A History of the Republican Party Part 5

The Democratic Platform, as usual, denounced the Abolitionists, and repeated its hollow promise of 1852, that the party would resist all attempts at renewing the agitation of the slavery question. It denounced the Republican Party as "sectional, and subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation," and it contained the following remarkable and artfully worded plank:

"_Resolved_, That we recognize the right of the people of all the Territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual residents, and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a Const.i.tution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into the Union upon terms of perfect equality with other States."

The ambiguous part of this plank was the insertion of the right of the inhabitants to form a Const.i.tution with or without domestic slavery. Mr.

Douglas and the other Democratic speakers argued in the North that this meant that the people of the Territory had the right to decide for or against slavery, but the South looked upon it as fully protecting slavery in any Territory until a Const.i.tution could be formed. In the North and South the plank obtained votes for the party, but the votes were cast in the respective sections on diametrically opposed grounds.

The political situation in this campaign was somewhat complicated at first by the presentation of so many candidates, for, in addition to the candidates already named, the Abolitionists presented a ticket, as did also a number of Americans, who seceded from the second convention of that party, but the situation gradually resolved itself into a contest between Buchanan, Fremont and Fillmore. No electoral tickets were presented for Fremont in the slave States, and the fact that Fillmore could not carry any of the free States weakened him in the South, and it was seen that Buchanan would receive the solid electoral vote of the South, and that the contest would therefore be between Buchanan and Fremont for the Northern electoral votes.

The struggle in Kansas was inseparably connected with the campaign of 1856. That struggle was virtually the opening of the Civil War, and while the North and South fought out the issue with bullets in Kansas, in the other States of the two sections the contest was no less bitter, although the means were less destructive. Before either of the great political conventions were held, Lawrence, Kansas, was captured and sacked by the Pro-Slavery Party, and on the following day (May 22d) Charles Sumner was struck down in the Senate by Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina, because of his speech, "The Crime against Kansas." These events picture the feeling between the North and South which existed during this campaign. The South had probably already felt that if they went into the campaign solely on their cause they would be defeated, hence the nomination of a Northern Democrat from a necessary State, and the artful construction of their platform. The enthusiasm of the Republicans was probably more for their cause than for the candidate.

The Democrats in the North evaded the issue of slavery as much as possible, and denounced the candidacy of Fremont as sectional, and that his success would mean the dissolution of the Union, a weighty argument with thousands of voters, especially those who were attached to the South by financial and commercial bonds. The speeches of the Southern leaders and the press of the South abounded in threats of disunion in the event of Fremont's election. The Republicans, unhampered by a southern wing and advocating the restriction of a great moral wrong, went into the campaign with the earnestness and enthusiasm of a religious crusade. They carried on a clean campaign of education, and tons of political literature were scattered broadcast over the country.

The young men of the North were especially attracted to the Republican Cause, and it was recognized that their vote would be a great aid; and the influence of the women of the country was distinctly with the new party. The clergy, the religious press and most of the eminent professors and educated men of the North also lent their potent forces to the new party.

The issues presented in the campaign of 1856, like those of 1860, were the most remarkable in our political history, and a canva.s.s attended by such circ.u.mstances and so portentous in results could not but be exciting in the highest degree, and the bitterness of the situation grew in intensity as the days of the fall elections approached. All eyes now turned with anxiety on the few State elections which were to be held in the North prior to the presidential election in November, because they would unquestionably foreshadow the final result. Iowa came first, and, in August, went Republican, and was joined in September by Maine and Vermont, both overwhelmingly Republican. These successes were to the highest gratification of the members of the new party, and now came the final test, the October elections in Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. The first of these States, with its twenty-seven electoral votes, was the most important. Thousands of dollars were poured into the campaign funds of the State by both sides, the Democratic Committee having the greater amount to spend and having the better organization. Several hundred speakers, representing both sides, traversed the State in all directions. The Democrats used the disunion argument with great effect, and added to it the campaign cry of "Buck, Breck and Free Kansas," and on October 14th Pennsylvania went Democratic by a very narrow majority.

Ohio, as was expected, went Republican, but Indiana was lost, and the result of the presidential issue was thus practically known before the election, on November 4th. Fremont received the electoral votes of Maine, New Hampshire, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa and Wisconsin, one hundred and fourteen in all. Buchanan received the vote of all the slave States and Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Indiana, Illinois and California, a total of one hundred and seventy-four votes; the eight votes of Maryland going to Fillmore, the only State won by the Know-Nothings. The popular vote gave Buchanan 1,838,169; Fremont 1,341,264; Fillmore 874,534. The popular vote of South Carolina is not included, as the electors in that State were chosen by her Legislature.

