closes the mouths of travellers, 
 and by the threat of murder silences even the mi- 
 nisters of the g-ospel, made it impossible to refute 
 these monstrous doctrines. Mr. Dong'las's cold 
 expediency mig-lit not harmonize with the views of 
 enlightened and christian men on these subjects, but 
 
04 
 
 it was preferable a hundred times to their brutal 
 eulog'y of a terrible social evil. It was impossible 
 for him even to defend his non-intervention prin- 
 ciples without contradicting- what was now the 
 fiivourite theme of the South, that slavery oug-ht to 
 be extended on account of its high and excellent 
 moral quahties. In all his arguments for squatter 
 sovereignty he was obliged to beg the question that 
 the principle of slavery is bad, and his opponents 
 were not slow in bringing this fi\ct into strong re- 
 lief. From this it naturally followed that an argu- 
 ment upon the pros and cons of slavery should arise 
 amono- those very Southern men who had hitherto 
 never questioned its merits, and that the seed of 
 thouo-ht and reflection should be so\\'n in certain 
 mindsj which might hereafter fructify into sound 
 and wholesome ideas. 
 
 The tide had turned, and was now flowing in flavour 
 of the Eepublicans. The members of this party 
 had drawn up and carried through the House of 
 Representatives a Bill modifying the Tariff' in a 
 Protectionist sense, but which from its moderation 
 might be looked upon as a compromise, and justi- 
 fied by the state of the public finances. All the in- 
 fluence of the Northern Democrats was brought to 
 bear on Mr. Buchanan, by representing to him that 
 it was a life or death question for the party in the 
 Central States, to induce him to use his influence 
 with the Southern Senators to allow the Bill to 
 pass. Mr. Buchanan refused to make use of his 
 
65 
 
 influence ; the measure was postponed until the 
 close of the session, but was at last rejected. Im- 
 mediately after this unpopular vote^ the Report of 
 the Committee of the House of Representatives was 
 published, in which flag-rant charges of political 
 corruption, of venality, of falsif3'ino- electoral lists, 
 of sale of places, were broug-ht home to several hig'li 
 officials, and to sundr}^ leaders of the Democratic 
 party. The Republicans did not fail to give to 
 these charg-es the widest possible circulation ; they 
 justified all the attacks they had for four years 
 made on the party, and some of them were of a 
 nature to explain the " reason wh\^ " of their own 
 previous want of success. 
 
 It so happened that the population of Illinois had, 
 in obedience to the universal custom in America of 
 nicknaming- political celebrities, given Mr. Lincoln 
 the soubriquet of "honest Abraham;" this was 
 taken up by the multitude, and what had been in- 
 tended merel}' as a tribute to the private virtues of 
 an individual, became an expression giving- utter- 
 ance to the national feeling- of disg-ust and con- 
 tempt for a venal executive. The inhabitants of 
 Spring-field, anxious to commemorate the nomina- 
 nation of their fellow citizen by the Convention at 
 Chicag-o, sent their municipal authorities to compli- 
 ment him, and at the same time to announce their 
 intention to fire a salute of one hundred and one 
 g-uns. " Let us be economical at once," said Mr. 
 Lincoln, laug-hing-, " one-and-twenty rounds will 
 
 E 
 
do." This harmless joke went the round of the 
 Confederation^ and men were g'lad to recog-nize in 
 its author one who would stop the frauds on the 
 Exchequer, and who would restore order and 
 economy to the public finances. 
 
 As day by day the Eepublicans gained streng-th, 
 the hearts of their opponents began to fail. The 
 Unionists made no progress in the North ; the choice 
 of the Republicans had cut away the ground from 
 under their feet ; they had looked for the name of 
 Mr. Seward, and had intended to make political 
 capital out of all the hatred and terror that that name 
 evoked. The nomination of an old Whig, unpledged 
 to any extreme policy, and to Avhose moderation Mr. 
 Benjamin, of Louisiana, himself bore testimony, 
 quite upset all their plans and all the hopes they had 
 founded upon them . No conservative classes, scared 
 by the nomhiation of Mr. Seward, flocked to their 
 standard ! The traditions of 185G, were not in their 
 favour, they had proved the party to be Aveak in 
 numbers, giving* little hope of a majority in any Free 
 State ; and then there was the Report of the Par- 
 liamentary Committee, which told sad tales about 
 the Unionists, how for instance they had not always 
 fouo'ht under true colours ; in that Report it was set 
 forth how in 1850, the managing* Committee of the 
 Democratic party had spent larg-e sums in the 
 Central States in subsidizing- newspapers, speakers, 
 and even committees for the Unionists, that this 
 was done with the sole object of dividing- Mr. 
 
