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 PREFACE 
 
 The volume hero presented to the reader has been com- 
 piled with great care from the most authentic sources, and 
 is designed to afford a comprehensive view of the principal 
 incidents in the lives of the distinguished citizens who have 
 been named in connection with the offices of President and 
 Vice-President, [t has not been the aim to furnish mere 
 empty and sounding eulogy, but in an impartial and can- 
 did manner to state the principles of parties, and to describe 
 such traits of character in the respective leaders as entitle 
 them to be considered representative men. The object has 
 been to make such a volume as will be useful to the reader 
 by compressing within as narrow a compass as possible tlie 
 political as well as private history of the times, past and 
 present, in v/hich the distinguished gentlemen selected as 
 standard- bearers by their respective parties, took an active 
 part. Strict impartiality has been observed, and no dispo- 
 sition has been experienced to set forth the claims of the 
 one in more vivid colors, through the disparagement of the 
 others.- -•; ; • ••;;:';" 
 
 Th.e-o4"d33£ ofIarrai1|-»men^t has been in conformity to the 
 order of tile no'minations, \^hout regard to any preference 
 for individuals- pV'PartiiG&, .which have not been permitted to 
 exert iho; feiighfest' influence upon these pages. Biogra- 
 phers a're' ri'ot" expected 'to' be very diligent in excluding 
 terms of glowing eulogy of their subjects, but everything 
 of the kind has been, as far as practicable, carefully avoided 
 here, the main purpose being to set forth in plain, unosten- 
 tatious narrative, the interesting events of the several lives, 
 leaving the inferences and deductions to be drawn by the 
 reader. All the authentic sources of information at hand 
 iiave been carefully examined, and it is confidently claimed 
 that a useful book is here presented, although it may not 
 be considered very ornamental, 
 (ii) 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In aeeordancc with the cceneral plan of this work, which 
 is set fortli elsewhere, we take up the orJer in which the can- 
 didates for the Presidency and V^ice-Prcsidency were nomi- 
 nated by tlieir respective parties. And this brings us to first 
 speak of John Bell of Tennessee, who, in the various alterna- 
 tions and chanj:;cs of party, since at an early age he com- 
 menced his political career, has always maintained, along with 
 his own self-respect, the confidence and esteem of the nation. 
 While he lias been firm and steadfast in the expression of 
 his opinions, which, based upon well-considered reasons, have 
 seldom undergone change, his whole public course has been 
 distinguished by a dignity of character, solidity of argument, 
 and suavity of manner, that entitled him to respectful con- 
 sideration, even from bitter and determined opponents. 
 
 John Eell is_ a native Tennesscan. and was born near 
 Nashville, February 18, 1797. Ilis parents were in mod- 
 erate circumstances, but having a just sense of its import- 
 auco, furnished him the meat^jof obtaining a sound, health- 
 ful, practical education, which he completed at Cumberland 
 College, afterward Nashville University. At school and at 
 college he was more remarkable for the solidity and thor- 
 oughness of his attainments than for brilliancy, or any of 
 those precocious elements which are supposed to foreshadow 
 future greatness. He was still very young, however, when 
 he passed through the routine of college with his bachelor's 
 degree. 
 
 lleturning from his academic studies, he selected the law 
 for a profession, as requiring neither capital nor powerful 
 friends, but in most cases successful in proportion to individ- 
 
 i") 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 ual application and ■unremitting energy. It was not neces- 
 sary in the State of Tennessee to go through a long proba- 
 tion j and years of apprenticeship, and thorough acquaintance 
 
 JOHN BELL. 
 
 with the practical forms and drudgery of the profession were 
 not deemed necessary to an entrance upon individual legal 
 responsibility, which was left to the eflForts of the young 
 advocates to establish or forfeit by their own merit or want 
 of it. At the early and immature age of nineteen, in the 
 year 181G, a year after the J^ttle of New Orleans and the 
 adjustment of the diifieulties with Great Britain, John Bell 
 was admitted to the bar, and settled in the ensuing year in 
 Franklin, in the county of Williamson, where he was elected 
 a state senator in 18i7, then being but twenty years old. 
 This flattering testimonial of the estimation in which so 
 young a man was held did not dazzle one of his determined 
 temperament ; and with the expiration of his term, closed 
 his labors as a state senator. Besides, with a mind unclouded 
 by ignoble views, and ambitious to obtain the position to 
 whic-li he felt himself entitled, he felt that it was due to his 
 profession that he should place himself in a situation to enjoy 
 its emoluments, and profit by the prestige an intimate 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 
 
 knowledge of its true clemeats, and its proper interpretation, 
 universally confer. 
 
 It was, therefore, after consulting bis future prospects 
 with care and calm reflection, that he declined a re-election, 
 and for a period of nine years devoted himself ardently and 
 unflinchiii.uly to the practice of his profession, in which his 
 success fully equaled his expectations, and he found himself 
 in a lucrative business and occupying a prominent position 
 at the ban 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 In 182fi, Mr. Bell, who had accumulated a moderate for- 
 tune, was induced to come forward from his retirement, as a 
 candidate for Congress, in opposition to Felix Grundy, a name 
 that was high in the annals of Kentucky and Tennessee, and 
 is still rclcrred to as one of the great names of the period 
 in which he lived, IIo was an ardent friend of General 
 Jackson, whose memorable canvass for the Presidency against 
 John Quincy Adams was then progressing. He had long 
 stood at the head of the bar as a profound jurist. He was 
 recognized as an eminent statesman. The odds were greatly 
 in his favoi', for, in addition to his own vast reputation, he 
 had the prestige of General Jackson's popularity to aid him. 
 The canvass was protracted throughout the year, and was 
 full of excitement; but Mr. Bell, then in the prime of life, 
 fuli of energy, buoyant with hope, calm, deliberate, and 
 determined, pursued it with untiring energy and the most 
 marked vigor. In the face of^hc odds against him, in 1827, 
 then in his 30th year, he was elected by a thousand majority, 
 in a district where it had been thought there was no possi- 
 bility of his success. His course in Congress was so manly, 
 so conservative, so consistent with the wishes of his constit- 
 uents, and he had so firmly riveted himself in their affections, 
 that for seven Congresses, or fourteen years, he continued t<> 
 be re-elected. 
 
 During this period, which occasionally was one of great 
 bitterness and acrimony, some of the most warmly contested 
 measures were brought forward and discussed, that have 
 ever enoaeed the attention of the National Legislature. In 
 
6 LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 many of the most important debates Mr. Bell entered ■witli 
 spirit, and his name was soon recognized amont;; the most 
 distingiiished upon the floor of the House of Representa- 
 tives. ' His speeches, -which were not too frequent, and always 
 well-timed, were generally distinguished for their moderate 
 (one, clear, comprehensive, and statesmanlike views, rather 
 than efforts at brilliancy and effect; and the calm research 
 and investigation of an honest and painstaking student were 
 well-received, and secured their proper share of the p^iblic 
 attention. He was always of the few who do not rise to 
 hear themselves speak, but are prepared for the emergency 
 when it comes. His entrance into national politics was as a 
 friend of Grencral Jackson and John C. Calhoun, but thei'e 
 was a distinctive characteristic that marked his friendship, 
 the warmth of which he was ready to acknowledge ; but it did 
 not persuade him into follies or indiscretions that his calm 
 and mature reflection rejected. Thus, although friendly to 
 General Jackson, he did not blindly adopt his hostility to 
 the United States Bank ; and while he admired Mr. Calhoun, 
 and was rather inclined to second his Tariff views, being 
 unfavorable to the doctrine of protection, he was not ready 
 to follow out the doctrine of nullification. He was evidently 
 always an original thinker, and determined the course for 
 himself to pursue. There was safety in his counsels, because 
 thej were cool and deliberate ; and when convinced of the 
 error of former views, through further investigation, he did 
 not persist in the error, as many have done and would do 
 again, for the sake of appearing consistent ; and thus, while 
 he entered upon his career rather disposed to resist the pro- 
 tective system, and in 1832 made a speech against it, further 
 investigation and a more familmr acquaintance with the sub- 
 ject, not only modified his opinions, bat wrought such a 
 change in them, that he has since become an earnest advo- 
 cate of a system that shall properly afford protection to 
 American industry. 
 
 Mr. Bell was in favor of a United States Bank, although 
 in 18;J:.J he voted against its re-charter. In so voting, he 
 was not expressing his hostility to the measure, but to the 
 time when it was prematurely pressed into politics, as an 
 additional issue to defeat the re-election of his friend G-enei'al 
 Jackson. He considered it premature, because the charter 
 had four years yet to run, and he was unwilling to counte- 
 nance what he considered a mere j'xditieal scheme. 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 7 
 
 He was aware, too, of the views of President Jackson, 
 and felt confident he would veto the bill if its passage suc- 
 ceeded, and his familiarity with that iron will was not at 
 fault. But the veto Avas not the finality, for then came the 
 removal of the deposits, a measure of retaliation in the 
 minds of many, but disclosing a mass of corruption which 
 had not been dreamed of then, but which may have been 
 fully equaled in more modern times. Mr. Bell protested 
 firmly against the removal of the deposits, which gave great 
 offense to the Administration, which was not a little hight- 
 ened by his refusal to vote for the resolution approving 
 the measure. To this may be dated the alienation of 3Ir. 
 Bell from the friendship of the Jackson Administration, for 
 the President was implacable toward all who appeared in 
 any degree disposed to thwart his will, and a coldness im- 
 mediately sprang up which was never afterward reconciled. 
 Nor was an event, which shortly after transpired, calculated 
 to allay the hard feeling. Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, 
 who had been elected Speaker of the House, resigned that 
 station and accepted the mission to the Court of St. Jaraes. 
 Mr. Bell was elected to succeed him over James K. Polk, 
 who likewise was from Tennessee, and was especially a 
 favorite with the Administration. This was efl'ected by a 
 union of the disaffected Democrats (who, like Mr. Bell, 
 wore opposed to the election of Martin Van Buren as the 
 successor of "his illustrious predecessor") and the AV^higs, 
 which combination succeeded over the Administration 
 candidate. 
 
 Mr. Bell disapproved of Mr. Van Buren's political ante- 
 cedents, lie did not recognize the celebrated declaration 
 attributed to 3Ir. Marcy, that " To the victors belong the 
 spoils," as a proper political maxim ; and in his speeches 
 in the House on the freedom of elections, he not only viv- 
 idly portrayed the danger to be apprehended from Execu- 
 tive iiiteriiosition and disposal of patronage aS a means of 
 corruption, but his efforts were repeated. Congress after 
 Congress, to procure the passage of laws calculated to 
 check, if not altogether prevent, any such dangerous policy. 
 At that time few recognized any such doctrine, and the 
 rapid strides it made in fastening itself upon government, 
 soon manifested tliat the apprehensions of Mr. Bell were 
 not ill-founded. 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 CHAPTER ill. 
 
 Mr. Bell's rupture with General Jackson, wbo then 
 might liave been considered the embodiment, as he cer- 
 tainly was the head and front of the Democratic party, was 
 complete, when, refusing to support Mr. Van Eurcn, he 
 openly espoused the cause of Honorable Hugh L. White for 
 the Presidency. Notwithstanding all the influence of Pres- 
 ident Jackson, who was fairly worshiped in Tennessee, was 
 freely used for Mr. Van Buren's success, the State gave a 
 decided majority for White, and Bell was re-elected to Con- 
 gress from his district — the district in which the Hermit- 
 age, General Jackson's residence, was situated— by as sig- 
 nal a majority as he had previously received. 
 
 From this election may be dated the strenuous opposition 
 to the Democratic party, which grew up and continued to 
 increase in Tennessee, until from a most decided Demo- 
 cratic State it came to be regarded as one of the Whig 
 strongholds, and will have been among the last to give way, 
 if indeed, in honor of her own distinguished son, she be 
 not found rallying with all her hosts beneath his banner. 
 
 When it is remembered that Tennessee was overwhelm- 
 ingly for Jackson, her own distinguished citizen, and even 
 against his appeal, cast her vote for another distinguished 
 son, Hugh L. White ; and when the great name of Clay 
 was before her with a last appeal, she was reluctantly re- 
 corded in his column against her son, James K. Polk ; and 
 now, when the most national, and steadfast, and safe of her 
 politicians, who has always been honored with her confi- 
 dence is presented, is it too much to expect that Tennessee 
 will head the- column for John Bell? 
 
 But ours is the task of dealing with realities rather than 
 speculation — with the past and not the future. Among 
 the Southern politicians Mr. Bell stood almost alone in 
 expressing his willingness that petitions should be received 
 and respectfully treated, even though praying for the abo- 
 lition of slavery in the District. He would not interpose 
 a barrier to the right of petition. His speeches on the 
 subject are comprehensive, patriotic, and consistent witli 
 
LirE OF JOHX BELL. 9 
 
 the high prerogative of a statesman. Those of 1836 and 
 1838 may be pointed to with pride, as reflecting views in 
 conformity to the inculcations of the fathers of our coun- 
 try's institutions, in which the right of petition is triumph- 
 antly sustained. 
 
 To deny that right under any pretext, was an abridg- 
 ment of the prerogative of the people and at war with 
 the fundamental principles of the government. Even 
 though prayers from the people for what they should not 
 have, originating in improper motive or caprice, might 
 reach Congress, it were better to receive such than that the 
 principle should be established, that the right of petition 
 might be abridged or denied. Mr. Bell stood by the broad 
 Whig doctrine, so eloquently and earnestly advocated by 
 John Quiney Adams. 
 
 Called to the cabinet of President Harrison, in 1811, as 
 Secretary of War, jMr. Bell, during the brief period for 
 which he occupied that department, exhibited the finest 
 administrative talents. But the death of the venerable 
 President, and the different policy announced by his 
 Constitutional successor, constrained Mr. Bell, through 
 self-respect, to join his colleagues, the heads of the other 
 departments, (except of State,) in tendering tbeir resigna- 
 tion. He had accepted the position under a Whig admin- 
 istration, and could not remain true to himself and to his 
 country by retaining the s-amc in the cabinet of any other. 
 
 The Legislature of Tennessee appreciated the noble con- 
 duct of their distinguished citizen, in which he had proved 
 his consistency and firmness as a Whig; and a vacancy 
 occurring in the United States Senate, tendered him that 
 position. But there were other claims than his to be 
 regarded, and he had an opportunity of displaying his 
 disinterestedness and entire unselfishness of character. 
 However i)leasing to his pride the appointment might have 
 been, he had other duties to fulfill than the mere gratifica- 
 tion of ambition. In his opinion, the place had been 
 merited by the devoted services of his friend, Hon. Ephraim 
 H. Foster; and Mr. Bell declining the profiered honor, 
 had the satisfaction of witnessing the election of Mr. Foster. 
 This manifestation of generous regard of another, and 
 absence of the covetous selfishness that breaks through and 
 disfigures the character of so many of our public men, beauti- 
 fully illustrate 3Ir. Bell's manly and sterling qualities. 
 
10 LIFE OF JOHN BELL, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 For six years Mr. Bell detoted his time to his private 
 affairs, which, in all his public life, he had never neglected, 
 and which were in a flourishing condition ; but in 1847 he 
 was induced to leave retirement, and again enter the pub- 
 lic service, which he did by becoming state senator ; and 
 a vacancy happening the same year in the United States 
 Senate, he was elected to that office, and was re-elected in 
 1853, his terra expiring in 1859. During this long term 
 of public service, no man acquired a more permanent or 
 more national reputation. There was a solidity in every- 
 thing he said and did, that made him seem like one of the 
 fathers of the republic. Like other patriotic senators, he 
 advocated the compromise measures of 1850 ; and, as a 
 settlement of the issues, he desired that Texas might be 
 divided off into states. He was opposed to the Nebraska 
 bill; and his speech on the od of March, 1854, was among 
 the most powerful, if not the very strongest, made against 
 that measure. The impression it produced was so visible. 
 Senator Douglas became uneasy, and put forth all his, 
 powers in its defense. The bill introduced at the previous 
 session had not struck at the Missouri Compromise, but 
 Mr. Bell had opposed it as objectionable, because not neces- 
 sary. " It was an anomaly to establish governments to 
 extend over immense territories, in which there was no 
 white population whose wants required such governments. 
 Tic thought the demand for territorial governments should 
 provide in anticipation of an increase of population by immi- 
 gration and other means; that provision ought to be made 
 lor the tribes beyond Wind Hills and in the llocky Mount- 
 ains ; that information of the number of necessary military 
 posts should be laid before Congress ; and full details of 
 this policy of extending the Government so far beyond the 
 present limits of civilization. There were 300,000,000 acres 
 in these territories. They would support an empire. It 
 was a magnificent idea to build up an immense empire; 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 11 
 
 and he knew not wliich most to admire, the genius or bold- 
 ness displayed by Senator Douglas in the conception of and 
 the pressing of the measure to carry out his grand idea. He 
 thought the senator from Illinois had, for some time, a 
 mania for establishing new governments. He was the author 
 of the New Mexico and Utah bills, and also of Washing- 
 tou Territory. [Mr. Douglas was chairman of the Commit- 
 tee on Territories, of which station he was dispossessed sub- 
 sequent to his rupture with President Buchanan, on account 
 of his Kansas policy.] He had already laid the foundations 
 of three powerful governments, and now proposed to erect 
 two more. Not content with the glory of being conditor 
 imperii, the senator was emulous of the fame of darissimus 
 — conditor impcrioriimr 
 
 3Ir. Bell also objected to the bill, because of tlie provi- 
 sions touching the Indian tribes. Those Indians who had 
 been cai-ricd to this territory from east of the jMississippi, 
 had been guaranteed a home, never to be surrounded by any 
 territorial government. He contended that the provisions 
 of the bill were in clear violation of the Indian treaties. In 
 this connection he condemned the course of those who made 
 such ado about breaking iiiith with the African race, and 
 had no word to say in behalf of the Indians. "The Wilber- 
 forces of the Senate," said he, "had no word of sympathy 
 with any person if they were not Africans." 
 
 It was not until the next session, that Senator Dixon of 
 Kentucky offered in direct terms the proposition to repeal 
 the 3rissouri Compromise. He had been worried by the 
 propositions of Northern senators, and members of the 
 House, and newspapers and divines, all urging that the com- 
 promise meant that while those residing north of the line 
 might migrate with their property, and settle in territory 
 t^oulh of the line, no person from a state south of that line 
 might lawfully take his property (slaves) and be protected 
 in its use into territory north of the line. The proposition 
 to extend the line across the continent so as to embrace Cal- 
 ifornia, when knocking for admission as a new state ; and it 
 occurred to 3Ir. Dixon that what was called the Missouri 
 Compromise was no compromise at all. It was useless, if 
 not unconstitutional at the time of its adoption, and he, 
 therefore, urged its repeal. This was incorporated in the 
 Kansas-Nebra.ska act, with the policy that the people of a 
 territory, like those of a state, should manage their institu- 
 
12 LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 tions in their own way — a proposition which lias been a bone 
 of contention ever since its inauguration, and at the moment 
 of this writing threatens to rend into fragments the time 
 tried Democratic party. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Me. Bell, in 1856, took a decided stand (May 27th) on the 
 bill introduced by Senator Slidell for opening the mouth of 
 the Mississippi. The bill had been vetoed by President 
 Pierce, and upon its reconsideration, a warm and animated 
 discussion arose. Mr. Toombs having taken a leading part 
 against the bill, and sustaining the veto, Mr. Bell responded 
 to the Georgia senator very happily. He thought that gen- 
 tleman commenced at the wrong point, in attempting to de- 
 feat apj^ropriations for the removal of obstructions that 
 annually clog the mouth of the river which passes through 
 an immense valley, and in the free and unimpeded naviga- 
 tion of which the whole interior of the country between 
 the Rocky Mountains and the Alleghanies was interested. 
 The expenditure of one or two millions annually in keeping- 
 open the great river would Ibe no more than an equivalent 
 for the expenditures on the Atlantic coast. A short extract 
 to show the practicability of Mr. Bell's views will suffice : 
 
 " Sir," said Mr. Bell, " wo have the Mississippi washing Tennessee 
 on one exti-emity ; we have the Cumberland running through our 
 state to float off our heavy produce — our cotton and tobacco. The 
 senator from Georgia will allow no improvement for the Mississippi 
 river, because he thinks it unequal ; and he alludes to the fact of 
 Tennessee having spent $10,000,000 in order to enable the people 
 from the interior of that state to send their products to foreign mar- 
 kets, by making a connection with the Georgia roads. Georgia reaps 
 a great benelit from that trade. Charleston shares a portion of it; 
 but the greater benelit of it goes to Augusta and Savannah. We are 
 forced to take our cotton to Savannah and Charleston, at an expense 
 of two or three dollars a bale ; when, if we could take it down the 
 Mississippi, the cost would not be more than one dollar, or one dollar 
 and twenty-five cents." 
 
 In the discussion of every important measure, Mr. Bell 
 bore a conspicuous part; and, as questions of grave and 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 13 
 
 serious import arose, his opinions were looked for with 
 solicitude, as they were sure to be regarded with profound 
 respect. In the Thirty-Fifth Congress, his course on the 
 loading measures brought him still more prominently before 
 the country. Early in 1858, the Legislature of Tennessee 
 passed resolutions instructing the senators, and requesting 
 the representatives of Tennessee, in Congress, to vote 
 for the admission of Kansas into the Union, under the 
 Lccompton Constitution. None, knowing his antecedents, 
 could doubt the position of I\Ir. Bell. On the presenta- 
 tion of these resolutions, he reviewed them at length, and 
 after analyzing them with clearness and no little piquancy, 
 justified himself in declining to act in conformity to them. 
 His colleague, Hon. Andrew Johnson, defended the instruc- 
 tions of the State Legislature, and Mr. Bell taking excep- 
 tions to some of Mr. Johnson's remarks, a debate sprung 
 up, which occupied the whole day, February 23d, 1S58. 
 Both gentlemen not only grew animated but became warm, 
 and personal remarks ensued, which, it was feared, might 
 load to unpleasant results; but two days afterward, like 
 men of honor and true courage, and in a spirit becoming- 
 senators, they made mutual explanations, thus affording an 
 example worthy of imitation, and arranging a difficulty 
 growing out of the heat of discussion, greatly to the satis- 
 faction of their friends and the public. 
 
 On the 18th of March, 1858, in the great Lccompton 
 debate, Mr. Bell made a very elaborate speech, extending 
 through the entire day, in which he took broad and com- 
 prehensive grounds against the measure. In the course of 
 his argument, he animadverted, at considerable length, upon 
 the remarks of Senator Toombs, who, in substance, had 
 said it was a question of union or disunion; it was no 
 sectional question, but one which concerned the whole 
 country — the North as well as the South. He proclaimed 
 to the Senate, that he had estimated the value of the 
 Union. Mr. Bell, in reply, said: 
 
 "With him it is a myth, a false idol; and he fears tliat the Simile 
 of Keutucky, which my honorable and eloquent friend, Mr. Critten- 
 den, so well represents, has Avorshiped and loved, not wisely, bni. too 
 well. He hiis brought the question to a point — an issue which it 
 becomes us all to ponder." 
 
 jMr. Bell had experienced misgivings that there were 
 
14 LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 
 
 such calculations as the senator from Georgia suggested ; 
 but the evidence had not been such as to awaken very 
 lively fears. A vague and imperfect apprehension had 
 existed ; but now what he had dreaded was an admitted 
 fact. The value of the Union had been calculated — it had 
 been a matter of consideration — of consultation, perhaps ; 
 and an estimate placed upon it. The contingency had 
 arisen, and it must be met with the boldness and direct- 
 ness with which the avowal had been made. It had been 
 placed before the country openly, and he felt it his duty 
 to notice it in every aspect to which his attention had 
 been called by the senator from Georgia. He investigated 
 the subject, and very conclusively showed that the rejection 
 of the Lecompton Constitution would not be a fit pretext 
 for Southern men to agitate disunion ; and that its accept- 
 ance would be a departure from, if not an utter revolution 
 of, the fixed principles of the government. On examining 
 the question on every principle connected with the inalien- 
 able rights of the people, announced by the President and 
 his principal supporters in the Senate, he could not discover 
 that there was really any application for the admission of 
 Kansas into the Union with the assent of the people of that 
 territory. In his opiiiion the "English bill" was no ma- 
 terial improvement; for it provided no basis for a speedy 
 and perniauent adjustment. To him it appeared as a new 
 and further evidence of a desire, upon the part of the lead- 
 ers of the two i'actions, to keep the subject open for further 
 contention. His views were given with the earnestness 
 which the importance of the question in issue demanded. 
 It was a furtlier proof of his disregard of ephemeral popu- 
 larity, and his steadfast devotion to the Union. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mr. Bell, always attentive to the interests of the coun- 
 try, and never backward in expressing his opinions upon 
 public measures of importance, participated in the discus- 
 sion of the Minnesota bill, April 8. 1858, in which he dis- 
 sented from the provisions of the Constitution of the pro- 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 15 
 
 posed state, respecting alien suffrage, as in violation of the 
 spirit of the Constitution of the United States, the framers 
 of which having vested tlie power in Congress of providing 
 uniform naturalization laws, could not have contemplated 
 this exceedingly liberal bestowal of suffrage — one of the 
 highest and most distinctive marks and rights of citizen- 
 ship — upon aliens who had not undergone the prescribed 
 routine of naturalization. 
 
