370 THE UNITED STATES. [PART IV. 1850. but the sections organizing Utah as a separate territory, which passed both houses, and became a law. 1. What, however, eral result of the dis cussion? ing Califor ticular? The Mor mami tory? 4. Nero Mexico? 4. 'After much discussion, however, the California Das the gen- admission bill, the New Mexico Territorial bill, and the Texas boundary, all subsequently passed as separate propositions, very much as they had been proposed by the committee of which Mr. Clay was chairman. By 2. Respect this result, 1st. "The vast territory of California, with nia in par- a sea-board corresponding in latitude to the entire Atlantic coast from Boston to Charleston, became a state of the American Union, with a constitution excluding domestic slavery: 2d. "The Mormon territory of Utah, embracing the great central basin of the country between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific, was erected into a territorial government, with the declaration that, when admitted as a state, "said territory, or any portion of the same, shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as its constitution shall prescribe at the time of the admission:" 3d. 'New Mexico was erected into a territorial government with the same provision respecting slavery as in the case of Utah: 4th. "The Texas Boundary bill (with the consent of Texas afterwards obtained), established the dividing line between Texas and New Mexico four degrees east of Santa Fe; and in consideration that Texas relinquished her claims to the territory east of the Rio Grande thus included in New Mexico, the United States agreed to pay her the sum of ten mil•. The fugi- lions of dollars: 5th. An act called the "Fugitive Slave Law," was passed, providing for the more effectual and speedy delivery, to their masters, of fugitive 1. The slave slaves escaping into the free states: and 6th. 'An act District of providing for the suppression of the slave-trade in the District of Columbia, which declares that "if any slave shall be brought into the District of Columbia for the purpose of being sold, or placed in depot there to be sold as merchandise, such slave shall thereupon become liberated and free." 5. Respect ing the Tex as Boun dary bill? tive siave law? trade in the Columbia? 6. Ofrohat were these bills the results? 5. "These various bills were the results of a compromise of opposing views on the subject of slavery, and in this spirit they were advocated by their supporters; but, as was to be expected, they failed to give entire satisfaction either to the North or to the South. 'A 1850. they regard ent sections ed in differ of the Union? portion of the South, complaining of the injustice of 1. How wera excluding their citizens from territory purchased by their blood and by the common treasure of the Union, would have rejected California until she struck from her constitution the clause prohibiting slavery; while at the North there was much bitterness of feeling 1851-2. against the fugitive slave law, which exhibited itself in conventions of the people, and in the aid afforded to fugitive slaves escaping to Canada. 2. What is remainder administra said of the of Filmore's tion? 3. State of S.c.? and results 6. During the remainder of President Filmore's administration, little occurred to disturb the quiet tenor of our country's history. At peace with foreign nations, and blessed with almost unexampled prosperity in the various departments of agriculture, commerce, the country. and manufactures, our course is steadily onward in the march of national greatness. The presidential election 4. Character of 1852, although following closely upon the violent of the prest sectional and political contentions of the 31st Congress, tion of 18527 was one of unusual quiet, and great moderation of party feeling-a harbinger of good-a bow of promise spanning the political horizon after the storm has passed away. The result of the political canvass was the election of the democratic candidate, General Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire, over General Winfield Scott, the candidate of the whig party. dential elec. 1852. period have CONCLUSION. At this period in our history-at the 5. At rohat beginning of the last half of the nineteenth century-we nowo arit is wise to review the past, while with feelings of mingled fear and hope we contemplate the future. rived in our history? CALHOUN. THE GREAT REBELLION. CHAPTER I. THE CAUSES WHICH LED TO IT. 1. ALTHOUGH the Fugitive Slave Act,* as passed by Congress in 1850, during Mr. Filmore's administration, had for its object only the enforcement of a compact as old as the nation, yet the bitter feeling with which it was received by a large portion of the North, showed the growing aversion with which all complicity with slavery was regarded in the Free States. PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1853-7. 2. Yet the people of the North, as a body, stood up boldly for the law, however odious to them were its provisions. Thus, when a negro, named Anthony Burns, was claimed in Boston as a fugitive from service, although there was a popular commotion in his favor, yet, when by due process of law the claimant established his ownership, by Northern judges the negro was remanded into slavery. Under their convictions of duty to the Constitution, more than ten thousand men, in free Massachusetts, voluntarily took up arms to act as an escort to the marshal in delivering up the slave, thereby aiding in the enforcement of a law which they loathed. * See p. 370. + See Clause 3 of Section II. of Article IV. of the Constitution. * 3. In the year 1854 Senator Douglas, of Illinois, a leading member of the Democratic party, introduced into Congress a bill for the territorial organization of Kansas and Nebraska. Its leading clause, by declaring the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional, threw open to slavery all the territories of the United States. Yet this bill, abrogating a former law that had long been regarded as the settlement of a vexed question, received a majority of the votes in both houses of Congress, and became the law of the land. 4. This bold encroachment by slavery upon territory that had been so solemnly devoted to freedom, created wide-spread alarm throughout all the Free States. Large numbers of Northern Democrats abandoned their party; and of these, and the Free Soil party, and a large number of the old Whig party, was formed the Republican party, based upon the broad ground of opposition to slavery extension. The 5. The old Democratic party, allying itself with the ProSlavery South, said: "You shall not exclude the Southerner and his property from the territory which was purchased with the common blood and treasure of the whole Union." Republican party said: "The Southerner may have the same rights in the territories that the Northerner has; but he shall not take there, and hold as property, that which is property only by a local law-a law which has no existence beyond the Slave-holding States." Then began the final struggle for power between the two great parties into which the country was thus divided. 6. As by the Kansas-Nebraska bill those territories were open to the introduction of slavery, if their inhabitants should decide in its favor, Free-Soil men-some going of their own motion and means, and others sent by emigrant-aid societies from the East-flocked to Kansas to settle there, and thus secure that fair land for free labor. The South sent its representatives there also; and from Missouri, an adjoining Slave State, swarmed armed bands of "Border Ruffians," who annoyed, maltreated, and shot in cold blood the Free-Soil settlers, laid waste their fields, outvoted them at the polls, and returned to Missouri when the elections were over. 7. The settlers, aided by numerous additions to their numbers, retaliated, and fraternal strife desolated the land. At |