67 
 
 Buchanan's opponents, and that to these tactics 
 the President had owed his success in Pennsylvania, 
 and with it his election. The newspapers and the 
 men who had plaj-ed this part of decoy ducks were 
 cited by name, and the sum mentioned that each had 
 received. These revelations weighed heavily on the 
 Unionist party, they tainted its every act with 
 suspicion, and made many stand aloof who would 
 g"ladly have joined a real and substantial party, but 
 who did not choose to be the dupes or the tools of 
 a band of intrio-uers. As to the two sections of the 
 Democrats, they were much more busy in tearing* 
 each other to pieces than in opposing the common 
 enemy. The one was alwa} s asserting that Lincoln 
 was ten times better than Douglas, the other that he 
 was far preferable to Breckinridge, so that by degrees 
 the effect produced was a general impression that 
 Lincoln was the man. Thus the election of 18G0, 
 when it came round had none of those incidents of 
 deep interest that marked the election of 1856. It 
 was not the earnest, feverish, maddening conflict of 
 two great parties of nearty equal strength, alike 
 confident, and where victory remained in suspense 
 until the last moment. On the one side was confi- 
 dence, on the other discourag'ement, forebodings of 
 evil, and mutual recriminations. The whole interest 
 of the electoral drama w^as concentrated on Mr* 
 Doua'las. Of the four candidates he was the most 
 distinguished, and also the one whose chance of suc- 
 cess was least. That he should win three things 
 
 e2 
 
68 
 
 were necessary : firstly, that Mr. Lincoln should not 
 ohtain the absolute majorit}-^ ; secondl}', that him- 
 self should be one of the three first candidates ; and 
 thirdly, that the choice of the House of Representa- 
 tives should fall on him. It seemed unlikel}' that he 
 should even attain to the second of these prelimi- 
 naries. The do2'2*ed hatred of Mr. Buchanan, which 
 flag-g-ed not though the defeat of his enemy was cer- 
 tain, kept raising all over the North committees for 
 Breckinridge with the view of dividing* the Demo- 
 crats, and he had succeeded in exting-uishing the 
 hopes of Mr. Douglas in every Free State, except, 
 perhaps, Illinois. In the South, the States that had 
 seceded at Charleston were safe for Breckinridge. 
 There was nothing left, therefore, but seven or eight 
 Slave States, and in them he must beat the friends 
 of Mr. Breckinridge, supported by the President, and 
 the Unionists. His position appeared to be despe- 
 rate ; yet he must go on, retreat was impossible. 
 On the one hand he would have got no thanks for a 
 simulated desire to restore harmony to the party, 
 and on the other, he would have been compelled to 
 sacrifice the principle on which he had based his 
 secession from the ranks of the Ultra-democrats. 
 
 Mr. Douglas determined to carry the thing 
 through, though he felt no doubt as to the issue. 
 To the ultras of the South his defeat would be due, 
 and he resolved to concentrate all his energies against 
 their candidate, and do them all the harm in his 
 powor. A thorough beating would lower their 
 
69 
 
 pride^ show them then* weaknesSj and make them see 
 that there was no safety for sUive institutions but iu 
 a reorganization of the Democratic party. They 
 must then return to him^ embodying- as he did the 
 Democratic party of the North 5 and the more he 
 made them feel his power^ the less likely they were 
 to rebel again. Mr. Douglas not only made his 
 managing committee publish an address pledging 
 themselves to no compromise with Mr. Breckinridge, 
 but he determined to carry the war in person into 
 the enemy's camp. A custom has grown up in the 
 United States, founded on prudential motives, that 
 when a public man has accepted a nomination to 
 the Presidency he should give up all appearances in 
 public of every kind, he should write no letter and 
 make no speech ', all letters respecting his opinions, 
 past or present, he hands over to his committee, 
 and they undertake to answer them. No candidate 
 was ever known to make a canvassing tour on his 
 own behalf. All this etiquette Mr. Douglas scat- 
 tered to the winds. For three months he journej^ed 
 throuo'h the leno-th and breadth of the confederation, 
 making every day a speech, and speaking every day 
 upon the same text. " The republicans and fire- 
 eaters," said he, " are equally conspiring to destroy 
 the Union : the foruier are always threatening sepa- 
 ration, the latter incessantly fanning the flame of a 
 deplorable contest. The only means of preserving 
 the integrity of the confederation is to put in prac- 
 tice the fundamental principle of the constitution. 
 
70 
 
 the sovereig-nty of the people, and allow always and 
 everywhere the majority of the inhabitants to decide 
 whether slavery shall or shall not be established. 
 By this means alone can the separatists of North 
 and South be rendered equally powerless." All the 
 laro-e cities of the Slave States were in turn visited 
 by Mr. Doug-las, and thanks to the oratorical spar- 
 rino- matches in which he almost daily eng-ag-ed with 
 Mr. Breckinridg-e's supporters, the contest did not 
 lack life and interest. 
 
