FUSION OF KNOW-NOTHINGS AND BLACK-REPUBLICANS.

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The work of "Fusion," at length, went swimmingly on. It became complete in the Legislature of Pennsylvania, which passed correspondent resolutions, early in January, 1856. At an "American 99 State Convention held at Binghamton, in New York, at the same period, the course of action was of a similar character; bringing the party into close relations with those who were then beginning to be styled the "Black-Republicans; and in Conventions, held in the several New England States, equal progress was made towards the same projected consummation.' Thus, by the proceedings of these bodies, representing the "American" party, in the Eastern, Middle, and Western States, its national position, taken in 1855, had become sectional early in 1856. The die was finally cast, however, at a meeting of the "National Council,” held at Philadelphia, on the 22d of February, 1856. The legal and the moral obligations, set forth in the 12th proposition of the "National Council," held at the same city, in June, 1855, were utterly repudiated by the vote of a large majority of the members, on the latter occasion. In their 13th article, they took Republican ground; declaring "opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present administration," amongst other things, "as shown in reopening sectional agitation, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise "—and as shown in its vacillating course on the Kansas and Nebraska question "-a singular charge, whether just or not, to be preferred by those, who, in bringing it, exposed this complete revolution of their own opinions on this very point, within little more than six preceding months!

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take possession of this Government; restore to the Constitution the proportions of power established by Washington;" (compare this clause with the preceding paragraph in regard to the Constitution established by Washington) "reinstate in full force that barrier against the extension of slavery called the 'Missouri Compromise;' make Kansas a free State; and put an end forever to the addition of any more slave States to this Union-duties to be fulfilled at any hazard-EVEN OF THE DISSOLUTION OF THE UNION ITSELF.”

1 See letter of Mr. Carruthers, member of Congress from Missouri, dated at Washington, February 28th, 1856, in Cluskey's "Political Text Book," p. 108 et seq.

In fact, they entirely abandoned, on this occasion, the specific grounds upon which their own organization was founded, by providing in the final article which was then adopted, for—“A free and open discussion of all political principles embraced in our platform." The Freesoil neophytes in the "American" seminary had thus proved stronger than their masters, and the victory was finally achieved. Accordingly, from this "National Council," upon the adoption of the new platform, a despatch was forwarded to a "Black-Republican" Convention, sitting at Pittsburg, at the same time, in the following emphatic language:

"The American party is no longer united. Raise the Republican banLet there be no further extension of slavery. The Americans are with you."

ner.

The Missouri Compromise, the alleged repeal of which was now made the new, and, as it proved, the fatal source of sectional discord, had been repealed, as has been heretofore remarked in this volume, in letter as well as in spirit, by the measures of adjustment adopted by Congress in 1850. The leaders of extreme Southern opinion had then professed their contentment with the doctrine of that Compromise, if it should be carried out literally and in good faith. The line of that Compromise would have left all of Utah north of latitude 36° 30'; nearly the whole of New Mexico south of it; and would have divided California into nearly equal parts, above and below that degree of latitude. It was impossible, in a moral sense, to accede to their proposition; because the people of California had already adopted a Constitution excluding slavery, preparatory to admission into the Union; and, although Congress could not, certainly, undertake to force slavery upon a territory which had deliberately rejected it; yet the admission of California, to the neglect of the line agreed upon in 1820, was, in fact, by its practical operation, the abrogation of the Missouri Compromise. The same measures of 1850 provided for the future admission of Utah and New Mexico, without reference to the exclusion of slavery. In regard to the former, its geographical situa

POLITICAL IMMORALITY.

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tion rendered the omission of no practical importance. It was contended that slavery had been abolished in the latter while a province of Mexico, although a score or two of slaves. were actually held there by the territorial residents in 1850.

