sented similar, though more specific resolutions. On the 4th of February, Mr. Jones of Tennessee presented resolutions calling" for copies of the laws and journals of the legislative assembly" in Kansas. On the 18th of February the President responded to the above resolutions by sending a message covering such papers and correspondence.

Mr. Wilson at once addressed the Senate in reply to the message just received. He characterized it and its accompanying papers as "stupendous misrepresentations," carrying "a gigantic falsehood to the American people." Alluding to the charges of the President and others that the "disorders" of Kansas were to be attributed to an "extraordinary organization," called an "Emigrant Aid Society," he vindicated that society from such aspersions, and expressed the conviction that it and kindred associations were not only legitimate, but in the highest degree praiseworthy. He adduced documentary evidence of the outrages in Kansas, showing that "on the 30th of March, 1855, four thousand voters from the State of Missouri passed into the Territory and gave their votes"; that "the late presiding officer of the United States Senate, David Atchison, had, with bowie-knife and revolver belted around him, been apparently ready to shed the blood of any man who refused to be enslaved." The President and others having urged the fact that Governor Reeder had given certificates to members of the legislature as proof of its legality, he asserted that such papers were given under duress, and were no legitimate evidence in the case.

Soon afterward, Mr. Hale made a caustic speech, severely criticising the President, the tergiversation of the Democratic party, and the horrible slave-code of the Kansas statute-book. Alluding to the law that the printing and circulating of antislavery documents should be punishable with five years' imprisonment, he said that such a law would convict any person having in his possession even the utterances of President Pierce himself; for he had said, only ten years before, in a Democratic convention; "I regard slavery as one of the greatest moral and social evils, a curse upon the whole country." Referring to the frequent charge, by Southern men,

of the original complicity of Northern men in the establishment and carly maintenance of the sin of slavery, he said that by no act of his should the future citizens of Kansas have occasion for a similar reproach. "No, sir," he said; "we wish to stand clear of that reproach which is so often and so freely cast on our fathers."

The legislature elected under the Topeka constitution met at that place on the 1st of March. Charles Robinson took the oath of office as governor, and Andrew H. Reeder and James H. Lane were chosen United States Senators. A memorial to Congress asking admission was adopted, and the legislature adjourned to meet on the 4th of July.

While the report, from the Committee on Territories, on Kansas affairs, the policy of the administration, and the recommendation that, when the Territory should have a population of ninety-three thousand four hundred and twenty inhabitants, a constitutional convention should be called, were under discussion, Mr. Douglas and Mr. Collamer, both members of the committee, addressed the Senate. Mr. Douglas explained the provisions of the bill, defended the legality of the legislature and the validity of its laws, and contended that if there were "disorders" in Kansas they had been provoked by Northern interference, especially by the formation of emigrant-aid societies. Mr. Collamer spoke ably for the minority. Of the duty and responsibility of Congress to legislate for the people of the Territory he said: "I think we have sovereign power. We have the right to repeal the whole of their laws, or any one of them. It is of no use to leave that people as they are. They are bound hand and foot, and no good can result of leaving things to them under Kansas law." He argued the existence of this congressional power from "the cotemporaneous construction of the Constitution," and from the precedents scattered all along the history of congressional action. Mr. Douglas closed by a defiant speech in which he challenged his opponents to an appeal to the people for" an open and a fair fight."

In the winter and spring of 1856, the interest, both in Congress and in the country, growing out of the affairs of Kansas,

was profound and the excitement intense. Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories, presented on the 12th of March an elaborate report on the condition of Kansas. A minority report, full, fair, and able, was made by Mr. Collamer. Of these two reports Mr. Sumner at once said: "The whole subject is presented characteristically on both sides. In the report of the majority the true issue is smothered; in that of the minority the true issue stands forth as a pillar of fire to guide the country."