When the first wave of bitter disappointment pa.s.sed away, the Republicans saw the enormous headway that had been made and they immediately began to prepare for the national contest four years hence.

The Democrats had lost ten States which they carried in 1852, and their electoral vote of 254 in 1852 had shrunken to 174. The South elected Buchanan, and he became the tool of the Slave Power, and, as subsequent events developed, it was fortunate that the Republicans were not successful in the campaign.

[Ill.u.s.tration: William H. Seward.]

CHAPTER X.

THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES.

"Can the people of a United States territory in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Const.i.tution?"

_Lincoln to Douglas_, _Freeport Debate_, _August_ 27, 1858.

The Buchanan Administration began on March 4, 1857, and the Slave Power, through the Democratic Party, found itself in complete and absolute control of every branch of the Government, legislative, executive and judicial. Two days after the inauguration came the famous Dred Scott decision. The arguments in this case had been heard before the election, but the court adjourned until after the election. The decision, delivered by Chief Justice Taney, fixed the legal status of the negro in the United States, and declared that he could not claim any of the rights and privileges of a citizen, and "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect, and that the negro might justly and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit." Then, traveling out of the record, the Court declared that the Missouri Compromise was unauthorized by the Const.i.tution, and was null and void, and that Congress had no right to keep slavery out of any Territory. It was apparent at once that this decision completely nullified Douglas' doctrine of popular sovereignty, and the South lost no time in abandoning that doctrine, and declaring that she would insist as a Const.i.tutional right that slaves taken into any Territory must be protected like any other property. The North was stunned for the moment by this sweeping decision; the South was jubilant beyond all bounds, and instantly prepared to take advantage of the new dogma to the utmost. While under this decision the Slave Power seemed all triumphant, it was, in fact, to produce its destruction, and slavery was to lose its power by the very thing which seemed to strengthen it. The Dred Scott decision was bound to produce a split in the Democratic Party and the moment that occurred the success of the Republican Party was a.s.sured. The South spread thousands of copies of the decision throughout the country, and when the North recovered from the shock and saw what a revolution the decision would cause in the Democratic Party, it joined in giving it the utmost publicity.

The attempt to force Kansas into the Union as a slave State under the infamous Lecompton Const.i.tution now began. In that Territory the Free-State settlers had rapidly been gaining in strength, and the Slave Power, in desperate straits, resorted to trickery. Several attempts of the Free-State Legislature to meet were prevented by the Federal troops, but finally, in 1857, the Free-State men voted at the regular election and obtained control of the Territorial Legislature; but before they could act, a pro-slavery Convention, previously chosen, concluded its work at Lecompton and submitted the Lecompton Const.i.tution to the people, not permitting them, however, to vote for or against the Const.i.tution, but "For the Const.i.tution with Slavery," or "For the Const.i.tution without Slavery." The Free-State men refused to vote at this election, and the Lecompton Const.i.tution was adopted, with Slavery.

When Congress a.s.sembled, on December 7, 1859, President Buchanan, in his message, approved the Lecompton Const.i.tution, and recommended the admission of Kansas under it. It had been rumored for some time that Senator Douglas would oppose the Administration in its attempt to force the Lecompton Const.i.tution upon the people of Kansas, and this, indeed, proved to be true, when, on December 9th, Douglas announced his opposition to the action of the Administration as contrary to his doctrine of popular sovereignty. It is unnecessary to go into the motives that actuated Senator Douglas, but it may be stated that his re-election to the Senate was to depend on the election in Illinois in 1858, and unless he did something to counteract the feeling against him he was almost certain of defeat. The apostasy of Douglas was as a thunderbolt to the South, but the North received it with great delight, and in the early months of 1858 Douglas was easily the most popular man in the North. The new Legislature in Kansas met in December and ordered another election at which the people of the Territory could vote for or against the Lecompton Const.i.tution, and on January 9, 1858, that Const.i.tution was rejected by ten thousand majority. Notwithstanding this emphatic condemnation by the people of the Territory, the Administration persisted in its course to force Kansas in under the Lecompton Const.i.tution. The Senate was for the admission of Kansas, but the House opposed it, and in a joint conference the infamous English Bill was agreed on, in which the people of Kansas were offered a bribe in the form of large land grants if they would accept the Lecompton Const.i.tution. This they subsequently refused to do by a large majority, and Kansas remained a Territory until 1861. The Dred Scott decision and the attempt to force in Kansas under the Lecompton Const.i.tution helped the Republican Party greatly, and its prospects were brighter in 1858 than they had been in 1857, in which year there was a reaction from the enthusiasm created by the presidential campaign of the preceding year.

