of 1856, at which Mr. Buchanan proved to be the successful candidate, a convention, on their part, was held at Baltimore, attended by numerous delegates from the Southern equally with the Northern States, and which could hardly ever have been surpassed by any similar political assembly in the country, for the ability of its members and its general respectability and dignity of character. Scattered, and diminished and almost despondent of the future of the Union, as the party had then become, they had the honor, at least, of coming forward as sincere and manly remonstrants against the evidently downward progress of national affairs. They nominated Mr. Fillmore as their candidate for President; and, at the ensuing election, out of the aggregate number of something more than 4,000,000, were able to give him nearly 900,000 votes, of which considerably more than one-half were cast in the slave States. They rallied, too, as is well known, in 1860, under much less propitious circumstances, and in numbers very materially reduced.1

But if the late Whig party, leaving out of the account this noble and steadfast remnant, dwindled and perished, for want of stability and courage; the Democratic, on the other hand, subjected its rising glories to eclipse, through the delusions of over-confidence, at first; and finally, suffered overwhelming defeat, by the self-sought and violent disruption of its own ranks. The Whigs had too often practised the ruinous policy of temporizing concessions to the several factions, which they hoped thus to conciliate to their support. As a party they thus loosened their own standing ground, and cut off the inducements of their own adherents to remain with them. It was the natural result of their conduct, that they weakened, from time to time, their own position; so that the earnest and unyielding factions, which thought only of building up themselves, as occasion offered, drew off the timid and unsafe, the doubters on questions of party prin

1 In 1856, the vote for the Fillmore electors was 885,960; in 1860, for the Bell and Everett electors, 590,631.

DEMOCRATIC STEADINESS.

267 ciple and supposed points of conscience; together with those who saw something more attractive in the zealous determination of the comparative few, than in the vacillating purpose of the greater number. But that faithful remnant-true to the last, amid the scoffs and derisions and persecutions which often await fidelity to principle-like the band of prophets whom Obadiah, in evil times, hid in the cave-and who, like them, had denounced woe and disaster to the multitude in vain-the genius of the constitution, if ever again enthroned, will welcome with words never more worthily bestowed

"Thou who wast constant in our ills, be joyful in our joy."

The Democrats, amidst the hesitations of the great body of their opponents, were like the abolitionists in this respect -that they had the merit of standing stiffly by their party associates and party doctrines-sometimes, indeed, even after these latter had fairly gone out from the range of political affairs; but they thus confirmed the wavering, kept up the resolution of the faint-hearted, and, until their fatal division at Charleston, in 1860, maintained the discipline and accustomed strength of their organization. When they carried the election of Mr. Pierce, in 1852, it was effected very largely by the help of dissensions among the Whigs, which tended materially to swell their own ranks, and to infuse a spirit of apathy into those of their lately successful and still formidable rivals; who, if they had remained united, might again and again have been triumphant, until all signs of danger to our institutions had passed entirely away. For, at that period, the main body of both great parties at the North was substantially united upon constitutional principles in regard to slavery, and upon incidental questions resulting from it; while the South, taking all points of party difference together, was not very unequally divided between the Democrats and the Whigs. But as soon as the Democratic party became distracted, the preponderance of power passed at once to the Republicans-consisting of Freesoilers, Fusionists, Whigs, who weakly imagined that national affairs would

be conducted by a sectional administration on the old doctrines of their party; unsound and self-seeking Democrats, released from party allegiance, who saw in which direction political victory inclined; and the whole miscellaneous multitude of those middle-men, who hang loosely upon the outskirts of all parties, and, at the last moment, cast their own weight into the heaviest scale. But the most efficient instrument of success to the new Republican coalition, was inherited by it from the effete Nnow-Nothing party-and that was the systematized machinery and much of the material of party organization.

CHAPTER X.

Administration of President Pierce.-Position of the Democratic Party.-President Pierce's Message to Congress in December, 1853.-" Domestic Controversies passing away."-The Civil War began in Kansas.-Statement of the Question in regard to Kansas.-Mr. Webster's Views of the Effect of the Compromise of 1850.-Mr. Clay's Opinion of the Impolicy of an Imaginary Line.-The Bill for the Organization of the Territory passes the House, making no Mention of Compromise or Slavery, and is introduced into the Senate by Mr. Douglas, from the Committee on Territories, without amendment.-The Debate in the Senate chiefly in regard to the Rights of the Aborigines.-The Bill laid on the Table, for further Consideration of this Topic, and not taken up during the Session.-At the next Session, Mr. Douglas introduces (January 4th, 1854) an Amendment to the Bill, proposing the Specific Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The large Majority in favor of it.-Memorials to Congress, in opposition to its Passage-one from three thousand and fifty Clergymen of New England.-Effect of this Clerical Movement upon the Public Mind.-Final Passage of the Bill by the House.-Action of the North.-The "Emigrant Aid" Companies.--Secret Association of Members of Congress to resist the Objects of the Act.-The several Reports to Congress-Further Proceedings as to Kansas.-Opposite Opinions of Mr. Davis and Mr. Yancey.-Position of Mr. Douglas.-Extension of Slave Territory does not mean Increase of Slavery.-The reasons why the Adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill was unavoidable.

THE administration of President Pierce, beginning on the 4th of March, 1853, was introduced to the duties of office under circumstances singularly auspicious. The pusillanimity of the Whigs, and the dissatisfaction occasioned in both sections of their party-on the one hand, because the candidate was not thought to stand "square on the platform," and, on the other, because the platform itself was offensive' to large numbers of those who acted, or professed to act, with the party had given the Democrats great advantage in the elec tion. They seemed to not a few of their former opponents

'Nothing was more common than to hear men say: "I shall vote for the candidate, but I spit upon the platform."

the only organized body left, with any reasonable chance of future political power, which was inspired with the spirit of nationality, and impressed with broad ideas of the inestimable value of the Union. Upon them, in fact, had now become imposed the duty, and with it the opportunity, to vindicate thoroughly the soundness of those measures of pacification, which had owed so much to the efforts of the two most eminent Whigs in the land; and through the permanent establishment of those principles, by a wise course of domestic policy, to give the country secure rest from the only alarming cause of disquiet which it had actually ever encountered.

The President was in the vigor of manhood, distinguished for ability and ready eloquence, and a spirit of warm-hearted patriotism, and was of no little experience in public business; and, not long before his inauguration, he had suffered a peculiarly afflicting domestic calamity, which enlisted for him the profoundest public sympathy, and tended to check any disposition to captious party criticism. A cabinet composed of such persons as Mr. Marcy, of New York, Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, Mr. Davis, of Mississippi, and Mr. Cushing, of Massachusetts, with others not so generally known, but men of more than ordinary mark, could not but inspire unusual public confidence. It almost immediately acquired the popular appellation of "The brilliant Cabinet," and promised the ablest management of business; though, with the exception of foreign complications, to which Mr. Marcy, the Secretary of State, was fully competent to attend, there seemed little to call for the exercise of extraordinary talent, in directing the national affairs. Nothing could more clearly indicate the sense of public repose than the general tone of President Pierce's message, communicated to Congress, December 5th, 1853. In it there was only a brief allusion, contained in a paragraph of a dozen lines, to "domestic controversies passing away," and an exhortation to respect the rights of States, and to maintain domestic peace. How soon this treacherous calm was to be succeeded by the wildest storm of incontrol