Mr. Seward took occasion, in the senate, in his speech' on the admission of Kansas, to review the decision, and the connection of the president with its announcement. His dramatic description, in this speech, of the inauguration ceremonies; his vivid exhibition of the insincerity of the president's professions; and his clear exposition of the fatal connection of the decision with the tyrannies and outrages in Kansas, arrested the attention of the senate and the country

At a subsequent date he proposed a reconstruction of the supreme court and the courts of the United States, "so that the states shall be represented by judges in said courts more nearly on the basis of their federal population, while the administration of justice shall be made more speedy and efficient." These amendments he proposed to make in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution, without injustice to any interest or section of the Union.

The thirty-fifth congress, elected mainly at the same time with Mr. Buchanan, commenced its first session on the 7th of December, 1857. The administration, like that which preceded it, claimed a decisive majority in both houses. In the senate there were thirty-seven democrats, twenty republicans, and five whigs or Americans. The house stood-democrats one hundred and twenty-eight, republicans ninety-two, Americans fourteen. Mr. Seward's speeches at this session were numerous, and on a great variety of subjects.

2

Early in the autumn of 1857, signs of a severe and general revulsion in the trade and industry of the country began to appear. During the month of October all the banks suspended specie payments, and a most alarming prostration of business ensued. More than five thou sand failures occurred, involving liabilities to the amount of three hundred millions of dollars. The winter opened with a universal complaint of distress, especially among the working classes in the cities and large towns. Probably no interest was more seriously impaired than railroad stocks. In the short space of thirty days, shares in many of the lealing corporations depreciated more than fifty per cent, becoming, in some instances, valueless. The treasury

1 March 3, 1858. See present volume.

2 The following are the titles, as given in the Congressional Globe: The President's Message; Eulogy on James Bell; Treasury Notes; William Walker; Paying for Slaves out of the Treasury; Eulogy on Thomas J. Rusk; Increase of the Army; Admission of Minnesota; Kansas and Lecompton; Slavery in New York; Pacific Railroad; Admission of Oregon; The Fisheries; British Aggressions; Rivers and Harbors; Coast Survey; Eulogy on the late Senator Hender son; Maif Steamers; and Washington City Schools.

of the United States, which, a short time ago, was overflowing, was now suffering from depletion, and immediate legislation was required to meet the wants of the government.

Among the first acts of the president, after the assembling of congress, was to call for an issue of treasury notes. Mr. Seward, while admitting the necessity of such means of relief, proposed to limit the issue, in amount, rate of interest, and length of time.

In a speech, already noticed, made by Mr. Seward, in February, 1853, on removing the duties from railroad iron,' a prophetic warning of the present embarrassments may be found. His statesmanlike counsels had been unheeded, and seven years had been sufficient to consummate his predictions.

The people of Kansas saw no improvement in their affairs under the administration of Mr. Buchanan. President Pierce had removed from office, two governors of Kansas, Reeder and Shannon, because they had manifested an unwillingness to submit wholly and unreservedly to the pro-slavery party in the territory. John W. Geary succeeded Governor Shannon, and was soon compelled, by persecution in Kansas and neglect at Washington, to resign. President Buchanan then appointed Robert J. Walker, of Mississippi, to succeed Mr. Geary. Mr. Walker also resigned, after striving for a few months, without success, to administer the government of the territory with some degree of justice to the people, without, at the same time, offending the administration at Washington. F. P. Stanton, the secretary of the territory, who acted as governor during the absence of Walker, encountered the displeasure of the proslavery party, and was removed from office by the president. Governor Walker and Mr. Stanton, like their predecessors, failed to secure either order or fairness in the elections or government of Kansas; and the people were forced to submit to the usurpations of their oppressors. A legislature, composed of pro-slavery members, assembled at Lecompton, in January, 1857, and ordered a convention to be called to frame a state constitution. The legislature and the convention were thus both placed in the hands of the enemies of Kansas, having been chosen almost entirely by fraudulent

votes.