 In former years he had raised his voice against this doc- 
 trine, and had pointed out the abuses to which it might 
 lead ; but a contrary opinion seemed to prevail in the 
 councils of the nation, and among the people both North 
 and South, and it only rcioained for him to repeat his con- 
 victions of public policy and propriety in the matter, with- 
 out pressing them so far as to vote against the admission 
 of Minnesota under a Constitution open to these objections, 
 especially since, under the construction now admitted by a 
 majority of the Senate, he could have no guarantee that if 
 the Constitution were amended in this regard, while before 
 Congress, it would not be forthwith altered by the people, 
 after their admission, and made to conform to their wishes 
 in respect to alien suffrage. He regretted to find in this, 
 as in other political developments of the time, the indica- 
 tions of an increasing tendency toward a wild and unregu- 
 lated liberty, that deprived of the mild though proper 
 restraints of government, must inevitably end in chaos and 
 confusion, if not disaster. 
 
 In the discussions of financial matters, Mr. Bell opposed 
 the views of the Administration, not from a spirit of fac- 
 tious opposition, but because he believed the recommenda- 
 tions should not be entertained, sometimes as unnecessary 
 and in many cases extravagant. He supported, with his 
 usual power, the amendment of Senator Fcsscnden, to cur- 
 tail, as far as practicable, the enormous expenditures to 
 which the government had beeu committed by the Admin- 
 istration, ill the inopportune advance of the troops into 
 Utah — inopportune, because undertaken at a season of the 
 year when no sensible or practical man could doubt they 
 would have to pass their winter in the gorges of the Hocky 
 31oun tains. Again, it was questionable whether the Presi- 
 dent had the legal authority to order our troops into Utah, 
 to act as an escort for l*'ederal oflicers, under the guise of 
 
16 
 
 LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 
 
 a wosse comitatus. But even if lie bad, the exercise of it in 
 the premises was a great abuse. 
 
 The Fifteen Million Loan Bill, reported from the Finance 
 Committee, was elaborately argued by Mr. Bell, who exam- 
 ined it with great minuteness. Reviewing the circumstances 
 wliieh ostensibly and actually created the necessity of bor- 
 rowing money, he said : 
 
 "Twelve months ago, \tc had a surplus of t.wcnty millions in the 
 treasnv3\ Now the treasury is bankrupt, and we are running rap- 
 idly in debt, without providing any certain means of liquidation. 
 Should not such a pjrospect rouse the people to inquiry into the finan- 
 cial policy of the Administration? In what other free country 
 would such a condition of affairs be regarded with acquiescence? 
 No British ministry would so far presume on the toleration of a 
 British public as to come before Parliament with a loan bill like 
 that now pending in the Senate of the United States; for since the 
 revolution of 1688, no British public would have allowed such man- 
 agement of the national revenues to pass unchallenged. An unpar- 
 alleled financial revulsion had recently swept over the civilized 
 world. It was the duty of our rulers to have been among the first 
 to descry the coming storm, whereas they seem to have been among 
 the last, if we may judge from the dispositions taken by the present 
 Secretary of the Treasury, in baying up on its eve, the bonds of 
 the Government at exorbitant premiums. I'owerless to avert, they 
 confessed themselves equally incompetent to remedy the disasters 
 which have befallen the trade and industry of the country." 
 
 When the Navy Appropriation Bill was before the Sen- 
 ate, a spirited debate sprung up, and Mr. Mallory reported, 
 from the Naval Committee, an amendment authorizing the 
 construction of ten steamships. Mr. Bell supported the 
 amendment, on the ground that after the acquisition of our 
 possessions on the Pacific coast, and the rapid development 
 of California and its golden stores, the Navy should be in- 
 creased. In no step that he has ever taken during a long 
 public life, has he manifested a factious opposition to meas- 
 ures of an Administration to which he was politically 
 opposed, or ceased to look to the public welf\ire, regardless 
 of the consequences, in every vote he has given involving 
 appropriations, always according to them his cheerful acqui- 
 escence when meritorious, and throwing all his power and 
 influence in the scale against them when believed to be 
 improper. 
 
 When senators questioned the right of Congress to do- 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 17 
 
 Date lands for the purpose of founding as^ricultural col- 
 leges, Lut had no conscientious scruples when called upon 
 for grants to the several states, in aid of the construction 
 of railroads and other internal improvements, 31r. Bell's 
 discriminating mind could perceive uo difference in the 
 Constitutional power to be exercised. If Congress had the 
 power to grant the public lands in aid of such enterprises, 
 there could be no possible reason why the Constitution 
 should not consent to render assistance to so important a 
 branch of improvement as the establishment of agricultu- 
 ral colleges. 
 
 Mr. Bell advocated the construction of a Pacific rail- 
 road. He was not restricted to any particular route ; but, 
 like a national man, desired the best. He argued that it 
 now costs the government more than two millions of dollars 
 per annum to convey the mails to California by the pres- 
 ent routes, while the expenses of the army, on our remote 
 Western frontiers, amounted, during the last year, to ten 
 millions of dollars; and there was every prospect that our 
 army would continue to be needed in that quarter. He 
 thought ten millions, as proposed by Senator i^avis of 3Iis- 
 eissippi, too small a proportion for the government to con- 
 tribute to the enterjjrise. Seven years ago he had said 
 that a hundred and hfty millions v.-ere not too much, and 
 his opinioa had undergone no change. So free from sec- 
 tional bias was he, in the choice of routes, that he intro- 
 duced an amendment authorizing the Secretary of the Inte- 
 rior to advertise for proposals to construct three routes : 
 Northern, Southern, and Central ; leaving Congress, at a 
 subsequent day, to select that which, in its judgment, 
 might seem the best. He particularly remarked the singu- 
 lar fact, that those who doubt the propriety of building a 
 Pacifie railroad, because the Constitution is a stumbling- 
 block in their way, unconsciously adopt, in advocating the 
 acquisition of Cuba, the same line of argument which is 
 held to be so unsound when urged by the friends of the 
 railroad. If it was lawful and proper to acquire Cuba, 
 because that fruitful and capacious island was necessary to 
 the military defenses and commercial prosperity of the 
 country, why was it inadmissible to employ the same rea- 
 sons in advocating the construction of a Pacific railroad? 
 A vote being taken, the amendment was rejected ; but, being 
 renewed subsequently, by Senator Simmons, it was adopted. 
 
18 LIFE OP JOHN BELL, 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 From this outline of Mr. Bell's public career and opin- 
 ions throuci^li a long life of active service, some idea may 
 be formed of his solid character and great personal worth. 
 The space allotted would not permit many things to bo 
 noticed that would have been read with interest, and have 
 still further illustrated his eminent ability, his reflective 
 and serious consideration of the public interest, and his 
 patriotic virtue. Sufficient, however, has been furnished 
 to show that our Republic has had few sons to whom she is 
 more indebted than to the calm, philosophic, dignified 
 statesman of Tennessee. 
 
 On the 7th of March, 1859, in announcing the expiration 
 of Mr. Bell's senatorial term, the Nafional Ink-Ilitjcncer, a 
 paper of standard excellence, paid him the following richly 
 merited tribute : 
 
 " We are sure that we do but give utterance to the voice of a large 
 portion, not only of the people of Tennessee, but of the country at 
 large, when we say that the withdrawal of the Honorable John Bell 
 from the body which he had so long instructed by the wisdom of his 
 counsels, and adorned by the dignity of his demeanor, deserves to 
 be regarded as a serious loss to the public service. Uniting to 
 habits of patient study, those cardinal (jualities of mind which con- 
 stitute the conservative statesman, he had, moreover, acquired, by 
 his long service in ditfereut branches of the Government, an experi- 
 ence which fitted liim, in a singular degree, for the higli functions 
 he has lately discharged with so much credit to himself and useful- 
 ness to the country. It is to be hoped that his withdrawal from 
 public life will prove only temporary, and tliat our national councils 
 may still share in the benefits to be derived from the signal ability 
 he brings to the discussion of all great public measures. That 
 ability has been sufficiently illustrated in the able speeches he has 
 delivered on the topics of political concern which have occupied the 
 attention of Congress during the last past few years ; and we venture 
 to express the hope that a selection from his senatorial efl'orls on 
 great questions of state policy may be gathered into a permanent 
 form, as we are sure they would compare favorably with similar 
 productions of the leading statesmen who have shed luster on our 
 parliamentary annals." 
 
 Mr. Bell is now of the ripe age of sixty-three, and is 
 remarkable for vigorous health, having led a most regular 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 19 
 
 and exemplary life, mingling the utile cum dulci in the most 
 agreeable and prudent manner. He has not found his 
 enjoyments where often vainly sought by others, but la- 
 bored when necessary, nor subjected his powers to the weari- 
 ness of toil beyond a proper endurance ; and tempered 
 pleasure by moderation and prudence. At the expiration 
 of his senatorial term, on the 4th of March, 1S59, he sought 
 retirement and anticipated the enjoyment of private life; 
 but by the Constitutional Union Convention, which assem- 
 bled at Baltimore on the 9th of May, 18G0, after a very har- 
 monious organization and interchange of sentiment among 
 the delegates — nearly every state being represented — it was 
 resolved on the 10th (second day) to go into an election 
 of a National Union Candidate for the Presidency of the 
 United States, and amid great enthusiasm he was nominated. 
 
 The first ballot resulted as follows: Bell OS-J-, Houston 57, 
 Crittenden 28, Everett 25, M'Lean 22, Graham 22, Botts 
 9^, Sharkey G, Rives 3, Goggin 3 — whole number, 251. 
 
 On tlie second ballot, having received a majority over all 
 other candidates, Mr. Bell was nominated by acclamation. 
 
 It would, perhaps, be an unpardonable neglect to omit 
 from this sketch a fair view of Mr. Bell's opinions regard- 
 ing slavery — the leading subject of controversy and the 
 governing principle in the canvass to which he has been 
 called. An extract IVom his speech in the American Sen- 
 ate, in July 1850, nmst suflice. In this speech he discusses 
 the moral and economical cflects of the " institution," and 
 the legal and Constitutional rights of slaveholders. lie 
 aflirms not only the right of protection to slave property 
 in the territories, but the express recognition of slavery in 
 the Federal Constitution. Ilis views of the economical 
 relations of slavery, are marked by sound sense and dis- 
 tinguished for practical wisdom. What more could be 
 demanded by the patriot, Northern or Southern than such 
 broad national views as these. Mr. Bell said: 
 
 " It 18 contended fliat the Soiitli is secured in the full benefit of the 
 doctrine held l)y some of the most distinguished ch.ampions of i(s 
 rights, who maintain that the Constitution, priyprio vi</ore, that the 
 flag of the Union protects the citizen in the enjoyment of his rights 
 of property of every description, recognized as such, in any of the 
 states, on every sea, and in every territory of the Union. The sound- 
 ness of l/ie general doctrine held on this point. I think, can not loell be 
 
20 
 
 LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 
 
 gU('sfio?ird or (Unproved; and if the question related to a territory ntuated 
 as Oregon was, when the United State.'; came into possession of it, property 
 in daves would he entitled to the protection of the laws and Constitution 
 of the United States. 
 
 "The cause of freedom, in the South as well as the Nortli, is wrap- 
 ped up in the Constitution and the Union. These once broken down, 
 anarchy and military despotism become our inheritance. We have 
 arrived at a point of time in our history, which will constitute an 
 epoch, to which the future historian will refer, and from it deduce the 
 cause of our decline as a nation, or of increased prosperity and 
 grandeur. Sir, no man who loves his country, no man who lias any 
 just, pride in the retiection that he is an American citizen, but must 
 desire that these dissensions should cease. It is not a mere question 
 whether we shall preserve the Union. The question is whether mu- 
 tual trust and confidence shall continue to animate and encourage a 
 mutual effort in promoting and multiplying common benefits; or 
 whether mutual hatred and distrust shall step in to check all progress, 
 to distract and confound all joint endeavors for the common welfare ; 
 in fine, to entail upon the country all the evils of endless discord. 
 That is the question. And when you present that issue to me, I say 
 at once, give me separation ; give me disunion ; give me anytliing in 
 I^reference to a Union sustained only by power; by Constitutional and 
 legal ties, without confidence. 
 
 "I am not to be deluded, Mr. President, by the appeals from the 
 North, upon the subject of human wrongs, and the violation of human 
 rights. ■•■ ■■■'■ •■■ Were it proposed by the South to impose the chains 
 of servitude upon a single human being now free, there is no man 
 living to whom such a proposition would be more revolting than to 
 myself. But, sir, humanity to the slave, not less than justice to the 
 master, recommends the policy of division and extension into any new 
 territory adapted to his condition ; and the reasons are too obvious 
 to be misunderstood by the dullest intellect. 
 
 "As to the lawfulness or sinfulness of the institution of slavery — 
 whatever frenzied or fanatic priests, or more learned and rational 
 divines may preach; whatever they may affirm of Christian precepts, 
 of moral and religious duties and responsibility; whatever inter-, 
 pretation of the law of natui'e or of Almighty God they may an- 
 nounce; whatever doctrines or theories of the equality of human 
 rights and of the various races of mankind, diversified as they are 
 by complexion, by physical formation and mental development, the 
 disciples of a transcendental creed of any kind may hold or teach; 
 however they may dogmatize upon this hypothesis, and declare it to 
 be a violation of the law of nature bj' any one race, with whatever 
 superiority of mental or physical faculties they may be endowed, to 
 subjugate those of an inferior race, and make them the instruments 
 of improvement and amelioration in their own condition, and in that 
 of their masters and conquerors, in carrying forward the great work 
 of civilization. — until we shall be enlightened by revelation from a 
 higher source than themselves, I must claim the privilege of inter- 
 preting the law of nature by what I see revealed in the history of 
 mankind from the earliest period of recorded time uncontradicted 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 21 
 
 by Divine authority. I must interpret that law according to the 
 prominent fuels connected with this subject, as tliey have stood out 
 in the past, and as they stand out before us at this day. Looking 
 through the eyes of liistory, I have seen slavery and involuntary 
 servitude the instrument and handmaid of Hindoo, Egyptian, Assyr- 
 ian, Jewish, Greek, and Koraan civilization. I have seen the insti- 
 tution recognized by the theocratic government of the Jews, the 
 chosen depositaries of the Word of Life; by democratic Athens and 
 republican Rome. I have seen upon the overthrow of Roman civil- 
 ization by the savage liordes of the North, that these new masters of 
 Western Europe, and their successors, adopted and continued to uphold 
 the same institution, under various modifications, adapted to the chang- 
 ing condition of both slave and master, and still under an advancing 
 civilization, until a comparatively recent period. I see the same 
 institution tolerated and maintained in Eastern Europe at this day. 
 I see the native race of all British India at this moment bowing the 
 neck under a system of quasi slavery. But, above all, I have seen here 
 on this continent, and in these United States, the original lords of 
 the soil subdued — some of them reduced to slavery, others expelled, 
 driven out — and the remnant still held in subordination ; and all 
 these under the interpretation of the laws of nature, which holds 
 good to this day among our Northern brethren; and I have yet in 
 reserve that great fact to which I have already alluded — three mill- 
 ions of the African race, whose labor is subject to the will of mas- 
 ters, under such circumstances that their condition can not be 
 changed, though tiieir masters should will it, without destruction 
 alike to the interests and welfare of both master and slave. These 
 are the lights by which 1 read and understand the law of nature. 
 
 " Now, sir, permit me lo say a few words upon the elTect of this 
 institution upon the country which tolerates it. To the great fact 
 to which 1 have more than once alluded, conjoined to the system of 
 equal laws wliich our ancestors brought with tliem to these shores, 
 and wliich the}' perfected and consolidated at the Revolution, and by 
 the adoption of the present form of Union, we arc indebted — the 
 world is indebted — for tliat other great phenomenon in the history 
 of the rise and progress of nations, in all its bearings, not yet fully 
 comprehended by ilie nations of the Old World, nor even by our- 
 selves; and which will, in all future time, be the study and admira- 
 tion of the historian and the philosopher. I mean not the founding 
 a Republic on these shores, so recenily the abode onl^' of savages and 
 nomadic tribes ; but its amazing growth and development — its magic- 
 like spring from small beginnings; rising as it were -by a single 
 effort, by one elastic bound, into all the attributes of a first-rate 
 power; a great republican empire — able not only to maintain its 
 rights of sovereignly and independence, by land and sea, against a 
 liostile woi;ld, but, at the same time, by its example, shaking to their 
 foundations the despotic powers of the eartii; a great incorporation 
 of freedom, dispensing its blessings to all mankind. Tlic failed 
 lirlh of Minerva, leaping in full panoply from the head of Jove, if a trutli^ 
 and no fiction, would scarcchj be more wonderful, or a greater mystery, 
 without the clue ivhich African slavery furnivhes for the solution of it. 
 
22 
 
 LIFE 01' JOHN BELL, 
 
 "Sir, making all ilue allowance for American enterprise and the 
 energies of the free labor under such a system of govci-nment as we 
 enjoy, I doubt whether the power and resources of the country would 
 liave attained more than half their present extraordinary proportions, 
 Inil for this w much reviled instihition of slavery. Sir, your rich and 
 varied coramei'ce, external and internal; your navigation; your 
 commercial marine, the nursery of the military ; your ample reve- 
 nues ; the public credit of your manufactures, your rich, populous 
 and splendid cities, — all, all, may trace to this institution, as their well- 
 spring, their present gigantic proportions — nourished and built up to 
 their present amazing bight and grandeur by the great staples of 
 the South — the products of slave labor. 
 
 " Yet slavery, in every form in which it has existed, from the 
 primitive period of organized society — from its earliest and patri- 
 ai'chal form to this time, in every quarter of the globe — and all its 
 results, even the m.agnificent results of African slavery in the United 
 States are declared to be against the law of nature. Though contrib- 
 uting in a hundred various forms and modes, through a period of thou- 
 sands of years, to the amelioration of the condition of mankind generally ; 
 though sometimes abused, as all human institutions, even those of religion 
 lire, still contributing to advajice the cause of civilization ; though, if you 
 please, having its origin in individual ctipidity, still loorking out a general 
 good; yet slavery and cdl its beneficial results is pronounced against the 
 will of God, by those who claim a superior illumination upon the 
 subject. This may be so; but I must say that this conclusion, so 
 confidently announced, is not arrived at in accordance with the 
 Baconian method of reasoning, by which we are taught, that from a 
 great many particular and well established facts in the physical 
 economy, we may safely deduce a general law of physical nature, 
 and so of morals and government. 
 
 " It seems to my iveak faculties that it is rather an arrogant and pre- 
 sumptuous arraignment of the tvays of Providence, mysterious as we know 
 them, to be, for feeble man to declare, that that which has been permitted 
 to exist and prosper from the beginning among men and natiojis is contrary 
 to his tvill. 
 
 "But whoever has studied to much purpose the history of civili- 
 zation, the progress of society, the laws and government, must have 
 perceived that certain abstract or theoretic tniths, whether in civil 
 or religious policy, have been, and can only, with safety to the 
 ultimate ends of all societies and governments, be unfolded by de- 
 grees, and adjusted at every step; according to the advance of 
 society from its infancy, to a higher civilization and a moi'e enlight- 
 ened compi-ehension ; such as the equ.ality of natural rights and 
 privileges, the rights of self-government, and freedom of speech ami 
 opinion. These general truths, though they can not be successfully 
 controverted at this day, yet as they have been seldom admitted, in 
 their length and breadth, in the practical operations of government, 
 with success, some lawgivers have been led to deny that they are 
 founded in reason ; and when these truths have at any time been 
 suddenly embraced by the controlling minds among a people, the 
 misfortune has been that they were applied in excess — without duo 
 
LIFE OP JOHN BELL. 23 
 
 rcfcaril to the actual condition of the people, who were to be affected ; 
 and lienco thoy have so far failed of success in some of the most 
 hijrhly civilized nations of Europe. Cut it is more to tlie point to 
 refer to the emancipaton of the slaves of St. Domingo; one of the 
 first explosive effects of the recognition of the rights of man by the 
 French people. It would be difficult to demonstrate, at this day, that 
 the cause of humanity or of liuman progress has been in the slightest 
 degree promoted by the abolition of slavery in that most fertile and 
 beautiful island. 
 
 " It is, I believe, now pretty well understood that British statesmen 
 committed an error in the policy of the West India emancipation, 
 forced upon them by fanatical reformers. They were driven to adopt 
 a sentiment, instead of practical truth, as the foundation of a radical 
 change in the social condition of a people who were not prepared to 
 appreciate or profit by it. Even the reformation in religion and 
 Church government, which commenced some three centuries ago, in 
 the opinion of many of the most profound inquirers, has failed of 
 that complete success which ought to have attended it, for the reason 
 that the general truths and principles upon which it was founded 
 were applied in excess. The zealous champions of reform, in throw- 
 ing asiile all observances which affect the senses, and in spritualizing 
 too much, there is reason to believe, have stayed the progress of ra- 
 tional and substantial reform, and checked the spread of religious 
 restraints upon the evil passions of men. But this is a delicate sub- 
 ject, and I must forbear. 
 
 "These examples may show that there are certain abstract truths 
 and principles, whicli, however incontrovertible in themselves, like 
 every other good thing, may be and often are misconceived and 
 abused in their application. It is the business of statesmen to apply 
 llicm with safety, and to give them the utmost practical influence and 
 effect consistent with tlie existing state of society. The most beauti- 
 ful illustration of this sentiment, and the most striking example of 
 the superiority of practical truth over theoretic axioms in the forma- 
 tion of government, to be found in all history, and one which claims 
 the special attention of the people of this country at tliis moment, 
 was cxliibitcd by our ancestors, when, witji their own recognition of 
 the abstract truth of the equality of natural rights still vibrating on 
 their tongues, thoy yet fearlessly set their seals to a covenant of 
 union between the states, with an express recognition of African 
 slavery. / sai/ fxpresg rccof/iiilion of African slaver//, because what- 
 ever the Jesuitical doctors of the North may say, the clauses in the 
 Constitution relating to the importation of persons under such cir- 
 cumstances, and fixing the basis of direct taxes and representation 
 in Congress, I affirm, do amount to an express recognition of slavery."' 
 
 This is a fair specimen of Mr. Bell's strong, manly style 
 and vigorous thought. He maintains his opinions with 
 firmness, bccau.se they are founded upon the reflections of 
 his own mind, after the most careful investigation. 
 
 It remains but to give his letter of acceptance of the 
 
24 LIFE OP JOHN. BELL. 
 
 nomination as candidate of the Constitutional Union Party 
 for the Presidency, and tliis sketch is closed. 
 
 "N.vsuviLLE, May 21, 1860. 
 "Hon. Washington- Hunt: 
 
 "Dear Sir,— Official information of mj' nomination to the Presi- 
 dency, by the National Union Convention, of which you were the 
 presiding officer, was communicated to me by your letter of the 11th 
 instant, at Philadelpliia, on the eve of my departure, with my family, 
 for my place of residence in Tennessee, and, diffident as I was of my 
 worthiness, I did not hesitate to signify my intention to accept the 
 position assigned to me by that distinguished and patriotic body. 
 r>ut for convenience, and under a sense of the propriety of acting 
 in so grave a matter with greater deliberation, I concluded, as I in- 
 formed you at the time by a private note, to defer a formal accept- 
 ance until after my arrival at home. 
 
 "Now that I have had all the leisure I could desire for reflection 
 upon the circumstances under which the nomination was made, the 
 purify of the motives and the lofty spfrit of patriotism by which the 
 Convention was animated, as evinced in all its proceedings, I can 
 appreciate more justly the liouor done me by the nomination; and 
 though it might have been more fortunate for the country had it 
 fallen upon some one of the many distinguished statesmen whose 
 names were bi'ought to the notice of the Convention, rather than 
 myself, I accept it with all its possible responsibilities. Whatever 
 may be the issue of the ensuing canvass, as for myself I shall ever 
 regard it as a proud distinction — one worth a lifelong etfort to attain 
 — to be pronounced worthy to receive the liigiiest olFicc in the govern- 
 ment, at such a lime as the present, and by sucli a Convention as 
 that which recently met in Baltimore — a Convention far less impos- 
 ing by the number of its members, large as it was, than by their 
 high character. In it were men venerable alike for their age and 
 their public services, who could not have beeu called from their 
 voluntary retirement from public life but by the strongest sense 
 of patriotic duty; others, though still in the prime of life, ranking 
 with the first men of the country by honors and distinctions alreaily 
 acquired in high official positions, state and national; many of them 
 statesmen worthy to fill the highest office in the government; a still 
 greater number occupying the highest rank in their respective pro- 
 fessional pursuits; others, distinguished by their intelligence and 
 well-earned influence in various walks of private life, and all ani- 
 mated and united by one spirit and one purpose — the result of a 
 strong conviction that our political system, under the operation of 
 a complication of disorders, is rapidly approaching a crisis when a 
 speedy change must take place, indicating, as iu diseases of the phys- 
 ical body, I'ecovery or death. 
 
 "The Convention, in discarding the use of platforms, exacts no 
 pledges from those whom they deem worthy of the highest trusts 
 uuder the government, wisely considering that the surest guarantee 
 of a man's future usefulness and fidelity to the great interests of the 
 country, in any official station to which he may be chosen, is to be 
 
LIFE OF JOHN BELL. 25 
 
 found in his past history connected with the public service. The 
 pledge implied in my acceptance of the nomination of the National 
 Union Convention is, tliat, should I be elected, I will not depart from 
 the spirit and tenor of my past course; and the obligation to keep 
 Uiis pledge derives a double force from the consideration that none is 
 required from me. 
 
