History of American Abolitionism Part 7

In the House of Representatives the bill was brought up on the 31st of January, 1853. The debate upon it was closed on the 19th of May, 1854, and on the 22d of May, 1854, it pa.s.sed the House by the following vote:--Yeas, 113; nays, 100. The vote of the Senate on the final pa.s.sage of the bill was, yeas, 35; nays, 13.

On the 20th of December, 1854, the Hon. John H. Whitfield, delegate elect from the Territory of Kansas, was sworn in and admitted to a seat in the House. It was alleged that his election had been carried by an importation of Missourians into the Territory, but no contest was made on his right, and he held his position during the remainder of the Thirty-third Congress.

During the recess between the 4th of March and the 1st of December, 1855, the history of Kansas was marked by the most exciting events. The removal of the seat of government by the Territorial Legislature from the place which had been fixed by Governor Reeder, was deemed by the latter to have made void, ab initio, all acts enacted by them subsequent to such removal, on the ground that the power to locate the same was vested in him alone.

The free State party backed up Governor Reeder, while the pro-slavery party endorsed the action of the Legislature. Governor Reeder was in the meantime removed from office.

The free State party met at Big Springs and resolved to repudiate the acts of the Territorial Legislature and organize a State government. A Convention was accordingly called and held at Topeka, on the 4th Tuesday of October, framed what was called the Topeka Convention, and set on foot a State Government which soon came in conflict with the regularly const.i.tuted authorities, and resulted in the indictments against the former for treason, which followed.

Meanwhile, finding opposition to the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska act unavailing in Congress and under the forms of the Const.i.tution, combinations were entered into at the North to control the political destinies and form and regulate the domestic inst.i.tutions of these Territories through the machinery of emigrant aid societies, by which means large numbers of persons were forwarded to the debatable ground. In order to give consistency to the movement and surround it with the color of legal authority, an act of incorporation was procured from the Legislature of Ma.s.sachusetts for an a.s.sociation by the name of the Ma.s.sachusetts Emigrant Aid Society, the ostensible purpose of which was to enable emigrants to settle in the West. It was a powerful corporation, with a capital of five millions of dollars, invested in houses and lands, in merchandise and mills, in cannons and rifles, in powder and lead--in all the implements of art, agriculture and war, and employing a corresponding number of men under the management of directors who remained at home and pulled the wires of this immense political automaton. In a measure they succeeded. Thousands of these emigrants poured into the Territory, armed with Sharpe's rifles and the Word of G.o.d, and located themselves wherever their votes were most necessary. The result might have been antic.i.p.ated. Under the influence of inflammatory appeals and stung by the irritating threats of the free-state men, the most intense indignation was aroused in the States near the Territory of Kansas, and especially in Missouri, whose domestic peace was thus the most directly endangered.

Counter movements consequently ensued. Bands of men came over the State border and appeared at the polls, and on both sides angry accusations followed that the elections were carried by fraud and violence. In the meantime, statements entirely unfounded or grossly exaggerated concerning events within the Territory, were sedulously diffused through remote States to feed the flame of sectional animosity there, and the agitators in the States in turn exerted themselves to encourage and stimulate strife within the Territory.

During the Presidential campaign of 1856 Kansas may be said to have been in a state of civil war. Life was nowhere safe. Armed men espousing both sides of the question roamed throughout the country, committing depredations and atrocities which find their equal only in the records of savage barbarity. Men, women and children were murdered in their beds, and few could aver themselves either as free-state men or pro-slavery men without danger of being shot down in their tracks. It was during this period that the notorious John Brown, with his band, made his appearance and commenced those villanies for which he has since met a just reward upon the gallows.

To return to Congress, however: on the 7th of April, 1856, a memorial of the Senators and Representatives of the so-called State of Kansas, accompanied by the Const.i.tution adopted at Topeka, praying the admission of the same into the Union, was presented in the House of Representatives and referred. The Committee on Territories reported a bill to that effect, which was rejected on the 30th of June by a vote of yeas 106, nays 107.