A legislature was to be chosen in Illinois in 1858 which would select the successor to Senator Douglas. Douglas' action in opposing the Administration had aroused public interest in him in the North, and many of the Republican leaders desired that he should have no opposition in Illinois, but the Republicans of that State were not of that opinion.

The Democratic Convention in Illinois met in April and endorsed Douglas; the Republican Convention, on June 16th, resolved "That Abraham Lincoln is the first and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate, as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas." In his speech that evening to the Convention Mr. Lincoln made the remarkable and daring statement, "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."

Senator Douglas reached Chicago on July 9th, and, amid the plaudits of his friends, delivered an elaborate speech, which was listened to with great interest by Mr. Lincoln, who was present; on the next evening Mr.

Lincoln answered in the presence of a large and enthusiastic audience.

Senator Douglas then spoke at Bloomington, and was answered by Mr.

Lincoln at Springfield, and the public interest that had been aroused, not only in Illinois but throughout the country, caused the Republican leaders to induce Mr. Lincoln to challenge Senator Douglas to a series of debates on the great question of the hour. Privately Senator Douglas was averse to meeting Mr. Lincoln in this manner, but publicly he promptly accepted the challenge and named seven places in different Congressional Districts in which neither had spoken, as the places where the debates were to be held. These great debates began at Ottawa on August 21, 1858, and were followed by meetings at Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and concluded on October 15th at Alton, the entire State having been traversed.

As they read and pondered on the arguments of Mr. Lincoln, it gradually dawned upon the people of the North that a great leader had been found, for it was early seen and felt that Senator Douglas was not holding his own. No greater or clearer exposition of the Northern views of slavery and the questions connected with it had ever been p.r.o.nounced than Mr.

Lincoln's, and the great contest in Illinois was watched with eagerness and interest by the entire North, and Mr. Lincoln, from a comparatively unknown State leader, became a great national character.

At Freeport, Mr. Lincoln, contrary to the advice of all his friends, asked the question which forced Douglas into a labored attempt to reconcile his doctrine of popular sovereignty with the Dred Scott decision. It was plain that the question, "Can the people of a United States Territory in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a State Const.i.tution?" could not be answered without antagonizing either the North or the South. There was absolutely no middle ground on which Senator Douglas could stand for any length of time.

Mr. Lincoln was willing to lose the Senatorial contest if Douglas could be defeated for the Presidency, and he gained his point, although his friends did not immediately see the strength of it. Senator Douglas, in an artful reply to this searching question, put forward his doctrine of Popular Sovereignty by a.s.serting that the people could, by "unfriendly legislation," effectually prevent the introduction of slavery into their midst. When the South read this declaration, so contrary to the decision of the Supreme Court, Douglas' fate was sealed as a presidential candidate. Owing to a totally unfair apportionment of the Senatorial Districts, which had been made by a Democratic Legislature, Mr. Lincoln lost the contest with Senator Douglas, who had a majority of eight on the joint ballot in the new Legislature, but the Republican Ticket won in the popular vote by 4000.