 "You, sir, in your letter containing the official announcement of 
 my nomination, have been pleased to ascribe me tlie merit of moder- 
 ation and justice in my past public career. You have likewise given 
 me credit for a uniform support of all wise and benevolent measures 
 of legislation, for a firm resistance to all measures calculated to en- 
 gender sectional discord, and for a lifelong devotion to the union, 
 harmony, and prosperity of these states. Whether your personal par- 
 tiality has led you to overstate my merits as a public man or not, in 
 your enumeration of them, you have presented a summary — a basis 
 of all sound American statesmanship. It may be objected that noth- 
 ing is said in this summary, in express terms, of the obligations im- 
 posed b}' the Constitution, but the duty to respect and observe them 
 is clearly implied; for without due observance in the conduct of tluj 
 Governnicnt, of tlie Constitution, its restrictions and requirements, 
 fairly interpreted in accordance with its spirit and objects, there can 
 be no end to sectional discord — no security for the harmony of the 
 Union. 
 
 "1 liave not the vanity to assume that, in my past connection with 
 the public service, I liave exemplified the course of a sound American 
 statesman; but if I have deserved the favorable view taken of it in 
 your letter, I may hope, by a faithful adherence to the maxims by 
 which 1 have heretofore been guided, not altogetlicr to disappoint the 
 confidence and expectation of those who have placed me in m.y pres- 
 ent relation to the public; and if, under Providence, I should be 
 called to preside over the afl'airs of this great country as the Execu- 
 tive Ciiief of the Governmcat, the only further pledge 1 fee4 called 
 upon to make is, that to the utmost of my ability, and with whatr 
 ever sirengili of will 1 can command, all the powers and iulhience 
 belonging to my ofliiial station shall be employed and directed for 
 the piomotion of all the great objects for wliich the Government was 
 instituted, but more especially for the maintenance of the Constitution 
 and the Union against all opposing influence and tendencies. 
 
 ''I can not conclude tliis letter without expressing my high gratifi- 
 cation at the nomination to the second olHce under the government, of 
 that emiucntlj' gifted and distinguished statesman of Massachusetts, 
 JMwai-d Everett, a gentleman held by general consent, to be altogether 
 worthy of the first. 
 
 "Tendering my grateful acknowledgments for the kind and cotn- 
 plimeutary remarks with wliich you were pleased to accompany iko 
 communication of my nomination, 
 
 "I am, dear sir, with the highest respect, 
 
 "Y'our obedient servant, 
 
 "JouN Bell." 
 3 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVEFxETT. 
 
 CHAPTER I, 
 
 This distinguislied American citizen, to wLoii. no office 
 can bring additional honors, or slied a more brilliant renown, 
 was born in the tovv^n of Dorchcstor, Norfolk eoiinty, Massa- 
 chnsetts, in April, 1794 ; and is consequently sixty -sis years 
 of age. He is descended from one of the earliest settlers 
 of MasDaehusetts Bay, who established himself at Dedham, 
 where the femily yet remains. As our space is limited, only 
 a brief outline can be given of his own career, precluding 
 the pleasing task of glancing at -his connections and sur- 
 roundings through his eventful progress. After going to the 
 public schools of Dorchester and Boston, and attending for 
 a year a school kept by Daniel Webster's bxother Ezekiel, 
 he was prepared for college at Exeter, N. H., then under the 
 charge of the distinguished Dr. Benjamin H. Abbott. He 
 entered Harvard when little more than fourteen, and was only 
 seventeen when he graduated witli its highest honors. 
 
 In determining upon a profession, his first iueliaation was 
 to that of the law, but he preferred divinity, and pursued this 
 study two years, during a portion of which time he acted as 
 tutor at Cambridge — his alma rnafer. Pie was not twenty 
 years old when he was called to succeed Mr. Buckminster, 
 an early friend, in the Brattle-street Church in Boston, and 
 entered upon his duties with great zeal — in fact, impaired 
 health was the resutfc of his zealous efforts, A biographer 
 has said, " His discourses even at this early age, and succeed- 
 ing so eloquent a jn'eacher as Buckminster, drew very decided 
 attention, and their hearty, honest eloquence created expect- 
 ations which were not disappointed." 
 
 The following year, 1814, he published "A Defense of 
 i26) 
 
LIFE OP • EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 27 
 
 Christianity," an elaborate treatise of five hundred pages, iu 
 answer to " The Grounds of Christianity Examined," by 
 Georj^e B. English. Of this complete exposition and suc- 
 cessful efibrt, considering his youth, it was said to be among 
 " the most remarkable productions of the human mind." It 
 was in this same year that a Greek professorship was estab- 
 lished at Cambridge by Samuel Elliott of Boston, and Mr, 
 Everett was invited to the new chair, with tlie tempting offer 
 of leave to visit Europe to recruit his health, an ofcr which 
 ho accepted and departed fur Europe in 1815. 
 
 A\.^' 
 
 EDWARD EVEEETT. 
 
 During his absence he remained at Gottingcn two years, 
 acquiring the German language and making himself ac- 
 quainted with those branches of ancient literature appro- 
 priate to his professorship, traveling in Saxony, Prussia, and 
 Holland during vacations. He spent the winter of 1817-18 
 in Paris, and in the spring went to England, where he be- 
 came acquainted with Scott, Byron, Mackintosh, Jeflrcy, 
 Campbell, Romilly, and Davy. After a winter in Italy and 
 Greece, in 1819 he returned home and entered upon the 
 duties of his professorship. He gave a new impulse to the 
 study of classical literature by a series of brilliant lectures 
 upon Greek literature and ancient art, first delivered to the 
 
28 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 students at Cambridge, and afterward repeated before large 
 audiences at Boston. At the same time lie took the editor- 
 ship of the North American Revieio, which he conducted 
 till 1824. His object iu assuming the charge of this peri- 
 odical was to imbue it with a thoroughly national spirit; and 
 in pursuance of it he contributed a series of articles, in 
 which this country was defended with great spirit against 
 the shallow and flippant attacks of several foreign travelers. 
 He also found time to prepare and publish a translation of 
 Buttman's Greek Grammar. In 1824, he made his first 
 essay in that department of demonstrative oratory, which he 
 has since cultivated with such signal success, by the delivery 
 of a discourse before the Phi Beta Kappa Society on the 
 " Circumstances favorable to the progress of literature in 
 America." An immense audience came to hear him, attracted 
 partly by his own fame, and partly by the v/ish to behold 
 Lafiiyette, who was present at the orator's side. He was 
 heard with the greatest enthusiasm and delight. Our own 
 recollections confirm the strong statements of a writer in the 
 Christian Examiner for November, 1850 : '* The sympathies of 
 his audience went with him in a rushing stream, as he painted, 
 in glowing hues, the political, social, and literary future of our 
 country. They drank witli thiroiy car hiri rapid generaliza- 
 tions and his sparkling rhetoric. The whole assembly put on 
 one countenance of admiration and assent. As with skillful 
 and flying hand the orator ran over the chords of national 
 pride and patriotic feeling, every bosom throbbed in unison 
 to his touch; and when the fervid declamation of the con- 
 cluding paragraph w^as terminated by the simple- pathos of 
 the personal address to Lafayette, his hearers were left in a 
 state of emotion far too deep for tumultuous applause." 
 
 This was the first of a series of discourses pronounced by 
 Mr. Everett on public occasions between that time and the 
 present, embracing every variety of topic connected with our 
 national history, character, and prospects, and which combine 
 in an eminent degree the peculiar charm of popular oratory, 
 with those substantial merits of thought and style which bear 
 the cold criticism of the closet. Mr. Everett's public life began 
 in 1824, when he was nominated and elected to Congress by 
 the constituency of the district in which he resided. His 
 nomination was a spontaneous movement on the part of the 
 young men of his district, almost without distinction of party. 
 He was himself, as might naturally be expected, a supporter 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVEKETT. 29 
 
 of the administration of Mr. Adams, then just elected Pres- 
 ident. Mr. Everett served by successive re-elections, ten 
 years in Congress, and during the whole period he was a 
 member of the Committee on Foreign Aifairs, perhaps the 
 most important one at that time in the House. In the 20th 
 Congress, though generally acting with the minority, he was 
 chairman of that committee, having been selected for that 
 post by the Democratic speaker, Mr. Stevenson of Yirginia. 
 He also held a place on all the most important Select Com- 
 mittees raised while he was in Congress, and in every instance 
 he was selecte<l to draw either the majority or minority report. 
 In the Nineteenth Congress, though then just elected to the 
 House, and the youngest member of the Committee on Foreign 
 Affairs, he drew the celebrated Report on the J'anama 3Iission, 
 the leading measure of that session. In the Twentieth Con- 
 gress, forming with 3Ir. John Sergeant, of Philadelphia, the 
 minority of the well-known Retrenchment Committee, he drew 
 up all those portions of its report which relate to the depart- 
 ments of State and of War. He was chairman of the Select 
 Committee during Mr. Adams's Presidency, on the Georgia 
 controversy, and was always zealous and prominent in his 
 efforts to secure good treatment to the Indians. He drew 
 the report for the committee in favor of the heirs of Ful- 
 ton. With Governor Ellsworth, of Connecticut, he formed the 
 minority of the Bank Investigating Committee which was sent 
 to Philadelphia in 1834, and drew up the minority report. 
 He wrote the minority report of the Committee of Foreign 
 Relations upon the controversy with France in the spring of 
 1835, and took a leading part in the debate upon the sub- 
 ject. He made two or three reports on the subject of the 
 claims of American citizens on foreign powers, for spoliations 
 committed on our commerce during the French continental 
 system, and continued the discussion lurther in the "North 
 American Review." He always served on the Library Com- 
 mittee, and generally on that for public building. 
 
 In 1820, in reply to some personal remarks in the House 
 of Representatives, he delivered himself of the following 
 patriotic and honorable sentiments, that in the language of 
 the day, "knuw no North, no South, no East, no West." 
 
 "If tlierc are any members in this house of politicians to whom 
 the gentleman from North Carolina (.Mr. Saunders) alluded, as hav- 
 ing the disposition, though not the power, to disturb the compromise 
 
30 
 
 LIFE OF EDV/ARD EVERETT. 
 
 contained in tlie Constitution on fliis point, (the three-fifths represent- 
 ative principle,) I am not -of the number. Neither am I one of those 
 citizens of the North to whom another honorable member lately re- 
 ferred in a publication to which his name was subscribed, who would 
 think it immoral or irreligious to join in putting down a servile in- 
 surrection at the South. I am no soldier, sir; my habits and educa- 
 tion are unmilitary; but there is no cause \n which I would sooner 
 buckle a knapsack to my back, and put a musket on my shoulder, 
 than that. I would cede the whole continent to any one who would 
 take it — to England, to France, to Spain ; I would see it sunk in the 
 bottom of the ocean before I would see any part of this fine America 
 converted into a continental Hay ti by that awful process of bloodshed 
 and desolation by which alone such a catastrophe could be brought 
 on. Tlie great relation of servitude in some form or other, with 
 greater or less departure from the theoretic equality of man, is in- 
 separable from our nation. I know of no way by which the form of 
 this servitude shall be fixed, but by political institution. Domestic 
 slavery, though I confess not that form of servitude Avhich seems to 
 be the most beneficial to the master — certainly not that which is 
 most beneficial to the slave — is not, in my judgment to be set down 
 as an immoral and irreligious relation. I can not admit that re- 
 ligion has but one voice to the slave, and that this voice is — -'Rise 
 against your master.' No, sir; the New Testament says: ' Slaves, obey 
 your master;' and though I know full well that in the benignant 
 operation of Christianity which gathered master and slave around 
 the same communion table, this unfortunate institution disappeared 
 in Europe; yet, I cannot admit that while it subsists, and where it 
 subsists, its duties are pre-supposed and sanctioned by religion. And 
 though I certainly am not called upon to meet the charges brought 
 against this institution ; yet, truth obliges me to say a word more on 
 this subject. I know the condition of the working classes in other 
 countries; I am intimately acquainted with it in some other countries, 
 and I have no hesitation in saying that I believe the slaves in 
 this country are better clothed and fed, and less hardly worked, than 
 the peasantry of some of the most prosperous states of the continent 
 of Europe. To consider the checks on population, read Malthns. 
 What keeps population down? Toverty, want, stai"vation, disease, 
 and all the ills of life ; it is these that check population all over 
 the world. Now, the slave population of the United States increases 
 faster than the white, masters included. What is the inference as to 
 the physical condition of the two classes of society? These are 
 opinions I have long entertained, and long since publicly professed 
 on this subject, and which I here repeat in answer to the intimation 
 to which I have already alluded. But., sir, when slavery comes to 
 enter into the Constitution as a political element — when it comes to 
 affect the distribution of pov/er among the States of the Union, that 
 is a matter of agreement. If I make an agreement on this subject I 
 will adhere to it like a man; but I will protest against any inference 
 being made from it of the kind which was made by the honorable 
 mover of the resolutions." 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 31 
 
 No one can read this speech of thirty-four years a2;o, 
 and never retracted, and distrust his conservative princi- 
 ples, or apprehend that he would not exercise the Execu- 
 tive duties free from all sectional bias, in the event of a 
 certain contingency, which has happened twice within the 
 last twenty years. 
 
 The incidents in Mr. Everett's life are so numerous (and 
 it might have been said of him in every station he filled, 
 that he 
 
 " Ilath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 So clear in his great office," 
 
 the voice of calumny dare not breathe a word to his dispar- 
 agement) that the liberty is not allowed to more than indi- 
 cate the various appointments he has held, all of which he 
 filled with exalted credit to himself and general usefulness. 
 
 In 1827 he addressed a series of letters to 3Ir. Canning 
 on the colonial trade, which were extensively read. 
 
 In the summer of 1829, in the Congressional vacation, 
 he made an extensive tour through the Southwestern and 
 Western States, and was everywhere received with marked 
 distinction. At Nashville, at Lexington, and at the Yellow 
 Springs in Ohio, he was complimented with public dinners, 
 and charmed his hosts by beautiful specimens of that spe- 
 cies of eloquence in which he is generally admitted to hold 
 the first place among his coteniporaries. The points of 
 Mr. Everett's Congressional career which we have indicated, 
 form but a small part of his labors and services in the 
 House of Eepresontatives. He was a faithful and assidu- 
 ous attendant of the sessions, and a diligent observer of the 
 proceedings of that body. He was a frequent but not 
 an obtrusive debater. His speeches were carefully pre- 
 pared, full of information, weighty in substance, polished" 
 in form, and perfectly free from those indecorums and per- 
 sonalities which sometimes deface Congressional debates. 
 In his attention to the private aiFairs of his constituents, 
 he was always prompt and patient. Occupied as he was 
 with public business during his Congressional life, his reg- 
 ular and inflexible habits of industry enabled him to find 
 time for literary labor. Besides the elaborate addresses 
 which he occasionally delivered, he prepared several articles 
 of high merit for the North American Review. Among 
 them may be mentioned, with particular commendation, a 
 
32 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 paper for October 1830, in which the South Carolina doc- 
 trine of Nullification is discussed and controverted with 
 masterly ability. To this article Mr. Madison's letter on 
 the subject, addressed to Mr. Everett, was, with the author's 
 permission, appended. 
 
 In the autumn of 1834, he declined a renomination to 
 Congress, as his political friends in Massachusetts were de- 
 pirous of presenting his name as a candidate for the office 
 of governor, to which he was chosen by a large majority 
 in the ensuing election. He was afterward three times re- 
 elected, holding the executive office four years. His admin- 
 istration was dignified, useful, and popular. Among the 
 measures which marked the period of his official service, 
 were the subscription of the State to the stock of the 
 Western railroad, the organization of the board of educa- 
 tion and the establishment of normal schools, the scientific 
 and agricultural surveys of the State, and the establishment 
 of a commission for the revision of the criminal law. In 
 the discharge of what may be called the ceremonial duties 
 of his station. Governor Everett was eminently happy. 
 His manner in presiding was dignified, graceful, and court- 
 eous. To the natural desire of his constituents to hear 
 him speak, he responded with the most good-natured readi- 
 ness, and the many occasional speeches he delivered were 
 u.niformly spirited and happy. In the autumn of 1839, 
 after an animated struggle, he was defeated by Marcus 
 Morton, by a majority of one vote. Eelieved from public 
 duty, he was led by the state of his own health and that 
 of his family, to visit Europe a second time. He sailed 
 with his family in June, 1840. They passed the summer 
 in France, and the following winter in Italy, most of it in 
 Florence and its neighborhood. He intended to pass an- 
 other winter in Italy, but the course of political events at 
 home interfered with his purpose, and sent him upon a new 
 path of public duty. 
 
 General Harrison was chosen President in 1840, and Mr. 
 Webster his Secretary of State. Mr. Everett's warm per- 
 sonal and political friends perceived his eminent fitness to 
 represent the country at the court of St. James, and to 
 this post he was accordingly appointed. Our relations with 
 England at that time were grave. The controversy touch- 
 ing the Northeastern boundary, which for half a century 
 had been a subject of difterence, seemed to have reached 
 
LIFE OP EDWARD EVERETT. 33 
 
 a point beyond which an amicable adjustment was hope- 
 less. The recent burninj^ of the Caroline, and the arrest 
 of McLcod, had inflamed the public mind of both countries. 
 The case of the Creole, and questions connected with Ore- 
 gon and Texas, were also elements of irritation. American 
 vessels had been seized and detained by British cruisers on 
 the coast of Africa. The confidence reposed in him by the 
 Administration at home, was shown by the fact that he 
 was sent to London to discuss, all questions without any 
 specific instructions from the government of the United 
 States, but everything was left to his own unfettered judg- 
 ment. Entering at once upon the discharge of his ardu- 
 ous and delicate duties, he justified by his ability, discre- 
 tion and tact, the large confidence which had been reposed 
 in him. Though the settlement of the Northeastern 
 boundary, and of the Oregon question was referred to 
 Washington by the appointment of Lord xVshburton as 
 special embassador, yet many important questions were left 
 in Mr. Everett's charge. Among the most important was 
 that involving the construction of the first article of the 
 convention between the two countries on the subject of the 
 fisheries. Mr. Everett secured for our fishermen the long- 
 disputed right to take fish in the Bay of Fundy. He pro- 
 cured at various times, and in the face of great obstacles, 
 the release from the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, 
 of sixty or seventy American citizens, convicted of partici- 
 pation in the Canadian rebellion. Mr. Everett's position 
 at the court of St. James, must have been rendered more 
 difficult by the frequent changes in the department of 
 State. Mr. Webster retired in the spring of 1843, and 
 was succeeded within a brief period by Mr. Upshur, Mr. 
 Legare, and Mr. Calhoun. But by all these gentlemen, 
 Mr. Everett's services were duly appreciated, and ho en- 
 joyed the confidence of all. Mr. Everett's social position 
 in England was equally honorable and agreeable to him, 
 and a source of just pride to his countrymen. His cul- 
 tivation and accomplishments were everywhere recognized, 
 and his public speeches were received with enthusiasm. 
 
 In the spring of 1843, he was appointed to till the 
 newly-constituted mission to China, with a view to estab- 
 lish commercial relations with that country, which honora- 
 ble trust he was compelled to decline. luimediately upon 
 his return to the United States, in the autumn of 1845, 
 
34 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 Mr. Everett was chosen president of Harvard University. 
 He entered upon the duties of this new trust with charac- 
 teristic energy and enthusiasm, and it was a subject of 
 great regret to the friends of the college that the burden- 
 some details and monotonous confinement of his official 
 life wore so heavily upon his health as to compel him to 
 resign his post at the end of three years, before he had 
 been able to carry into eifoet his important plans for edu- 
 cational improvement. * 
 
 Mr. Everett gave a portion of his leisure, after resigning 
 the presidency, to the preparation of a collected edition of 
 his orations and speeches, which appeared in two octavo 
 volumes, in 1850. He also superintended the publication 
 of the new edition of the works of Mr. Webster, at his 
 special request ; and prepared an elaborate memoir, which 
 was prefixed to the first volume. Upon the lamented 
 death of that great statesman, in November, 1852, Mr. 
 Everett was called upon, by President Fillmore, to fill the 
 vacant place of Secretary of State. He held that office 
 during the last four months of President Fillmore's admin- 
 istration, and the condition of the public business made 
 them months of most severe labor; and nothing but his 
 indefatigable industry and great patience could have carried 
 him through what he was called upon to do. Besides pay- 
 ing the most conscientious attention to the regular busi- 
 ness of the department, always heavy, and in this case 
 greatly accumulated, he adjusted the perplexing affairs of 
 the Crescent City steamer and the Lobos Island, prose- 
 cuted with energy the difficult negotiations pertaining to 
 the fisheries, concluded an international copyright conven- 
 lion with Great Britain and a consular convention with 
 Prance, and reviewed the whole subject of Central Ameri- 
 can affairs in their relations to the governments of the 
 United States and Great Britain, and recommended and 
 induced Congress to establish a mission of the first class 
 to Central America. 
 
 But the question which attracted most of the public 
 interest during Mr. Everett's administration of the Depart- 
 ment of State, was the joint proposition of Great Britain 
 and Prance, to enter, with the United States, into a tripart- 
 ite convention, guaranteeing to Spain,, in perpetuity, the 
 exclusive possession of Cuba. This proposition was declined 
 by the United States, in a diplomatic note of great ability, 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 35 
 
 drawn up by Mr. Everett. His exposition ot' the policy of 
 this country vras received with very general approbation by 
 the people and press, without distinction of party. Not- 
 withstanding his arduous official duties, he found time to 
 prepare an elaborate address for the annual meeting of the 
 American Colonization Society, in Washington, in 18.53, 
 in exposition and defense of the objects of the associa- 
 tion. Before leaving the department of State, Mr. Everett 
 was elected, by the Legislature of Massachusetts, to the 
 Senate of the United States, took his scat in that body at 
 the commencement of the special executive session, in 
 March, 1853, and made an able and elaborate speech on the 
 Central American question. In the summer and autumn 
 of 1853, beside an address before the New York Histori- 
 cal Society, on colonization and emigration, and a reply 
 to the protest of Lord John Russell against the doctrine 
 asserted by our government in the note declining the tri- 
 partite convention, 3Ir. Everett spoke more than once in 
 opposition to the new Constitution of Massachusetts. 
 
 Upon the assembling of the 33d Congress, in Decem- 
 ber, 1853, Mr. Everett, as might have been expected, found 
 himself in a state of impaired health, from the severe and 
 uninterrupted labors of the previous eighteen months ; but 
 he applied himself, with his usual industry, to the dis- 
 charge of the duties that lay before him. Had the session 
 proved one of no more than average labors, perhaps his 
 strength would have enabled him to perform the duties of 
 his post; but such was not the character of the session. 
 The introduction of the bill for the repeal of the Missouri 
 Compromise, commonly called the Nebraska-Kansas bill, 
 produced great agitation throughout the country, and 
 brought the opposing parties in the Senate into violent 
 and protracted antagonism. For many weeks the sessions 
 were long continued, and the discussions of a vehement 
 and impassioned character. Mr. Everett made a speech 
 against the bill, on February 8th, 1858, characterized by 
 his usual moderate and conservative views, as well as by 
 good taste and good temper. 
 
 His health, under the pressure of official toil and excite- 
 ment, grew constantly worse, and in the following May, 
 under the imperative advice of his physician, he resigned 
 his seat. A few months of rest and quiet restored him ; 
 and a new phase in his life, and the opening of a new 
 
36 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 and peculiar sphere of action, presented itself. In the 
 year 1853, the project of purchasing Mount Vernon, by 
 private subscription, was first started by Miss Anne Pamela 
 Cunningham, in an address to the women of the United 
 States, under the signature of "A Matron." The propo- 
 sal was favorably received, and associations of ladies began 
 to be formed, in several of the states, for the purpose of 
 collecting funds. Mr. Everett, having been applied to, by 
 the Mercantile Library Association, of Boston, to deliver 
 a lecture during their coui'se of 1855-6, proposed that the 
 Association should celebrate the next anniversary of the 
 birthday of Washington, and offered to prepare, for that 
 occasion, a discourse upon his character, the proceeds to be 
 applied to some commemorative purpose. The offer was 
 accepted, and on February 23, 1856, Mr. Everett pronounced 
 his oration on Washington, for the first time, before au 
 immense audience, at the Music Hall, in Boston. It was 
 immediately repeated at New York, New Haven, and Bal- 
 timore ; the proceeds were applied to various objects. It 
 was delivered, for the first time, for the benefit of the 
 Mount Vernon fund, at Richmond, Va., March 19, 1S5G ; 
 and down to the present time, (July, I860,) it has been 
 delivered, in various parts of the country, one hundred and 
 twenty-nine times — always, except in seven cases, for the 
 benefit of the Mount Vernon fund. No deduction has 
 ever been made, by Mr. Everett, from the amount received 
 on account of his expenses, which have been paid by him- 
 self. They have been much reduced by the hospitality 
 with which he has been received, and the liberality of 
 railroad corporations and the proprietors of steamboats. 
 The proceeds received were deposited by him in the hands 
 of a board of trustees appointed by himself. They have 
 paid over to the general treasurer of the fund, at differ- 
 ent times, the sum of -153,393.81, and have now on hand 
 the further sum of ^4,766.75. 
 
 In the course of the autumn of 1858, Mr. Everett entered 
 into an engagement with Robert Bonner, editor and pro- 
 prietor of the Nexo York Ledger, to furnish au article 
 weekly for that paper for one year, in consideration of 
 $10,000, to be paid in advance to the Mount Vernon fund. 
 This sum has been paid into the treasury. In the first 
 of these articles, Mr. Everett invited the readers of the 
 Ledger to transmit each the sum of fifty cents or more 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 37 
 
 toward the increase of the Mount Vernon fund. Many 
 persons have responded to this call, and the new amount 
 received from this source is $2,929.94, which is included 
 in this sum of $53,393.81 mentioned above, as having 
 been paid over to the general treasurer. The aggregate 
 sum total, realized in the various ways above mentioned, 
 and paid over to the Mount Vernon fund and sundry pub- 
 lic charitable associations, including the proceeds of the 
 seven repetitions of the AV^ashington discourse which were 
 not for the benefit of the fund, will not full short of 
 $90,000. 
 
