to the dissolution of the party, yet it had never been able to dispute, successfully, the right of the Democratic party to control the affairs of the State, and in order that the reader may better understand the causes which led to the formation of the Republican party, brief reference is made to the history of the legislation of the National Government upon the slavery question. Slavery had been transmitted to the United States by the British Government, and although most all the early Fathers of the Republic were opposed to the institution, yet they were unable to eradicate it from a country whose declaration of independence had voiced the doctrine that all men were created equal, and slavery was thus left as a cancer upon the body politic, and remained the subject of bitter controversy between the people of the North and South. For years prior to 1820, when what is known as the Missouri Compromise was passed, the question had been assuming an important and alarming position in the public mind, and ever and anon threatened the dissolution of the Union. The States of the North had gotten rid of such negro slaves as they had originally possessed, and had enacted laws forbidding their citizens from owning or bringing within their limits, negroes for purposes of labor. The feeling, in these States, that slavery was sinful, had been gradually gaining ground, and there were many persons in the South who held the same view. Certain religious bodies in the country had distinctly expressed their belief that it was contrary to the teachings of Christianity to own slaves, and memorials had been presented to the Legislatures of some of the States, and to Congress, praying for the abolition of slavery. Though Congress did not hesitate to pass an Ordinance in 1787, dedicating the Northwestern Territory, of which Illinois was a part, to freedom, yet it steadily refused to comply with the demands of the petitions presented to it regarding the abolition of slavery

throughout the Nation. Article six of that Ordinance reads thus:

"There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said Territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted: Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid."

The existence of slavery within the States was recognized and protected by the constitution, and Congress held that it had no right to interfere with the domestic relations of the States.

MISSOURI COMPROMISE OF 1820.

In February, 1819, the Territory of Missouri, which was formed out of a part of the Louisiana purchase, asked permission to form a constitution preparatory to being admitted into the Union as a State. When the bill for this purpose was presented to the House of Representatives on the 13th of February, Mr. Tallmadge, of New York, proposed to insert a clause providing "that the further introduction of slavery, or involuntary servitude, be prohibited, except for the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and that all children born in said State after the admission thereof into the Union, shall be free at the age of twenty-five years." The announcement of this amendment produced a great sensation in the House, and throughout the country. It was believed by the advocates of slavery that the resolutions of the House of Representatives of 1790, in reply to the first petition presented to it for the abolition of slavery, which declared the policy of the Government to be non-interference with slavery in the States, had settled the question of the powers of the Federal government respecting slavery. The bill continued to be the subject

of a long and angry debate in the House, and finally passed that body by a small majority as amended by Mr. Tallmadge, but it was defeated in the Senate.

When Congress re-assembled in December, 1819, the discussion as to the admission of Missouri was again renewed, and again the House passed the bill as amended by Mr. Tallmadge, but when it reached the Senate the clause prohibiting slavery was stricken out, and an amendment, offered by Senator Thomas, of Illinois, was substituted, which was in these words: "Section 8. And be it further enacted, That in all the territory ceded by France to the United States, under the name of Louisiana, which lies north of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude, not included within the limits of the State contemplated by this act, slavery and involuntary servitude otherwise than in the punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall be and is hereby forever prohibited: Provided, always, that any person escaping into the same, from whom labor or service is lawfully claimed in any State or Territory of the United States, such fugitive may be lawfully reclaimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her labor or service as aforesaid." The title of the bill was amended so as to agree with this section when it was sent to the House of Representatives for its concurrence. The House refused to accept the amendment of the Senate, and a committee of conference was appointed by both houses for the purpose of agreeing upon a bill acceptable to both sections of the country.

During the sitting of the conference committee, Thomas Jefferson, who was then living in retirement at Monticello, Virginia, and who was sincerely opposed to slavery, wrote a patriotic letter in opposition to the passage of the bill as amended by Mr. Thomas; he deprecated the thought of establishing a sectional line, and said the mere

suggestion of such a line sounded to him like a fire-bell at night, and that its consummation might sound the deathknell of the Union.

After weeks of bitter discussion before the committee of conference, the amendment offered by the Illinois Senator was adopted, and the bill as agreed upon by the committee passed the Senate March 2, 1820, by a vote of 27 ayes to 15 noes, when it was sent to the House for its concurrence. The bill passed that body on the same day by a vote of 134 ayes to 42 noes. Both the Illinois Senators, Edwards and Thomas, and the Representative, Mr. Cook, voted for the bill. (See the House and Senate Journals.)

After the passage of the bill, in a letter under date of April 13, 1820, addressed to Wm. Short, Mr. Jefferson said:

I

"I had laid down a law to myself, never to write, talk or even think of politics, to know nothing of public affairs, and therefore had ceased to read newspapers, yet the Missouri question aroused and filled me with alarm. have been among the most sanguine in believing that our Union would be of long duration. I now doubt it much. My only comfort and confidence is that I shall not live to see this; and I envy not the present generation the glory of throwing away the fruits of their fathers' sacrifice of life and fortune, and of rendering desperate the experiment which was to decide ultimately whether man was capable of self-government." (See Volume 7 of Jefferson's Complete Works.)

Notwithstanding the compromise was introduced by Mr. Thomas, Benton tells us in his Thirty Years in the United States Senate, that its adoption was the work of the proslavery men.

The constitution under which Missouri applied for admission into the Union sanctioned slavery, and contained a clause which prohibited the Legislature from interfering with the question.

There was also a clause in it authorizing the Legislature to prohibit the emigration of free people of color into the State, and this clause was laid hold of in Congress to resist the admission of the State. It was treated as a breach of that clause in the Federal constitution which guarantees equal privileges in all the States to the citizens of every State, of which privileges the right of emigration was one; and free people of color being admitted to citizenship in some of the States, this prohibition of emigration was held to be a violation of that privilege in their persons. Here followed an equally angry discussion over the peculiar features of this constitution, and it did not end until a committee of conference of the two houses had met and agreed upon a resolution favoring the admission of the State upon the condition that her Legislature should first declare that the clause in the constitution relative to the colored emigration into the State should never be construed to authorize the passage of any act by which any citizen of any of the States of the Union should be excluded from the enjoyment of any privilege to which he may be entitled under the Constitution of the United States, and the President of the United States being furnished with a copy of said act, should, by proclamation, declare the State to be admitted. This resolution was passed in the House by a vote of 86 to 82, and in the Senate by a vote of 28 to 14.

The Legislature of Missouri complied with the requirements of this resolution, and on the 10th of August, 1821, President Monroe issued a proclamation declaring the admission of Missouri into the Union, in complete accordance with law.

In his last message to Congress, President Polk had recommended the extension of the line 36° 30' north latitude to the Pacific, thus leaving it to the people