Mr. Lincoln was forty-nine years old and Senator Douglas forty-five when they met in these memorable debates. They had been thrown together for more than twenty years by a most remarkable combination of circ.u.mstances. They had both wooed the same woman, Mary Todd, and Lincoln won; both craved for success in politics, and as Douglas belonged to the dominant party in Illinois, he met with early success, and ran the gamut of political honors and was a great national figure before Lincoln was known. Douglas had been Attorney-General, Secretary of State and Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois; in 1843 he was elected to the National House of Representatives and served until 1847, when he was sent to the Senate, where he served until 1861; his name had been presented for the presidential nomination to the Democratic Conventions of 1852 and 1856. Compared to this series of political successes those of Lincoln were indeed meagre. He had served in the Illinois Legislature; in 1847 was sent to Congress, but served only one term, and from 1849 to 1854 he had devoted himself, with the exception of some canva.s.sing done for Scott in the Campaign of 1852, almost exclusively to his law practice. It was Senator Douglas' Kansas-Nebraska Bill that brought Lincoln again into politics, with emphatic protests and strong arguments against the outrage. When Mr. Douglas returned to Illinois in 1854, he attempted, with much difficulty, to justify his action, and the debates between him and Mr. Lincoln really began in that year. Lincoln met his arguments, and after a few speeches Mr. Douglas was ready to quit, and made an agreement with Mr. Lincoln that neither of them should speak again in the campaign. In 1854 Mr. Lincoln was the choice for United States Senator, but yielded his place to Lyman Trumbull. He took an active part in the formation of the Republican Party in Illinois, and at the Bloomington Convention in 1856, which chose delegates to the first Republican National Convention, he made a strong speech that attracted the attention of the Republicans of Illinois to him and made him the State leader. He labored earnestly in Illinois for the success of Fremont and Dayton. Throughout 1857 he grew stronger with the party, with the result that he was the unanimous and only choice in 1858 as the successor to Douglas.

Douglas secured the shadow of a victory, but Mr. Lincoln, and the Republican Party throughout the North, had the substance, and the fall elections in 1858 were decidedly in favor of the Republicans. The Autumn campaigns of 1859 were of the utmost importance, and the Democrats made great efforts in the North, especially in Ohio. Senator Douglas went personally into that State, and at the earnest invitation of the Republican Committee, Mr. Lincoln spoke at Columbus on September 16th and at Cincinnati on September 17th. Mr. Dennison, the Republican candidate in Ohio, was elected, and the Republicans were successful in Pennsylvania and Iowa.

A few days after the October elections the entire country was thrown into a state of great excitement by John Brown's invasion of Virginia and his capture of the United States a.r.s.enal at Harper's Ferry. He had hoped for a general uprising of the slaves, but it did not occur, and Brown was captured by Robert E. Lee, then a Colonel in the United States Army, and after a trial on a charge of murder and treason against the State of Virginia, was found guilty and hanged December 2, 1859. This affair aroused the Slave Power to a frenzy of excitement, and they immediately demanded an investigation, and strong attempts were made to fix the conspiracy on members of the Republican Party, but it signally failed.

Three days after John Brown's execution, the Thirty-sixth Congress a.s.sembled. In the Senate there were thirty-eight Democrats, twenty-five Republicans, and two Americans; the Republicans had gained five Senators. In the House there were one hundred and nine Republicans, eighty-eight administration Democrats, thirteen anti-Lecompton Democrats, and twenty-seven Americans, all of the latter, except four, from the South. The contest for the Speakership developed the deep animosity felt by the South, and threats of disunion and personal violence abounded throughout the session. The Republicans generally remained silent, only taking part in the debates when absolutely necessary. On the first ballots the Republicans divided their votes between Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, and John Sherman, of Ohio; Mr.

Grow having received the fewer number of votes, withdrew, under an agreement, and the contest continued between Mr. Sherman and Mr. Boc.o.c.k, of Virginia. On January 4, 1860, Sherman was within three votes of an election, but he finally withdrew in favor of William Pennington, a Republican, of New Jersey, who was elected on February 1, 1860, and the House secured a Republican organization. During the debate attendant upon this election, Mr. Crawford, of Georgia, declared, "We will never submit to the inauguration of a black Republican President," and this remark, with others of a like nature, was often repeated. Many of the members of Congress attended the session fully armed, and it often appeared that the Civil War would probably begin in the House of Representatives.

In the decade between 1840 and 1850, the number of slaves in the South increased 800,000; and in the decade between 1850 and 1860, 700,000. The increase of white population in the South was very small compared to that of the North. The census of 1850 showed the population of the country to be 23,191,876, divided as follows:

White. Free Black. Slave.

North ......... 13,269,149 196,262 262 South ......... 6,283,965 238,187 3,204,051

The tremendous increase of slave population and the rapid gain of the North over the South in free population is shown by a comparison of the census of 1850 with that of 1860, when the total population was 31,443,322, divided between the two sections as follows:

White. Free Black. Slave.

North ......... 18,791,159 225,967 64 South ......... 8,182,684 262,003 3,953,696

Owing to the large crops in the South the demand for slaves exceeded the supply, and the market price of negroes in the decade between 1850 and 1860 was very high. Three results followed the increased demand and the high prices--the Domestic Slave Trade between the States was largely increased; attempts to smuggle in slaves contrary to the Slave Trade Laws were numerous and often successful, and the South began, in Buchanan's administration, to consider the re-establishment of the African slave trade.

