of June, a fortnight after the Democratic party had nominated James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, at a convention held in the city of Cincinnati. Over the Philadelphia convention the Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, presided. It was a large, enthusiastic and harmonious gathering. John C. Fremont, of California, was nominated candidate for President, and Wm. L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President, each on the first ballot. The convention also adopted a platform of which the following is a copy:

PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM OF 1856.

"This Convention of Delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present Administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory; in favor of admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who propose to unite in presenting candidates for the office of President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows:

"Resolved, that the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved.

"Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior designs of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our republican fathers, when they had abolished Slavery in all our national territory, crdained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing Slavery in any territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial

legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any territory of the United States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained.

Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism-Polygamy and Slavery.

Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample provisions for the protection of life, liberty and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them-their territory has been invaded by an armed force-spurious and pretended legislative, judicial and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the Government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced-the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed-test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding officethe right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied-the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated—they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law-that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged—the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect-murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished-that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present Administration, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and Humanity, we arraign the Administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the country and before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.

Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.

Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that might makes right,' embodied in the Ostend Circular, was in every respect unworthy of American

diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any Government or people that gave it their sanction.

Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens."

cans.

THE CAMPAIGN.

The action of the convention was heartily sustained by the Republican party, which had now become well organized in all the non-slaveholding States, and numbered many adherents in the border slave States. The campaign was characterized by great enthusiasm on the part of the RepubliTheir journals were crowded with accounts of mass meetings in various parts of the country. The current events in Kansas, in a state of civil war, were calculated to arouse the public feeling to the highest pitch; and, in fact, did so. So when the election came on, in November, it was found that Fremont and Dayton had carried all the New England States, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and large popular votes in all the other Northern States. The popular votes of the Republican party, at its first presidential election numbered 1,341,264. James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, was chosen President, but Millard Filmore, the "American" candidate, received the vote of Maryland and nearly nine hundred

thousand popular votes in the thirty-one States which then composed the Union. Mr. Buchanan, therefore, was in a popular minority, though receiving a large majority of the votes in the electoral college.

The event of most political significance, perhaps, which occurred during the administration of President Buchanan, was the attempt to force slavery into Kansas, against the will of the people, under what was known at the time as "the Lecompton Constitution"-an instrument representing fraud and force only. Against this policy the illustrious Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois, revolted, and with undisguised indignation assailed the administration. In this he was most heartily in accord with the Republican party, which, with his great aid, was enabled herein to achieve a memorable victory. It was not until some years after this, however, that Kansas was admitted into the Union,

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES.

The discussion of the Lecompton Constitution in Congress gave rise to two important events. First, it caused a division in the Democratic party which continued through the following presidential campaign; and, secondly, it was the indirect cause of that remarkable series of debates between Senator Douglas and Abraham Lincoln in 1858, through which the latter became first honorably

known to the American public generally, thereby gaining a national renown, without which his nomination for the Presidency in 1860 would have been impossible. On account of the plucky revolt of Senator Douglas against the administration in the Kansas affair, not a few Republicans and Republican journals of note in the country thought that he ought to be returned to the Senate by the Illinois Legislature to be chosen in 1858. The Republicans of Illinois were not of this opinion, and in their State Convention of that year did the unusual thing of actually nominating Mr. Lincoln as candidate for United States Senator. It was upon this occasion that Mr. Lincoln delivered that great speech, new become historical, beginning with this remarkable exordium :

"MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION :

If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation not only has not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not ceasc until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved; I do not expect the house to fall but I expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new-North as well as South."

Mr. Lincoln's demonstration of the tendency of the government to the latter condition through the operation of the Nebraska Doctrine and the