 With Webster's, the name of Everett must go linked 
 together upon the tide of time. His oration at the inaugu- 
 ration of Powers's statue, September 17, 1859, is an imper- 
 ishable memorial of the great statesman that will live 
 when the marble has crumbled beneath the crushing 
 weight of years. 
 
 Mr. Everett having been informed of his nomination, 
 at Baltimore, by the Constitutional Union Convention, 
 May 10, 1860, returned the following : 
 
 " Bo.sTO.\, May 29, 18G0. 
 " Hon. W.vsiiixcTo.v Hunt: 
 
 "My De.vu Sir, — I have duly received Voiir letter of the llth, in 
 Avhich you inform mo, ofKcially, that the National Union Convention, 
 recently in session at Baltimore, had done me the honor to nominate 
 me as its candidate for the office of Vice-President of the United 
 Slates. 
 
 " 1 ara deeply impressed with this manifestation of the favorable 
 opinion of the Convention, comjirising as it did, among its members, 
 80 many persons distinguished tor public service, patriotism, and 
 intelligence, and fairly representing a considerable portion of the 
 conservative feeling of the country. For the great cordiality with 
 which, as you inform me, my name was proposed and received, my 
 warmest thanks are due. 
 
 "The grateful acceptance of such a nomination would, under ordi- 
 nary circumstances, be a matter of course; but it has vuiavoidably 
 been, with me, the subject of long and anxious hesitation. The 
 grounds of this hesitation, I owe it to the Convention wliich has 
 honored me with this mark of its confidence, and to myself, to ex- 
 plain — loth as I am to dwell on matters of personal interest, of no 
 importance to the public. 
 
 "It is generally known that I have, for some years past, retired 
 from active participation in political life, not, as I hope I have shown, 
 from indolence, or want of sympathy with my fellow-citizens, in the 
 pursuit of the great objects of social life. The reasons of my retire- 
 ment have been more than ouce publicly stated; and I beg to repeat 
 
38 
 
 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 tbcm here, from my speech at tiie Union meeting, in Faneuil Hall, 
 last December: 
 
 "'I did not suppose that anything could occur which would make me think it 
 ray duty to appear again on this platform, on any occasion of a political character; 
 and had this meeting been of a party nature, or designed to promote any party pur- 
 poses, I should not have been here. When compelled, by the prostration of my 
 health, five years ago, to resign the distinguished place which I then filled in the 
 pnblic service, it was with no expectation, no wish, and no intention of ever again 
 mingling in the scones of public life. I have, accordingly, Milh the partial restor- 
 ation of my liealth, abstained from all participation ia political action of any kind ; 
 partly because I have found a more congenial, and, as I venture to tliinlc, a more 
 useful occupation, in seeking to rally the affections of my countrymen, North and 
 South, to that great name and precious memory, which are loft almost alone of all 
 the numerous kindly associations which once bound the. different sections of the 
 country together; and also because, between the extremes of opinion that have 
 long distracted, and now threaten to convulse, the country, I find no middle ground 
 of ijraotical usefulness, on which a friend of moderate counsels can stand.' 
 
 "It having been suggested to me, notwithstanding these avowals, 
 that I might be thought of, at the Union Convention, as a candidate 
 for the Presidency, I requested, by telegraphic message and by letter, 
 that ray name, if brought forward, might be withdrawn. It is true, 
 that in these communications I had only in view a nomination to the 
 Presidency, none other having been suggested to me; but all the 
 reasons above indicated, which led me in advance to decline such a 
 nomination, apply with equal force to the Vice-Presidency. These 
 reasons, of course, still exist in unimpaired force; and I can not now 
 take an active part in politics without abandoning a deliberately- 
 formed purpose, and even exposing myself to the suspicion of insin- 
 cerity in its persistent avowal. 
 
 " AVithout dwelling upon these considerations, of which, however, 
 I am sure the weight will be admitted, I beg leave to advert for a 
 moment to my connection with the movement for the purchase of 
 Mount Vernon, to which your letter alludes in" such obliging terms. 
 The favor which has attended -ray exertions in that cause (if I may 
 without indelicacy say anything on that subject) has been mainly 
 the result of my known and recognized disconnection from jiarty 
 politics. 
 
 '■ If it cotild have been even plausibly insinuated that I was, or in- 
 tended to become, a candidate for high political honors, I should, in 
 my various excursions in aid of that fund, have laid myself opeir 
 to the imputation of speaking one word for Mount Vernon and two 
 for myself. As it is, the people throughout the Union liave generously 
 given me credit for having a single eye to that meritorious object. As 
 far as the purchase of Mount Vernon is concerned, that object has 
 been effected, under the judicious and efficient mauagement of the 
 Pi-egeuts and Vice-Regents of the Association, with the aid of their 
 intelligent and active assistants throughout the Union. But a sum 
 of money equal to that already raised is still wanting for the repair 
 of the mansion, the inclosure of the land purchased, the restoration 
 of the house and grounds, as far as practicable, to their condition in 
 1800, and the establishment of a permanent fund for their conserv- 
 ation. 
 
 " I own that I am desirous still to enjoy the privilege of cooperating 
 in this noble work, which, however, it will be impossible for me to do 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT, 39 
 
 to any advantage, whatever may be the result of the present canvass, 
 if 1 am dravrn into the vortex of a strenuously contested election. 
 There are many parts of the country which I have not yet visited. 
 I had promised myself a rich harvest from the patriotic liberality of 
 the States on tlie Gulf of iMesico, and of those on the Mississippi river, 
 (which I have not yet been able to visit, with the exception of JMissouri, 
 though often kindly invited,) and I confess that it is very painful to 
 me to withdraw from that broad field of congenial labor, to tread the 
 thorny and thanJdcss paths of politics. 
 
 " Apart from the pecuniary aspects of the case, which, however, arc 
 of considerable importance, I will candidly say that in holding up 
 to the admiring veneration of the American people the peerless name 
 of Washington, (almost the only bond of fraternal seniiraent which 
 the bitterness of our sectional controversies has left us,) I feel as if I 
 Avas doing more good, as far as I am able to do any good, and contrib- 
 uting more to revive the kindly feeling which once existed between 
 North and South, and which is now, 1 grieve to say, nearly extinct, 
 than I could possibly do by engaging in the wretched scramble for 
 office — which is one great source of dangers that threaten the country. 
 
 "These considerations, and others of a still more personal nature, 
 have necessarily occasioned me to reflect long and anxiously, before 
 accepting the nomination with which tlic Union Convention has hon- 
 ored me. In yielding at length to the earnest solicitations which 
 have been addressed (o me, from the most respectable sources in 
 almost every part of tlie Uuiou, I make a painful sacrifice of inclina- 
 tion to what I am led to believe a public duty. It has been urged 
 upon me, and I can not deny that such are my own feelings, that we 
 have fallen upon times that call upon all good citizens, at whatever 
 cost of personal conveniences, to contiibute tiieir share, however 
 humble, to the public service. 
 
 " I suppose it to be the almost universal impression — it is certainly 
 mine — that the existing state of aii'airs is extremely critical. Our 
 political controversies have substantially assumed an almost purely 
 sectional character — that of a fearful struggle between the North 
 and the South. It would not be difficult to show at length the peril- 
 ous nature and tendency of this struggle, but I can only say on this 
 .occasion, that, in my opinion, it can not be much longer kept up 
 without rending the Union. I do not menu that either of the great 
 parties in the country desires or aiuis at a separation of the states as 
 a final object, although there arc extremists in considerable numbers 
 who have that object in view. 
 
 " While a potent and a baleful influence is exercised by men of this 
 class, in both sections of the Union, a portion of the conservative 
 masses arc Jn8cn.sibly and gradually goaded into concurrence with 
 opinions and sentiments with which, in the outset, they had no 
 sympathy. Meautime, almost wholly neglecting the main public 
 interests, our political coutrovcrsius turn more and more on questions 
 in reference to which, as abstract formulie, the great sections of the 
 country diiTcr irreconcilably, though there is nothing practically im- 
 portant at stake, which requires the discussion to be kept up. These 
 controversies are carried on with steadily increasing bitterness and 
 
40 LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 
 
 exasperation. The passions thus kindled have already led to acts of 
 violence and bloodshed, approaching to civil war in the territories, 
 and attempted servile insurrection in the states. 
 
 " The great religious and philanthropic associations of the country 
 are sundered, and the kindly social relations of (he North and South 
 seriously impaired. The national House of Representatives, hover- 
 ing on the verge of anarchy, requires weeks to effect an organiza- 
 tion, which ought to be the work of an hour, and it holds its sessions 
 (many of its members, I am told, armed with concealed weapons) on 
 the crust of a volcano. The candidates for the Presidency, repre- 
 senting respectively the dominant sectional ideas, will, at the ensuing 
 election, in all probability, be supported by a purely geographical 
 vote. In other words, we are already brought to a pass, at which 
 North and Soutli can not and will not cooperate in the periodical 
 reorganization of the government. 
 
 " Can such a state of things long continue, especially with the ever- 
 present risk of new causes of exasperation ? I own it seems to me 
 impossible, unless some healing course is adopted, that the catas- 
 trophe, which the mass of good citizens so much deprecate, should 
 be much longer delayed. A spirit of patriotic moderation must be 
 called into action throughout the Union, or it will assuredly be 
 broken up. Unless the warfare of inflammatory speeches and incen- 
 diary publications is abandoned, and good citizens, as in 1776 and 
 1787, North and South, will agree to deal with the same elements of 
 discoi'd (for they existed then as now) as our fathers dealt with 
 them, we shall but for a very few years longer be even nominally 
 brethren of one family. 
 
 "The suggestion that the Union can be maintained b^' the numer- 
 ical predominance and military prowess of one section, exerted to 
 coerce the other into submission, is, in my judgment, as self-contra- 
 dictory as it is dangerous. It comes loaded with the death-smell 
 from fields wet with brothers' blood. If the vital principle of all 
 republican government is 'the consent of the governed,' much more 
 does a union of co-equal sovereign states require, as its basis, the 
 harmony of its members, and their voluntary cooperation in its or- 
 ganic functions. 
 
 "Believing, for these reasons, that healing counsels must be 
 listened to, if we are much longer to remain one people, I regard the 
 late National Union Convention as a movement in the right direction. 
 I could wish that it had been earlier assembled; with less exclusive 
 reference to official nominations, and with a more comprehensive 
 representation, if possible, of the conflicting opinions of the country. 
 On general principles and in ordinary times, I admit that third 
 parties are objectionable, but in the existing state of affairs, if there 
 is to be any escape from the present ill-omened conflict, it would seem 
 that a commencement must be made with such a meeting as that of 
 the 9th and 10th, at Baltimore. It was a fair representation of the 
 conservative opinion of the country; and the calmness, gravity, and 
 good feeling with which its proceedings were conducted, can not be 
 too highly praised. 
 
 " In adopting as its platform the Constitution, without note or com- 
 
LIFE OF EDWARD EVERETT. 41 
 
 ment, the Convention, as it seems to me, pursued a wise and pa- 
 triotic course. No other course was thought of in the earlier days 
 of the Republic. Electioneering platforms are almost without excep- 
 tion equivocal and delusive. It is objected that men differ as to the 
 meaning of the fundamental laws; but they differ not less as to 
 any gloss or commentarj'. The Constitution, in its fair and natural 
 interpretation, is the only basis on which good citizens, in every 
 part of the country, can now unite; and any attempt to go further 
 will usually have no other effect than to cause those who agree on 
 great practical principles to differ on metaphysical subtilties, or to 
 bring together by artfully constructed phrases, and from selfish 
 motives, those who have nothing else in common. 
 
 "The candidate for the Presidency presented by the Union Conven- 
 tion, is every way worthy of confidence and support. I speak from 
 personal knowledge and long association witli him in the public 
 service. His distinguished talent, large experience in affairs, proved 
 integrity, and sterling patriotism, furnish the amplest pledge for an 
 honest and efficient administration of the government at home and 
 abroad. A citizen of the South, and loyal to her Constitutional 
 rights, his impartial and conciliator}' course as a public man affords 
 a ground on which he can be supported in either section of the 
 country, without dereliction of principle, and by men of all parties, 
 without a painful sacrifice of former preferences. 
 
 " Deeply regretting that the Convention has not put it in my 
 power to pay an equally cordial and emphatic tribute to some 
 worthy candidate for the Vice-1'residency, but feeling it a duty to 
 give the desired proof of sympathy with their ])atriotic efforts to 
 restore the happy days of brotherly concord between the different 
 sections of our beloved country, 
 
 " 1 remain, dear sir, sincerely yours, 
 
 "Edward Everett.'' 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The names of men are, or sIioitUI be, held in highest 
 esteem, when linked with virtuous deeds ; and those names 
 which have been given to history, proud in the bestowed 
 admiration of mankind for heroic achievements, or mental 
 endowments, have gathered increased splendor from the 
 sterling expression and conduct of their lives. 
 
 In our country, there is a common goal to every man's 
 aspirations, to which he looks with expectation and solici- 
 tude. No matter how humble his origin and obscure his 
 parentage ; no matter what vicissitudes he has encountered, 
 and the trials endured, public station, through the people's 
 choice, has inspired his ambition, and caused him to toil 
 on, through long years of patriotic endeavor, in the fond 
 hope of realizing, one day, the dream of his life. And yet, 
 to be drawn from the seclusion where have been unfolded 
 worlds of unknown wealth to the explorer, is more fre- 
 quently the development of lucky chance than the achieve- 
 ment of a lifetime. 
 
 When the Roman matron was asked to show her jewels, 
 instead of displaying the glittering baubles which fed the 
 vanity of other women, she led forward her two boys, who 
 were afterward to live upon the historic page, and whose 
 names are inseparably connected with popular government. 
 Notwithstanding the trite aphorism that republics are un- 
 grateful, in our own day we have seen the great tide of 
 popular admiration set in and lift a private citizen from 
 humble position and the laborious pursuit of individual 
 industry, into the highest station known to our govern- 
 meat. The sons of our republic are its brightest jewels, 
 (42) 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. 4d 
 
 and may be pointed to with all the honest pride which ani- 
 mated the Roman mother. 
 
 The lives of eminent men are interesting in proportion as 
 the incidents seem natural and not overstrained for effect. 
 They may be made useful, as " teaching by example," and 
 indicating the most popular traits of character, whose cul- 
 tivation must necessarily lead to ultimate success. To 
 attract popular attention, and to retain a hold upon the 
 popular heart, requires a peculiar organism, unless by some 
 striking event, or some glorious achievement, the chord has 
 been struck which vibrates only to the master-hand. It 
 can not be that men of ordinary stamp are thus taken from 
 the midst of the masses, on whom to shed the halo of for- 
 tune, but tliey must have some distinctive feature which is 
 not held in common by their fellow-men. Although they 
 may have had an even and unbroken current in their pre- 
 vious years, the indelible stamp of greatness must have 
 been there, although obscured by the unobtrusive and 
 modest deportment which formed the essential elements of 
 character. 
 
 AURAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Perhaps the history of no man in the United States is 
 more marked than tliat ef Abraham Ijincoln. Like 3Ii- 
 
44 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 nerva from tlic brain of Jove, lio sprung- into (he fullness 
 of liis fame, at a single bound. Others may have been re- 
 nowned for more brilliancy, and have made a more impos- 
 ing commencement of public life ; but Mr. Lincoln at once 
 established his character for honest purpose and statesman- 
 like views, capable of examining and mastering any subject, 
 and identifying himself with one of the great conflicting 
 parties which lias swayed the destinies and is to have still 
 more important connection with th'e future of this country. 
 
 Little is known of the ancestors of Mr. Lincoln, and sev- 
 eral speculations are afloat as to the identity of the branch 
 from which he sprung. In fact, nothing is certainly known 
 of them, prior to the year 1780, when Abraham Lincoln, 
 his grandfather, emigrated from Rockingham county, Vir- 
 ginia, to Kentucky, settling somewhere near the mouth of 
 Floyd's Fork of Salt River, in what is now Bullitt county. 
 The exact date of his arrival in Kentucky is not to be 
 ascertained, but it was near that time. The wily savages 
 disputed with the hardy pioneers every inch of the " dark 
 and bloody ground," sparing neither age nor sex, and an- 
 noying them even in their thickest settlements by frequent 
 incursions, leaving traces of their bloody progress in the 
 smoking ruins of the destroyed habitations that were made 
 funeral pyres for their luckless owners. While at work, 
 cultivating his patch of ground, not far from his cabin door, 
 and while unsuspecting any approach of danger, Mr. Lin- 
 coln, the pioneer-companion of Boone and his compatriots, 
 was shot and killed by an Indian, leaving his widow to 
 mourn his untimely fate, and to struggle with poverty in 
 rearing three sons and two daughters claiming her mater- 
 nal protection. This tragedy occurred in or about the year 
 1784, when Thomas Lincoln, the father of the subject of 
 this sketch, was six years old, he having been born in 1778, 
 prior to the removal from Virginia. Finding her efi"orts to 
 support her little family exceedingly precarious, Mrs. Lin- 
 coln removed from Bullitt to what was afterward known as 
 Washington county, where she had the happiness to see 
 her children grow up and maintain a respectable position 
 in community. 
 
 In 1806, Thomas Lincoln, then twenty-eight years of age, 
 was married to Nancy Hanks, like himself a Virginian, and 
 settled down in what was then Hardin, but now is Larue 
 county, Kentucky. On the 12th of February, 1809, Abra- 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 13 
 
 ham Lincoln was born. He had a sister two years old at 
 the time of his birth, who grew up to womanhood and mar- 
 ried, but died early. He likewise had a brother two years 
 younger than himself, but he was not permitted to pass the 
 boundary of childhood ; and young Abraham became the 
 sole representative of his race, distinguished for its energy 
 and heroism, when the right to the fruitful hunting-ground 
 of the Indian was disputed with craft and cunning, united 
 to all the energy of despair, and the ear became familiarized 
 to all the discordant sounds incidental to border warfare and 
 frontier life. The first years of his childhood were spent 
 amid an arduous struggle for a livelihood ; and to better 
 his prospects his father made more than one removal be- 
 fore he took his final departure from Kentucky and mi- 
 grated to the State of Illinois, where the son was in his 
 maturity to become illustrious. 
 
 The boyish days of 3Ir. Lincoln M'ere passed pretty much 
 as those of other boys in like circumstances. The war- 
 whoop of the savage was no longer heard through the pri- 
 meval forests and cane-brakes of Kentucky. The tide of 
 civilization had poured in, and what, but a few years before, 
 was a wilderness, teemed with all the luxuries of civiliza- 
 tion. But the father of Abraham had not been of those 
 thrifty pioneers who left to their descendants immense 
 tracts which, as population increased, were to realize for 
 them princely fortunes. By the sweat of his brow he was 
 made to earn his livelihood, and contribute to the labor 
 necessary to the support of the family. To him, therefore, 
 surrounded by none of the conveniences and comforts, much 
 less the luxuries of life, to obtain an education was rather 
 precarious and difficult. Common schools being a more 
 modern invention, there was nothing of the sort in Ken- 
 tucky, and the neighborhood of llodgenvillc rarely aft'orded 
 an opportunity of employment to the teachers who occasion- 
 ally straggled along in search of a school-house and occu- 
 pation. Yet, by the time Abraham had attained the age of 
 sevfin years, ho had learned to read under the instruction 
 of a Koman Cathulic named Zachariah Kiney, who opened 
 a private school, and Caleb Hazel, who likewise opened a 
 private school afterward, in the same neighborhood. 
 
 It was not to be expected that his attainments, with these 
 meager facilities, would be very great, and the lad was more 
 noted for the alacrity with which he aided his fatiit;r in the 
 
46 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 labor of the farm ; or, with dog trained to the chase, roamed 
 the woods in search of game, than for his literary progress. 
 Still he had acquired that key of education which opens 
 the door by which the exploring mind enters, and brings 
 from the caves of knowledge all their mines of untold wealth. 
 He had learned to penetrate that vast mystery by which 
 the past converses with the present, and realizes the pic- 
 tures of the future. With these slender advantages a com- 
 mon mind would have lived and died in obscurity. But 
 nature will assert her prerogative, and work out the destiny 
 of those upon whom she has stamped true greatness. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was intended for one of the representative 
 men of the age, and though slowly, yet surely, the trials 
 were placed before him which were to give assurance of his 
 character, and distinguish him for the great destiny before 
 hiiu. 
 
 In the fall of 1816, Thomas Lincoln, who had not built 
 up around him the endearing comforts of home, made his 
 preparations to move with the tide which was setting in for 
 the new State of Indiana, and he was soon on the line of 
 march, accompanied by his wife, daughter, and little son, 
 then just turned of seven, whose name, some forty-four 
 years afterward, was to be pronounced in connection with 
 the oj6&ce of President of the United States. 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 The portion of Indiana to which the father of Mr. Lin- 
 coln removed, was by no means calculated to realize very 
 sanguine expectations. For the most part, the land is tliin 
 and rather unproductive in that section of the State. But 
 it was convenient of access to that part of Kentucky where 
 Mr. Lincoln had resided, and his means of locomotion were 
 restricted to the simple wagon, which, with his wife and 
 two children, conveyed all his worldly wealrli. Here, in 
 the neighborhood of Gentryville, Mr. Lincoln, senior, 
 resided thirteen years, and his son Abraham became inured 
 to the daily toil of a farmer's boy, which, after all, has its 
 many pleasures and excitement, as it has of hardships 
 and annoyances; but he was not inattentive to that great 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. -17 
 
 artificer of character and promoter of human happiness — • 
 Education. As in Kentucky, when he could be spared from 
 farm-work, he sought instruction from occasional teachers 
 who set up school in the neighborhood, and was noted for 
 reading with avidity every useful book that he could con- 
 veniently procure. The thirteen years thus spent in 
 southern Indiana, bringing him to the verge of manhood, 
 served to develop his character, and implant that self- 
 sustaining energy which is a true concomitant of greatness, 
 and which, on the occasions that afterward offered, indicated 
 him for the high position he occupies at the head of one 
 of the great parties of the country. 
 
 In 1B30, Mr. Lincoln's father, again seized with the hope 
 of improving his fortunes, left Indiana, and took up his 
 abode in Macon county, about ten miles from Decatur, 
 Illinois. Young Lincoln, now grown to man's estate, 
 accompanied his father, and aided him to Open his farm; 
 and it is said of hina that he made, or helped to make, some 
 three thousand rails, with which to fence-in the arable land 
 sought to be inclosed. A relative of his mother is said to 
 have aided him in this common work of a new country, 
 to which every man who has contributed to the opening 
 of a new farm has been subject ; and in which labor, 
 with his stalwart arm and willing heart, he, no doubt, gave 
 his full share. 
 
 The enterprising if not adventurous spirit of the father 
 manifested itself in a further removal to Coles county, 
 in the same State; and the son, in the fulfillment of his 
 own destiny, and agreeable to the great command, struck 
 out for himself his own career. 
 
 We have now faithfully traced the record of Abraham 
 Jjincoln, (with as faithful a glance at his antecedents,) as all 
 tlie record shows of early privations, until we find him, 
 like other American youth, striking out for himself. He 
 was engaged as a hand on a flat-boat, to transport produce 
 to the great southern mart ; in which capacity he served 
 twice, returning home with the proceeds of his engagement ; 
 and he was "set up" as clerk in a store which was opened 
 ill connection with a large flouring-mill, in Menard county, 
 not far J'rom Springfield. 
 
 It is probable that the i'uture candidate for the Presidency 
 would have found, in the double capacity of miller and 
 bartercr of the contents of a small store, (to all of whose 
 
48 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 details he paid the most circumspect attention,) sufficient 
 employment for his time and talent; but a new matter 
 arose, which enlisted the latent fires of patriotism, so genial 
 to the American heart. The chief of the Sac Indians-, 
 Black Hawk, who experiencing, under some fancied wrong, 
 a revival of the bitterness that lingered in the Indian 
 heart, toward those who were pushing them farther west- 
 ward, entered upon a war, which, with rare sagacity, he 
 prolonged, gathering to his hand the disaffected of the 
 neighboring tribes, until it seemed there would be a general 
 Indian war, the atrocities of which were vividly reflected on 
 the remembrance of those whose friends had fallen in the 
 struggle with Great Britain and her allies. It was in this 
 war that Abraham Lincoln, a volunteer, was chosen cap- 
 tain, in which capacity he exhibited the endurance to which 
 his early life entitled him ; and when the troops were dis- 
 banded, under a second call, Lincoln offered himself as a 
 private. 
 
 It is not necessary "to follow the wars" to show that Lin- 
 coln proved himself "every inch a soldier." In all the pri- 
 vations of camp, in all the marchings, counter-marchings, 
 over marshes, through "the trembling ground," which is 
 now as beautiful as the sun ever shone on, but then was 
 felt as a hazardous enterprise, under every step of the sol- 
 dier, he observed the daily routine which approved himself 
 a man, and endeared him to his comrades. In his own 
 account of his participation in this campaign, which was 
 beset with more than Indian ambuscades and perils, the 
 cholera having manifested itself in that season, he dis- 
 claimed, in the event he should ever be insisted on as a 
 candidate for the Presidency, that there were just grounds 
 for making him out a military hero ! 
 
 CHAPTEK III. 
 
