senators from the "Free State." The Democratic party opposed the admission of California. The question was finally settled for the time being by the admission of California as a state, with a constitution prohibiting the introduction of slavery, by the abolition of the slave trade within the District of Columbia, and by the passage of the Fugitive Slave law. This law, hateful in all its provisions, was demanded by those interested in slave property, on the ground that the constitution of the United States provided for such legislation. It was very unpopular with the Whigs in the "Free States," and was claimed to be unconstitutional because it provided that the fugitive arrested might be taken back by his captor to the state in which it was claimed he belonged, without the formality of a trial by jury. The administration was democratic, the judges were appointed by a democratic president, and the law was held constitutional.

This legislation had a very strong tendency to force the Whigs in all the free states to a united opposition to the extension of slavery. Compromises are frequently said to be objectionable as a confessed departure from principle; but it may well be doubted whether it was not the part of wisdom for the Whigs, under the leadership of Mr. Clay and others. to concur in these measures; because it is believed that had the extreme southern element then made the attempt to bring about the disruption of the Union, as had frequently been threatened, it was extremely doubtful whether the sentiment in the Free States could have been so far consolidated as to have successfully resisted the attempt. At any rate after the passage of these resolutions, the Democratic party in its platform of principles, in 1852, declared explicitly that the compromise measures finally settled the slave controversy. That platform was a distinct pledge to the people of the Union that the agitation of the slavery question was to cease.

The resolutions passed by the Whig convention of that year were not sufficiently explicit in expression to satisfy either wing of the party. They were a little too strong to suit the Whig party in Kentucky and other southern states that had

before that time been controlled by the Whig party, and they were not sufficiently strong and explicit to satisfy the Free Soil Whigs of the Free States. The consequence was that they did not attract to their support the people in either section. General Pierce was elected by an overwhelming majority. The people seemed to be inclined to accept the situation. They desired rest and quiet. It was therefore apparently unexpected by the public at large that the question of the claims of slavery should be precipitated so soon thereafter. The introduction of a bill into congress organizing the territory west of Missouri and of Iowa into the territory of Nebraska, and that by a northern senator, with the proposition to repeal the Missouri restriction, produced a profound sensation. The Missouri Compromise had been in force for about thirty-five years, and had been regarded as an explicit and sufficient guarantee that it was legally impossible ever after for one man to buy or sell another within the territory belonging to the United States lying north of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, and west of Missouri. However, the majority in congress pushed the matter until the bill, eventually taking the form of the organization of Kansas into one territory and Nebraska into another, was passed, and the Missouri restriction repealed. The doctrine had been advanced during the discussion of the compromise measures that by the force of the constitution itself, slavery had the right to enter any territory of the United States, and that congress had no power to prohibit it; and that therefore the Missouri Com-* promise was unconstitutional and void. The effect of this legislation was to arouse in the Free States an anti-slavery sentiment. The Whig party did not disorganize in Illinois in the political campaign of 1854, although there were divisions in its ranks in various localities.

The campaign of 1854 was conducted by the opponents of the Democratic party as an Anti-Nebraska party; that is to say, in opposition to the administration of President Pierce and to the demands of the slave power. The election that fall resulted in the choice of a majority of the members opposed to the Kansas-Nebraska bill, opposed to the Democratic adminis

tration, and in favor of Free Soil. A great majority of the Whig leaders in the state supported the Anti-Nebraska movement. There were some leading Democrats, however, elected to the general assembly, gentlemen who had stood high in the counsels of the Democratic party, who were in sentiment and principle opposed to the extension of slavery. Such were John M. Palmer, Norman B. Judd, Burton C. Cook, senators, besides some members of the house.

That legislature elected Lyman Trumbull to the senate of the United States. Mr. Trumbull had occupied a seat upon the supreme bench of the state; he resigned his seat, became an Anti-Nebraska candidate for congress in the Belleville district, and was elected; but before the time arrived for him to take his seat, he was elected to the senate of the United States.