1 See p. 623, vol. III.

By the act calling this convention, a census of voters was to be taken, on the basis of which, previous to the choice of delegates, an apportionment was to be made. This census, falling into the hands of the pro-slavery sheriffs, was grossly unjust, most of the free state voters being unenumerated, and some counties entirely omitted. The apportionment and all the arrangments for the election of delegates were made, so as to perfectly ensure the return of a pro-slavery majority in the convention. Under these circumstances the free state men again refused to vote and the whole number of votes cast was only about two thousand.

1

The election took place on the 15th of June, and the delegates. thus chosen met in convention at Lecompton on the 4th of September, 1857. After organizing they adjourned until October. In the meantime an election for members to the territorial legislature was held, in which the free state men participated, some show of fairness having been secured. The result of this election, notwithstanding many gross attempts at fraud, secured a legislature of thirty-six free state members to sixteen pro-slavery. The free state delegate to congress was chosen at the same time by seven thousand six hundred votes, against three thousand seven hundred for the pro-slavery candidate, showing the free state settlers to be in a large majority in the territory.

1 Since the above was written, Governor Walker, himself, has testified to the following facts: Shortly after I arrived at Lecompton," says Mr. Walker, says Mr. Walker, "the county of Douglas, of which Lecompton is the capital, held a democratic meeting, and nominated eight gentlemen, I think, as delegates to the Lecompton convention, of which John Calhoun, then the surveyor-general of the territory, was at the head. The resolutions of the meeting required them to sustain the enbmission of the constitution to the vote of the people. They published a written pledge to that effect. Rumors were circulated by their opponents that they would not submit the whole constitution to the people. They published a second circular, a day or two before the election, denouncing these rumors as falsehoods, and reaffirming their determination, if elected, to submit the constitution to the people. But for these assurances it is universally conceded they had no chance whatever of being elected-not the slightest.

I still continued to entertain not the shadow of a doubt that the constitution would be submitted to a vote of the people by the convention, nor do I believe the slightest doubt existed in the territory. I deem it due to frankness to say, that from my long residence in the south, and my general views on the subject of slavery, I should have greatly preferred that a majority of the people of Kansas would have made it a slave state. I avowed these views very fully in my public communications in Kansas. I never disguised my opinions upon this subject. But at the same time it was perfectly obvious to myself and to every person that it was possible to accomplish that object by no fair means in Kansas. I was determined that, so far as my action was concerned, there should be a fair vote of the people, and that I would countenance no frauds, or forgeries, or villainy of any kind, in connection with a question so solemn as that. This attempt to make Kansas a slave state developed itself in the fall of 1857. It first was fully developed by the terrible forgeries in the pretended returns. They were not legal returns that were sent to me as governor of the territory, and which I rejected, although that rejection gave a majority of the territorial legislature to my political opponents, the republicans. The first forgery presented to me was the case at Oxford, which was a forgery upon its face, and that it was so has since been acknowledged by one of the judges whose names were signed to it. In a public document he declares that he never did affix his signature to it. In Oxford, some sixteen hundred votes were attempted to be given in a village of six houses, where there were not fifty voters, and it is now ascertained that not thirty votes were really given. The rest were all forgeries.

"The next return presented was from McGee county, where there certainly were not twenty voters, but which was returned as over twelve hundred voters, given at three different precincts, and where it is now ascertained that there was no election holden at all-not a vote given."

The convention reassembled at Lecompton, and framed a constitution recognizing slavery and declaring the right of property in slaves to be higher than any law or constitution. Notwithstanding the members had pledged themselves to submit the constitution they were to frame, to the suffrages of the people, no such provision was adopted by the convention. Only the section relating to slavery was to be so submitted, and it was by an artful precaution made impossible to vote for or against that section without, at the same time, voting for the whole constitution. The free state settlers refusing to vote, the slavery permission was adopted by a vote of six thousand one hundred forty-three to five hundred and sixty-nine. Three-fourths of the affirmative votes were proved to be fraudulent.