 It was after the return of Mr. Lincoln from the Black 
 Hawk war, that the fires of his ambition were kindled, and 
 he was induced to enter upon political life. In the ensu- 
 ing election, he was induced to become a candidate to rep- 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 
 
 resent Sangamon county in the Legislature, but although 
 he received a flattering vote, he was not elected. Two 
 years later, in 18H4, he was more successful, and from that 
 period his name became a part of the history of Illinois. 
 But his mind was not drawn away from his chosen profes- 
 sion, and ho was pursuing the study of law, and preparini- 
 for that life of usefulness to which a knowledge of the law, 
 as a science, is always a sure and certain stepping-stone. 
 
 In his political proclivities. Mr. Jjincoln early enrolled 
 himself under the banner of the Whig party; and although 
 the tStato of Illinois was steadfastly attached to the fortunes 
 of Ccneral Andrew Jackson, and to the school of polities 
 which grew up under the shadow of his popularity, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was a firm, undeviatins;, and earnest friend and 
 supporter of Mr. Clay, and was relied upon in every emer- 
 gency to aid in advocating Whig policy. It was during 
 this session of the Legislature, the first in which Mr. Lin- 
 coln served, that he became acquainted with Hon. Stephen 
 A. Douglas, who presented himself as a candidate for State's 
 Attornc}', against lion. J. J. Hardin, then occupying the 
 office, and who afterward fell at Buena Vista. 
 
 In IMIJd, Mr. Lincoln was again elected to the Legisla- 
 ture, and first began to show his qualifications as a debater. 
 It was during this Legislature that resolutions were passed 
 involving the question of domestic slavery, and recognizing 
 the extr«;me Southern view, to which Mr. Lincoln and an- 
 other representative from Sangamon entered their solemn 
 protest. As embodying his views of slavery twenty-three 
 years ago, and at a time when the question liad not entered 
 so largely in the national mind, it is a remarkable docu- 
 ment. It was presented on the 3d of March, 1837, and 
 was preserved on the Journal, from which an extract will 
 suffice : 
 
 " They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both 
 injustice and bad policy ; but that the promulgation of abolition doc- 
 trines tends rather to increase than abate its evils. 
 
 " They believe that the Congress of the United States lias no power 
 under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of Blavcry 
 in the dilferent states. 
 
 " They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power 
 under the Constitution to abolish slavery in the District of Colum- 
 bia; but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the re- 
 quest of the people of said District.'' 
 5 
 
50 ' LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The conservatism of these views will be recognized in all 
 of Mr. Lincolu'a after life, when he has stood upon a broader 
 theater, and addressed a national audience. 
 
 In 1838, he was for the third time elected to the Legis- 
 lature, and received the Whig vote for Speakership, which, 
 however, was in a minority. At this time he was regarded 
 as a rising man, if not the leader of his party, and in the 
 most important discussions he took an active and influen- 
 tial part. 
 
 The last time Mr. Lincoln consented to serve in the 
 State Legislature was in 1840, up to which period he had 
 continued to gain in popularity until it was generally con- 
 ceded he was second to no man in the State, and a brilliant 
 political career was already opening before him. His rep- 
 utation as an original thinker and close debater was estab- 
 lished. His sterling character, disinterested patriotism, 
 amenity of manners, and modest deportment, endeared him 
 to the people, and he found himself, without exactly know- 
 ing how or why, the leader of his party in the State, 
 
 While so much of his time was given to political and 
 State affairs, Mr. Lincoln had not neglected his legal stud- 
 ies. At convenient intervals, while supporting himself by 
 his own labor, he continued to read elementary law, until 
 1836, when he was licensed to practice his profession. The 
 position he had attained as a prominent public man, was 
 of great .advantage to him, and he soon found himself en- 
 gaged in a fair amount of business, and on the high road 
 to lame and fortune. Well aware that politics and law 
 conld not go hand in hand, and ambitious to realize the 
 reward of professional application, he declined further pub- 
 lic service after his legislative term of 1840. In 1842, he 
 was married to Miss M^ry Todd, daughter of Hon. llobert 
 S. Todd, uf Ijcxington, Ky., with whom he became ac- 
 (mainted at the residence of Hon. Ninian \V. Edwards, who 
 Jiad married her sister. In his domestic relations, Mr. Lin- 
 coln has been most fortunate. He has three sons, a fourth 
 having died young, the oldest of whom, now in his seven- 
 teenth year, will enter Harvard University during the 
 present season. 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Two years after his marriap;c, when Mr. Ciay had re- 
 ceived the Whig noniinatioii at Baltimore for the Presi- 
 dency, 31 r. Lincoln consented to canvass the State in be- 
 half of the distinguished statesman, whose principles he 
 honored and whose character he revered. He not only 
 addressed the people of Illinois, hut passed over into In- 
 diana, whore he made a deep impression, by his earnest 
 eloquence and happy illustration ; but, contrary to expecta- 
 tion, 3Jr. Clay was defeated by Mr. Polk, and Mr. Lincoln 
 fully, shared in the general disaj^poiiitinent. 
 
 Two years later, in 184(i, he was induced to accept a 
 nomination for Congress in his district, which had given 
 a majority of 9U for Mr. Clay, and increased that major- 
 ity to 1511 for its own distinguished citizen. He took his 
 seat in the House of ilcpresentatives on the sixth of Decem- 
 ber, 1847, the opening of the Thirtieth Congress, which 
 was politically divided thus: In tlie Somite there were 
 thirty-six Democrats, Mr. Douglas then taking his seat in 
 that body lor the iirst time, to twenty-two members of the 
 Opposition. In the House, there were one hundred and 
 ten Democrats, wiiile there were one handrcd and seven- 
 teen Whigs and Kreesoilets, and one Native American. Of 
 these 3icssrs. Ciddings, Palfrey, and Tuck were so ultra 
 that they refused to vote for Hon. R. C. Winthrop for 
 Speaker, who, however, was elected on the third ballot with- 
 out their votes, Mr. Lincoln having cast his first suffrage 
 on the floor of Congress lor that gentleman. 
 
 During this period the war with .Mexico was progressing. 
 Mr. Lincoln believed that it had been unnecessarily precip- 
 itated, and that, with proper management on the part of 
 the Administration, it might have been avoided altogether. 
 It was not, therefore, inconsistent with patriotism, that he 
 should be unwilling to add his name to an unqualified in- 
 dorsement of the course pursued by the President. 
 
 Not until the 12th of January, 1848, did Mr. Lincoln 
 undertake to express his views on the floor of Congress, 
 although some weeks previous he had introduced a series 
 
52 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of resolutions calling upon the President for information 
 relative to the Mexican war, but which he never called up. 
 In this, his maiden speech in Congress, which will be found 
 reported in full in the Appendix to the Congressional 
 Ghhc^ 1st session. Thirtieth Congress, page 93, he com- 
 mented, with great ingenuity and considerable severity, 
 upon the message of President Polk. It is a fair speci- 
 men of his style of oratory, which rarely steps aside to 
 pluck a flower of rhetoric, although it abounds in sarcasm, 
 and is not deficient in humor, but is mainly remarkable 
 for its close analysis, and clear and distinct reasoning. 
 
 On the 20th of June following, Mr. Lincoln addressed 
 the House on the subject of Internal Improvements, in a 
 masterly speech, which is reported in the Appendix to the 
 Congress tonal G/ohe, page 709. But the most femous of his 
 efforts, during his brief Congressional career, was the 
 speech in defense of General Taylor, the Whig candidate 
 for the Presidency, delivered in the House, July 27, 1848. 
 Of all the political essays in that memorable canvass, in 
 which military heroism was a distinguishing mark, there 
 was none that could take rank with this speech of Mr. 
 Lincoln, which, for point, raciness, and keen irony, as 
 well as unanswerable argument, lias been seldom equaled, 
 and certainly never surpassed. 
 
 On the subject of the right of petition, Mr. Lincoln 
 stood by John Quincy Adams, and voted against laying 
 on the table a petition for the abolition of slavery and the 
 slave-trade in the District of Columbia, December 27, 
 1847, thus fully carrying out his sentiments expressed in 
 the Illinois Legislature more than ten years previous. 
 
 At the close of this session, instead of returning imme- 
 diately to Illinois, Mr. Lincoln employed the early part of 
 the recess in canvassing New England, where he made some 
 of the most effective speeches of the campaign, and where 
 he was received by large and enthusiastic audiences. He 
 finally returned home, where he exerted himself in behalf 
 of the Whig cause, and had the satisfaction of securing a 
 majority in his district, equal almost to that which had been 
 received by himself, for the Whig candidates. 
 
 He resumed his seat in Congress in the following De- 
 cember, and, on the twenty-first of the same month, a prop- 
 osition was made by Mr. Gott, of New York, instructing 
 the Committee on the District of Columbia to report a bill 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5o 
 
 prohibiting the slave-trade ia the District. On a motion 
 of Mr. Haralson, of Greorgia, to lay the preamble and reso- 
 lution on the table, Mr. Lincoln voted in the affirmative; 
 but the motion did not prevail, and the previous question 
 being demanded, the resolution was adopted, ninety-eight 
 to eighty-eight, Mr. Lincoln voting in the negative. 
 
 On the lOtli of January following, the subject being 
 revived, 3Ir. Lincoln offered a substitute, containing the 
 form of a bill, providing that no person, not already in the 
 District, should be held to slavery, excepting, however, the 
 right of citizens of the slave-holding states, coming to the 
 ])istrict on public business, to take with them and be attended 
 by their slaves. It provided also for the gradual emanci- 
 pation of slaves in the District, with coraj^tnsation to the 
 owners, if a majority of the citizens of the District should 
 so vote at an election held to ascertain the public senti- 
 ment. The proposition was not entertained, and was sub- 
 sequently swept from the table of the Speaker, among 
 other unfinished business. Enough is known, however, to 
 establish the conservatism of Mr. Lincoln's views, which 
 accorded with those great compromises incorporated in the 
 series of measures adopted in 1S50, by which the nation's 
 peace was re-established. 
 
 Mr. Palfrey, of Massachusetts, one of the three whose ultra 
 views on the question of slavery would not permit them to 
 vote for Mr. ^Vinthrop for Speaker, had, on a former occa- 
 sion, sought to introduce a measure "to repeal all acts or 
 parts of acts of Congress, establishing or maintaining slav- 
 ery, or the slave-trade in the District of Columbia ;" but 
 the House refused leave, Mr. Lincoln voting in the nega- 
 tive, while a number of Northern Democrats, including 
 J. J. Faran, of Ohio, were recorded in the affirmative. 
 
 On the 31st of January following, Mr. Edwards, from 
 the Committee on the District, reported a bill, very prop- 
 erly guarded, and on a motion to lay the same on the table, 
 Mr. Lincoln voted in the negative, which had a majority; 
 but the measure passed off among the unfinished business 
 of the session, and did not become a law. The conduct of 
 Mr. Lincoln, whenever the subject of slavery has been on 
 the fajHn, has been marked for its propriety. He has op- 
 posed any unqualified measure, but has been faithful to the 
 conservative and just views declared in the protest of the 
 3d of March, 1837, when he asserted that C!ongress had 
 
54 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the power to aliolisli slaver)- in the Pistrict, but should not 
 exercise that power witliout tlie full and free consent of the 
 people. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On the 4th of JMareh, 1840, the thirtieth Congress termi- 
 nated, and with it terminated Mr. Lincoln's labors on the 
 floor of the House of Representatives, where he had, in the 
 two years he served there, attained a most enviable reputa- 
 tion as an cari%;t and eloquent statesman, skillful in debate 
 and true to his political record. Although he labored most 
 diligently to secure the election of General Taylor, he did not 
 seek any of the offices at the bestowal of the incoming Ad- 
 ministration, but retired to private life, and zealously engaged 
 in the pursuit of his profession, which had been interrupted 
 by his brief participation in politics. During the whole of 
 the administration, which he had aided to bring into power, 
 he took no active part in political affairs, but devoted him- 
 self with unbroken assiduity to the practice of law. 
 
 The two great parties which had divided the Union, and 
 struggled for the mastery, agreed upon the compromises of 
 1850, as a final settlement of the slavery controversy which 
 had shaken the country in all its parts, and threatened ruin, 
 dissolution, and cli.smay ; and in 185a, the Administration of 
 Mr. Pierce came into power, pledged to maintain inviolate 
 those compromises. The coutrovcrsy which arose on the 
 admission of California, had been fierce and bitter in the 
 extreme. It interrupted the policy by which the political 
 equilibrium of the two sections was sought to be perpetuated, 
 and produced a state of things long regarded with intense 
 apprehension by the South— the political preponderance of 
 the North, or Free States. 
 
 The introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in 1854, 
 and the excitement it produced, drew Mr. Lincoln from his 
 retirement, and he entered into the canvass with his accus- 
 tomed energy. He met Mr. Douglas in debate, at Spring- 
 field, in October of that year, and, a short time after, at 
 Peoria. From all accounts, the encounters were memorable, 
 and the Illinois senator siathered no laurels from them. 
 
LIFE OP AliRAHAM LINCOLN. ",5 
 
 The anti-Nebraska organization, then formed at Springfield, 
 embracing all who were opposed to the reopening of the 
 slavery agitation, was the basis of the Picpublican party. 
 Mr. Lincoln was an earnest advocate of the principles under 
 which the organization acted, and which are embodied in the 
 following resolutions : 
 
 '^Resolved, That, tlic doctrine affirmed l»y tlie Ne>>raska bill, and 
 gilded over by its advocates with the specioiH phrases of non-iurterveii- 
 tion and popular sovereignty, is really and clearly aconipleie surren- 
 der of all the ground hitherto asserted and maintained by the Federal 
 Covernment., with ref=pect to the limitation of slavery; is a plain con- 
 fession of the right of the slaveholder to transfer his human chattels 
 to any part of the public domain, and there hold them as slaves as 
 long as inclination or interest may dictate; and that this is an at- 
 tempt totally to )-everse the doctrine hitherto uniformly held by 
 statesmen and jurists, that slavery is the creature of local and state 
 law, and to make it a national institution. 
 
 " Resolved, That as freedom is national and slavery sectional and 
 local, the absence of all law upon the subject of slavery presumes 
 the existence of a state of freedom alone, while slavery exists only 
 by positive law. 
 
 ^^ Reno/vrd, That we heartily approve the course of the freemen of 
 Connecticut, Vermont, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Wii^consin, New York, 
 Michigan, and Maine, postponing or disregarding their minor dift'er- 
 euce of opinion, or preferences, and acting together cordially and 
 trustingly in the same cause of freedom, of free labor, and free soil, 
 and we commend their spirit to the freemen of this and other states, 
 exhorting each to renounce his party whenever and wherever that 
 party proves unfaithful to human freedom." 
 
 Although the organization was formed late in the season, 
 and was far iVnm being perfect, the election that year was 
 disastrous to the Democracy who had been led by Mr. Doug- 
 las. Of the nine Congressional districts, the opposition car- 
 ried five, and the Legislature would have been revolution- 
 ized if it had not been lor the number of senators holding 
 over. As it was, in the House, the Anti-Nebraska members 
 numbered forty, and the Democrats thirty-five. In the Sen- 
 ate there were seventeen Democrats to eight Opposition. Of 
 the former there were three holding over, who were counted 
 on the anti-Nebraska side, which summed up a majority of 
 two, on joint ballot, in favor of the hitter. 
 
 A United States senator was to be elected by this Legisla- 
 ture in the place of (.leucra! Shields, whose term expired on the 
 4th of March, 1855 ; and this was the first time in the history 
 
56 LIFE OF ABBAHAJI LINCOLN. 
 
 of the State where there was a possibility of electing any 
 other than a Democrat. Mr. Lincoln was recognized as the 
 choice of his party, but foreseeing that a difficulty might 
 occur, which it was in his power to obviate, he magnanimously 
 stepped forward, and urged his friends to transfer their sup- 
 port to Mr. Trumbull, who could secure the full vote of the 
 anti-Ne}jraska Democrats, which he had reason to believe he 
 himself could not. On the first ballot, he received 45 votes, 
 Shields 41, Trumbull 5, and 8 scattering. On the seventh 
 ballot, Matteson, Democrat, received the entire Democratic 
 vote with two exceptions, making 44 : and on the tenth bal- 
 lot Mr. Trumbull received 51 votes, Matteson 47, thus giv- 
 ing Illinois a llepublican senator, through the insti"umental- 
 ity of Mr. Lincoln, who would not permit his personal claims 
 to come in conflict with what he considered the advantages of 
 his party. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 On the 29th of May, 1856, the Eepublican State Conven- 
 tion of Illinois, which met at Bloomington, and appointed 
 delegates to the Philadelphia Convention of that year, 
 adopted the following Preamble and Resolutions : 
 
 "Whereas, The present Administration has prostituted its powers, 
 and devoted all its energies to the propagation of slavery, anel to its 
 extension into territories heretofore dedicated to freedom, against the 
 known wishes of the people of such territories, to the suppression 
 of the freedom of speech, and of the press; and to the revival of the 
 odious doctrine of constructive treason, which has always been the 
 resort of tyrants, and their most powei'ful engine of injustice and 
 oppression; and whereas, we are convinced that an elTort is making 
 to subvert the principles, and ultimately to change the form of our 
 government, and which it becomes all patriots, all who love their 
 country, and the cause of human freedom to resist; therefore, 
 
 " Resolved, That, foi'fegoing all former dilferences of opinion upon 
 other questions, we pledge ourselves to unite in opposition to tlie 
 present Administration, and to the party wliich upholds and supports 
 I it, and to use all honorable and Constitutional means to wrest the 
 
 i government from the unworthy hands which now control it, and to 
 
 bring it back, in its administration, to the principles and practices 
 of AVashington, Jetfersou, and their great and good compatriots of 
 the Revolution. 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LliNX'OLN. 57 
 
 " Resolved, That we bold, in accordance with the opinions and 
 practices of all the great statesmen of all parties, for the first sixty 
 years of the administration of the government, that under the Con- 
 stitution, Congress possesses full power to prohibit slavery in the 
 territories; and, that while we will maintain all Constitutional 
 rights of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the princi- 
 ples of freedom as cspresseil in our Declaration of Independence, 
 and our Nntional Constitution, and the purity and perpetuity of our 
 Government require that that power should be exerted to prevent the 
 extension of slavery into territories heretofore free. 
 
 " /i'«»oii'«^^'hat the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was unwise, 
 unjust, and injurious; in open and apgravared violation of tlie 
 plighted faith of the States; and that the attempt of the present 
 Administration to force slavery into Kansas against the known wishes 
 of the legal voters of that territory, is an arbitrary and tyiannous 
 violation of the rights of the people to govern themselves; and that 
 we will strive by all Constitutional means, to secure to Kansas and 
 Nebraska the legal guarantee against slavery, of which they were 
 deprived, at the cost of the violation of the plighted faith- of the 
 nation. 
 
 ^^ lirsolvpcl, That we are devoted to the Union, and will, to the last 
 extremity, defend it against tlie efforts now being made by tlie dis- 
 uaionists of this Administration to compass its dissoUuion; and tliat 
 we will support the Constitution of the United States in all its pro- 
 visions, regarding it as the sacred bond of our Union, and the only 
 safeguard for the preservation of the rights of ourselves and our 
 jiosterity. 
 
 '■' licsolvdl, That we arc in favor of the immediate admission of 
 Kansas as a member of this confederacy, under the Constitution 
 adopted by llie people of said territory. 
 
 '^ Jicisoived, That ilie spirit, of our institutions, as well as the Con- 
 stitution of our country, guarantees the liberty of conscience as well 
 ns political freedom ; and that we will proscribe no one, by legisla- 
 tion or otherwise, on account of religious opinions, or in consequence 
 of place of birth. 
 
 '■'^ Resolved, That in Lyman Trumbull, our distinguished senator, 
 the people of Illinois have an able and consistent exponent of their 
 principles; and that his course in the Senate meets with our unquali- 
 fied approbation." 
 
 This was the creed of the Illinois llepublicans in the mem- 
 orable canvass of 1S5G ; and they would liave stiecceded, but 
 for the unfortunate fact that there was a double ticUeL oi' 
 candidates for President and \' ice-President in the field, and 
 while Col. W. il. IJissell was elected (Jovernor by a hand- 
 some majority, the electoral vote of the State was given to 
 Buchanan. In this canvass, Mr. Lincoln was extremely 
 active, and wherever his tall form had been seen, and his 
 manly voice raised, the ranks of the adversary were tiiiuned 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 if not scattered. But for the unexpected vote of the south- 
 ern part of 'the State, (known as " Jilgypt," on account of the 
 exceeding ignorance which abounds there, and not, as some 
 have supposed, its exceeding fertility,) the State would then 
 have been lost to the Democracy. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 And now approaches a period in the life of Mr. Lincoln, 
 in which he was brought more prominently to the notice of 
 the American people than ever before. The administration 
 of Mv. Buchanan, regardless of the pledges on which he was 
 elected — reckless of the platform on which he so cozily re- 
 clined, and untrue to the rights of freemen, had determined 
 that Kansas should be introduced into the family of states, 
 with a slave Constitution. This brought the xldministration 
 into immediate collision with Mr. Douglas, but did not relieve 
 that gentleman from the suspicions which had been attached 
 to his course by his political adversaries, among the most 
 powerful, constant, and consistent of whom Mr. Lincoln 
 might be reckoned. 
 
 On the 20th of June, 1857, Mr. Lincoln made his famous 
 speech at Springfield, in reply to the speech of Mr. Douglas, 
 made two weeks previously, on the Utah question, Kan- 
 sas, and the Dred Scott decision. In relation to the former 
 he was entirely conclusive in a few sentences ; and hedged in 
 his distinguished adversary by such irrefragable logic, that 
 escape was impossible. He referred to the position of Mr. 
 Douglas, that the people of Utah were in open rebellion 
 against the United States, and advising the repeal of their 
 territorial organization, attaching them to the adjoining states 
 for judicial purposes. As a specimen of his analytical rea- 
 soning and piquancy, we insert the whole: 
 
 " I say, too, if they are in rebellion, they ought to be somehow 
 cooiceil to obedience; and I am not now prepared to admit or deny, 
 that the judge's mode of coercing tliem is not as good as any. The 
 Republicans can fall in with it without taking hack anything tliey 
 have ever said. To be sure, it would be a considerable backing 
 down by Judge Douglas, from his much vaunted doctrine of self- 
 government for the territories; but this is only additional proof of 
 what was very plain from the beginning, tliat that doctrine was a 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 
 
 mere deceilful pretense for the benefit of slavery. Those who could 
 not see that much in the Nebraska act itself, -wliioh forced govern- 
 ors, and secretaries, and judges on the people of the territories, 
 without their clioice or consent, could not be made to see, though one 
 should rise from the dead. 
 
 " But in all this it is verj' plain the judge evades the only question 
 the Republicans have ever pressed upon the Democracy in regard 
 to Utah. That question the judge well knew to be this: 'If the 
 people of Utah shall peacefully form a State Constitution tolerat- 
 ing polygamy, will tlie Democracy admit them into the Union?' 
 There is nothing in the United States Constitution or law against 
 polygamy ; and why is it not a part of the judge's 'sacred right of 
 self-government' for the people to have it, or rather to keep it, if 
 they choose? These questions, so far as I know, the judge never 
 answers. It might involve the Democracy to answer them eitlicr 
 way, and they go unanswered.'' 
 
 The Kansas question he dismisses almost as summarily 
 and quite as conclusively, taking the ground that the rel'usal 
 of the Free State men to vote at the election of delegates to 
 the Constitutional Convention was iu consequence of the fact 
 that the people of some whole counties and whole neighbor- 
 hoods in other counties had not been registered, and there- 
 fore could not vote. In no event could there be a fair 
 expression of opinion. As to there being " Free State Demo- 
 crats" there he said: 
 
 "Allow me to barely whisper my suspicion that there were no such 
 things in Kansas as 'Free State Democrats' — that they were alto- 
 gether mythical, good only to figure in newspapers and speeches in 
 the free states. If there should prove to be one real, living Free 
 State Demociat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to catch 
 him, and stutF and preserve his skin as an interesting specimen of 
 that 80on-to-be-e.\tiuct variety of the genus Democrat." 
 
 In reference to the Dred Scott decision he was more elab- 
 orate, but not less pointed and argumentative. lie reviewed 
 the decision of the Court with rare sagacity and comprehen- 
 siveness, and showed that his wily opponent had not always 
 been so regardful and obedient to the decisions of the Su- 
 preme Court. He pointed to the decision that the U. S. 
 Bank was Constitutional ; but, notwithstanding, General Jack- 
 son had vetoed it, disregarding the decision, and had been 
 sustained by Judge Douglas and those co-operating with him, 
 denouncing the decision, although entitled to quite as much 
 respcfct as that in the Dred Scott case, and applauding the 
 veto of the President. 
 
GO LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The passage in tliis speecli, resisting the assumption of 
 Chief Justice Taney, that the public estimate of the bLnck 
 man is more favorable now than it was in the days of the Rev- 
 olution, contains a fair specimen of his eloquence, for which 
 he rarely leaves the straightforward channel of argument : 
 
 "In some ti'ifling particulars the condition of that race has been 
 ameliorated; but, as a whole, in this country, the change between 
 tlien and now is decidedly the other way; and their ultimate destiny 
 has never appeared so hopeless as in the last three or four years. 
 In two of the five states — ISIew Jersey and North Carolina — that then 
 gave the tree negro the right of voting, the right has since been 
 taken away; and in the third — New York — it has been greatly 
 abridged ; while it has not been extended, so far as I know, to a 
 single additional state, though the number of states has more than 
 doubled. In those days, a-s I understand, masters could, at their 
 own pleasure, emancipate their slaves ; but since then such legal 
 restraints have been made upon emancipation as to amount almost 
 to prohibition. In those days, ' Legislatui'es held the unquestioned 
 power to aliolish slavery in their I'espective States; but now, it is 
 becoming quite fashionable for State Constitutions to withhold that 
 power from the Legislatures. In those days, by common consent, 
 the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries was 
 prohibited; but now, Congress decides that it will not continue the 
 prohibition, and the Supreme (^ourt decides that it could not if it 
 would. In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held 
 sacred by all, and thought to include all; but now, to aid in making 
 the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed, 
 sneered at, construed, hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers coulil 
 rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it. All the 
 powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him. Mammon is 
 after hinj; ambition follows, philosophy follows, and the theology of 
 the day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison-house; 
 they have searched his person, and left no prying instrument with 
 him. One after another, they have closed tlie heavy iron dooi's upon 
 him; and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of 
 a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concur- 
 rence of every key ; the keys in the hands of a hundred ditt'erent 
 men, and they scattered to a hundred ditierent and distant places ; 
 and they stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions 
 of mind and matter, can be produced to make the imjiossibility of 
 his escape more complete than it is. 
 