 Such then was the state of parties in America at 
 the close of the exciting- ordeal of selecting- can- 
 didates. The Republicans had made a choice that 
 secured to them the conservative classes and all the 
 enemies of slavery ] the Unionists, with no definite 
 policy, inspired general distrust ; lastl}', the Demo- 
 crats were divided into two sections, the South sup- 
 porting* Breckinridg-e, the North, Doug-las, both 
 contending- ag-ainst the true interest of their common 
 party. The electoral campaig-n opened with a suc- 
 cess of the Republicans, an omen of g-reater victories 
 in store for them. General Lane, the candidate of 
 the Democrats for the Vice-Presidency, was rejected 
 from the Senate by Oreg'on, and Frank Blair was 
 re-elected representative by St. Louis of Missouri. 
 It was Mr. Blair's first election which produced so 
 g-reat a sensation three years before, when to the 
 astonishment of everybody the capital of a Slave 
 State chose as their representative to Congress a 
 declared opprment of slaver}-. 
 
71 
 
 At the following- election a Democrat was returned 
 by a very small majority, but Mr. Blair succeeded 
 in proving- that his defeat was owing- to fraudulent 
 practices in the election, and at the close of the 
 session of 1860 his opponent had been declared un- 
 duly elected, and he had obtained the seat. As 
 however his seat would have been vacated in due 
 course before the recess was over, Mr. Blair at once 
 resigned in order to be re-elected, and thus give his 
 party the moral support of an electoral triumph at 
 the opening- of the campaig-n. His plan met with 
 full success, and a llepublican victory in a Slave 
 State was the first mortification of the Democratic 
 party. A local election took place some days later 
 in Kentucky, the support of the Republicans enabled 
 a Unionist candidate to beat the Democrat. 
 
 The Southern men beg'an to perceive with dismay 
 that a Republican nucleus was forming- in the Slave 
 States themselves. Encourag-ed by Blair's election, 
 his friends undertook to make out a list of federal 
 electors in favour of Lincoln, and thus to vote 
 directly for the Republican candidate instead of 
 voting* for the Unionist list as they had done in 
 1856. No stop was put to their proceeding's, and 
 no attempt was made to set aside and consider as 
 void all Republican votes, as had been done in 1856 
 with the votes recorded for Colonel Fremont. In 
 Kentucky, a true hero, worthy of the name he bore, 
 Mr. Cassius Clay, had made himself for many 3'ears 
 the missionary of freedom. He had formed in the 
 
mountains of Kentucky a little band of Republicans, 
 raainl}^ emigTants fi'om Pennsylvanin reinforced by 
 converts. Frequently had his life been in dang-er. 
 In March, I860, his villng-e had been invaded, and 
 liis "vvife and famil}' threatened with exile; but 
 nothing- would intimidate him, and at last his 
 indomitable nerve had compelled his opponents to 
 bow to freedom of speech in his person. With his 
 revolver and bowie knife in his belt, he had been 
 the apostle of Kepublican opinions m Kentuck}^, 
 none caring* to molest him, for it was known that he 
 would sell his life dear. His intrepidity and perse- 
 verance as well as his open-hearted g'ood humour 
 had won the hearts of that wild population, who 
 thoug-ht they saw^ in him a worthy representative of 
 the Kentuckinn of the good old times. In the same 
 way there had been formed in the Hig'lilands of 
 Tennessee, a region unfitted for negTO labour and 
 gradually settling- from the North, a few^ isolated 
 bands of anti-slavery men who encourag'ed by the 
 depression of the Democrats no longer concealed 
 their republican sympathies. In their case ag*ain 
 no opposition was offered to the free expression 
 of their opinions, and encourag'ed b}' their example 
 the inhabitants of the Northern counties of Virg-inia 
 hoisted the Republican standard, without bring-ing* 
 upon themselves the persecutions that had followed 
 a similar course in 1850. Lastl}"", in Maryland, 
 a Republican committee was openly formed in Balti- 
 more which gave out that in future it should bring 
 
73 
 
 forward its candidates at the local elections. The 
 Eepublicans of Delaware also organized with the in- 
 tention of freeing' themselves from the 3'oke of the 
 Unionists. Thus, if the free central States obey to 
 a certain degree the impulse of the South, they also 
 react upon her by the natural spread of liberal ideas, 
 since the six conterminous Slave States each contain 
 a g'erm of anti-slavery opinion. In reality all these 
 manifestations were without effect upon the election, 
 and did not benefit Mr. Lincoln by bringing- him a 
 sing'le vote, but they were of extreme importance 
 with reg-ard to the future, and were the most sig-ni- 
 ficant feature of the whole electoral conflict. 
 
 The rejection by the Senate of the Tariff Bill had 
 exactly the effect that Mr. Bigler had predicted. 
 It produced a deep feeling- of irritation in the manu- 
 facturing- districts J in New Jersey, for instance, 
 where many mills were closed in consequence of 
 English competition, and where emigration was 
 thinning- the T^orking* population, and in Pennsyl- 
 vania where the iron districts were sufferino-, strono- 
 symptoms of opposition began to display themselves. 
 It now seemed likely that Mr. Lincoln would suc- 
 ceed in these two States and in Indiana, in which 
 case his election would be safe. But one course 
 remained open to his opponents, by which this con- 
 summation might be avoided and the election trans- 
 ferred to Congress, and that was a coalition among- 
 themselves. 
 
