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"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 design of our Federal government were to secure these rights to all persons under 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 our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against alt attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing slavery in the Territories 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 imperative duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories. those twin relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery.

"Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to 'form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty,' and contains ample provision for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them; their territory has been invaded by an armed force; spurious and pretended legislative, judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced; the right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed; test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding office;

the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated; they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law; the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged; the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect; murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished; that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present national administration; and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and humanity we arraign the administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists, and accessories either before or after the fact, before the country and before the world; and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.

"Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.

"Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that 'might makes right,' embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect unworthy of American diplomacy and would bring shame and dishonor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction.

"Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean by the most central and practicable route is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, to the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

"Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by

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the Constitution and justified by the obligation of the government to protect the lives and property of its citizens.

"Resolved, That we invite the affiliation and coöperation of men of all parties, however differing from us in other respects, in support of the principles herein declared; and, believing that the spirit of our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantee liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens, we oppose all legislation impairing their security."

Whig Party

The Whigs who still adhered to their old party organization held a national convention in Baltimore, September 17-18, 1856. Delegates were present from twenty-six States, and Edward Bates, of Missouri, presided.

For President and Vice-President the nominees of the Know-Nothings, Millard Fillmore and Andrew Jackson Donelson, were endorsed.

Platform:

"Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States, now here assembled, hereby declare their reverence for the Constitution of the United States, their unalterable attachment to the national Union, and a fixed determination to do all in their power to preserve them for themselves and their posterity. They have no new principles to announce, no new platform to establish; but are content to broadly rest-where their fathers rested-upon the Constitution of the United States, wishing no safer guide, no higher law.

"Resolved, That we regard with the deepest interest and anxiety the present disordered condition of our national affairs-a portion of the country ravaged by civil war, large sections of our population embittered by mutual recriminations; and we distinctly trace these calamities to the culpable neglect of duty by the present national administration.

"Resolved, That the government of the United States was formed by the conjunction in political unity of widespread geographical sections, materially differing not only in climate and productions, but in social and domestic institutions; and that any cause that shall permanently array the different sections of the Union in political hostility and organize parties founded only on geographical distinctions, must inevitably prove fatal to a continuance of the national Union. "Resolved, That the Whigs of the United States declare, as a fundamental article of political faith, an absolute necessity for avoiding geographical parties. The danger, so clearly discerned by the Father of his Country, has now become fearfully apparent in the agitation now convulsing the nation, and must be arrested at once if we would preserve our Constitution and our Union from dismemberment and the name of America from being blotted out from the family of civilized nations.

"Resolved, That all who revere the Constitution and the Union must look with alarm at the parties in the field in the present Presidential campaign-one claiming only to represent sixteen northern States, and the other appealing mainly to the passions and prejudices of the southern States; that the success of either faction must add fuel to the flame which now threatens to wrap our dearest interests in a common ruin.

"Resolved, That the only remedy for an evil so appalling is to support a candidate pledged to neither of the geographical sections now arrayed in political antagonism, but holding both in a just and equal regard. We congratulate the friends of the Union that such a candidate exists in Millard Fillmore.

"Resolved, That, without adopting or referring to the peculiar doctrines of the party which has already selected Mr. Fillmore as a candidate, we look to him as a well-tried and faithful friend of the Constitution and the Union, eminent alike for his wisdom and firmness; for his justice and moderation in our foreign relations; for his calm and pacific temperament, so well becoming the head of a great nation; for his devotion to the Constitution in its true spirit; his inflexibility in executing the laws; but, beyond all these attributes, in possessing the one transcendent merit of being a representative of

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neither of the two sectional parties now struggling for political

supremacy.

"Resolved, That in the present exigency of political affairs we are not called upon to discuss the subordinate questions of administration in the exercise of the constitutional power of the government. It is enough to know that civil war is raging and that the Union is in peril; and we proclaim the conviction that the restoration of Mr. Fillmore to the Presidency will furnish the best, if not the only, means of restoring peace."

The Election

The writer has before him that valuable and now very rare publication, "The Democratic Hand-Book of 1856," compiled by Mich. W. Cluskey and endorsed by the Democratic national committee. On the titlepage are these words: "The success of the Democracy essential for the preservation of the Union and the protection of the integrity of the Constitution." In this sentiment was compacted the entire argument of the Democrats in the campaign. The volume embodies numerous documentary matters of great historical moment and interest, including profoundly able addresses delivered in Congress and before the public by Democratic and former Whig leaders of both the north and south-all contributory to the single claim that Buchanan's election was necessary to preserve the Union and Constitution. Interspersed through its pages are articles of the broadside kind, to the same purport. of these is entitled:

One

"The Fearful Issue to be Decided in November Next! Shall the Constitution and the Union Stand or Fall! Fremont, the Sectional Candidate of the Advocates of Dissolution! Buchanan, the Candi