On motion of Mr. Barclay, of Pennsylvania, the question was reconsidered, and the vote being taken on the pa.s.sage of the bill, it was carried by yeas 107, nays 106, the abovenamed gentleman changing his ballot, and one other voting aye who was not present before.

The bill being brought before the Senate, that body subst.i.tuted for it a bill of its own, which was returned to the House, where no action was taken upon it. Several other attempts were subsequently made in both the Senate and House, during 1856, to pa.s.s bills to authorise the people of Kansas to form a Const.i.tution and State government, but without success--neither body endorsing the act of the other.

On the 29th of July, 1856, a bill reported by Mr. Grow, from the Committee on Territories, "To annul certain acts of the Legislative a.s.sembly of the Territory of Kansas," being before the House, Mr. Dunn, of Indiana, moved an amendment to the same, which substantially re-established the compromise of 1820. This was carried by a vote of 89 yeas and 77 nays. The bill reached the Senate, and a report upon it was made by the Committee on Territories on the 11th of August, 1856, recommending that it be laid upon the table, which was done, by a test vote of 35 to 12.

On the 11th of July, 1856, the committee appointed by the House to proceed to Kansas and investigate all matters connected with the contested election case between A. H. Reeder and John W. Whitfield, each of whom claimed to have been elected a delegate to Congress, made a majority and minority report, Messrs. W. A. Howard, of Michigan, and Lewis Campbell, of Ohio, affirming that everything connected with the Territorial Legislature and the election of Whitfield was wrong; and Mr. Mordecai Oliver, of Missouri, affirming that everything was right, and that Mr. Reeder was not duly elected according to law.

These reports were acted upon on the 29th of July, when Mr. Whitfield was declared not to be ent.i.tled to a seat in the House by a vote of 110 yeas to 92 nays, and Mr. Reeder was likewise declared not to be ent.i.tled to a seat by a vote of 88 yeas and 113 nays. On the 1st Of December, 1856, however, Mr. Whitfield, having again been elected a delegate, was sworn in by a vote of 112 yeas to 108 nays.

The effect of this agitation in Congress upon the people was immense, and every power that could be brought to bear to influence the result one way or another was unsparingly employed. It was almost the sole hinge upon which, for a time, swung the welfare of the country. The immediate admission of Kansas, with her free const.i.tution, formed at Topeka, was engrafted upon the republican platform of 1856, and men were arraigned at the bar of public opinion and proved guilty or innocent by their standing with reference to this great question. Happily, however, the election of Mr. Buchanan threw oil upon the troubled waters, and with his inauguration the country relapsed once more into a state of comparative quiet. The predatory bands engaged in Kansas in acts of rapine, under cover of existing political disturbances, were arrested or dispersed, the troops were withdrawn, and tranquillity was once more restored to the hitherto agitated territory.

On the first Monday of September, 1857, a Convention was called together by virtue of an act of the Territorial Legislature, whose lawful existence had been recognized by various enactments of Congress, to frame a const.i.tution for Kansas. A large proportion of the citizens did not think proper to register their names and vote at the election for delegates; but an opportunity to do this having been afforded, in the language of Mr.

Buchanan, "their refusal to avail themselves of their right, could in no manner affect the legality of the Convention." But little difficulty occurred except on the question of slavery, and after an excited and angry debate on this subject, by a majority of only two, it was decided to submit the question of slavery to the people.

This was the famous Lecompton Convention. They adopted a const.i.tution, and the form of submission was "const.i.tution with slavery," or "const.i.tution without slavery." A great many people were indignant because the const.i.tution was made thus imperative, and more than one-half stayed away from the polls. The const.i.tution was consequently adopted by the party voting for it with slavery. In that form it was submitted to the President, and the President submitted it to Congress. After a protracted discussion in both houses, the admission of Kansas under that instrument was defeated, and a compromise was adopted to submit the Lecompton const.i.tution back to the people, with the condition that if accepted they should immediately come into the Union by a proclamation of the President, and that, if rejected, they should wait until they had ninety-three thousand inhabitants, to be ascertained by a census. They rejected the const.i.tution by some ten thousand majority. In the meantime, under the operation of the Territorial Legislature and the Lecompton Convention acting in conjunction with each other, the anti-slavery elements rallied and elected an anti-slavery Legislature. There were, however, bogus returns from two or three counties, which, if admitted, would have changed the complexion of the Legislature into a pro-slavery body; but these were cast out by Governor Walker, and the Legislature was thus left in the possession of the free-soil party.