 In New Jersey, where Mr. Breckinridge's friends 
 
74 
 
 wielded the power of the Democratic org-anization, 
 an understanding" was come to with the Unionists, 
 both parties ag-reed to support a common list of fe- 
 deral electors equall}' divided between the in, so that 
 each candidate should have half the votes of the 
 State. In New York, where Mr. Doug-las's friends 
 formed the streng-th of the part}', a similar under- 
 standing- was attempted ; ten out of the thirty-five 
 electors were offered by the Democrats to the Union- 
 ists, but there was some mystification in the matter 
 as to whether these electors were to be pledg-ed to 
 vote for Mr. Dell under an}' circumstances, or whe- 
 ther thev mio'ht not under certain conditions vote 
 for Doug-las. This was never made quite clear, and 
 each party read the barg-ain by the light of their own 
 interests. It so happened that the Unionists were 
 in the main strong- native Americans, zealous ng'uinst 
 naturalization and foreig-ners, while Mr. Doug-las's 
 supporters were in g-reat part Germans, who held in 
 abomination the Unionists and all who ag-reed with 
 them. No sooner, therefore, had the coalition list 
 appeared, than persons included on both sides has- 
 tened to withdraw their names and to denounce the 
 scheme. Mr. Ottendorfer, the editor of the leading- 
 German newspaper, peremptorily declined to allow 
 his name to appear in the same list with those of 
 electors known to be hostile to the naturalized 
 citizens. Some also of the chiefs of the Unionists, 
 such as Messrs. Dodg-e and Putnam, protested 
 ag-ainst the coalition, they had meant to support a 
 
75 
 
 houdjide party and not to be a catspaw of the De- 
 mocrats ; they g'ave out their intention of supporting" 
 Mr. Lincohi, and from that time forward openly 
 took part in the Repubhcan demonstrations. 
 
 The elections of Vermont and Maine^ which took 
 place early in September^ and in which the Repub- 
 licans had it all their own way, convinced Mr. Lin- 
 coln's opponents^ that it would require all the 
 streno'th they could muster to defeat him, and that 
 they had no time to lose. The President and his 
 Ministers felt that they must act and that speedity, 
 they therefore took the initiative, and a bitter pill it 
 must have been to them, in persuading* Mr. Breck- 
 inridg-e's supporters to come to an understanding* 
 with Mr. Doug-las's friends, and lay before them a 
 scheme for a triple coalition in the Northern States. 
 The neo'otiation was long' and troublesome, several 
 times it came to a stop, and at each dilemma a fresh 
 batch of Democrats went over in disg-ust to the Re- 
 publicans. Perhaps the most distasteful part of the 
 transaction was its being' a hole and corner proceed- 
 ino- between the committees, and its inevitable result 
 that in the local elections a mixed list should be put 
 out, in which g'ood care must be taken of the private 
 interests of the leaders of all the three parties • this 
 had an ugly look of barter and sale, the quid 2)ro 
 quo being the consciences and votes of the indepen- 
 dent electors. Many g-ood sort of people protested 
 ag'ainst this arrang-ement, Avliich disposed of their 
 votes without asking* their leave, and the feeling* 
 
76 
 
 evoked, tended greatly to weaken the Unionist party 
 in New York. In Pennsylvania^, the same sort of 
 thing- took place with about the same result. The 
 October elections were looked for with much anxiety 
 as affording a means of gauging- the strength of the 
 coalition; on the 8th of October, just one month 
 before the nomination of the Federal electors, the 
 three great central States, Pennsylvania, Ohio and 
 Indiana, representing in the ag-greg-ate 63 votes for 
 the Presidenc}', were to elect their Governors. In 
 these three States the opposition had coalesced, 
 nevertheless the three Republicans were elected. In 
 Pennsylvania, Mr. Curtin had a majority of 30,000, 
 and the number of electors that voted was so consi- 
 derable that there was no chance of reversing* the 
 decision. But, perhaps, the most striking- feature 
 was the result of the voting- in Philadelphia, where, 
 instead of a Democratic majority of two-thirds of 
 the electors, Mr. Foster, notwithstanding- his great 
 personal popularity, could onl}^ manage to head the 
 Republican candidate by a paltry 2000. The ^ New 
 York Herald,' the heart and soul of the triple fusion, 
 was obliged to allow that the game was up in Penn- 
 sylvania, and that the onl}' chance was to tight it 
 out in New York. It therefore entreated, in despair- 
 ing tones, the three oppositions to concentrate on 
 New York all their energies and all their resources, 
 not even flinching from bribery if necessary. There 
 is nothing, however, so trying to the temper as de- 
 feat ; the three worthy members of the coalition fell 
 
77 
 
 out, and each threatened to try his chance alone. 
 There was for a time, a talk of making* all the three 
 candidates withdraw, and putting' up a sing-le one 
 instead, but the time had g^one by, it was too late for 
 any such device, and for want of an3^thino- better to 
 do, the trio spent the month of October in mutual 
 recrimination and abuse. 
 