On the 17th of March, Mr. Douglas reported a bill authorizing the people of Kansas to form a constitution preparatory to their admission into the Union when they have the requisite population. A substitute was proposed by Mr. Seward providing for its immediate admission. The debates went on from day to day. The friends of freedom, though few in numbers, were carnest and courageous. They watched vigilantly the course of events. Though hopeless of carrying through the measures they would gladly have seen adopted, they determined that the legislation actually effected should be as little damaging as possible to the interests they had in charge. On the other hand, the forces of oppression, confident in the power which their large majority gave them, not only moved on with unyielding determination and an inexorable persistence to the accomplishment of their ruling purpose to make Kansas a slave State, but they supported, Northern and Southern members alike, with little seeming reluctance, or at least they refused to condemn, even the most audacious measures of the assailants and the most wicked of the pretended laws, born of the border-ruffian policy.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

ASSAULT ON SUMNER.

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Mr. Sumner's speech. Reference to Butler and produced. — Assault. — Indignation. — Meeting of Subject introduced by Mr. Wilson. Committees ap

pointed by both houses. - Reports. Statements of Senators. Mr. Wilson challenged by Brooks. - Challenge declined. Action of the House. - Mr. Brooks's speech and resignation. - Southern demonstrations. — Indorsed by Southern members. Burlingame's speech. - Comins's speech. - Challenge of Brooks. - Challenge accepted. - Brooks refuses to fight. -Burlingame's reception in Boston. -Speech. - Meeting in Faneuil Hall. - Speeches of Chandler and Everett.

THE spring of 1856 had opened gloomily. The KansasNebraska legislation was bringing forth its legitimate fruits. Emboldened by their success, the slavery propagandists pressed on with vigor, resolved that no obstacles should prevent the realization of their cherished purposes. In Kansas the friends of freedom found that the pretended proffer of popular sovereignty was a delusion, and they were at once precipitated into a hand-to-hand conflict. Treason was on many lips, and the cry of secession not only rung in the halls of Congress, but resounded throughout the South. Distrusting, too, their ability to meet their opponents in the fair field of debate, the advocates of slavery resolved to resort to something more potent than words. If they could not rebut the speech, they could intimidate and overpower the speaker, and the bludgeon be made to accomplish what fair argument could not effect. The border-ruffian policy, which was filling Kansas with alarm and bloodshed, had its representatives in Washington, walking its streets, hanging around its hotels, and stalking through the capitol. To the extreme arrogance of imbittered and aggressive words were added the menace and actual infliction of personal violence. Indeed, the course of

these men assumed the form of a reckless and relentless audacity never before exhibited. Members of Congress went armed in the streets, and sat with loaded revolvers in their desks.

It was in this state of popular feeling and during the debate on Kansas affairs that Mr. Sumner delivered, on the 19th and 20th of May, his speech on "The Crime against Kansas." It was marked by the usual characteristics of his more elaborate efforts, exhibiting great affluence of learning, faithful research, and great rhetorical finish and force. It was, in the words of the poet Whittier, "a grand and terrible philippic, worthy of the great occasion; the severe and awful truth, which the sharp agony of the national crisis demanded." The speech bore the marks of a determined purpose to make it exhaustive and complete; as impregnable in argument and cogent in rhetoric as it could be made by the materials at his command, and by the author's acknowledged ability to use them. He summoned largely to his aid the power of language, and his "words" became "things."

crew."

He divided his subject into "three different heads: THE CRIME AGAINST KANSAS in its origin and extent; THE APOLOGIES FOR THE CRIME; and THE TRUE REMEDY.” Concerning the crime itself, he adduced the most incontrovertible proofs of its existence, and closed by comparing Kansas to a "gallant ship, voyaging on a pleasant summer sea, assailed by a pirate "Even now," he said, "the black flag of the land pirates of Missouri waves at the masthead; in their laws you hear the pirate yell and see the flash of the pirate knife; while, incredible to relate, the President, gathering the Slave Power at his back, testifies a pirate sympathy." He said the apologies were four in number: the apology" tyrannical,” the apology" imbecile," the apology "absurd," and the apology "infamous." "This is all," he said. "Tyranny, imbecility, absurdity, and infamy all unite to dance, like the weird sisters, about this crime." Concerning the remedies, he said they, too, were "fourfold": the remedy of "tyranny," of “folly,” of “injustice and civil war," of "justice and peace." "These are the four caskets," he said, "and you are to determine which shall be opened by Senatorial votes." Having