ued his law practice, Mr. Lincoln did not take any part in public affairs until the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 1848. Roused to a sense of the danger which menaced the country, he at once took the field, and spoke against Douglas all over the State, with tremendous effect. In 1856, he took active part in the formation of the Republican party, and sustained the nomination of Fremont and Dayton against Buchanan.

The main, the wild principles of the party are exhibited in the following resolution of 1854:

Resolved, That the doctrine affirmed by the Nebraska Bill, and gilded over by its advocats with the specious phrases of non-intervention and popular sovereignty, is really and clearly a complete surrender of all the ground hitherto asserted and maintained by the Federal Governmen, with respect to the limitation of slavery, is a plain confession of the right of the slaveholder to transfer his human chattels to any part of the public domain, and there hold them as slaves as long as inclination or interest may dictate; and that this is an attempt totally to reverse the doctrine hitherto uniformly held by statesmen and jurists, that slavery is the creature of local and State law, and to make it a national institution.

Resolved, That as freedom is national and slavery sectional and local, the absence of all law upon the subject of slavery presumes the existence of a state of freedom alone, while slavery exists only by virtue of positive law. And by the following preamble and principal resolution of 1856:

WHEREAS, The present Administration has prostituted

its powers, and devoted all its energies to the propagation of slavery, and to its extension into Territories heretofore dedicated to freedom, against the known wishes of the people of such Territories, to the suppression of the freedom of speech, and of the press; and to the revival of the odious doctrine of constructive treason, which has always been the resort of tyrants, and their most powerful engine of injustice and oppression; and, whereas, we are convinced that an effort is making to subvert the principles, and ultimately to change the form of our Government, and which it becomes all patriots, all who love their country, and the cause of human freedom, to resist; therefore,

Resolved, That we hold, in accordance with the opinions and practices of all the great statesmen of all parties, for the first sixty years of the administration of the Government, that, under the Constitution, Congress possesses full power to prohibit slavery in the Territories; and that while we will maintain all Constitutional rights of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the principles of freedom as expressed in our declaration of Independence, and our National Constitution, and the purity and perpetuity of our Government require that that power should be everted, to prevent the extension of slavery into Territories heretofore free.

Upon the accession of Mr. Buchanan to the presidential chair, the affairs of Kansas continued to be hotly discussed by both parties. Judge Douglas has again and again been confronted by Mr. Lincoln, who, while taking pains to show that he was neither an amalgamationist or

an emancipationist,he he. rtily and honestly opposed that of the extension of slavery into the territories, but even the idea that slavery existed by any other right than the absence of express law to put it down. We quote:

"There is a natural disgust, in the minds of nearly all white people, to the idea of an indiscriminate amalgamation of the white and black races; and Judge Douglas evidently is basing his chief hope upon the chances of his being able to appropriate the benefit of this disgust to himself. If he can, by much drumming and repeating, fasten the odium of that idea upon his adversaries, he thinks he can struggle through the storm. He, therefore, clings to this hope, as a drowning man to the last plank. He makes an occasion for lugging it in from the opposition to the Dred Scott decision. He finds the Republicans insisting that the Declaration of Independence includes ALL men, black as well as white, and forthwith he boldly denies that it includes negroes all, and proceeds to argue gravely that all who counted it does, do so only because they want to vote, eat and sleep, and marry with negroes! He will have it that they cannot be consistent else. Now, I protest against the counterfeit logic which concludes that, because I do not want a black woman for a slave I must necessarily want her for a wife. I need not have her for either. I can just leave her alone. In some respects she certainly is not my equal; but .in her natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands, without asking leave of any one else, she is my equal, and the equal of all others."

The campaign of 1858 was next ushered in. The Re

publican party nominated Mr. Lincoln for U. S. Senator in the place of Judge Douglas, whose term expired. It was in the first speech which Mr. Lincoln made in this memorable canvass that he used the immortal expression: "I believe this government can not endure, permanently, half slave and half free."

He com

Judge Douglas answered in a spirited manner. menced: "I take great pleasure in saying that I have known, personally and intimately, for about a quarter of a century, the worthy gentleman who has been nominated for my p'ace; and I will say that I regard him as a kind, amiable and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen, and an honorable opponent; and whatever issue I may have with him will be of principle, and not involving personalities," and then went on: "Mr. Lincoln advocates boldly and clearly a war of sections, a war of the North against the South, of the free States against the slave States a war of extermination-to be continued relentlessly until the one or the other should be subdued, and all the States shall either become free or become slave."

But Mr. Lincoln triumphantly replied: "I did not say that I was in favor of sectional war. I only said what I expected would take place. I made a prediction only-it may have been a foolish one perhaps. I did not even say that 1 desired that slavery should be put in course of ultimate extinction. I do say so now, however, so there need be no longer any difficulty about that. It may be written down in the next speech."

"I am not, in the first place, unaware that this Government has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half

free. I know that. I am tolerably well acquainted with the history of the country, and I know that it has endured eighty-two years, half slave and half free. I believe —and that is what I meant to allude to there-I believe it has endured, because during all that time, until the introduction of the Nebraska bill, the public mind did rest all the time in the belief that slavery was in course of ultimate extinction. That was what gave us the rest that we had through that period of eighty-two years; at least, so I believe. I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any Abolitionist. I have been an Old Line Whig. I have alwyas hated it, but I have always been quiet about it until this new era of the introduction of the Nebraska Bill began."

Although Mr. Lincoln was not returned, yet the popu lar vote for senator was over four thousand majority his favor.

Admiration of the manly bearing and gallant conduct of Mr. Lincoln, throughout this campaign, which had early assumed a national importance, led to the spontaneous suggestion of his name, in various parts of the country, as a candidate for the Presidency. From the beginning to the end of the contest, he had proved himself an able statesman, an effective orator, a true gentleman, and an honest man. While, therefore, Douglas was returned to the Senate, there was a general presentiment that a juster verdict was yet to be had, and that Mr. Lincoln and his cause would be ultimately vindicated before the people. That time was to come, eveu sooner, perhaps, than his friends, in their momentary desponden