 As a forlorn hope an attempt was made at the last 
 moment to put the screw on New York ; all the 
 Southern houses countermanded their orders, or post- 
 poned them until after the election j heavy sales of 
 stock were made on their account ; they required 
 the payment of all debts due to them in cash, the 
 deposits in the New York banks diminished rapid!}', 
 and it seemed as if the crisis of 1857 was about to 
 return. But the whole thing* was too artificial to 
 last, especially at a time when English speculators 
 were making- daily purchases of corn from the West 
 to an immense amount. Political intimidation was 
 next tried, and it proved as unsuccessful as the 
 monetar}^ " screw.'' The Governor of South Carolina, 
 in opening- the Session of the Leg-islature, recom- 
 mended the two Houses to take the necessary steps 
 to enable South Carolina to secede from the con- 
 federation, if Mr. Lincoln should be nominated. 
 The leg-islature named a commission with plenary 
 powers to neg'otiate, in such an event, the secession 
 ef South Carolina, and it decided that it would pro- 
 lono- its session until the 9th of November, so as to 
 be in readiness ibr all eventualities. The Democratic 
 
and Unionist newspapers made a g-reat hubbub about 
 this important resolution. Unluckily it was not the 
 first time that the legislature of South Carolina had 
 held a similar lano-uage, and people remembered how 
 President Jackson in 1833, hud demanded and ob- 
 tained the disbanding- of the Carolinian militia, by 
 threatenino- to march ao-ainst them at the head of 
 the Federal troops. A single State could do nothing-j 
 the South to be feared should be unanimous, and 
 that was far from being the case. Impartial obser- 
 vers noticed that as Mr. Lincoln's election became 
 more and more probable a change came over the 
 language of all the more important Southern men. 
 In June nothing was heard but sinister prophecies. 
 Mr. Lincoln could never be President of the whole 
 Confederation, his election would give the signal for 
 a fearful civil w^ar. In October, Mr. Breckinridge's 
 supporters had found out that they should wait and 
 see what Mr. Lincoln meant to do, and not dissolve 
 the Union until he had perpetrated some flagrant 
 ao-o-ression. The threats of the Ultras did not, there- 
 fore, intimidate the North, but they were a powerful 
 support to the Unionists in the South as that party 
 became the champion of union and law. It remained 
 for the election to prove that the separatists were in a 
 minorit}', even in those States wherein they appeared 
 to possess political preponderance. 
 
 The 6th of November arrived. The city of 
 New York, over-ridden by the influences we have 
 described, gave a majority of 28,000 to the triple 
 
79 
 
 fusion ; but the vote of the State was neverthe- 
 less for Lincoln, who received an enthusiastic 
 support from the country electors. In Pennsyl- 
 vania, the Republicans expected their October 
 majorit}' of 80,000 to diminish, on the contrary it 
 increased to 80,000. All the Free States, except 
 New Jersey, which was won by the coalition, voted 
 for Lincoln. They g-ave him 1G9 votes, that is 17 
 more than the absolute majority, and a month later 
 it was ascertained that Oreg-on and California had 
 also given him their support. The central States, 
 Delaware,Yiro-inia, Maryland, Tennessee, Kentuck}^, 
 the oldest, richest, and most populous of the Slave 
 States voted for Bell, who obtained 57 votes, 
 including" the seven for New Jersey. Mr. Breckin- 
 ridge only succeeded in the nine most South- 
 ern States, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, 
 Mississippi, Florida, Georg'ia, and the two Carolinas ; 
 in several of the States he had only a small majority 
 over Bell, and he would have failed in all if Doug- 
 las's supporters could have been induced to vote 
 for the Unionist candidate. At the bottom of the 
 list came Mr. Doug-las, who only g-ot the vote of the 
 sing'le State of Missouri. Yet Mr. Douglas may 
 be said to have, to a g'reat extent, succeeded in {ac- 
 complishing- his wishes. In the Free States he ob- 
 tained more votes than Bell and Breckinridg-e put 
 together, and four or five times as many as Breckin- 
 ridge alone. He thus proved that the only Demo- 
 cratic party in the North w^as the party pledged to 
 himself. In the Central States, with the exception 
 
80 
 
 of Missouri, he succumbed to Bell, but on the other 
 hand he distanced Breckinridg-e. Even in the States 
 of the extreme South he obtained a decent minority. 
 He haS; therefore, in his defeat the satisfaction of 
 having' proved be^^ond a doubt the weakness of the 
 Ultra part}'. 
 
