delegate to congress. Their report completely established the fraudulent character of the election and the truth of all the outrages complained of by the free state inhabitants.

In the senate a debate of considerable interest, on the "Clayton and Bulwer treaty," occupied the first weeks of the session. Mr. Seward in several able speeches defended the rights and interests of his own country and clearly defined the nature and provisions of the treaty.

On the 24th of January, 1856, the president brought the affairs of Kansas before congress in a special message which gave rise to a protracted discussion in both houses. In the senate the subject was debated for nearly six months with little interruption.

Mr. Seward at the earliest opportunity introduced a bill for the immediate admission of Kansas into the Union. "In offering this proposition," says Mr. Sumner, in his famous speech of the 20th of May, the senator from New York has entitled himself to the gratitude of the country. He has, throughout a life of unsurpassed industry and of eminent ability, done much for freedom which the world will not let die; but he has done nothing more opportune than this, and he has uttered no words more effective than the speech, so masterly and ingenious, by which he has vindicated it."

On the 12th of March, Mr. Douglas, from the committee on territories, submitted a report extenuating the outrages committed in the territory and severely denouncing the action of the New England Emigrant Aid Society.

Mr. Collamer from the minority of the same committee at the same time presented an able report, taking entirely different views; views that have since been fully substantiated. On the 7th of April, Senator Cass presented the memorial of the Topeka legislature, asking for the admission of Kansas into the Union. A number of resolutions and bills were introduced at different times, by senators of both parties, providing for a settlement of the serious difficulties existing in the territory. On the 3d of July a bill passet the house for the admission of Kansas into the Union under the Topeka constitution by a vote of ninety-nine to ninety-seven. It was sent to the senate on the following Monday and referred to the committee on territories. On the 8th of July Mr. Douglas, chairman of the committee, reported a substitute for the bill, authorizing the people of Kansas, under certain restrictions, to form a state constitution.

The substitute passed the senate on the same day, ayes thirty, nays thirteen. The house refused to recede from its previous action. The senate declined to pass Mr. Seward's bill or the one which came from the house, substantially similar, and in this manner all relief to Kansas was denied. Mr. Seward's speeches at various stages of the extended debate are given in full in this vol ume. His eloquent and masterly statements of the subject will be read with equal pleasure and instruction, as the best history of the great transaction.

On the 22d day of May, 1856, a violent assault was committed in the senate chamber, immediately after the adjournment, upon Charles Sumner, by Preston S. Brooks, a representative from South Carolina. The blows were inflicted with a heavy cane while Mr. Sumner was sitting at his desk in the act of writing. A number of Mr. Brooks' friends were present, including Mr. Douglas, witnesses of the attack, none of whom attempted to prevent or arrest it. On the next morning Senator Wilson (Mr. Sumner's colleague), briefly stated the facts to the senate. Without making any motion, he said, "I leave it to older senators whose character, whose position in this body and before the country eminently fit them for the task of devising means to redress the wrongs of a member of this body and to vindicate the honor and dignity of the senate." Mr. Seward waited a reasonable time for some senator in the majority to offer a resolution on the subject. He then moved that a committee of five be appointed by the president of the senate to inquire into the circumstances of the case and to report thereon to the senate. Under parliamentary usage Mr. Seward would have been placed on this committee as its chairman. To avoid doing this, the senate changed their custom and elected the committee by ballot. Neither Mr. Seward nor any personal or political friend of Mr. Sumner's was chosen a member of the committee. The committee reported that the senate had no jurisdiction in the case,' and their report was adopted.

Mr. Seward, as the intimate associate and cherished friend of Mr. Sumner, was deeply moved by the whole transaction. He, nevertheless, so disciplined his feelings that his speeches on the subject, although full of eloquent denunciation of the outrage, were characterized by his usual dignity of tone and moderation of language.

1 The house voted to expel Mr. Brooks, one hundred and twenty-one to ninety-five. The motion required a vote of two-thirds. Mr. Brooks resigned, and was re-elected. He died suddenly January 27, 1857.

The state of Massachusetts having sent to the senate a series of resolutions relating to this serious attack upon one of her senators, Mr. Seward, in a very appropriate and feeling speech, reviewed the whole affair, and vindicated the legislature of that state in the course it had adopted.

Every one knew," said Mr. Seward, "that the sufferer in that scene was my cherished personal friend and political associate. Every one knew that he had fallen senseless and, for all that was at first known, lifeless, on the floor of the senate of the United States, for utterances which, whether discreet or indiscreet, were utterances made in the cause of truth, humanity, and justice—a cause in which he was a distinguished fellow-laborer with myself."