During the last years of Buchanan's administration politics were dominated by virtually three parties: the Republicans with their opposition to slavery extension--the leaders being Mr. Lincoln and Mr.

Seward; the Northern Democrats, led by Senator Douglas, with his idea of Popular Sovereignty; and the Southern Democrats, with their purpose of slavery extension and protection under the decision of the Supreme Court and the Acts of Congress, their leader being Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi. The schism in the Democratic Party was seen more clearly late in February, 1859, when Senators Douglas and Davis, representing the opposite principles advocated by the Democratic Party, engaged in a bitter debate, which forecasted clearly a division in the Democratic Party in 1860, and the probable election of a Republican President, but who would he be, and what would be the course of the South on his election?

CHAPTER XI.

LINCOLN.

"Since the November of 1860 his horizon has been black with storms. By day and by night, he trod a way of danger and darkness. On his shoulders rested a government dearer to him than his own life ... Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear what before they refused to listen to ... Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty conqueror.

Not thine any more, but the nation's; not ours, but the world's."

_Henry Ward Beecher_, _April_ 16, 1865.

In 1860 the curtain rolled up on the beginning of the last act in the great drama of the struggle between Freedom and Slavery. Because of the events already narrated, a division in the Democratic Party was almost certain if Douglas persisted in being a candidate, and that division would mean the success of the Republican Party. A greater anxiety and fear than perhaps ever before or since in the history of the country pervaded the political situation in the early months of 1860. What would transpire at the Conventions of the great parties? All eyes turned to the first Convention, that of the Democratic Party, which a.s.sembled at Charleston, S. C., April 23, 1860. Senator Douglas was a candidate.

There was almost an immediate disagreement on the slavery question, and a group of extreme Southern Democrats, unable to agree with their Northern brethren who adopted a Douglas platform, withdrew from the Convention. This first group of seceders held a separate meeting, and after adopting a Platform, adjourned to meet at Richmond, Va., on June 11th. In the main Convention opposition to Douglas was still strong, and after fifty-seven ballots, without being able to nominate any candidate, the main Convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore on June 18th. The bolters from the Charleston Convention met in Richmond on June 11th, but immediately adjourned again until June 28th, which was to be ten days after the adjourned meeting of the main Convention. The main Convention duly a.s.sembled at Baltimore on June 18th, and as it was apparent that Douglas would be nominated, there was another withdrawal of Southern Democrats accompanied by some of their Northern brethren. Those who remained nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President and Benjamin Fitzpatrick of Alabama for Vice-President. Mr. Fitzpatrick afterwards declined, and the National Democratic Committee named Herschel V.

Johnson, of Georgia, for Vice-President. The second group of bolters unanimously nominated John C. Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President, and adopted the platform which had been agreed upon by the bolters from the Charleston Convention. The Charleston bolters, when they met again on June 28th, ratified the nominations of Breckinridge and Lane. The Douglas Democratic platform affirmed the Cincinnati platform of 1856, and stated that the party would abide by the decision of the Supreme Court on questions of Const.i.tutional Law, and it denounced the Personal Liberty Laws as revolutionary. The Breckinridge Democratic platform also adopted the Cincinnati platform, but with explanatory resolutions to the effect that neither Congress or any Territorial Legislature had a right to interfere with slavery, pending the formation of a State Const.i.tution, and that it was the duty of the Federal Government to protect slavery at all times. This platform also denounced the Personal Liberty Laws. The Democratic Party had won in 1856 on an ambiguous plank in their platform, relating to slavery in the Territories, that enabled them to secure votes in the North and South by arguments irreconcilable with the political thought of the two sections, and now, in 1860, they were dissipating their strength by disagreeing on an explanation among themselves of that ambiguous plank; it was a just political retribution.

A temporary political party appeared in 1860, known as the Const.i.tutional Union Party; their convention was held at Baltimore on May 9th, and John Bell, of Tennessee, was named for President, and Edward Everett, of Ma.s.sachusetts, for Vice-President. The Platform of this party declared for "The Const.i.tution of the country, the Union of the States and the enforcement of the Laws." It was an attempt to divert the voters from the geographical and sectional parties, and polled a large popular vote.