 This proof of weakness is the real salient fact of 
 the election of 18C0, for it removes the hazard that 
 existed of a civil war. In face of the unanimous 
 North, it would have required a South equally 
 unanimous, equally determined not to g-ive way. 
 The vote that the five States g-ave to Mr. Bell and 
 the vote of Missouri are equivalent to a declaration 
 of fidelity to the Union. The nine States who alone 
 voted for Breckinridg"e are not strong' enough to try 
 anything- by themselves \ what would be the worth 
 of a Southern Confederation in which was not found 
 Yiro^inia, Tennessee, Missouri, or Kentucky ? It 
 is even doubtful whether in the nine ultra States 
 themselves the separatists are powerful enough to 
 overcome the energ-etic opposition of the Bell and 
 Douglas party combined to support the Union. It 
 seems too almost certain that their indio-nation will 
 
 o 
 
 evaporate in words. Should this be the case the 
 election of 1800 will have had the desirable result 
 of laying' the ever-recurring- phantom of the disso- 
 lution of the Union. When the first bitterness of 
 defeat is over, the South will recog'nise the folly of 
 attempting- to transform Cong-ress into a society for 
 the propag-ation of slavery against the will of the 
 
81 
 
 vast majority of American citizens. They will feel 
 the madness and folly of irritating- the North and 
 risking- the public peace for a mere abstract theory. 
 As Mr. Goulden, a wealthy planter of Georgia and 
 the largest slaveholder in the State^ remarked in the 
 Convention at Charleston, the leo-alrig-ht to establish 
 slavery in the Territories would be simply useless ; 
 " for what is a right if you have not the means of 
 exercising- it^ and those means 3'ou do not possess/' 
 he added^ ^'' sow. have hardly slaves enough for your 
 own estates ; you can only fill Kansas, Nebraska, 
 and the other Territories with slaves by depopulating- 
 Maryland, Virginia, and Missouri, which would then 
 become Free States ; you will displace your own 
 streng-th and add to that of your adversaries, Ee- 
 open the slave trade, let us import all the negroes 
 we want from Africa, and then if you please 3"0u 
 may undertake to increase the number of the Sla,ve 
 States and propag-ate slavery • but until you do that 
 your efforts are useless." 
 
 There was a g;reat leaven of truth in this speech 
 of Mr. Goulden's, and the Southern men will find it 
 to be so at last. There is no fear that they w ill re- 
 open the slave trade ; not indeed that they would re- 
 coil before the execration of all civilized nations, but 
 simply because they could not do it without an im- 
 mense depreciation of their own private fortunes, of 
 which a considerable portion is invested in slaves. 
 Slaver}^ is, therefore, destined to remain stationar}-, 
 and not to advance is to recede. The Free States 
 
 F 
 
will pursue their onward path of progress^ they will 
 by deg-rees surround the slave-labour portion of the 
 territory, and the irresistible contact of liberty will 
 ultimatel}' emancipate the slave. 
 
83 
 
 NOTE 
 
 On the Judgment of the Su}>reme Court of the United 
 States in the case ofDred Scott versus Sandford. 
 
 The plaintiff, Dred Scott, was a Negro slave in 
 1834, belonging- to Dr. Emerson. In that year his 
 master took him to a place, Fort Snelling, north of 
 36° 30' of latitude. While at Snellino- he married, 
 and had two daughters, issue of the marriage, one 
 born north, the other south of 30° 30' latitude. 
 Subsequently Emerson took Dred Scott and his 
 family into the Slave State of Missouri and sold them 
 to Sandford. Dred Scott brought an action in the 
 Circuit Court of the United States to recover his 
 freedom. 
 
 By act of Congress it was declared " that slavery 
 and involuntary servitude, except as a punishment 
 for crime, shall be for ever prohibited in all that 
 part of the territorj^, &c. north of 30° 30' north 
 latitude, not included in the State of Missouri.'' It 
 was allowed that Fort Snelling was within the 
 prohibited country. 
 
 The case was tried on appeal. Judgment was 
 given against the plaintiff on two grounds. 
 
 1st. He had no right to sue, not being a citizen. 
 
 Sndl}^ The " Missouri compromise" was ipso facto 
 void, being unconstitutional The same defect 
 attaching to any acts of Congress adverse to or 
 limiting slavery. 
 
84 
 
 A few extracts will expluin the otouikI on which 
 the jiidg'ment of the Court was g-iven. 
 
 Tane}', C.J., in delivering* the judg'nient of the 
 Court; said; with reference to the first point : — 
 
 " This is certainly a very serious question, and one that 
 now, for the first time, has been brought for decision 
 before this Court. The question is simply this, can a 
 Negro, whose ancestors were imported into this country 
 and sold as slaves, become a member of the political com- 
 munity formed and brought into existence by the Con- 
 stitution of the United States, and as such become entitled 
 to all the rights and privileges and immunities guaranteed 
 by that instrument to the citizen? — one of which rights 
 is the privilege of suing in a Court of the United States 
 in the cases specified in the Constitution." 
 
 There being- no explicit declaration on the subject 
 in the Constitution, the Court consider that they 
 must interpret the word citizen according to the 
 feelino's and views of the framers of the document. 
 The}^, therefore, endeavour " to realize the state of 
 jmblic opinion in relation to that unfortunate race" 
 at the time the Constitution was drawn; and having 
 made it out to their satisfaction, g-ive it their 
 stamp; as being- the j^i'cscnt law of the liepublic. 
 