Early in February, 1858, the president sent to congress a special message, with the constitution thus formed at Lecompton, recommending the admission of Kansas into the Union under that constitution. In the house the subject was referred to a select committee, on motion of Mr. Harris, of Illinois, by a vote of one hundred and fourteen to one hundred and eleven. The speaker, contrary to usage, appointed a committee opposed to the object of the

mover.

In the senate, after a debate of several weeks duration, a bill was passed to admit Kansas under the Lecompton constitution; ayes thirty-three, nays twenty-five. Bell, Broderick, Crittenden, Douglas, Pugh and Stuart voted nay with the republicans. Previous to the final passage of the bill Mr. Crittenden moved a substitute providing that the Lecompton constitution should be submitted to the people of Kansas; if approved, the president should by proclamation admit Kansas into the Union; if rejected by the people, a new convention might be called to frame another constitution. Mr. Crittenden's substitute was rejected in the senate by a vote of twenty-four to thirty-two-Bell, Broderick, Douglas and Stuart voting aye with the republicans.

The bill as it passed the senate was taken up in the house on the first day of April. A motion to reject it was lost-ayes ninetyfive, nays one hundred and thirty-seven. Besides the republicans voting to reject the bill were Harris, of Illinois, and Hickman, of Pennsylvania. Mr. Montgomery, of Pennsylvania, immediately moved to substitute Mr. Crittenden's amendment for the senate bill. His motion was carried, and the house, by a vote of one hundred

and twenty to one hundred and twelve, adopted, substantially, the bill offered as a substitute in the senate by Mr. Crittenden.'

The bill, thus amended, was returned to the senate, where it was rejected by thirty-four to twenty-two. The house for several days maintained its position and refused to recede. The senate, equally obstinate, at length proposed a conference. The house, after one day's deliberation, by the close vote of one hundred and nine to one hundred and eight, accepted the proposition, and a conference committee was appointed-Green, Hunter and Seward, of the senate, with English, Stephens and Howard, of the house. Mr. English, who had voted in the house for the substitute, was the chairman. On the 23d of April, he reported to the house a compromise, Seward and Howard dissenting. This compromising bill of which Mr. English was the reputed author, was prevaricating and double dealing in its terms, and a virtual surrender of the principle contained in Mr. Crittenden's substitute, which the house had just adopted by eight majority. While professing to submit the constitution to the people of Kansas, the bill provided that in case of an adverse vote, the territory should not be admitted until it contained ninety-three thousand three hundred and forty inhabitants, and also that it should thereby forfeit its right to large allotments of the public lands heretofore set apart for internal improvement and education in the territory. It nevertheless passed the house by one hundred and twelve to one hundred and three,' and the senate by thirty to twenty-two, Broderick, Crittenden, Douglas and Stuart persisting in their opposition. It was promptly signed by the president, and under its provisions the constitution was submitted to the people of Kansas. They rejected it by a large majority, only one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight voting in its favor and eleven thousand three hundred against it. Mr. Seward's speeches during this contest in the senate, are remarkable for their ability and comprehensive views. They trace with historical accuracy and striking effect the various acts of the pro-slavery party,

1 The democrats who voted for the "Crittenden amendment," as it was called, were Messrs. McKibbin of California; Morris, Harris, Shaw, Smith and Marshall, of Illinois; English, Foley and Davis, of Indiana; Adrian, of New Jersey; Haskin and Clark, of New York; Pendleton, Groesbeck, Cockerill, Hall, Lawrence and Cox, of Ohio; Jones, Hickman, Montgomery and Chapman, of Pennsylvania. Messrs. Underwood, Marshall, Davis, Ricaud, Harris and Gilmer, representatives of slaveholding states, also voted with the republicans.

2 Among those who receded from their former positions were Messrs. English, Foley, GilmerCockerill, Cox, Groesbeck, Hall, Lawrence, Pendleton and Jones.