with 800 men and four cannon, entered Lawrence, destroyed the printing-presses, set Mr. Eldridge's hotel on fire, and pillaged the houses of the citizens. Some of the Free State men, burning for revenge, killed five of the ruffians. The Missourians, under Captain Pate, seized a son

of John Brown, marched him rapidly across the prairie in a burning sun, and treated him with such inhumanity that he became insane. Brown, with twenty-seven men, came upon the Missourians, took twentytwo of them prisoners, and captured their horses and supplies. Another company of ruffians hacked another of Brown's sons to pieces with their knives, threw his mangled body across a horse, took it to his own door, and tumbled it to the ground at the feet of his young wife.

Civil war had begun. Men were shot by lurking assassins; houses were deserted; the smoke of burning dwellings darkened the sky; women and children were fleeing from their homes to escape from the inhuman wretches who were desolating the land that they might secure it forever to slavery. It seems probable that Douglas, when he said he doubtless would be burned in effigy, did not look forward to any such outbreak as that which suddenly flamed up on the plains of Kansas. He saw only the bauble of the Presidency of the nation—not murdered men. On the day of his arrival in Chicago, after the adjournment of Congress, many of the flags flying above the vessels in the harbor were displayed at half-mast, and at sunset the church-bells tolled as at a funeral service. The feeling against him was deep and intense.

JOHN BROWN.

Men who had been his friends did not call upon him. But he put a bold face upon the matter, and began an address vindicating his course. No cheer welcomed him as he mounted the platform. For a while the people listened in sullen silence, and then asked questions which made him angry. He shook his fists in their faces, and the noise became so great that he could not finish his speech. He visited his old home in Springfield.

A great crowd filled the Hall of Representatives in the State-house. Abraham Lincoln was present, a silent listener to what Douglas had to offer. For six years he had taken no part in political affairs, but the violation of a sacred compact by Douglas and President Pierce in the

interest of the slave-holders had aroused his righteous indignation. He informed his friends that he should make a speech in reply.

1854.

Every seat, every inch of space is occupied, when Abraham Lincoln rises to speak. People are curious to hear what he will say, for Douglas is one of the able men of the country. He has practised law, Oct. 1, been elected judge and Senator. He has shown himself strong enough to secure the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and his friends have named him "The Little Giant." He has respect for Abraham Lincoln, because, like himself, he has fought with adversity and won success. He knows Lincoln is an able lawyer, that he has been member of Congress; but his measure of success has been small in comparison with his own. Possibly Douglas feels a sense of superiority as he takes a seat in the hall to hear Lincoln's argument. He has encountered in debate Charles Sumner, of Massachusetts; William H. Seward, of New York; Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri. He is fresh from the arena, where he has won a great victory. He has listened to all the arguments that the champions of freedom could marshal in opposition to the repeal. The literature of the question is at his tongue's end. Lincoln has heard none of the speeches. He may have read portions of the arguments of Senators and members of Congress, but has been attending to his own affairs through the months. He has only a night to put his thoughts in order. After a cheerful welcome a hush falls upon the great audience. He has only a scrap of paper before him. His friends and Douglas are amazed at his marvellous presentation of facts, and his statement of political principles enforced with thrilling eloquence. Douglas rises to interrupt him, but is courteously waved to his seat. Memory recalls the scene in the slave-market in New Orleans, and he vividly pictures it. Douglas would reproduce such scenes all over the fair domain once consecrated to freedom. But the Territory is doomed to slavery by what has been done if the Missourians succeed in driving out the settlers from the Free States. These burning words fall from Lincoln's lips:

"This declared indifference--but I must think covert zeal-for the spread of slavery I can but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our republican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions to taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; is at war with the vital principles of civic liberty; contrary to the Declaration of Independence; and maintains that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. . . . If the negro is a man, is it not the destruction of self-government to say that he shall not govern himself? When a white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and another man, that is more than self

government-it is despotism. No man is good enough to govern another man without the other's consent. . . . Slavery is founded on the selfishness of man's nature; opposition to it is his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism. . . . I object to the Nebraska Bill, because it assumes there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. . . . Little by little, but as steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now we have come to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self-government. These principles cannot stand together; they are as opposite as God and Mammon."

The building shook with the stamping of feet. Cheers rent the air; women waved their handkerchiefs. Douglas was confounded. Through the long debate in Congress the falsity of his position never

had been so clearly held up before the public. Never before had the immorality of the Nebraska measure been so exposed. Lincoln had spoken four hours, but Douglas was so stung that he spoke for two hours in a vain endeavor to break the force of Lincoln's argument.

Douglas went to Peoria, and was followed by Lincoln. As the trees are swayed by the winds, so the great audience there was moved by the thrilling words spoken in behalf of freedom. In the debate at Washington no Senator had given utterance to such fundamental truths as fell

from his lips. Douglas had intended to travel through the State and make speeches in the principal towns to vindicate his course, but abandoned the plan. He frankly said the arguments of Lincoln gave him more trouble than any presented in Congress.

If Douglas or the slave-holders thought there would be no discussion of the question of slavery, or that the people of the North would quietly see Kansas given over to slavery, they greatly misunderstood the temper of the times. The first political condemnation of the act came from New Hampshire, the President's own State. For a quarter of a century, with the exception of one year, the Democratic Party had controlled that State, but at the election, March, 1854, a Governor, the Legislature, and members of Congress were elected who were opposed to the Nebraska Bill. Other Northern States, one by one, elected members who were opposed to the further extension of slavery; so the Democratic Party, instead of having a majority, found itself in a minority in the House of Representatives.

Illinois had always been a Democratic State. The election in November, 1854, was for members of the Legislature. It was an exciting campaign, for that body would have the choosing of a United States Senator to succeed Mr. Shields. Douglas endeavored to make the people vote once more for the rule of the Democratic Party, but had the mortification of seeing a majority elected who were opposed to his course in Congress. Some were Democrats, others Whigs; but all agreed that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a violation of a sacred compact.

The friends of Abraham Lincoln ardently desired his election as Senator. It was due him. No one had done more than he to expose the iniquity of the course pursued by Douglas. He had been elected a member of the Legislature, and could not for that reason be a candidate for the Senate, on account of a clause in the Constitution of the State; he therefore resigned his seat. Unfortunately, the man chosen to suc ceed him was a Democrat, which made the question of his election as Senator very doubtful.

The time had come for the election of a Senator; it was an exciting day in the Capitol at Springfield. Shields was the Democratic candidate. The Whig members of the Free-soil Party were ready to vote for Lincoln, but the Democratic members would not vote for a Whig. They liked Abraham Lincoln personally, but he was a Whig. They were for Lyman Trumbull, a Democrat, who did not agree with Douglas. Without their votes it would not be possible to

1855.