 *' They had for more than a century before been re- 
 garded as beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit 
 to associate with the white race, either in social or political 
 relations ; and so far inferior, that t/iey had no riyhts 
 wJiich the white majt was boimd to respect ; and that the 
 Negro mi fjht justly and laufidhj he reduced to slavery for his 
 benefit. He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary 
 article of traffic, whenever a profit could be made by it." 
 
■ 85 
 
 Upon this arg-iiment, subsequent!}^ amplified and 
 diluted throug-h man}^ P^g'^s, it is decided that such 
 an individual cannot have been meant to be a citizen^ 
 and therefore is not a citizen. 
 
 The decision of the Court was g-iven b}^ six 
 judg-es against two^ McLean and Curtis dissenting-. 
 
 In Judge Curtis's judgment a curious instance is 
 given to show that in 1803 the possibility of a 
 Negro citizen was contemplated. In an act of 
 Congress of that year masters of vessels are pro- 
 hibited under certain conditions to import or bring 
 " any negro, mulatto, or other person of colour, not 
 being a native or citizen or registered seaman of the 
 United States." 
 
 Much stress had been laid in the judgment of the 
 Court on the words of the Militia Act, which di- 
 rects the enrolment of "every free, able-bodied, 
 wdiite male citizen." Upon which Judge Curtis 
 remarks, " The assumption from this that none but 
 white persons are citizens would be as inconsistent 
 with the just import of this language, as that all 
 citizens are able-bodied, or males !" 
 
 The Court after explaining at great length the 
 cause of the want of jurisdiction of the Circuit Court 
 from whence the appeal came, and also its own want 
 of jurisdiction, proceeds to give the citizens of the 
 United States the benefit of its opinion, and that of 
 the several judges, on the slave question in general. 
 Mr. Justice Nelson seems to have been awake to 
 the extraordhiary proceeding of appending a politi- 
 
86 
 
 cal harang'ue to the judgment of a " Court of Jus- 
 tice" which had just decided that an appeal must be 
 dismissed^ being- "coram non judice/' so he tells us 
 " that if we suppose that the Court is acting- extra 
 judiciall}' in g'iving- an opinion^ because it has decided 
 that this Court has no jurisdiction to examine the 
 case upon its merits," that " such an assertion is an 
 error arising" from misapprehension." The error he 
 explains, trul}^ enoug-h, to arise from people sup- 
 posing* the Supreme Court of the United States to 
 be guided by the same rules as other Courts else- 
 where. 
 
 The slavery question is settled in the broadest 
 and most decided way. Some further extracts from 
 the " decision" will show that, in the opinion of the 
 six judg-es, the Republic is saddled with an incubus 
 in Territory and State, north and south, slave and 
 free, from which not even Cong-ress has power to 
 free her. 
 
 After premising' 
 
 " That tlie Federal Government can exercise no power 
 over the person or property of a citizen beyond what the 
 Constitution confers, nor lawfully deny him any right 
 which it has reserved :" 
 
 The judg-ment g'oes on to suppose an extreme 
 case. 
 
 " No one^ we presume, will contend that Congress can 
 deny to the people the right to keep and bear arras, or tlic 
 right to trial by jury, or compel any one to be a witness 
 against himself in a criminal proceeding." " These powers, 
 
87 
 
 and others which it is not necessary to enumerate here, 
 are in express terms denied to the General Govern- 
 ment, and the rights of private property have been guarded 
 with equal care. Hence an Act of Congress which de- 
 prives a citizen of the United States of his liberty or pro- 
 perty, merely because he came himself or brought his 
 property into a particular territory of the United States, 
 and who had committed no offence against the laws, 
 could hardly be dignified with the name of due process of 
 law." 
 
 After proclaiming" their duty " to protect private 
 property ag'ainst the encroachments of the Govern- 
 mentj" the Court solemnl}" gives utterance to the 
 following" astounding' dictum : — 
 
 " Upon these considerations it is the opinion of the 
 Court that the Act of Congress which prohibited a citizen 
 from holding and owning property of this kind {i.e. slaves) 
 in the territory of the United States north of the line 
 therein mentioned, is not warranted by the Constitution, 
 and is therefore void ; and that neither Dred Scott him- 
 self nor any of his family were made free by being carried 
 into this territory, even if they had been carried there by 
 the owner with the intention of becoming a permanent 
 resident." 
 
 The innovation of considering* a slave a mere 
 chattel or portion of goods, upon which this super- 
 structure of " constitutional law" was founded, was 
 as g'reat and surprising in America as it would be 
 in Europe. 
 