 "It is grossly incorrect to say or assume that the public estimate 
 of the negro is more favorable now than it was at the origin of the 
 government."' 
 
 In reference to the Declaration of Independence, Mr. Lin- 
 coln regarded its language plain and unmistiikable. lie 
 said: 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Gl 
 
 "I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include 
 all men, but they did not intend to declare all men equal in all respects. 
 They did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral 
 developments, or social capacity. They defined, with tolerable dis- 
 tinctness, in what respects they did consider all men created equal — 
 equal witli 'certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, 
 and the pursuit of happiness.' This they said, and this they meant. 
 They did not mean to assert the obvious untrutli, that all were then 
 actu.ally enjoying that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer 
 it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such 
 a boon. They meant simply to declare the rif/lu, so that (he enforcement 
 of it might follow aa fast as circumstances should permit." 
 
 On the IGth of June, 1858, the Kepublican convention of 
 Illinois assembled at Sprinj^field, nominated state officers, 
 and adopted a platform not differing- in any essential respect 
 from that asserted two years before at Eloomington. The 
 c-uurse of the Honorable Lyman Trumbull was indorsed, and 
 ^e following resolution unanimously adopted ; 
 
 '■'■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.'' 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was not aware of the adoption of the resolu- 
 tion, and when called upon to address the Convention did 
 not allude to it. His speech, however, on that occasion, was 
 a masterly effort, and was received by a crowded hall, lobbies, 
 and galleries, with manifestations of the greatest enthusiasm. 
 As the opening paragraph of that speech was made to serve 
 as a sort of text for the notable campaign between himself 
 and his distinguished adversary, it is here quoted : 
 
 " If we could first know where we arc, and whither we are tend- 
 ing, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are 
 now far on into the filth year, since a policy was initiated, with the 
 avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agi- 
 tation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only 
 not ceased, but lias constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not 
 cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. 'A house 
 divided against itself can not stand.' I believe this Government can 
 not endure, permaucnlly, half slave and half free. I do not expect- 
 the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do 
 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 fnr- 
 tiier spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
 the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates 
 
G'J LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 •will push it forward, till it shall hccome a.like lawful in all the slates, 
 old as well as new— North as well as South. 
 
 "Have we no tendency to the latter condition? Let any one who 
 doubts, carefully contemplate that now almotit complete legal combi- 
 nation- — piece of machinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska 
 doctrine, and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only 
 what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how v/ell adapted, 
 but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if 
 he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design, 
 and concert of action, among its chief master-workers from the 
 beginning. 
 
 " But, so far. Congress only had acted ; and an indorsement by the 
 people, real or apparent, was indispensable, to save the point already 
 gained, and give chance for more. The new year of 1854 found 
 slavery excluded from more than half the states by State Constitu- 
 tions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional pro- 
 hibition. Four days later commenced the struggle, which ended in 
 repealing that Congressional prohibition. This opened all the na- 
 tional territory to slavery, and was the tirst point gained. 
 
 '•This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been provided 
 for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of ^squatter sovei^ 
 ei;/}Ui/,' otherwise called ^sacred right of self-government,'' which latter 
 phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any goveru- 
 raent, was so perverted in this attempted use of it^ as to amount to 
 just this: that if any one man choose to enslave another, no third 
 man shall be allowed to object. That argument was incorporated 
 into the Nebraska bill itself.'' 
 
 On the ninth of July, Mr. Douglas w;is received with much 
 pomp at Chicago, where he thanked the Ilepublicans for hav- 
 ing- aided in defeating the President's Leeompton policy, and 
 in reference to Mr. Lincoln, uttered the following significant 
 language : 
 
 "I have observed, from the i)u1)lio priuiy, ihal ))at a few days ago, 
 the Republican paily of the 8ia,le of lllinnis assembled in conven- 
 tion at Springfield, and not only laid down their platform, but nom- 
 inated a candidate for the United States Senate as my successor. 1 
 take great pleasure in saying that I Jiavc known, personally and 
 intimately, for about a quarter of a century, the worthy gentleman 
 who has been nominated for my place; and 1 will say that I regard 
 him as a kind, amiable, and intelligent gentleman, a good citizen, 
 and an honorable opponent; and whatever issue I may Jiavc with 
 Mm will be of principle, and not involving personalities." 
 
 Mr. Douglas then reviewed the position assumed by Mr. 
 Lincoln, in his speech of June 16th, to which the latter, 
 who heard the speech of his adversary, replied the following 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN, QS 
 
 evening, July lOtli, in which reply is the following pointed 
 extract : 
 
 "There was one questiou to which he asked the attention of the 
 crowd, which I deem of somewhat less importance — at least of pro- 
 priety for me to dwell upon — than the others, which he brought in 
 near the close of his speech, and which I think it would not be 
 entirely proper for me to omit attending to, and yet, if I were not to 
 {t'wc some attention to it now, I should probably forget it altogether. 
 V/hile I am upon this subject, allow rac to say that I do not intend 
 to indulge in that inconvenient mode sometimes adopted in public 
 speaking, of reading from documents; but I shall depart from that 
 rule so far as to read a little scrap from his speech, which notices 
 this first topic of which I shall apeak — that is, provided I can find it 
 in the paper. 
 
 " ' T made up my mind to appeal to tho poople agaiust the conibioation tliat lias 
 I)eon mode agaiost me ! tho Kopublican Itradere having: funnrd an alliance, an un- 
 holy and an iinnatnral allianoc, with a portion of unscrupnlons PVdeial otlice-holdern. 
 I intend to fight that allied army wherever I meet them. I know they deny the 
 alliance, but yet these men who are trying to diviiJo the Democratic party fur the 
 piirpOMO of electing a liopublican senator in my place, are just as much the agents 
 and tools of the supporters of Mr. Lincoln. Hence I shall deal with this allied 
 army Juat as tho RunnianH dealt with tho allies at .Seb;i.stopol — that is, the Russians 
 did not stop to inquire, when they fired a broadside, whether it hit an Englishman, 
 a Frenchmau, or a Turk. Nor will 1 stop to inquire, nor shall I hesitate, whether 
 my blows shall hit these Republican leaders or tUeir allies, who are holding tho Fed- 
 eral otEccs, and yet acting iu concert with them.' 
 
 " Well, now, gentlemen, is not that very alarming? Just to think 
 of it! right at the outset of his canvass, I, a poor, kind, amiable, 
 intelligent gentleman, am to be slain in this way. Why, my friends, 
 the judge is not onl}', as it turns out, not a dead lion, nor even a liv- 
 ing one — he is the rugged Russian bear! [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 '•But if they will have it — for he says we deny it — that there is 
 any such alliance, as lie says there is — and I don't propose hanging 
 very much upou this question of veracity — but if he will have it 
 that there is such an alliance — that the Administration men and we 
 are allied, and we stand in the attitude of English, French, and Turk, 
 he occupying the position of the Russian, in that case, 1 beg that he 
 will indulge us while we barel}' suggest to him that these allies took 
 .Sebastopol. [Great applause.]" 
 
 In the eourijc of this reply, Mr. Lincoln defined his posi- 
 tion in regard to the negro, in unmistakable language ; 
 
 " 1 have said a hundred times, and I h.ave no inclination to take it 
 liack, that I bflievc there is no right, and ought to be no inclination 
 in the people of the free states to enter into theslavc states, and to 
 interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that alway.-?. 
 .ludge Douglas has heard me say it, if not quite a hundred times, at 
 least as good as a hundred times; and when it is said that I am in 
 favor of interfering with slavery where it exists, I know that it ia 
 
64 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 unwarranted by anything I have ever intended, and, as I believe, by 
 anything I have ever said. If, by any means, I have ever used lan- 
 guage -which could fairl_y be so construed, (as, however, I believe I 
 never have,) I now correct it. 
 
 " So much, then, for the inference tliat Judge Douglas draws, that 
 I am in favor of setting the sections at war with one another. I 
 know that, I never meant nny such thing; and I believe that no fair 
 mind can infer any such thing from anything I have ever said. 
 
 "Now, in relation to his inference that I am in favor of a general 
 consolidation of all the local institutions of the various states, I will 
 attend to that for a little while, and tr}' to inquire, if I can, how on 
 earth it could be that any man could draw such an inference from 
 anything I said? I have said, very many times, in .Judge Douglas's 
 hearing, that no man believed more thau I in the principle of self- 
 government ; that it lies at the bottom of all my ideas of just govern- 
 ment, from beginning to end. I have denied that his use of that term 
 applies properly. But for the thing itself, I deny that any man has 
 ever gone ahead of me in his devotion to the principle, whatever he 
 may have done in efficiency in advocating it. I think that I have said 
 it in your hearing, that I believe each individual is naturally entitled 
 to do as he pleases Avith himself and with the fruit of his labor, so far 
 as it in no wise interferes with any other man's rights — [applause] 
 — that each communit}"^, as a state, has a right to do exactly as it 
 pleases with all the concerns within that state that interfere with the 
 right of no other state ; and that the General Government, upon prin- 
 ciple, has no right to interfere with anything other than that gen- 
 eral class of things that does concern the whole. I have said that at 
 all times. I have said, as illustrations, that I do not believe in the 
 right of Illinois to interfere with the cranberry laws of Indiana, the 
 oyster laws of Virginia, or the liquor laws of Maine. I have said 
 these things over and over again, and I rejieat them here as my 
 sentiments." 
 
 In continuing this memorable campaign, Mr. Douglas 
 spoke at Bloomington and Springfield a week later ; and 
 Mr. Lincoln responded, at the latter place, the evening of the 
 day on which his adversary spoke at the latter place, (July 
 17th,) in which he mentioned the disadvantages under which 
 his party labored, through the refusal of the previous Legis- 
 lature, which was Democratic, to give a fair apportionment, 
 for which a census had been taken in 1855. He likewise 
 pointed to the fact, that one or two senators held over in 
 districts wliere he had every reason to believe his friends 
 could succeed, if they only had the chance of an election. 
 
 There was still another disadvantage, which Mr. Lincoln 
 adverted to with infinite humor ; and there was something 
 of prophecy in the idea of connecting his name with the 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Co 
 
 Presidency of the United States. Of this " disadvantage" 
 he observed : 
 
 "It arises out of the relative position of the two persons who staml 
 before the Stale as candidates for the Senate. Senator Doughxs is of 
 world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who 
 have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as 
 certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. 
 They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land- 
 offices, raarshalships, and cabinet appointments, charg;'^ship?, and 
 foreign missions bursting and sprouting out in wonderful luxuriance, 
 ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. [Great laughter.] 
 And as they have been gazing upon this attractive picture so long, 
 they can not, in the little distraction that has taken place in the 
 party, bring themselves to give up the charming liope ; but, with 
 greedier anxiety, they rush about him, sustain liim, and give him 
 marches, triumphal entries, and receptions, beyond what even, in the 
 days of his highest prosperity, they could have brought about in his 
 favor. On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be Presi- 
 dent. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever seen that any 
 cabbages were .siiroutiug out. [Cheering and laughter.] These are 
 disadvantages all, that the Republicans labor under. We have to 
 fight this battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. I am, in 
 a certain sense, made the standard-bearer in behalf of the Repub- 
 licans. I was made so merely because tliere had to be some one so 
 placed — I being in nowise preferable to any other one of the twenty- 
 five — perhaps a hundred we have in the Republican ranks. Then I 
 say I wish it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind, that we 
 have to fight this battle without many — perhaps without any — of the 
 external aids wiiich are brought to bear against us. So I hope those 
 by whom 1 am surrounded, have principle enough to nerve them- 
 selves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can be fairly done, 
 to bring about the right result." 
 
 The distinguished contestants having made several 
 speeches each at various points, an arrangement was agreed 
 upon, by which they should address the people of the 
 seven Congressional districts in which they had not spoken. 
 The debate coiumenced at Ottawa, where ultraisni, by means 
 of a liepubliean platform, which was merely a local expres- 
 sion, was urged against Mr. Lincoln. Freeport was the 
 second place of meeting, where Mr. Lincoln exposed the 
 fallacy of holding him responsible for resolutions passed 
 at a mere casual meeting, or county convention, and which 
 had not been recognized by the Republicans of the State 
 as their unquestioned chart. He responded categorically 
 and unequivocally to sundry questions propounded to him 
 G 
 
fi6 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 through the columns of the organ of Mr. Douglas, the 
 Chicago Times. A short extract is subjoined, explanatory 
 of his principles on all the important questions of agita- 
 tion : 
 
 " As to the first, one, in regard to the fugitive slave law, I have 
 never hesitated to sa.y, aud I do not now hesitate to say, that I think, 
 under the Constitution of the United States, the people of the South- 
 ern States are entitled to a Congressional slave law. Having said 
 that, I have had nothing to say in regard to the existing fugitive 
 slave law, furt.lier than that I think it should have been framed so 
 as to be free from some of the objections that pertain to it, without 
 lessening its efficiency. And inasmuch as we are not now in an 
 agitation in regard to an alteration or modification of that law, I 
 would not be the man to introduce it as a new subject of agitation 
 upon the general questions of slavery. 
 
 " In regard to the other question, of Whether T am pledged to the 
 admission of any more slave states into the Union? I state to you very 
 frankly that I would be exceedingly sorry ever to be put in a posi- 
 tion of having to pass upon that question. I should be exceedingly 
 glad to know that there would never be another slave state ad- 
 mitted into the Union ; but I must add, that if slavery shall be kept 
 out of the territories during the territorial existence of anj* one 
 given territory, and then the peojile shall, having a fair chance and 
 a clear field, when they come to adopt the Constitution, do such an 
 extraordinary thing as to adopt a slave Constitution, uninlluenced 
 by the actual presence of the institution among them, I see no alter- 
 native, if we own the country, but to admit them into the Union. 
 [Applause.] 
 
 " The third interrogatory is answered by the answer to the second, 
 it being, as I conceive, the same as the second. 
 
 "The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the 
 District of Columbia. In relation to that, I have my miml very dis- 
 tinctly made up. I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abol- 
 ished in the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress possesses 
 the Constitutional power to abolish it. Yet, as a member of Con- 
 gress, I should not, with my present views, be in favor of cndeavoriiu/ 
 to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, unless it would be 
 upon these conditions. First. That the abolition should be gradual ; 
 Seco7id. That it should be on a vote of the qualified voters in the Dis- 
 trict; and Third. That compensation should be made to unwilling 
 owners. With these three conditions, I confess I would be exceed 
 ingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Colum- 
 bia, and, in the language of Henry Clay, 'sweep from our capital 
 that foul blot upon our nation.' 
 
 " In regard to the fifth interrogatoi-y, I must say here, that as to the 
 question of the abolition of the slave-trade between the different 
 States, I can truly answer, as I have, that I am 'pledged to nothing 
 about it. It is a subject to which I have not given that mature con- 
 sideration that would make me feel authorized to state a position so 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 67 
 
 as <o hold myself entirely bound by it. In other words, that ques- 
 tion has never been prominently enough before me to induce me to 
 investigate whether we really have the Constitutional power to do it. 
 I could investigate it if I had sufficient time to bring myself to a 
 conclusion upon that subject; but I have not done so, and I say so 
 frankly to you here, and to Judge Douglas. I must say, however, 
 that if I should be of opinion that Congress does possess the Consti- 
 tutional power to abolish slave-trading among the different states, I 
 should still not be in favor of the exercise of that power unless upon 
 some conservative principle as I conceive it, akin to what I have said 
 in relation to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.'' 
 
 The third debate was held at Jonesboro'; the fourth at 
 Charleston ; the fifth at Galesburg ; the sixth at Quincy ; 
 and the seventh at Alton — the latter occurring? on the 15th 
 of October, the day of election being on the 2d of the 
 November following. This joint discussion was regarded 
 with intense interest all over the Union. Mr. Lincoln was 
 comparatively unknown when he entered upon the cam- 
 paign ; but at the close of it, although hindered from suc- 
 cess by the unfair apportionment, he had obtained a national 
 reputation. 
 
 During the fall campaign of 1859, when Mr. Douglas had 
 been induced to lend his aid to the Democracy of Ohio, 
 already feeling the throes of division, and leaving it doubt- 
 ful, even among themselves, in case of securing a majority, 
 if the re-election of Mr. Pugh was a sure thing, Mr. Lin- 
 coln was invited by the llepublicans to present his views in 
 contradistinction to those of his late competitor. Plis first 
 speech was at Columbus, September IG, where he disposed 
 of the charge against him of being in favor of negro suf- 
 frage, and examined, with great clearness and force, the 
 distinction between true and political popular sovereignty. 
 The next day he spoke at Cincinnati, where lie was listened 
 to with rapt attention, and made a deep and lasting im- 
 pression. It was here that he made that, remarkable decla- 
 ration of the duty of Republicans : 
 
 " I say that we must not interfere with the institution of slavery 
 in the states where it exists, because the Constitution forbids it, and 
 the general welfare does not require us to do so. We must not 
 withhold an efficient fugitive slave law, because the Constitution 
 requires us, as 1 understand it, not to withhold such a law, but we 
 must prevent the outspreading of the institution, because neither the 
 Constitution nor the general welfare requires us to extend it. We 
 
68 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 mn?t prevent flic revival of (lie (Vfriean slr.ve-tradc ami the enacting 
 by Congress of a territorial slave code. We must, prevent each of 
 these things being done by either Congresses or Courts. The peopi-e 
 OF THESE United States are the rightful masters of both Con- 
 gresses AND Courts, not to overthrow the Constitution, but to over- 
 throw the men who pervert that Constitution." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, at the earnest invitation of liis political 
 friends at the Plast, visited several of the Eastern States in 
 the spring of 1860, during which visit he addressed immense 
 gatherings of Republicans in New Hampshire, Rhode Island, 
 and Connecticut; and in the city of New York, at the 
 Cooper Institute, on the 27th of February last, he made one 
 of the very ablest speeches of his whole eventful life. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 In tracing the career of this remarkable man, it is clearly 
 perceptible that nature designed him for no common pur- 
 pose, and stamped him with no common intellect. With 
 a heart of unbounded amiability and love of his kind, he 
 is endowed with firmness and purity of motive as fixed and 
 inflexible as adamant. The utter absence of all selfishness, 
 his readiness to step forward to the assistance of others, 
 his unostentatious and unobtrusive merit, all mark him as 
 no common character. The I'aVorite of Illinois h.ad spread 
 his iame beyond his State limits, and the conservative views 
 that largely entered into all of his addresses, and his known 
 integrity, indicated him as the great standard-bearer of his 
 party in 1860. 
 
 The Democratic Convention had met at Charleston, and 
 there found it impossible to reconcile the difi'erences that 
 had sprung up in the party, and adjourned to a later day 
 and another place, with a hope that some sort of adjustment 
 might be eficcted. A convention, styling itself the " Union '^ 
 or " Constitutional Union Convention," had assembled at 
 Ealtimore, and adopted a ticket composed of two expe- 
 rienced, conservative men, and a platform confined to the 
 Constitution and Laws. It now came the turn of the 
 Republican party to hold its quadrennial reunion, to 
 select its candidates and reassert its principles. The 16th 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CO 
 
 of May came around, and Chicago was filled with enthu- 
 siastic friends of the great names mentioned in connection 
 with the office of President. Two days were occupied in 
 perfecting the organization and conferring with each other, 
 to ascertain, if possible, which nomination would be most 
 likely to promote ultimate success. The third day, the 
 18th of May, was memorable in the annals of Republic- 
 anism. Twelve thousand people were crowded into the 
 "Wigwam" which had been erected by the citizens of 
 Chicago for the accommodation of those who desired to 
 attend the sitting of the Convention. Thousands could 
 not gain admission. The greatest excitement prevailed, 
 although the stillness of suspense pervaded that vast assem- 
 bly. It was then determined to proceed to ballot for a 
 candidate for President of the United States. The names 
 of William II. Seward, of New York ; /Vbraham Lincoln, 
 of Illinois; William L. Dayton, of New Jensey ; Simon 
 Cameron, of Pennsylvania; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; 
 Edward Bates, of Missouri; and John McLean, of Ohio, 
 were presented to the convention. It became apparent, 
 from the applause with which the two first names were 
 received, that the contest would, doubtless, be between 
 them. The first ballot stood — Seward 17o, Lincoln 102, 
 Cameron 50, Chase 49, Bates 48, Dayton, 14, McLean 12, 
 and 14 scattered among candidates not nominated — 233 
 being necessary to a nomination. The second ballot 
 resulted as follows, (Mr. Cameron being withdrawn,) Sew- 
 ard 184, Lincoln 181, Chase 42, Bates 35, Dayton 10, 
 McLean 8, scattering 4. 
 
 The third ballot ended the contest. Lincoln 231, Sew- 
 ard 180, Chase 24, Bates 22, scattering 7. Before the 
 result was announced, four of the Ohio delegates changed 
 their votes to Mr. Jjincoln, who now had the required 
 majority. The result was received with the liveliest mani- 
 festations; and Mr. Evarts, of New York, who had nom- 
 inated Mr. Seward, moved that the nomination of Mr. 
 Lincoln should be unanimous, which was most enthusi- 
 astically agreed to. 
 
 In reply to the president of the Convention, announcing 
 him as having been nominated, Mr. Lincoln sent the fol- 
 lowing characteristic and modest letter of acceptance. It 
 is a model of unpretending devotion to, and firm appre- 
 ciation of, the principles under which he was called upon 
 
I ! 
 
 70 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to act. That, if successful, he will rigidly adhere to its 
 pledges, in letter and spirit, the tenor of his whole life is 
 a safe Earnest and guarantee. 
 
 "Springfield, III., May 23, 1860. 
 "Hon. Geo. Ashmun, 
 
 " President of the Republican National Convention : 
 "Sir: — I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention 
 over which you presided, and of which I am formally apprised in the 
 letter of yourself and others, acting as a committee of the Convention 
 for that purpose. 
 
 " The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies 
 your letter, meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to 
 violate nor disregard it in any part. 
 
 "Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due 
 regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the 
 ! Convention; fo the rights of all States and Territories, and the 
 
 j people of the nation; to the inviolability of the Constitution, and to 
 j the perpetual union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most 
 I happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles 
 ! declared by the Convention. 
 1 " Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 " Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 j With this letter, so characteristic of the man, it is well 
 
 I to close this meager and unpretending sketch, which seeks 
 
 j to develop and chronicle the progress and events in the 
 
 ' career of the famous " rail splitter," from the days when 
 
 ': he owed his daily bread to the sweat of his own brow, to 
 
 i the present time, when, beyond all question, his is 
 
 ; "One of the few, the immortal names. 
 
 That were not born to die." 
 
 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM OF 1800. 
 
 [In this connection it is, probably, the most appropriate 
 to insert the Platform established at Chicago, which Mr. 
 Lincoln accepted without qualification or amendment, and 
 on which the great contest for Republican supremacy in 
 the canvass must turn.] 
 
 '^Eesolved, That we, the delegated representatives of the Republican 
 electors of the United States, in convention assembled, in the dis- 
 charge of the duty we owe to our constituents and our country, 
 unite in the following declarations : 
 
LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 71 
 
 ^' First. That the hislory of the nation Juring the last four years, 
 has fully established tlie propriety and necessity of the organization 
 and pei-petuation of the llepublican party, and that the causes which 
 called it into existence are permanent in their nature, and now, 
 more than ever before, demand its peaceful and Constitutional 
 triumph. 
 
 " Second. That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in 
 the Declaration of Independence, and embodied in the Federal Con- 
 stitution, is essential to the preservation of our Republican institu- 
 tions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the states, and 
 the union of the states, must and shall be preserved. 
 
 " Third. That to the union of the states this nation owes its unpre- 
 cedented increase in population; its surprising development of 
 material resources; its rapid augmentation of wealth; its happiness 
 at liome and its honor abroad, and we hold in abhorrence all schemes 
 for disunion, come from wliatever soui-ce they may ; and we con- 
 gratulate the country that no Piepublican member of Congress has 
 uttered or countenanced a threat of disunion, so often made by 
 Democratic members of Congress, without rebuke and with applause 
 from their political associates; and we denounce those threats of dis- 
 union, in case of a popular overthrow of their ascendency, as deny- 
 ing the vital principles of a free government, and as an avowal of 
 contemplated treason, which it is the imperative duly of an indig- 
 nant people strongly to rebuke and forever silence. 
 
 ^^Fourth. That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the states, 
 and especially the right of each state to order and control its own 
 domestic institutions, according to its own judgment e.xchisively, is 
 essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endur- 
 ance of our political faith depends, and we denounce the lawless 
 invasion by an armed force of any state or territory, no matter 
 under what pretext, as among tlie gravest of crimes. 
 