The discussion of the slavery question continued to occupy public attention throughout the year 1855, and on February 22, 1856, the Anti-Nebraska editors in the state met at Decatur in convention, for the purpose of considering the best mode of conducting the Anti-Nebraska campaign. That convention was presided over by a Whig editor, Mr. Paul Selby, then of Morgan county. Resolutions were adopted, a central committee appointed, and it was recommended that a convention be held on the 29th of May, 1856, for the purpose of organizing all the forces of the state in opposition to the Democratic party. On the same day a political convention assembled at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, composed of men from the various states of the Union who were opposed to the policy of the administration of General Pierce and opposed to the extension of slavery. We might refer to some of the Whig leaders who were present in this convention, in this city, or, if not present, cooperating with the movement. There was E. B. Washburn, of Jo Daviess county, afterwards a member of congress and still later minister to France; Ira O. Wilkinson, a native of Kentucky and a circuit judge from Rock Island county; Wm P. Kellogg, of Peoria county, afterwards a member of congress; Orville H. Browning, afterwards secretary of the interior; N. Bushnell and Archibald Williams, of

Adams county; Mr. Williams was the United States district attorney under Fillmore, and was appointed district judge in Kansas by Mr. Lincoln; William Ross, William A. Grimshaw, Jackson Grimshaw, and Dr. Thomas Worthington, an original anti-slavery Whig, of Pike county; also Ozias M. Hatch, of that county, member of the lower house of the general assembly and, nominated at this convention for secretary of state; Francis Arenz, a learned German, and Henry E. Dummer, afterwards member of the legislature, then from Cass county; Samuel D. Lockwood, who came to the state of Illinois in 1818 and was on the supreme bench for nearly thirty years, whose residence was in Jacksonville, Illinois, and afterwards at Aurora in Kane county. He was also a member of the constitutional convention of 1847. William Thomas, who settled in Morgan county in 1826, a native of Kentucky, served in the lower house and in the senate, and also in the constitutional convention of 1847. There was also from Morgan county Joseph J. and Martin H. Cassell, and Jonathan B. Turner, Richard Yates, David Davis, then on the circuit bench, and afterwards elevated to the supreme bench by Mr. Lincoln, Jesse Fell and Leonard Swett, of McLean county; C. H. Moore, of DeWitt county; William G. Green, a native of Tennessee from Menard county, and an intimate friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln at New Salem; Richard J. Oglesby, of Macon county; James M. Ruggles, of Mason county; Joseph T. Eckles, of Montgomery county, a member of the constitutional convention of 1847; Benjamin Bond, of Clinton county, United States marshal under Fillmore's administration; Thomas J. Henderson, of Bureau county, brigadier general in the Union Army and a member of congress; James C. Conkling, Wm. H. Herndon, William Jayne, Wm. Butler, Milton Hay, James N Brown, from Sangamon county; Shelby M. Cullom, from Tazewell county, and afterwards of Sangamon county.

Other Whig leaders did not follow or support the antislavery movement of the Whig party generally. Of those we might name Buckner S. Morris, of Cook county; Charles

H. Constable, of Coles county; Anthony Thornton, of Shelby; James L. D. Morrison, of St. Clair; David M. Woodson and Charles D. Hodges, of Greene county, and John Todd Stuart and Benjamin S. Edwards, of Sangamon county. Some of these gentlemen last named joined the Democratic party on the slavery question and some of them became extreme partisans in that organization.

The convention assembled at Bloomington was composed of earnest, determined, yet conservative men who had become alarmed at the demands of the slave interest in the United States, and who desired to form a compact, energetic and aggressive political party in opposition to the extension of slavery. It was not contemplated, so far as I know, nor was it claimed by any one, that the constitutional power existed to interfere with slavery in the states where it existed by force of local and positive law; but it was the doctrine of that convention that slavery was a cruel wrong and a mistaken policy, and ought not to be permitted to extend into other territory. And it was believed that to circumscribe it within the boundaries where it then legally existed would have a direct and strong tendency to ultimately overthrow it. There was no question raised as to the name of the party at the time. That is to say, the name "Republican" was not proposed, but the effort was made to unite all earnest men who were willing to renounce former political organizations and associations and unite in the organization of a party having for its chief purpose the restriction of slavery to its then existing limitations. Colonel Bissell, a Democrat, who had commanded the Second regiment of Illinois volunteers in the Mexican War, and who had justly gained renown for the achievements of that regiment, and who had represented his state in the state legislature and in congress, was nominated for governor without a dissenting voice. General John M. Palmer, then Senator Palmer, was elected to preside over the deliberations of the convention. Francis A. Hoffman of Cook county, was nominated for the office of lieutenant governor, and he having been found to be ineligible, John Wood, of Adams county, was substituted. Ozias