After the rejection of the Lecompton const.i.tution, the people called another Convention, which a.s.sembled at Wyandot, and adopted an anti-slavery const.i.tution. This they laid before Congress, and at the same time elected a Legislature and a member of Congress, the Legislature in turn electing two Senators, in antic.i.p.ation of the admission of the State under the Wyandot const.i.tution. The bill for the admission of the State was taken up in Congress during the present session and pa.s.sed, and on Wednesday, the 30th of January, was returned to Congress with the signature of the President, thus forever setting at rest a question which has so long disturbed the country.

The following are the State officers of Kansas elected under the Wyandot const.i.tution, and who will a.s.sume to administer the new State government:--

_Governor_--Charles Robinson, formerly of Ma.s.sachusetts.

_Lieutenant Governor_--J. P. Root, formerly of Connecticut.

_Secretary of State_--J. W. Robinson, formerly of Maine.

_Treasurer_--William Tholen, formerly of New York.

_Auditor_--George W. Hillyer, formerly of Ohio.

_Superintendent of Public Instruction_--W. R. Griffith, formerly of Illinois.

_Chief Justice_--Thomas Ewing, Jr., formerly of Ohio.

_a.s.sociate Justices_--Samuel D. Kingham, formerly of Kentucky, and Lawrence Bailey, formerly of New Hampshire.

In the Supreme Court, under the Dred Scott decision, the right has been established of every citizen to take his property of every kind, including slaves, into the common Territories, belonging equally to all the States of the confederacy, and to have it protected there under the Const.i.tution.

It is hardly necessary to advert further to the progress of the anti-slavery element in Congress than to merely recal the tumults excited at the beginning of every session by the election of a Speaker, and the constant ebb and flow of agitation upon the one absorbing theme which has at last, through the efforts of the abolitionists and their allies, come to be the single sentiment, upon which hang suspended the destiny and hopes of a nation.

In 1857, a State Convention a.s.sembled in Worcester, Ma.s.s., "to consider the practicability, probability and expediency of a separation of the free and slave States." In the language of one of the orators, they felt that the time had come when they should "sever for ever the b.l.o.o.d.y bond which united them to the slaveholders, slave-breeders and slave-traders of the nation." The meeting found its sympathizers, and made converts in every portion of the North, and from that day to the present, have been spreading among a certain cla.s.s the following sentiments, with which Wendell Phillips closed one of his speeches:--

"If the slaveholder loves the Union, I hate it. The love of so sagacious a tyrant is authority enough for my hate. If the slaveholder clings to the Union, it is instinct. When they set horses to run in the Roman races, each horse bears about him a little network of pointed p.r.i.c.ks, that the faster he goes, make him run yet faster. I would set the slaveholder running with four millions of slaves for the p.r.i.c.ks. Dissolution is my method for that race.

Dissolution, in other words, is only another method of letting natural causes have free play. I would take down the dam of the Union and let loose the torrent of G.o.d's own water-courses, and, like every current, you may be sure it will clear every channel for itself."

In an address delivered by Wm. Lloyd Garrison, July 20, 1860, at the Framingham celebration, he declares:

"Our object is the abolition of slavery _throughout the land_; and whether in the prosecution of our object, this party goes up, or the other party goes down, it is nothing to us. We cannot alter our course one hair's breadth, nor accept a compromise of our principles, for the hearty adoption of our principles. I am for _meddling with slavery everywhere--attacking it by night and by day, in season and out of season_--(no, it can never be out of season)--in order to _effect its overthrow_. (Loud applause.) Higher yet will be my cry.

