CHAPTER XV.

The Great Tumult-Douglas at Chicago-Lincoln's Great Speech at Springfield—A Premature Party Movement-Lincoln's New Fame-Candidate for United States Senator-Election of Trumbull.

WHILE the abolitionists of the North had never been able to poll more than about a hundred and fifty-eight thousand votes as a distinct party, a much larger number of voters, as yet nominally Whigs or Democrats, were sincerely in favor of the abolition of slavery. They had been quiescent, because they saw no way open for practical aggressive action. Apart from these, both Whigs and Democrats might fairly be divided into two classes. One class had accepted the compromises as a barrier against abolitionism and its pernicious agitations, endangering the peace of the nation and the perpetuity of the Union. Another and very large class had submitted to the compromises almost gloomily, as affording a barrier against pro-slavery agitation and the extension of what they deemed an unqualified evil. To this latter body of men the KansasNebraska Bill came as a declaration of war.

Extreme abolitionism trebled its forces in a day, and the great outcry raised by its leaders had a point which could not be put aside, for they were able to say: "Look at this! We did not do it!

We are not the agitators! Slavery itself assails the public peace!"

The wrath of the people of the North arose in an angry tide. Everywhere there were great public meetings and fiery denunciations of the KansasNebraska Bill, while the press turned with fierce invection against the men who proposed to break down the great bulwark of human freedom, which both parties had declared to be as sacred as the Constitution itself.

Even at the South there was a powerful conservative element opposed to the bill, but it was clamored into silence by the vehemence with which the advocates of slavery extension hailed what seemed to them a promised victory.

The disintegration of the Whig Party at the South advanced a long step when most of its extreme pro-slavery men passed at once into the Democratic ranks as supporters of the bill, while at the North a similar process was checked for a short time only. The Democratic Party at the North was at once rent in twain, and its anti-Nebraska faction formed more or less open coalitions, in State after State, with the anti-Nebraska Whigs. While the debates upon the bill proceeded, Congress was deluged with petitions against it, one of which was signed by three thousand clergymen. The State election of New Hampshire, the home of President Pierce, took place in March. His father before him had been known, during many years, as "the most influential man in New Hampshire," and the son had succeeded to the same ascription, but the strong

That

Democratic majority, eighty-nine in the State Legislature, was wiped out at the Spring election. example was imitated by Connecticut a few weeks later, and it was well understood that other free States were ready to follow, but the supporters of the bill in Congress stood firm. The Administration was able to hold a sufficient number of its Northern adherents up to the mark, the Southern Democrats were a unit, they were re-enforced by pro-slavery Whig votes, and in May the bill was passed.

There were in that Congress only four avowed Free-soilers, with seventy-one Whigs and one hundred and fifty-nine Democrats. It had seemed as if the future of the country had been placed almost irrevocably in the hands of the great political organization which had controlled it during a full generation, with but two breaks in the succession of its Presidents. In the election of 1852 the Whig opposition had carried but two States at the South, with twenty-four votes, and but two at the North, with eighteen. Even now several free State Legislatures, among them that of Illinois, were able to pass resolutions approving the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, but in every case there was a hard fight, and each set of resolutions carried with it a prophecy of disaster.

The session of Congress continued until August, and then most of the members went home to give an account of themselves to their constituents. Senator Douglas did not hasten back to. Illinois, but it was announced soon that he would address the

The popu

people of Chicago on September 1st. lation of the city was very different in character from that of Central and Southern Illinois, being largely made up of immigrants from the Middle States and New England. Still it had been a stronghold of Senator Douglas, the Little Giant of Illinois, as his admirers called him, and he expected to have a large and attentive audience before which to make his proposed defence of his course in Congress. Very full attention, indeed, was paid to his arrival in the city. The bells of several churches tolled as for a funeral, and the flags of many vessels in the harbor were displayed at half-mast, while a crowd of about five thousand people gathered around the stand from which he was to speak. It was a large crowd, considering the fact that the better class of anti-Nebraska Whigs and Democrats did not come at all.

Senator Douglas made his appearance and began his promised speech. Its main point had been already often repeated in Congress, an assertion that the question of slavery ceased to be a cause for national agitation when removed beyond the reach of Federal legislation and submitted for decision to the people organizing a territory for admission to the Union as a State. The course of current events was so manifestly against the sanity of this position that the crowd finally lost what little patience it began with. After about three quarters of an hour of his argument they plied him more and more stormily and derisively with questions. He was a combative man, and his rejoinders were by no means

soft answers calculated to turn away wrath. The crowd grew more and more boisterous, and its questionings assumed a fierce and even menacing tone. He faced the tumult courageously until, at last, at about half past ten o'clock, his friends advised him to give it up, and he retired from the stand. Some journals declared their regret that the misconduct of the Chicago mob had disgraced and injured the anti-Nebraska cause. Other observers, looking deeper and caring less for Senatorial dignity, of which no great excess had been exhibited, noted the political fact that the sharp questions put and the keen retorts made came from "the plain people." Positively the mere voters were feeling and thinking about this matter, and were not disposed to let the professional statesmen perform those functions for them, officially.

The political canvass opened early, and there seemed to be everywhere a breaking up of the old party machinery. New men were coming to the front and well-known men were taking new and unexpected positions. Nobody in Central Illinois was surprised, however, when a recognized anti-slavery Whig like Abraham Lincoln, who had voted fortytwo times for the Wilmot Proviso and had introduced in Congress a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, now put aside his law practice and came out vigorously against the KansasNebraska Bill. He was not and would not become a candidate for office, but he was ready to address public meetings on behalf of other candidates. Men who heard him said that he had never before spoken