from the main body already in the slave States. The ratio of the increase of this class of population, in its normal condition, is an ascertained fact. Whether they would be as likely to increase according to the ordinary ratio, amid the severer labors of an unbroken region, as in the comparative ease and comfort of their accustomed abodes, especially if removed to a less genial climate, is a point about which a probably accurate judgment may be formed. At all events, it could be but the transfer of so many slaves, already existing in the country, from one place of residence to another. The political question, of the increase of slave States, would still remain. But it has been heretofore shown, that, while the limits of slavery in the South were definitely fixed, the North had already a very large preponderance of population; and that while the free States outnumbered the slave States at the period of the dispute, the character of the great Northwestern territory precluded the idea of forming out of it, at any future time, any other than those of the former class.

It may be remarked, in conclusion, upon this point, that however impolitic, in a popular sense, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, of 1854, may have been in some of its terms, it was, nevertheless, unavoidable, as a legislative measure, in its "principle and substance," whenever the organization of the Territory became necessary. The adoption of an opposite course would have been a violation of the Compromise measures of 1850, of the pledges of the Whig and Democratic Conventions, and a revolt against the vote of the immense popular majority in 1852. Consistency, principle, therefore, and the very existence of a party as a national organization, depended upon the submission of the question at issue to the determination of the people in the several territories, under suitable provisions for the rightful exercise of their popular functions. By flinching from this doctrine, the old Whig party, so long one of the main supporters of a constitutional republic, ran headlong into the wild sea of unconstitutional radicalism; and upon this issue, the Democratic party, no

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less distinguished of old for its devotion to the cause of the Union, became hopelessly divided; and, finally, with the assurance of victory if it had stood together, yielded the field to those whom both sections of the party were most anxious to defeat, for the cause of honestly republican principles under the Constitution.'

1 By referring to the final resolution, of the series which passed the Senate, January 12th, 1838 (Appendix IV.), by a vote of nearly four to one, it will be seen that the very principle of the Compromise of 1850 and of the KansasNebraska Act was then made a test question. The House took no action upon those resolutions; but at the first session of the twenty-fifth Congress, Mr. Atherton, of New Hampshire (December 11th, 1838), brought forward in the House a body of resolutions, covering the same general grounds as to Territories and other points included in those adopted by the Senate. These passed the House, on the following day, by large majorities; that one, which denied the right of Congress to interfere with slavery in the States, by the "indirect means" of acting upon petitions for its abolition in the District and in Territories receiving the least support, the vote standing 126 yeas, to 73 nays. For sixteen years, therefore, and during the political discussions of four general elections, before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, the point involved in that act had stood settled by the action of the two Houses, without any general question by the people. It is obvious, therefore, that the agitation to which that act gave rise, and which led to such direful consequences, could have resulted only from such a combination of activelv-working agencies as those described in the text.

CHAPTER XI.

Availability as the Motive of Nomination a Mistake of the Democracy in 1856, as it was of the Whig Party in 1852.-Seditious Legislative Proceeding.-The Nomination of Fremont and Dayton the first Instance of Sectionalism, as to Candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency.-Party Success, on merely available Grounds, insecure.— Southern Leaders seeking to inform themselves as to Northern Sentiment.—Visit of Mr. Davis to New England in 1858.-Mr. Toombs gives a Lecture in Boston.-Mr. Lincoln's Opinion of the State of Union Sentiment at the South, during the War.

THE object of this work has been to point out, in a somewhat general way, the movements of popular feeling and the course of action of the several parties, as tending towards certain results, not to examine the conduct of particular administrations of the General Government. It may, however, be properly enough suggested at this point, that the Democratic party, however actuated by considerations thought important to insure success, at a great public exigency, and, doubtless, also, by patriotic views of public. duty, may have committed a political error in failing to renominate President Pierce in 1856. Without any reference to the subsequent turn of events, under the administration of his successor, President Buchanan, and allowing for the impossibility of foreseeing their progress and result, it was the evident fact that a great national question of absorbing interest, unexpectedly coming up early in the term of President Pierce, must be met and be brought to an issue, mainly by the intelligent action and popular strength of the Democratic party throughout the country. The embarrassments with which the administration of the latter was encumbered, in relation to the disturbances in Kansas, grew out of causes at work

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remote from the Territory itself, as has been already shown; and causes which it was quite out of the power of the national executive to control. In his message to Congress of January 24th, 1856, he remarked:

“The inflammatory agitation, of which the present is but a part, has for twenty years produced nothing save unmitigated evil, North and South. But for it, the character of the domestic institutions of the future new State would have been a matter of too little interest to the inhabitants of the contiguous States, personally or collectively, to produce among them any political emotion."

It is difficult to see how he could have properly pursued any other course than that adopted, in regard to affairs within the Territory. He had declined to interfere by force with the action, regular or irregular, of the people of the Territory in their elections, on the just ground that it would be "subversive of public freedom." Nor could he have done so without incurring severe censure from one side or the other, perhaps from both. But when lawless violence ran riot through the Territory, he despatched a sufficient armed force to restore and maintain order, as soon as he could induce the reluctant Congress, which he had reassembled for the purpose, to vote the necessary supplies for the troops; a measure of public duty and necessity resisted by the opponents of the Kansas-Nebraska Act.'

1 After a long and exciting session, Congress finally adjourned, August 18th, 1856, without passing the ordinary appropriation bill for the support of the army. This the House had refused to do, unless the Senate would agree to terms which would prevent the President from using the military force, according to his judgment of the exigency, in Kansas. The President, thereupon, issued his proclamation to reassemble Congress, August 21st. The House had proposed the following proviso:

"That no part of the military force of the United States, for the support of which appropriation was made by this act, shall be employed in aid of the enforcement of any enactment heretofore passed by the bodies claiming to be the Territorial Legislature of Kansas."

The Senate proposed to strike out this proviso, to which the House eventually agreed, by a vote of yeas 101, to nays 98; and the bill having thus passed, the extra session ended, by adjournment, August 30th.

A striking illustration of the difficulties with which the administration was environed appears in the tenor of certain resolutions adopted by the Legislature of Massachusetts, which were approved June 3d, 1856. These resolutions came. up in consequence of an order moved for the appropriation of a considerable sum of money by the State, in aid of Kansas. The motion was advocated in the legislature, and by a part, at least, of the Freesoil press; though its passage would evidently have placed the State in the open attitude of furnishing funds in aid of an insurrectionary condition of things on the distant border of civilization. Instead of taking this step, the legislature ingeniously passed resolves commending the case to the popular favor and assistance, as follows:

Resolved,

That we have heard the call for sympathy and aid which has come up to the people of the United States from the settlers of Kansas,1 and while we do not claim that as a State legislature we are clothed with power to initiate measures for their relief, we nevertheless present their case to the people of this Commonwealth, in full confidence that they will use all just and constitutional means to aid these heroic men in maintaining and defending their liberties.

The legislature thus stirred up the people, and, by its authority, solicited contributions in favor of the side with which it was in political sympathy, and which was in conflict with the General Government. And the party thus always most professed to guard themselyes with the Constitution, when most intent upon breaking it down. The resolves proceed to charge the disturbed state of affairs in the Territory to the "neglect of the Government of the United States to protect the settlers" (meaning the Freesoil settlers) "and redress their wrongs;" and, in the same breath, refer to the action of the President in issuing a proclamation of warning to all those who, by any means, were seeking to resist the execution of the territorial laws. They leave in no doubt the state of mind in the Freesoil party, by declaring that

1 Doubtless from "old John Brown," who came to Massachusetts for that purpose.