 " Fifth. That the present Democratic Administration has far ex- 
 ceeded our worst apprehensions in its measureless subserviency to 
 the exactions of a sectional interest, as is especially evident in its 
 desperate exertions to force the infamous Lecompton Constitution 
 upon the protesting people of Kansas; in construing the personal 
 relation between master and servant to involve an unqualified prop- 
 erty in ))ersons: in its attempted enforcement evei-y where, on land 
 and sea, through the intervention of Congress and the Federal courts, 
 of the extreme pretensions of a purely local interest, and in its gen- 
 eral and unvarying abuse of the power intrusted to it by a confiding 
 people. 
 
 "Ax//i. That the people justly view with alarm the reckless ex- 
 travagance which pervades every department of the Federal Govern- 
 ment ; that a return to rigid economy and accountability is indis- 
 pensable to arrest the system of plunder of the public treasury by 
 favored partisans ; while the recent startling development,s of fraud 
 and corruption at the Federal Metropolis show that an entire change 
 of administration is imperatively demanded. 
 
 ^'■Seventh. That the new dogma that the Constitution, of its own 
 force, carries slavery into any or all the territories of the United 
 
i^ LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 States, is a danffcroiis political heresy, at variance witli tlio explicit 
 provisions of that instrument itself, with cotcmporancoiis exposition, 
 and with legislative and judicial precedent; is revolutionary in its 
 tendency, and subversive of the peace and harmony of the country. 
 
 " Eighth. That the normal condition of all the territory of the 
 United States is that of freedom ; that as our republican fathers, 
 when they had abolished slavery in all our national territory, 
 ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
 erty, without due process of law, it becomes our duty, by legislation, 
 whenever such legislation is necessary, to maintain this provision of 
 the Constitution against all attempts to violate it; and wo deny the 
 authority of Congress, or a Territorial Legislature, or of any indi- 
 viduals, to give legal esistence to slavery in any territory of the 
 United States. 
 
 " Ninth. That we brand the recent reopening of the African slave- 
 trade, under the cover of our national flag, aided by perversions of 
 judicial power, as a crime against humanity, a burning shame to our 
 country and age; and we call upon Congress to take prompt and 
 efEcient measures for the total and final suppression of that execra- 
 ble traffic. 
 
 " Tenth. That in the recent vetoes by their Federal Governors of 
 the acts of the Legislatures of Kansas and Nebraska, prohibiting 
 slavery in those territories, we find a practical illustration of the 
 boasted Democratic principle of non-intervention ami popular 
 sovereignty, embodied in the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and a 
 denunciation of the deception and fraud involved therein. 
 
 " Eleventh. That Kansas should, of right, be immediately admitted 
 as a state under the Constitution recently formed and adopted by her 
 people, and accepted by the House of Representatives. 
 
 " Twelfth. That while providing revenue for the support of the 
 General Government by duties upon imposts, sound policy requires 
 such an adjustment of these imposts as to encourage the development 
 of the industrial interest of the whole country; and we commend that 
 policy of national exchanges which secures to the workingmen liberal 
 wages, to agriculture remunerating prices, to mechanics and manu- 
 facturers an adequate reward for their skill, labor, and enterprise, 
 and to the nation commercial prosperity and independence. 
 
 " Thirteenth. That we protest against any sale or alienation to others 
 of the public lands held by actual settlers, and against any view of 
 the Free Homestead policy, which regards the settlers as paupers or 
 supplicants for public bounty ; and we demand the passage by Con- 
 gress of the complete and satisfactory Homestead measure, which has 
 already passed the House. 
 
 " Fourteenth. That the National Republican party is opposed to any 
 change in our naturalization laws, or any state legislation by which 
 the rights of citizenship, hitherto accorded to emigrants from foreign 
 lands, shall be abridged or impaired, and in favor of giving a full 
 and efficient protectiim to the rights of all classes of citizens, whether 
 native or naturalized, both at home and abroad. 
 
 " Fifteenth. Thar appropriations by Congress for River and Harbor 
 Improvements of a national character, required for the accommoda- 
 
LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 
 
 tion and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the 
 Constitution, and justified by an obligation of the Goverament, to 
 protect the lives and property of its citizens. 
 
 '♦ Sixteenth, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean is imperatively 
 demanded by the interests of the whole country; that the Federal 
 Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in irs con- 
 struction, and that, as preliminary thereto, a daily overland mail 
 should be promptly established. 
 
 ^- Sevenlrenlh. Finally, liaving thus set forth our distinctive prin- 
 ciples and viev/s, we invite the co-operation of all citizens, however 
 differing on other (luestions, who substantially agree with us in their 
 affirmance and support." 
 
 On motion of George William Curtis, of New York, 
 the following wa,s added to the second resolution : 
 
 " That we solemnly reassert the self-evident truths, that all are 
 endowed by the Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which 
 are those of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that govern- 
 ments arc instituted among men to secure the enjoyment of these 
 rights." 
 
LIFE OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Eleazer Hamlin, who coiDmanded a company of minute 
 men, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. 
 His son Cyrus, a physician, settled at Livermore, Maine, and 
 married Anna Livermore, daughter of one of the principal 
 proprietors of the town, for whom it was named. On tlie 
 formation of Oxford county out of Cumberland, he was 
 appointed clerk of the former, and removed to Paris, the 
 county seat, where Hannibal was born on the 27th day of 
 August, 1809. Intending to give his son a collegiate edu- 
 cation, Dr. Hamlin sent him to the private schools of the 
 town, and to the not very distant academy at Hebron ; but 
 at the age of iifteen he was compelled to call him home to 
 attend to the farm-work in consequence of the delicate 
 iioalth of his brother Cyrus, to whom that duty had been 
 assigned. He continued this occupation for three years, 
 wlien, by the advice of his father, he commenced the study 
 of law with his brother Elijah, who had settled in the east- 
 ern [lart of Maine ; but his father dying after he had been 
 thus engaged some six or eight mouths, he returned to the 
 i'arm, where he labored for the next two years. 
 
 He now purchased one-half of the Jcjj'ersonian, a paper 
 publislied weekly in Paris. His partner was Horatio King, 
 tlie present l^'irst Assistant Postmaster-General. During 
 his joint ownership and after leaving it, he contributed to 
 its columns both prose and poetry; but the latter was of 
 rather moderate pretensions, and did not elevate his name 
 among the I'anious biirds of the day. It served to show, 
 (74) 
 
LIFE OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
 
 75 
 
 however, that he had a graceful turn of mind, and was 
 keenly alive to the poetic beauties as well as stern reali- 
 ties of life. He sold out his interest to Mr. King in the 
 same year, but continued to "work at case" and at the 
 press until the following January, when he resumed the 
 study of law, entering the office of Joseph C. Cole, after- 
 ward a judge of the District Court of 3Iainc. For three 
 years he prosecuted his legal studies, part of the time with 
 the firm of Fesscndcn, Deblois & Fcssenden, of Portland, 
 the junior of which firm is now his colleague in the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 ItAN'NinAI- HAM MX. 
 
 Mr. Hamlin was admitted to the bar in January 18.33, 
 and in April located himself in Hampden, a town of about 
 four thousand inliabitants, with a village of fifteen hundred 
 on the west bank of Penobscot river and six miles below 
 IJangor, where ho has resided to the present time. He 
 was married the same year to Sarah Jane, daughter of 
 Hon. Stephen Emery, Probate Judge of Oxford county, 
 afterward Attorney-General and District Judge of the 
 State. He was soon engaged in an extensive practice, and 
 his legal arguments and forensic eiforts obtained for him 
 an enviable reputation. From 1836 to 1840 inclusive, he 
 v?a3 annually elected a representative to the State Legis- 
 lature, where he became one of the leaders of his party, 
 
76 LIFE OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
 
 and one of the most active men in the House. The second 
 year of his service he was elected Speaker, and was again 
 elected to the same office in 1839 and 1840, receiving, at 
 the close of each session, a unanimous vote of thanks for 
 the ability and impartiality with which he had discharged 
 the duties of his position. 
 
 In 1840, Sir. Hamlin was a candidate for Congress on the 
 Democratic ticket, against Honorable Elisha H. Allen, and 
 was defeated in a poll of fifteen thousand by some two hun- 
 dred votes. He canvassed the district with his opponent, 
 and it is paid to have been the first instance of the kind 
 that ever occurred in New England. In 1843, a new ap- 
 portionment having taken place, and a year intervening for 
 that purpose, he and his opponent again "toade the race," 
 when Mr. Hamlin was victor by about one thousand major- 
 ity. He took his seat in the Twenty-eighth Congress at its 
 opening, in 1843, and was assigned a place on the Commit- 
 tee on Elections. His first speech was in opposition to 
 the twenty-first rule, (^Apj^cndix to Congressional Globe, vol. 
 xiii, p. 28,) and he again took the floor on the bill fixing 
 the time for the meeting of the Presidential electors; but 
 his main speech of the first session was upon party issues 
 in the Presidential contest between Clay and Polk (sus- 
 taining the latter), which was delivered April 15, 1844. 
 It was during the next session of that Congress that the 
 question of the annexation of Texas came up. He did not 
 approve of the joint resolution annexing Texas, and voted 
 against it. He expressed his profound regret that this 
 " great and important national question had been dragged 
 down, down, down, from its own proper sphere to a wretched, 
 contemptible one for extending and perpetuating slavery." 
 The attempt "had been made, by certain gentlemen, to de- 
 grade it from its nationality into a question for promoting 
 one narrow, sectional interest — the strengthening of the 
 slave power." He then entered into an examination of the 
 correspondence of the Tyler Administration on the subject, 
 showing what pro-slavery motives had entered into its pol- 
 icy on this question, and how prominently the " alleged 
 design of the British Government to abolish slavery in 
 Texas," had been brought to bear upon the annexation 
 issue. After quoting from an argument of Mr. Calhoun, 
 in defense of slavery, and urging the annexation of Texas, 
 ns a means for its maintenance, Mr. Hamlin said : 
 
LIFE OP HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 77 
 
 "What! was if, true that the slave institution in this country wag 
 the great upholder of tlie power of this Republic, and the great means 
 of spreading civilization over the world? Was it on such a corre- 
 spondence and on such a doctrine that gentlemen of that House were 
 solicited to vote in the affirmative, and to consummate this union 
 between Texas and the United States? When this correspondence 
 was given to ihe world, and they should return home and tell their 
 constituents that they had voted for annexation on such principles 
 and with such an aim, would they not be pronounced recreant to 
 their duty and traitors to their country? Mr. H. denied this reason- 
 ing and the conclusions. If Government were thus bound to extend 
 its domain for such a purpose, il made what was entire!;/ a domeatic 
 fifiiir one of a national character. The General Government had no 
 right to interfere in it. If it could extend for a supposed beneficial 
 purpose, it could restrict, if it believed it would produce the same 
 beneficial effect. It was an attempt to make a national question of 
 wliat related solely to the states ; and those who assumed to give it 
 tliat ch.aracter, would be swift indeed to prevent the action of Con- 
 gress in another and difTerent direction. The question of annexation 
 was fully and clearly national — not one where Government should 
 act for a cause over which it had no right to interfere." 
 
 After further pursuing this branch of his subject, Mr. 
 Hamlin expressed his friendliness to annexation on fair 
 and equal terms, but his opposition to the present measure. 
 He then alluded to reproaches which had been uttered 
 against his section of the country. Ilis effort, as well as 
 vote, against annexation proved unavailing. At the same 
 session, he made some practical and sensible remarks on 
 the reduction and graduation of the price of the public 
 lands, which will be found in the fourteenth volume of the 
 Appendix to Cuiigressional Globe, p. 248. 
 
 in 18-il, Mr. Ilamlin was again elected to Congress; and 
 during that Congress, (Twenty-ninth,) was chairman of the 
 Committee on Elections, and member of the Committee on 
 Naval Affairs. During the first session, he spoke on the 
 public land question, on giving notice to the British Govern- 
 ment to terminate the joint occupancy of Oregon, (January 
 12, 18-10), on the mode of raising troops for the Mexican 
 war, and other subjects; and at the second session, 1846-7, 
 on the mode of increasing the army, and on establishing a 
 territorial government for Oregon. In this latter speech, 
 (dissenting from the policy of the Democratic party in gen- 
 oral), he more distinctly explained his position in regard to 
 the annexation of Texas, after the refusal of the South to 
 agree to any division of the territory between slavery and 
 
78 LIFK OF HANNIBAL IIAMLIN. 
 
 iVce labor. He then announced, in a more explicit manner, 
 his opposition to the extension of slavery than in his first 
 speech on Texan annexation, when that measure was still 
 pending. During this session, he offered the Wilmot Pro- 
 viso as an amendment to the "Three Million bill." 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 At the close of this Congress he returned home; and 
 there having been a failure to elect a representative to the 
 State Legislature for Hampden, (a majority being required 
 to elect,) Mr. Hamlin was nominated by the Pcmoerats, 
 and, havintr been elected, served in the Maine Legislature 
 of 1847. 
 
 In May, 1818, Mr. Hamlin was elected to the United 
 States Senate, to fill the vacancy occasioKcd by the death 
 of Governor Fairfield, and was re-elected for the full term, 
 July 25th, 1851, although bitterly opposed by the so-called 
 pro-slavery wing of the Democracy, who refused to support 
 him, although the regular nominee; and his election was 
 eventually secured by the coming over of a portion of the 
 Free Soil vote, ten in the House and three in the Senate. 
 His opposition to the extension of slavery estranged him 
 from his old party ties, and afterward resulted in the 
 formation of new relations with the Eepublican organiza- 
 tion, of which it is a vital issue. 
 
 Among the first efforts of Mr. Hamlin in the Senate, was 
 one on a bill providing a territorial government for Oregon, 
 in 1848. during the first session of the Thirtieth Congress, 
 in which he said: "Let these vast and fertile regions be 
 preserved for the cultivation of free labor and free men, so 
 well calculated to advance the arts of civilization." 
 
 Mr. Hamlin, on the 5th of March, 1850, made the first 
 elaborate speech in that ftunous discussion on the admission 
 of California. Late in the same session he spoke in fovor 
 of abolishing the practice of flogging in the Navy. In De- 
 cember, 1849, he was elected chairman of the Committee on 
 Commerce, and continued to hold that position until he re- 
 linquished it in 185(). In 1851, upon his re-election to the 
 United States Senate he gave up entirely all his professional 
 
LIFE OF HANNIBAL ILUILIN. 79 
 
 engaijeiueiits, and retired from the practice of law. In the 
 Thirty-first Congress, among his more important speeches, were 
 those on the ocean mail service, and regulating the liabili- 
 ties of ship-owners. He assisted in preparing and urging 
 the bill, first introduced into the Thirty-second Congress, 
 providing for the greater security of the lives of passengers 
 on steamboats, an amendment to which he ofiered, at the first 
 session of the next Congress, and after a short speech, that 
 important bill passed the Senate. 
 
 During the first .session of the Thirty-second Congress, 
 Mr. Hamlin made two elaborate speeches on the American 
 fisheries, giving a full history of the negotiations on that 
 subject, and furnishing a fund of information in regard to 
 it, nowhere else to be found in the same space. He also 
 made two or three shorter speeches, in the same Congres."?, 
 defending the River and Harbor bill from the assault^s made 
 upon it, and favoring the Internal Improvement policy. He 
 oflbred and actively supported an amendment of the Pension 
 laws, so as to secure pensions to widows of Kevolutionary 
 soldiers who married after 1800. He introduced a rcsohi- 
 tiou, at the second session of the Thirty-second Congress 
 (in 1853) authorizing the codification of the revenue laws, 
 which, after having been amended on his own motion, so as 
 to appropriate 810,000 for this purpose, was adopted. Under 
 Mr. (jiuthrie's supervision, this resolution was carried into 
 effect, the revenue laws codified, and reported to Congress. 
 
 Down to 1S5G Mr. Hamlin had acted uniformly with the 
 Democratic party, although entertaining very diffei'ent views 
 regarding slavery from many, if not the most of his party. 
 That (jucstion, so momentous, had not yet burst upon the 
 country in full blast, but lay growling and mumbling be- 
 neath the surface, like the throes of a slumbering volcano. 
 After the Cincinnati Convention, he felt it to be his du-ty 
 to resign his place as chairman of the Committee on Com- 
 merce, to which he had been appointed by tlie Democratic 
 majority of the Senate, and acting in conformity to his sense 
 of justice and lionor and right, he delivered up that trust on 
 the 12th of June, 1856, in a well-digested speech, in which 
 he declared: ••! hold that the entire and unqualified sov- 
 ereignty of the territories is in Congress." 
 
 He believed that the Cincinnati Convention Kad indorsed 
 and approved the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, upon 
 which, in the same .speech, he made these remarks : 
 
80 LIFE OP HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
 
 " Sir, I hold that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was a 
 gross moral and political wrong, uiiequaled in the annals of the legis- 
 lation of this country, and hardly equaled in the annals of any other 
 free country. Still, sir, with a desire to promote harmony and con- 
 cord and brotherly feeling, I was a quiet man under all the exciting 
 debates which led to that fatal result. I believed it wrong then ; I 
 can see that wrong lying broadcast all arouud us now. As a wrong 
 I opposed that nieasure^not indeed by my voice, but with consistent 
 ai'd steady and uniform votes. I so resisted it in obedience to the 
 dictates of my own judgment. I did it also cheerfully, in compliance 
 with the instructions of the Legislature of Maine, which were passed by 
 a vote almost unanimous. In the House of llepresentatives of Maine, 
 consisting of one hundred and fifty-one members, only sis, I think, 
 dissented; and in the Senate, consisting of thirty-one members, only 
 one member non-concurred. 
 
 " But the Missouri restriction was abrogated. The portentous evils 
 that were pi'edicted have followed, and are yet following, along in its 
 train. It was done, sir, in violation of the pletlges of that party with 
 which I have alwuj's acted, and with whicli I have always voted. It 
 was done in viohitiou of solemn pledges of llie President of the 
 United States, made in his inaugural address. Still, sir, I was dis- 
 posed to suffer the wrong, until I should see that no evil results were 
 tiowing from it. We were told by almost every senator who ad- 
 dressed us upon that occasion, that no evil results would follow ; that 
 no practical diil'ereuce in the settlement of the country, and the 
 character of the future state, would take place, whether the act 
 were done or not. I have wailed calmly and patiently to see the 
 fulfillment of that prediction ; and I am grieved, sir, to say now, 
 that they have at least been mistaken in their predictions and prom- 
 ises. They all have signally failed. 
 
 "That senators might have voted for that measure under the 
 belief then expressed, and the predictions to whicli I have alluded, I 
 can well understand; but how senators can now defend that 
 measure amid all its evils, which are overwhelming the land, if not 
 tlireatening it with a conflagration, is what I do not comprehend. 
 The whole of the disturbed state of the country has its rise in, and 
 is attributable to, that act alone — nothing else. It lies at the foun- 
 dation of all our misfortunes and commotions. Tiiere would have been 
 no incursions bj' Missouri borderers into Kansas either to establish 
 slavery or control elections. There would have been no necessity 
 either for others to have gone there partially to aid in preserving 
 the country in its then condition. All would have been peace there. 
 Had it not been done, that repose and quiet which pervaded the pub- 
 lic mind then, would hold it in tranquillity to-day. Instead of 
 startling events we sliould have quiet and peace within our borders, 
 and the fraternal feeling which ought to animate the citizens of every 
 part of the Union toward those of all other sections." 
 
LIFE OF HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 81 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 In June, 185G, 3Ir. Hnmlin was nominated as the Repub- 
 lican candidate for Governor of Elaine. He commenced the 
 canvass the following month, and traveled the State, making 
 nearly a hundred speeches during the campaign. He was 
 elected in September by about 18,000 over both competitors, 
 and 23,000 over the Democratic catididate. The event had 
 a powerful effect upon the Presidential canvass which fol- 
 lowed, and the sound still rings in certain ears as a knell : 
 
 " Wlio h.'is lio:ir(l (lie news fi-Diii Maine?' 
 
 On the 7th of .January, 1857. having resigned his seat in 
 the Senate, he was inaugurated (!overiior t)i' Maine, but on 
 the IGth of the same month, little more than a week, Gov- 
 ernor Hamlin was, for the third time, elected to the United 
 States Senate, in which oihce he had already served nearly 
 leu years. The full term commencing on the 4th of iMarch, 
 he resigned the gubernatorial chair on the 20th of Febru- 
 ary, and soon after resumed his seat in the Senate. 
 
 During the first session of the Thirty -fifth Congress, Mr. 
 Hamlin made an elaborate speech (March Dth and 10th, 
 1858) on the Lecompton Constitution and Ivansas question. 
 He also replied at the same session to the ^'IMudsill' speech 
 of Mr. Hammond of South Carolina, in which the assaults 
 of the latter upon the laborers of the free North were in- 
 dignantly repelled. He made other efiective speeches during 
 this session, among which was an expose of the unfa-irness 
 and sectional partiality in the mode of forming committees 
 in the Senate. He also spoke in defense of American rights 
 in regard to the fisheries, a ijuestion of importance to his 
 l>eople and other portions of New England. 
 
82 LIFE OP HANNIBAL HAMLIN. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Hamlin, at Chicago, was quite 
 as vmcxpeeted to himself as it conld possibly have been 
 to any one else. He had been a warm friend of Mr. 
 Seward, for whose nomination, as the llepnblioan candidate 
 for the Presidency, he had labored faithfully, and thought 
 not once of his own name in connection with either office. 
 He was chosen, on the second ballot, with great unanimity, 
 and his party, all over the Union, have re-echoed the 
 nomination with a hearty will. 
 
 One of his biographers draws the following not unpleas- 
 ant picture of Mv. Hamlin's jicrsoiiiwl, with which the 
 portrait at the commencement of this sketch will be found 
 to correspond with considerable accuracy: 
 
 "Mr. Hamlin is about six feet in hight, though appar- 
 ently less, in consequence of his having a slight stoop. 
 His athletic and robust form gives a just indication of his 
 great physical energy and power of endurance. His com- 
 plexion is dark, and his eyes arc of a piercing blackness. 
 His voice is clear, strong, and melodious in its tones, and 
 his delivery rapid, energetic, and highly effective. He 
 speaks without verbal preparation, but without any embar- 
 rassment, and with remarkable directness. Always talking 
 to the point, and never for mere effect, he is invariably 
 listened to with respect and attention. As a popular ora- 
 tor, Mr. Hamlin has great power and eloquence. He has 
 addressed more public assemblies, undoubtedly, than any 
 other person of his own State." 
 
 We close this very imperfect and necessarily brief 
 sketch, with JMr. Hamlin's letter of acceptance of the 
 high honor intended for him by the Chicago Convention, 
 with the simple remark, that, if elected, he would discharge 
 any situation devolving upon him with ability and fidelity. 
 
 "Washington, Mav 30, 1860. 
 "The Hon. George Asiimun, President of the Con-) 
 vention, and others of the Committee: / 
 
 "Gentlejien: — -Your official communication of the ISth instant, 
 informing dig that the representatives of the Republican parly of 
 
LIFE OF IIANXIBAL TIA^rLIN. 83 
 
 the Unitod States, assembled at Chicago, on that day. had, by a 
 unanimous vote, selected nie as their candidate foi- ilie office of Vice- 
 President of the United States, has been received, together with the 
 resolutions adopted by the Convention as its declaiation of prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 "Those resolutions euiinciate clearly and forcibly the principles 
 which unite us, and the objects proposed to be accomplished. They 
 address tiiemselves to all, and there is neither necessity nor propriety 
 in my entering >ipon a discussion of any of tliem. They have the 
 approval of my judgment, and in any action of mine, will be faith- 
 fully and cordially sustained. 
 
 " I am profoundly grateful to those with whom it is my pride and 
 pleasure politically to cooperate, for the nomination so unexpecledly 
 conferred ; and I desire to tender, through you, to the members of (ho 
 Convention, my sincere thanks for the confidence thus reposed in me. 
 Should the nomination which I now accept be ratified by the people, 
 and the duties devolve on mc of presiding over the Senate of the 
 United States, it will be my earnest endeavor faithfully to discharge 
 them with a just regard for the rights of all. 
 
 "It is to be observcJ, in connection with tlic doings of the Repub- 
 lican Convention, that a paramount object with us is to preserve the 
 normal condition of our territorial domain, as homes for freemen. 
 The able advocate and defender of Republican principles, whom 
 you have nominated for the highest place that can gratify the 
 ambition of man, comes from a state which has been made wliat it 
 is by special action, in that respect, of the wise and good man avIio 
 founded our institutions. The rights of free labor have been there 
 vindicated and maintained. 'J'iie thrift and enterprise which so dis- 
 tinguish Illinois, one of the most flourishing states of the glorious 
 West, we would see secured (o all the territories of the Union ; and 
 restore peace and harmony to the whole country, by bringing back 
 the government to what it was under the wise and i)atriotic men who 
 created it. If the Republicans shall succeed in that object, as they 
 hope, to, they will be held in grateful remembrance by the busy and 
 teeming millions of future ages. 
 
 " I am, very truly yours, II. IIajilin." 
 