In these three instances, therefore, of simultaneous legislation-for, although separately acted upon, they were parts of the same plan of adjustment-the principle of the Missouri Compromise had been deliberately and entirely disregarded. The circumstances of the case rendered this action of Congress inevitable; but it, nevertheless, was an absolute repeal of the Compromise-unless it can be maintained, that an agreement violated on one side; when convenient to do so, can be resumed and enforced against other parties to it, when the convenience of the first may make its resumption, in their opinion, desirable. The general adjustment of conflicting interests and sentiments, involving this repeal, bad been solemnly assented to by Whigs, Democrats, and Americans, in their several National Conventions. It was only when the principle came to be afterwards applied in another direction, that the new popular outcry was raised against it in the North. This was made available for party purposes, by the coalition with the Freesoilers of the ex-Whigs and now staunch Americans-who indignantly denied the application to the territories of Kansas and Nebraska of the precise principles, which, six months before, the latter had stoutly affirmed were applicable to all territories whatsoever!

A state of things like this betokens, it must be confessed, very little regard for public virtue. In fact, the secret organization of the Know-Nothing party had proved of most pernicious influence. So far as its sphere extended, it had the effect to weaken among the people the old spirit of selfdependence; it tended to modify and to restrain honest individuality of character, to repress freedom of thought, and to chain down freedom of action. The effect of this process appeared in the surprising revolution of ideas which the parties underwent, at the bidding of its new managers.

A certain proportion of the Americans held back, it is true, and have never since acted in concert with the Freesoilers; but the main body went to swell the rushing tide of that now popular movement, which, in 1852, had thrown but 157,000 votes for Mr. John P. Hale, its candidate for President, but in 1856, for Mr. Fremont, 1,354,000. Indeed, the range of political sentiment and the tone of political honor presented a melancholy contrast to the standard of an earlier period. It was a day of feeble and failing principle, of deadened sensibilities, of decaying patriotism, of "defections on the right hand and fallings-away to the left”1—in a word, of almost complete political demoralization. It was peculiarly unfortunate, that, at a period when wisdom, integrity, true sentiment, unflinching love of country, and prudent statesmanship, were most needed in the national counsels, this new coalition brought forward and placed in prominent positions large numbers of those who were little qualified to turn the public mind in the right direction, and not a few who were fully bent upon leading it astray. As Carlyle remarks, somewhere, in reference to a certain period of English history, "The times were great and the men were small."

At an early point in the brief annals of the American party, not a few persons of merit and distinction had given it their countenance, in the hope, doubtless, that it might become available to the public welfare; but it soon showed itself subject to inferior influences. As a class of more ordinary and less scrupulous candidates for popular favor worked their way to the surface of affairs, the men of better sense and information, of more enlarged views and more unselfish ambition, who, by character and ability and honorable interest in the public cause, were entitled to popular respect― were compelled to stand aside, or voluntarily did so; because, unwilling to engage in a low and somewhat tumultuous scramble for place, though they were never so much needed for the public services as at that very emergency.

1 See David Deans, in the "Heart of Mid-Lothian."

THE FAITHFUL WHIGS.

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Whether such scruples, however worthy of sympathy, are justifiable in a republic, or were consistent with the prosperity and safety of the State, is another question. Demosthenes addressed himself to the "fierce Democratie" of Athens in person. There is danger of being swept away by the torrent of popular madness, or of becoming the victim of patriotic zeal-as was his fate, and is his fame; but the struggle is worth the trial.

In Great Britain, those who, "having to advise the public," seek the popular suffrage for election to the House of Commons, are not deterred from the hustings by the rude and sometimes extremely rough usage to which the mob may capriciously subject them; and surely, never had there been more pressing occasion, in any country, for all that generous enthusiasm and manly resolution could do, to shame the panders of disorganization, and to cheer the timid and despondent to the performance of their duty. It is a humiliating reflection, that the country was swept over, and, to a large extent, controlled by a class of men, who made up in activity what they lacked in other important respects; while a higher order of citizens scarcely exerted their due influence to prevent the deplorable turn of affairs, to which all things seemed only too surely tending. Whatever the Republican party may since have been, it is upon such a condition of things that it was originally built.

It is by no means to be forgotten, that, notwithstanding those large desertions from the Whig party, first to the American, and afterwards to become incorporated in the Republican ranks; yet a very considerable body of the old substantial stock retained the ancient political faith, and manifested it by correspondent action, in both sections of the country, up to the very last moment before the revolt of the South. Though no longer possessed of power as a national organization, they stood firm, to the last, to those great principles which they deemed essential to the existence of the Union, as they certainly were, and are to its constitutional being. Hence, in anticipation of the general election