Besides the speeches made by Mr. Seward on "Kansas affairs," the “Clayton and Bulwer treaty," and the "Sumner assault," he also spoke at considerable length on the naval retiring board; the origination of appropriation bills; Senator Trumbull's seat; the Danish Sound dues; Nicaragua; the compensation bill; military and civic officers; and mail steamers. He also delivered a brief eulogium on the Hon. T. H. Bayley, late a representative from Virginia and formerly governor of that state.

Congress adjourned on the 18th of August, 1856. But it having failed to grant the required supplies for carrying on the Indian wars, the president convened an extra session, which met on the 23d of the same month. Mr. Seward's speeches at this session, on the army bill and its relation to the affairs of Kansas, throw new light on the subject. The extra session terminated on the 30th of August.

On the 224 day of February, 1856, a convention, representing the people of various sections of the country, opposed to the recent repeal of the Missouri compromise, the invasion of Kansas, and the aggressions of slavery, assembled at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

At this meeting the initiative steps were taken for the national organization of the republican party. Delegates from every free state, and from Kentucky, Maryland, and Virginia, were present. The venerable Francis P. Blair, of Maryland, presided; and among the members present were some of the most distinguished leaders of the whig and democratic parties.

The convention issued an eloquent and stirring address' to the people, and called a national convention to meet in Philadelphia, on the

1 This address was written by Hon. H. J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times and lieu tenant-governor of New York.

17th of June ensuing, to nominate candidates for the offices of president and vice-president of the United States. State conventions of a similar kind had been held in most of the free states. One, at Saratoga Springs, in the state of New York, in August, 1854, was remarkable alike for its great numbers and respectable character.'

On the 17th of June, 1856, in pursuance of the call adopted at Pittsburgh, a convention of the opponents of the recent aggressions of the slave power, and friends of the admission of Kansas as a free state and the restoration of the action of the federal government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, assembled in Philadelphia to nominate candidates for the offices of president and vicepresident of the United States.

A democratic convention, held at Cincinnati on the 2d day of the same month, nominated James Buchanan for the presidency; and the Americans had nominated Mr. Fillmore as early as February preceding.

2

The Philadelphia convention presented the names of John C. Fremont, of California, and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, as their candidates, and adopted a resolution in its platform inviting the affiliation and coöperation of all freemen supporting its principles, however differing in other respects. The supporters of this ticket became known throughout the Union as the "Republican Party," and entered upon the contest with a zeal inspired by their devotion to the cause of human nature. The following extracts from the platform adopted by this convention contain the essential principles of the new party :

"Resolved, That, with our republican fathers, we hold it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior designs of our federal government were, to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that, as our republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law, it becomes

1 Among the distinguished men of all parties who participated in its proceedings were Preston King, John A. King, William T. McCoun, Robert Emmett, John Jay, Horace Greeley, and Henry J. Raymond.

2 On the first ballot, Colonel Fremont had three hundred and fifty-eight votes and Judge McLean one hundred and ninety-nine. On the second, the vote stood five hundred and thirty-four to thirtyseven for the same candidates. The names of Messrs. Seward, Chase and others were withdrawn before any ballot was taken. For vice-president, on an informal ballot, Mr. Dayton received two hundred and fifty-nine, Abraham Lincoln one hundred and ten, David Wilmot forty-three, Charles Sumner thirty-six.

our duty to maintain this provision of the constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in any territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of congress, of a territorial legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any territory of the United States, while the present constitution shall be maintained."

Resolved, That the constitution confers upon congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government, and that, in the exercise of this power, it is both the right and the duty of congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism-polygamy and slavery."

Mr. Seward engaged in the presidential canvass with his accustomed zeal and ability. His speeches at Auburn, Detroit, and Oswego are consummate statements of the questions at issue, and masterly expositions of the republican creed. Like nearly all his speeches, they possess an interest and value beyond the occasion that produced them.

The election resulted in the choice of Mr. Buchanan, and in the success of the democratic party in the nation. In thirteen of the sixteen free states, however, the republicans elected their state tickets and gave Colonel Fremont a majority, in those states, of more than two hundred thousand votes over Mr. Buchanan. In New York, the republicans elected twenty-five members of Congress and the entire state administration. Colonel Fremont's plurality in the state over Mr. Buchanan was eighty thousand-over Mr. Fillmore one hundred and fifty-two thousand. Only two free states (Pennsylvania and Indiana) cast a majority of their popular votes for Mr. Buchanan.

In the slaveholding states, the republicans were not allowed to maintain an organization. Individuals expressing sentiments in favor of the republican party were driven from their homes, and became exiles in the free north. A few republican votes, less than twelve hundred in all, were given in the more favored portions of Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky, and Virginia.

Although failing of complete success, the "friends of human liberty" had now organized a party of more than thirteen hundred