 Judge McLean in his able " opinion'' stated " in 
 1851 the Court of Appeals of South Carolina recog- 
 
88 
 
 nised the principle that a slave being* taken to a free 
 state became free ;" and he added^ " The slave 
 states have g-enerally adopted the rule that where a 
 master has resided with his slave in a state or terri- 
 tory where slavery is prohibitedj the slave was 
 entitled to his freedom everywhere. This was the 
 settled doctrine of the Supreme Court of Missouri. 
 It has been so held in Mississippi, in Yirg'inia, in 
 Louisiana, formerly in Kentucky, Maryland, and in 
 other states." 
 
 The doctrine would therefore appear to be as 
 much opposed to precedent, as it is repulsive to com- 
 mon sense, and revolting- to humanity. 
 
 We can hardly wonder that the Northern States, 
 formerly Free, but now, until this decision is re- 
 versed. Slave States, have been compelled at last to 
 take up the challeng'e thus insolently Hung' in their 
 faces. They are, however, strong* enoug'h to hold 
 their own, and if they should hereafter strike their 
 flao* to the South and submit to the brand of 
 slaver}', they will deserve to bear it. We will, 
 therefore, shortly consider the effect of this decision 
 of the Suj)reme Court upon the persons it most 
 immediatel}^ concerns, who have none but God to 
 help them, — the Neg*ro slave, and the free black. 
 
 When we reflect that the decision we have just 
 considered affects 4,490,000 human beings, unarmed 
 and defenceless, in the midst of twice that number 
 of bitter and implacable enemies, armed to the 
 teeth, we mtiy well say of them in the words of 
 
89 
 
 Scripture, ^^ that the}'- are cast down hound in the 
 midst of the burning fiery furnace." All hope is 
 taken from them, redress they have none, they may 
 be robbedj ill-treated, trampled upon, kidnapped, 
 their wives, their children, themselves, hurried down 
 South and sold in the plantations, " for the black 
 man has no rig-hts which the white man is bound to 
 respect." And such has been the result : kidnapping" 
 the free blacks and their families, men who have 
 been free for generations, and who have the tastes 
 and education of free men, is now an ^^institution" 
 of the Southern States. And the States themselves, 
 unwilling* to leave this lucrative trade entirely to pri- 
 vate speculators, have gone into the business. In 
 1859 the legislature of Arkansas passed a law 
 banishing' all free negroes from the State. All the 
 wretched beinofs that had not left house and home 
 before January 1, 1860, were sold by auction for 
 slaves ! Missouri, in the same way, has passed a 
 law by which all free negroes found in the territory 
 of the State on September 1, 1861, oxe ipso facto 
 slaves. If any free negro from another State 
 should enter Missouri, at the end of twelve hours 
 he becomes a slave. Louisiana, not to be left behind 
 in the race, has voted a law the counterpart of 
 Missouri. Mississippi, more keen after blood-money 
 than her sisters, gave the free negroes only six 
 months' law, from January 1 to Juty 1, 1860, but 
 with a refinement of Pecksniffian morality which 
 makes one shudder, it added a clause that the money 
 
 G 
 
90 
 
 realized b}' their sale should be spent in founding- 
 schools. Georgia has endeavoured to accomplish 
 the same ends with similar unblushing- hypocrisy, 
 and has enacted that all free negroes convicted of 
 idleness or immorality should be slaves for a year, 
 and that for the second offence the penalty should 
 be slavery for life. 
 
 The inhabitants of Mar3dand have petitioned their 
 Legislature that the 75,000 free negroes residing 
 in their State be made slaves at once and divided 
 among' them, and the refusal the}- got was accom- 
 panied by measures that will rapidly accomjDlish 
 their wish. It is therefore evident that the Legis- 
 latures are awake to the fact that they must be stir- 
 rings if they do not wish to leave to private hands 
 all the rich booty with which the Dred Scott de- 
 cision has provided them. 
 
 With respect to the poor JN^egro Slave his fate 
 is now much as it used to be, but in one respect it 
 is agg^ravated, he has lost the last resource of the 
 captive, hope. The Dred Scott decision ma}' be 
 said to have made his wretched existence a true 
 Hell on earth, and to have inscribed in letters of 
 fire over the portals of his life — 
 
 Lasciate ogni speranza ! 
 
 The opinions of the Judges in this leading* case 
 are contained in 230 closely printed octavo pages. 
 The decision of the Court delivered by the Chief 
 Justice is weak and verbose, wanting- in that ac- 
 
91 
 
 curacy and care we are accustomed to recog-nize in 
 the recorded decisions of our Courts, deeply ting-ed 
 with prejudice, and defective in g-rammar ; it is 
 chieHy remarkable for two thing's. 
 
 1st. — Directly, for its bearing* on the prospects 
 of four and a half millions of human being-s, 
 and incidentally, for its destruction of the 
 American Union. 
 "Behold how great a matter a Uttle fire kindleth." 
 
 2ndly. — For g-iving* judicial sanction to the well 
 kiiown dictum of Proudhon, (though perhaps 
 not exactly in the sense he intended) which 
 has not hitherto been received in Courts of 
 Law. 
 
 La propriete c'est le vol. 
 
 W. J. 
 

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