Upward and onward. No union with slaveholders. Down with this slaveholding government. Let this covenant 'with death and agreement with h.e.l.l' be annulled. _Let there be a free, independent, Northern republic_, and _the speedy abolition of slavery_ will inevitably follow. (Loud applause.) So I am laboring to dissolve this blood-stained Union, as a work of paramount importance. Our mission is to regenerate public opinion."

This has been the point, end and object at which the practical abolitionists of the country have aimed from the start. If they have advocated a measure, its purpose has been dissolution. If they have prevented the execution of the laws, the purpose has been dissolution; if they have made war or made peace, or taken any step during their unholy career, the one end and object has been the overthrow of the government and the freedom of the slave, no matter what may be the consequence.

The conventions of the abolitionists are now held every year, and they have gathered about them a galaxy of congenial followers--

"Black spirits and white, Red spirits and gray"--

well worthy of the cause they espouse. No stone remains unturned that obstructs the accomplishment of their designs. Until of late their agents have circulated in every nook and corner of the country, and from Maine to Texas these serpents of society have been distilling their venom among the people. We have seen the result within the past two years in poisoned families, executed slaves, a John Brown insurrection, and all the enormities which attend the movement of a band of infatuated individuals who are spurred on to deeds of desperation by those who stay at home to preach that which they leave their deluded victims to practise.

As a party they have become so strong that,

"Having both the key Of officer and office, they set all hearts To what tune they please."

CHAPTER VIII.

The Influence of Religion and Women--Ruptures in Churches and Church Organizations--Sentiments of Clergymen--"Uncle Tom's Cabin"--The "Impending Crisis"--The Harper's Ferry Insurrection.

One of the princ.i.p.al agencies by which this extraordinary revolution in the public sentiment of the North has been brought about is the Church.

The history of anti-slavery in this connection, however, is too extended to admit of anything more than a narration of general facts. It is sufficient to say that the abolitionists have had the co-operation of a portion of the princ.i.p.al religious sects of the free States ever since the year 1820, since which time their conferences, sessions, a.s.semblies and meetings have been the theatres of the most rancorous discussion, abusive debate and irremediable discord. They have ruptured the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist churches, and divided into antagonistic parties the American Board of Foreign Missions, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Tract Society, and every other benevolent organization which embraces within its scope of good the common country. They have thus prevented the dissemination of the Bible, the establishing of missionaries, the distribution of tracts, and interrupted all efforts that have been made for the Christian elevation of the slave or the welfare of the master. Instead of that feeling of attachment and devotion to the interests of religion which was formerly felt, they are now arrayed against each other, two hostile bodies, whose sole occupation is individual abuse, political harangues, and the profanation of the sacred desk. Personal holiness has given way to party spirit, and while men's hearts around them are blazing with the carnalities of their own fallen nature, ministers have forgotten their vocation in preaching havoc, subverting the Scriptures and setting up as the G.o.d of worship the comfortable negroes of the South. Their sentiment is "If the Bible tolerates slavery for an instant, away with it. And G.o.d himself!--if he sanctions this h.e.l.l-born monster, even he is unworthy of respect." The black portrait of Southern slavery has been indelibly painted upon their imaginations until the pure, solid, consistent religion of our forefathers no longer exists. These reverend Pecksniffs can hardly bear to look upon a Southern man without a feeling of revenge; they seldom look at a Bible without muttering a blasphemy, and cannot speak of the South and its inst.i.tutions without letting out their dream of blood and desire.

Witness some of their effusions. The Rev. Daniel Foster, one of the chaplains of the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature in 1855-6, referring to the Southern clergy, said:--

"He stood on that floor as an orthodox clergyman, but he would as soon exchange with the devil as one of those hireling priests--those traitors to humanity. The professed Church of Christ is false, and its hireling priesthood unworthy of confidence."

The Rev. Mr. Griswold, of Stonington, said:--

"For the church which sustains slavery, wherever it be, I am ready to say I will welcome the bolt, whether it come from heaven or h.e.l.l, which shall destroy it. Its pretensions to Christianity are the boldest effrontery and the vilest imposture."