LIFE or STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Stephen Arnold Douglas was born at tlie town of 
 Brandon, Vermont, on the 23d day of April, 1813. His 
 father was a native of New York, and had considerable 
 reputation as a physician. He died suddenly of apoplexy, 
 when his son, Stephen Arnold, was but little more than 
 two months old. The widow, with her infant and a daugh- 
 ter only eighteen months older, returned to a farm, wliich 
 she had inherited conjointly with an unmarried brother. 
 At the age of fifteen, her son, who had received a good 
 common school education, desired to prepare for college ; 
 but his family proving unable to bear the requisite expense, 
 he left the farm, determined to earn his own living, and 
 engaged himself as an apprentice to the trade of cabinet- 
 making, at which he worked a year and a half, partly 
 at Middlebury, and partly at Brandon, when his health 
 became so impaired by the severity of labor that he aban- 
 doned the occupation altogether. He has often since said 
 that the happiest days of his life were passed in the work- 
 shop. He now entered- the academy at Brandon as a 
 student, and remained there a year. His mother was mar- 
 ried, about this time, to Mr. Granger, of Ontario county, 
 New York, to whose son her daughter had been previously 
 married. Young Douglas removed, with his mother, to 
 Canandaigua, and entered, as a student, the academy of 
 that place, reading law, at the same lime, with Messrs. 
 Hubbell, in which he continued till 1833. In June, 1833, 
 he went to the West in search of an eligible place in which 
 to establish himself as a lawyer. 
 
 He reached Cleveland, but being under twenty-one years 
 of age, and the law requiring him to have been a resident 
 84 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOTTGLAS. 
 
 85 
 
 of the State one year before admission to the bar, be 
 accepted the position of clerk in the law-office of the 
 Honorable S. J. Andrews, with a promise of partnership 
 in the future. A severe attack of illness, protracted for 
 several months, however, destroyed this arrangement; and. 
 in the fall Mv. Douglas left Cleveland, in search of some 
 eligible point where he might engage in the practice of 
 the law. His ambition was to appear at the bar, having 
 no doubt of his success. He proceeded, by canal-boat, 
 from Cleveland to the Ohio river, and thence, by steamer, 
 to Cincinnati. . He was feeble in health, and with very few 
 dollars in money. His necessities demanded immediate 
 employment, and he canvassed Cincinnati and Louisville 
 seeking that employment, but failed to iiud any. 
 
 STj;i'llKX A. DOULiLAS. 
 
 He then left for St. Louis — an undefined impression that 
 Illinois was to be his ultimate destination leading him 
 on toward that region. Arrived at St. Louis, the Honor- 
 able Edward Bates, a recent aspirant for the Republican 
 nomination for the Presidency, tendered 3Ir. Douglas the 
 free use of his office and library until lie could do better; 
 but ^fr. Douglas's necessities required employment from 
 which he could derive a revenue, and failing to obtain 
 
86 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 such in St, Louis, he pushed on to Jacksonville, Illinois, 
 where he arrived in December, 1833. He was equally 
 unsuccessful at Jacksonville in finding employment; so 
 he proceeded on foot to the town of Winchester, sixteen 
 miles distant. He had but thirty-seven cents in money, 
 and knew not where he was to get more. The next day 
 he encountered a crowd ou the public square, who had 
 been gathered to attend an auction sale ; the sale could 
 not proceed for want of a clerk, and young Douglas was 
 at once appealed to and requested to serve in that capacity. 
 He served three days as a clerk, and received six dollars 
 for his services. He had pleased the farmers very much; 
 he had defended Jackson and his policy with a warmth 
 and a vigor that was unusual. He made known his neces- 
 sities, and, in, one week a school of forty scholars, at three 
 dollars each per quarter, was made up, and Mr. Douglas, 
 entered upon the office of schoolmaster. 
 
 In a short speech at Winchester, during the Douglas- 
 Lincoln contest, he thus alludes to his entree there; 
 
 "Twenty-five years ago I entered this town on foot, with my coat 
 upon rny arm, icilhout an acquaintance in a thousand mileis, and toithoiil 
 knowing ivhcrc I could gel money to pay a week's hoard. Here I made 
 (he first six dollars I ever earned in my life, and obtained the first 
 regular occupation that I ever pmsued. For the first time in my 
 life I then felt tluu. the rcrfponsibilitierf of iiii'.nhood were upon me, 
 although I was under age, for I had none to advise with, anil knew 
 no one upon whom I had a right to call for .assistance or friendship. 
 Here I found the then settlers of the country my friends. My first 
 Btart in life was taken liere, not only as a ])rivi'te citizen, but my first 
 election to public olhce by tlie peojde was eonh i red upon me by those 
 whom I am now addressing, and by tlieir i'aihL".'^. A quarter of a 
 century has passed, and that penniless Imy stands before you wilh 
 his heart full and gushing wiili the sentiments which such associa- 
 tions and recollections necessarily inspii'e." 
 
 In March, 1834, still lacking one month of being twenty- 
 one years old, he was admitted to the bar by the Supreme 
 Court; and with the proceeds of his school, and such small 
 fees as he had earned in the mean-time, by attending cases 
 before the Justices' Court, he purchased some law books, 
 and moved up to Jacksonville, the county-seat of Morgan 
 county, then one of the largest counties in the State. 
 
 He opened a law office in Jacksonville, and soon was 
 known as an ardent Democrat. General Jackson's b.ink 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS-. 87 
 
 policy was then tlie leading public topic, and upon it Demo- 
 crats were divided, and the Whigs were fast gaining 
 strength. The county, owing to the influence of the bank 
 and its branches, had become decidedly Whig in politics. 
 Douglas and some friends called a mass-meeting to defend 
 General Jackson's bank policy, and the movement was con- 
 sidered a most daring one. When the day arrived, he alone 
 had the courage to offer the resolutions. He did so, and 
 advocated their adoption. He was replied to by a Mr. 
 Lamborn, one of the ablest lawyers of the county, in a 
 speech of much severity. It was a trying moment for 
 Douglas. He met the issue. He rejoined in a speech 
 which has become historical in Illinois. In a very short 
 time his words of burning eloquence drove Lamborn from 
 the Court House, and then, for an hour, he held the meet- 
 ing bound in admiring astonishment by his powerful de- 
 fense of the President. When he bad concluded, his reso- 
 lutions were adopted, and he was taken upon the shoulders 
 of several large men, and carried through the town in tri- 
 umph. Henceforth Douglas was recognized as the leader 
 of the Democracy in that county. At the meeting of the 
 next Legislature, he was elected Attorney-General over 
 Colonel John J. Hardin, and, for over a year and a half, 
 performed its duties with great success. In 183G, he pro- 
 posed the convention system for the nomination of candi- 
 dates for county officers ; and, though opposed, carried it 
 into successful operation. A Democratic ticket was nom- 
 inated, but such wa.s the war made upon the convention 
 system that some of the candidates withdrew, and Douglas 
 was ibrced to take a place on the ticket for the Legislature. 
 He canvassed the county thoroughly, and the result was that 
 the entire Democratic ticket, with one exception, was elected. 
 Ceijcral Hardin, always a Whig, was elected. 
 
 ^V'^hen Mv. Douglas took his seat in the Illinois Legisla- 
 ture, in 183G-7, as a Democratic representative from Mor- 
 gan county, he was the youngest member of the House, 
 but he was active and laborious. 
 
MFE OF STEPHEN A DOUGLAS, 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 In 1837 Mr. Douglas was appointed by President Van 
 Burcn register of the land office at Springfield, Illinois, a 
 post which he resigned in 1889. In November, 1837, he 
 received the Deujocratic nomination for Congress, although 
 he was under twenty-five years of age, and consequently 
 ineligible. He however attained the requisite age before 
 the day of election, which was the first Monday in August, 
 1838. His Congressional district was then the most popu- 
 lous one in the United States, and the canvass was con- 
 ducted with extraordinary zeal and enef-gy. Upward of 
 36,000 votes were cast, and the Whig candidate, Stuart, was 
 declared to be elected by a majority of five only. A number 
 of ballots sufficient to have changed the result, were rejected 
 by the canvassers because the name of Mr. Douglas was 
 incorrectly spelled. After this defeat, which, under the cir- 
 cumstances, was claimed by his friends as a victory, Mr. 
 Douglas devoted himself exclusively to his profession until 
 1840, when he entered into the Presidential campaign of 
 that year with so much ardor that he traversed the State in 
 all directions for seven months, and addressed more than 
 two hundred political gatherings. To his exertions was 
 ascribed the adherence of Illinois at that election to the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 In December, 1840, Mr. Douglas was appointed Secretary 
 of State of Illinois. In February, 1811, just seven years 
 after he had been admitted to the bar, he was elected by 
 the Legislature a Judge of the Supreme Court, which office 
 he resigned in 1843, to accept the Deniocratic nomination 
 for Congress, to which he was elected by 445 votes over his 
 competitor, Browning, and in 1844 by 1900 votes. In 
 1840, he was a third time elected, and by 3,000 majority. 
 
 An incident is recorded of this period of his life, which 
 so well illustrates the peculiar genius of the man, that we 
 can not refrain from repeating it; it not only speaks vol- 
 umes for Douglas as a far-seeing and sagacious statesman, 
 but it reveals the remarkable ascendency of Brigham 
 Young over his associates, even at that early day. 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 89 
 
 " In 1846, the excitement against the Mormons at Naiivoo reached 
 its higrht. The people of the surroimding country determined to 
 drive them away; the Saints resolved to defend themselves, A civil 
 war seemed imminent. Governor Ford dispatched a regiment to pat 
 down both belligerents. This regiment, consisting of four hundred 
 and fifty men, was under command of Colonel John J. Hardin, the 
 old political opponent, but warm personal friend of Mr. Douglas, 
 who held the post of Major. As this little body of troops approached 
 Nauvoo, they saw the Mormons, five thousand strong, drawn up to 
 oppose their advance. Every man of them was known to be armed 
 with a ' Severn shooter ' and a brace of Colt's ' revolvers ' — twenty-one 
 shots to a man, besides a bowie knife, llarilin halted liis troops just 
 out of rifle range and addressed them. ' Tliere are the Mormons, 
 ten to one against us. I intend to attack them. If there is a cow- 
 ard here who wishes to go liome, he may do so now. Let any one 
 who wishes to go step to the front.' Not a man came forward. 
 'There were, I dare say,' says Mr. Douglas, 'just four hundred and 
 fifty-one of us, including our colonel, who would have been glad to 
 have retired; but not one of us had the courage to own that he was 
 a coward." ' Major Douglas,' said the Colonel, ' will take one hun- 
 dred men, will proceed to Nauvoo, arrest tiie Twelve Apostles, and 
 bring them liore.' 'Colonel ILirdiu,' asked the .Major quietly, so 
 that no one else heard, ' is this a peremptory order?' ' It is.' 'Then 
 I shall make the attempt to execute it. liut I give you warning 
 that not a man of tis will ever return.' 'The Apostles must be 
 taken. Major Douglas,' replied the Colonel. ' Very well, Colonel. 
 If you will send me alone you will be much more likely to get 
 them.' ' But you will lose your life.' ' I will take the responsi- 
 bility. If you send me alone, I will pledge myself to reach the 
 city. As to bringing in the Twelve, or getting back myself, that is 
 quite another question. I will try.' ' Do you assume the responsi- 
 bility ?' ' I do.' ' .Major Douglas,' said the Colonel, after reflecting 
 a few moments, 'will proceed to Nauvoo, taking such escort as he 
 sees fit' 
 
 " The order was hardly given when the little major — for be was 
 not tlicn a 'Little Giant'— dashed otf at full speed. As he ap- 
 proached the .Mormon legion, General Well came forward to meet 
 him ; and after a brief conversation escorted him through the hol- 
 low square of troops into the city, lie was not long in finding Brig- 
 ham and the Twelve. All of them were old acquaintances of his. 
 Most of them had, in fact, been before him for trial, as judge, upon 
 some charge or other. 
 
 "The judge is famous for his taking mauners; and in a very 
 brief lime he succeeded in inducing Brigham and his associates to 
 accompany him. Tliey all packed themselves into the 'Apostolic 
 Coach,' drawn by eight horses, and presented themselves in the 
 camp. The fighting was postponed, and negotiations for the removal 
 of the Mormons were entered upon, .Judge Douglas being chief ne- 
 gotiator on one side. Brigham himself said but little ; and at length 
 said he would go out for a while, directing his associates to settle 
 the terms. These were soon informally agreed to by the Twelve, 
 
 8 
 
 _J 
 
90 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 and they were committed to paper. Brigliam returned and asked 
 how matters had succeeded. He was told that everything had been 
 settled. ' Let me look at the terms,' said Brigham, quietly. He 
 read them over hastily. ' I 11 never agree to them— never 1 ' he 
 exclaimed. The vote was formally put, and the whole Twelve, with- 
 out a dissenting voice, declared against them, though they had as 
 unanimously accepted them not five minutes before. Tlie negotia- 
 tions were then renewed between Brigham and Douglas. New terms 
 were settled; and when the vote was taken the Twelve agreed to 
 them at once. The treaty was duly signed, and the Mormons pre- 
 pared to leave the State." 
 
 This simple incident, authenticated by irrefragable testi- 
 mony, is indicative of the man of unquestionable courage, 
 who,' before he made a shining mark for the shafts of envy 
 and malice, was recognized as uniting the bland and easy 
 manners of a genial gentleman with a native dignity, un- 
 mixed with hau/eiu; that rendered him a most agreeable 
 companion, and the life of every circle to which he was 
 warmly welcomed. 
 
 In December, 1843, Mr. Douglas, for the first time, took 
 his seat in Congress. His first speech was delivered on the 
 nineteenth of the same month, on the improvement of 
 Western lakes and rivers. He denied the right of the Fed- 
 eral Government to prosecute a system of internal improve- 
 ments in the states, though he maintained the Constitu- 
 tionality and expediency of improving rivers, harbors, and 
 navigable waters, and advocated a scheme of tonnage duties 
 for that purpose, to be levied and expended by the local 
 authorities. 
 
 He was also mainly instrumental in securing the passage 
 of the law by which the maritime and admiralty jurisdiction 
 of the Federal Courts was extended over the great chain 
 of Northern lakes, having reported the bill as a member of 
 the Judiciary Committee, and put it upon its passage, when 
 a member of the House of Representatives. 
 
 On the 7th of January, 18-i-i, he delivered his great and 
 eloquent speech on the bill to refund to General Jackson 
 the fine unjustly imposed by Judge Hall, of New Orleans. 
 It is replete with eloquent passages, and is a complete and 
 triumphant vindication. The Ofd Hero, himself, said of it: 
 
 "Mr. Douglas, I read, with feelings of lively gratitude, your 
 speech in Congress last winter, in favor of remitting the fine imposed 
 on me by Judge Hall. I knew when I proclaimed and enforced mar- 
 
LIFE OF STEFHEN A. DOUGLAS. 91 
 
 lial law, that I was doing right. But never, until I had read your 
 speech, could I have expressed the reasons which actuated my con- 
 duct. I knew that I was violating the Constitution of my country. 
 When my life is written, I wish that speech of yours to be inserted 
 in it, as m^' reasons for proclaiming and enforcing martial law in 
 New Orleans." 
 
 Could a more brilliant compliiuent, or one more penetrat- 
 ing, be found than this, addressed in a voice tremulous 
 with emotion, by the venerable patriot and sage of the 
 Hermitage, to the youthful statesman. 
 
 CIIAPTF.Il III. 
 
 Mr. Douglas was among the earliest advocates of the 
 annexation of Texas, on which he made a most able speech, 
 January Gth, 18i5. After enumerating the advantages of 
 annexation, he proceeded to show that it must bo done in 
 accordance witii the principles of the Constitution, prov- 
 ing the doctrine to have been sanctioned and settled, that 
 foreign territory may be annexed, organized into territories 
 and states, and admitted into the Union on an eijual foot- 
 ing with the original states. The following are his con- 
 cluding remarks: 
 
 "The conclusion is irresistible tliat Congress, possessing the power 
 to admit a .state, has the riglit to pass a law of annexation. I do 
 not say that territory can not be !\C(iuired in any other way than by 
 act of Congress. ^Ve may acnuire it by conquest, or bj' treaty, or 
 by discovery. Wo claim Oicgon Territory by virtue of the right of 
 discovery and occupation. IJiit if wc wish to acquire Texas without 
 making war or relying ujion discovery, we musi fall back upon the 
 power to admit new states, and acquire the tcniiory by act of Con- 
 gress, as one of the necessary and iadispcnsal)Io means of executing 
 that cnumcrat»;d power. Our Federal system is admirably adapted 
 to the whole continent ; and while I would not violate the laws of 
 nations, nor treaty stipulations, nor in any manner tarnish the 
 national honor, 1 would exert all legal and honorable means to drive 
 Great Urilain and the last vestiges of royal authority fnuu the conti- 
 nent of North America, and extend the limits of the republic from 
 ocean to ocean. I would make this an ocean-bound republic, and have 
 no more disputes about boundaries or red lines upon maps." 
 
 The treaty for annexation having failed in the Senate, 
 
92 LIFE OP STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 Mr. Douglas, among others, introduced joint resolutions in 
 the House of Representatives for that object, and at the 
 next session, as Chairman of the Committee on Territories, 
 he reported the joint resolution by which Texas was de- 
 clared one of the States of the Union, on an equal footincr 
 with the original states. 
 
 Mr. Douglas vigorously sustained the Administration of 
 President Polk in the measures which it adopted for the 
 prosecution of the war with Mexico, which was the ultimate 
 consequence of that act. As Chairman of the Territorial 
 Committee, first in the House of Representatives, and 
 afterward in the Senate, he reported and successfully car- 
 ried through, the bills to organize the Territories of Minne- 
 sota, Oregon, i^ew Mexico, Utah, Washington, Kansas, and 
 Nebraska, and also the bills for admission into the Union 
 of the States of Iowa, "Wisconsin, California, Minnesota and 
 Oregon. So far as the question of slavery was involved in 
 the organization of territories and the admission of now 
 states, he early took the position that Congress should not 
 interfere on one side or the other, but that the people of 
 each territory and state should be allowed to form and reg- 
 ulate their own domestic institutions to suit themselves. In 
 accordance with this principle he opposed the " Wilmot 
 Proviso," when first passed in the House of Representa- 
 tives in 1847, as an amendment to the bill appropriating 
 $3,000,000 to enable President Polk to make a treaty of 
 peace with Mexico, and afterward, in the Senate, when of- 
 fered as an amendment to the bill for the organization of 
 the Territory of Oregon. In August, 1847, however, he 
 oifered an amendment to the Oregon bill, extending the 
 Missouri Compromise indefinitely westward to the Pacific 
 Ocean, in the same sense and with the same understanding 
 with which it was originally adopted in 1820, and extended 
 through Texas in 1845, prohibiting slavery in all the terri- 
 tory north of the parallel of 30 deg. 30 min., and by impli- 
 cation recognizing its existence south of that line. This 
 amendment was adopted in the Senate by a decided major- 
 ity, receiving the support of every Southern Senator, but 
 was defeated in the House of Representatives by nearly a 
 sectional vote. 
 
 Mr. Douglas has been always a strict supporter of the 
 " Monroe doctrine " — of the right and propriety of keep- 
 ing the American continent free and exempt from any and 
 
LIFE OP STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 93 
 
 all settlement or colonization, under any pretense what- 
 ever, by any European power. He voted uyainst the Clay- 
 ton and Bulwer treaty, because it was a partnership with 
 England in the affairs of Central America. He voted 
 against the treaty with Mexico, because it contained an 
 implied pledge not to annex any more territory of that re- 
 public. He is opposed to making any bargain or contract 
 about annexation of territory, because he wishes the United 
 States to be left free and untrammeled, to act as their best 
 interest may require whenever the occasion arises. If it 
 be deemed necessary at any time to acquire Cuba, he is for 
 having the action of the United States prompt and decisive, 
 and not clogged by any treaty stipulations with European 
 powers, who, by right, have no concern in the affairs of the 
 American continent. 
 
 He differs from many on the question of fillibusterism. 
 He denies the power of the United States to follow Amer- 
 ican citizens to other lands and arrest them there, on a 
 charge of a violation of the neutral laws; the power and 
 authority of the United States extends only to the distance 
 of one marine league from the coast, and once beyond that 
 the expedition can not be arrested by the United States. 
 He claims for General Walker, or any other American, the 
 privilege of expatriating himself, and of going to other 
 lands, and there taking himself a new allegiance. 
 
 CUAl^rER IV. 
 
 The following interesting political facts should not be 
 overlooked by those who desire to know the true history of 
 the great measures known as the Compromises of 1850. 
 On the 25th of March, Mr. Douglas, from the Committee 
 on Territories, reported to the Senate two bills — one for the 
 admission of California as a state, the other for the estab- 
 lishment of territorial governments in Utah and New Mex- 
 ico, and I'or the adjustment of the Texas boundary. On 
 the l!>th of April, on motion of General H. S. Foote, of 
 Mississippi, a Committee of Thirteen was appointed, of 
 which Henry Clay was made chairman, to which was re- 
 ferred all the subjects pertaining to the question of slavery. 
 
94 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 On the 8tli of May, Mr. Clay, from tlie CoTnuiittee of 
 Thirteen, made an elaborate report, accompanied by a bill 
 generally known as the "Omnibus bill." By reference to 
 the original bill, as reported by Mr. Clay, and as it now 
 appears on the files of the Senate, it will be seen that, 
 instead of preparing a new bill, the Committee of Thir- 
 teen took the two bills reported by Mr. Douglas on the 
 25th of March, and converted them into one, by putting 
 wafer's between them — they had previously been printed 
 by the Senate — making slight amendments, as Mr. Clay 
 stated when he made his report, and erasing the printed 
 words, "Mr. Douglas from the Committee on Territories," 
 and inserting "Mr. Clay from the Select Committee of Thir- 
 teen, appointed the 19th of xVpril, 1850," so that it read 
 "3Ir. Clay from the Select Committee, etc., reported the 
 following bill." 
 
 The most important amendment proposed by the Com- 
 mittee of Thirteen on the bills as reported by Mr. Douglas, 
 is in the tenth section, where, after the words, -'that the 
 legislative power of the territory shall extend to all right- 
 ful subjects of legislation consistent with the Constitution 
 of the United States, and the provisions of this act; but 
 no law shall be passed interfering with the primary dis- 
 posal of the soil," they itdded these words: "nor in respect 
 to African slavery;" the effect of which was to confer upon 
 the Territorial Legislature power over all rightful subjects 
 of legislation, excepting ft/avr.ri/ ; whereas Mr. Douglas's 
 bill conferred the same power on the Territorial Legislature 
 without excepting slavery. 
 
 As soon as this report from the Committee of Thirteen 
 was made by Mr. Clay, it was assailed from the North and 
 the South. Senator Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, moved to 
 amend, by adding a proviso that nothing contained in the 
 bill should be construed to deprive the Territorial Legisla- 
 ture of the power to pass laws for the protection of slave 
 property in the territories, and made several speeches in 
 favor of that provision. Mr. Chase, of Ohio, proposed an 
 amendment, in effect declaring the bill should not be con- 
 strued to authorize the Legislature to establish and main- 
 tain slavery in the territories; whereupon Mr. Clay stated 
 to the Senate that the amendment reported by the Com- 
 mittee of Thirteen, excepting slavery from the action of 
 the Territorial Legislature, was incorporated in the bill by 
 
LirE Of STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 95 
 
 the Committee in opposition to his vote and judgment. 
 Mr. Douglas moved to strike out of the bill everything in 
 regard to slavery, so as to restore it to the form in which 
 he had originally reported it, conferring on the Territorial 
 Legislature power over all rightful subjects of legislation, 
 without excepting slavery. This motion was at first re- 
 jected, together with the amendments of Mr. Davis and 
 Mr. Chase. The discussion proceeded at great length, on 
 the question whether the Territorial Legislature should 
 have the same authority over the slavery question as on 
 all other matters affecting the internal policy of the terri- 
 tory, when, on the 31st of July, 3Ir. Norris of New Hamp- 
 shire renewed the motion of 3Ir. Douglas, which was car- 
 ried by a vote of 33 to 19; thus eduhlkhing as tlit: fiinda- 
 inr.ntal. jn-inci'ple of the Cumprumise Pleasures of 1850, the 
 doctrine that the Territorial Legislature was to have the 
 same power over the question of slavery that it possessed 
 on all other matters of domestic policy. 
 
 Again the ultraists became very active, and those of the 
 South appealed to the people of Mississippi, Alabama, 
 Georgia, Houth Carolina, and other Southern States, to re- 
 sist the action of Congress, because they had conferred 
 upon the Territorial Legislature the right to [trohlhU as well 
 as protect slavery, as it might please ; while those of the 
 North appealed to the antislavcry feeling of their section 
 to resist and repeal the san)e measures, on the ground that 
 they conferred on the Territorial Legislature the right to 
 introduce slavery into, ;is well us to exclude it, from tlie ter- 
 ritories, as the people might choose. 
 
 The refusal of the Senate to adopt the policy of Con- 
 gressional prohibition of slavery in all the territories, and 
 the rejection, in the House of lieprcsentatives, of the prop- 
 osition to extend the 3Iissouri Compromise to the Pacific 
 Ocean, gave rise to the sectional agitation of 1819-50, which 
 was then temporarily quieted, by the legislation known as 
 the Compromise measures, with zeal and Vigor ; and on his 
 return to his home in Chicago, finding them assailed with 
 great violence, he defen<led the whole series in a speech to 
 the people, (October 24, 1850,) which is regarded by his 
 friends as one of the ablest he has ever made. In this 
 speech he defined the principles on which the Compromise 
 acts of 1850 were founded, and upon which he sub.sequently 
 defended the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in these word;: 
 
96 LIFE OF STEPHEN A DOUGLAS. 
 
 "These mensuves fire proilicated on the great fundamental princi- 
 ple that every people ought to possess the right of framing and reg- 
 ulating their own internal concerns and domestic institutions in 
 their own way. •■- -' * These things are all confined hy the 
 
 Constitution to each state to deckle for itself, and I know of no rea- 
 son why the same principle sliould not be extended to the teri-itories. 
 My votes and acts have been in accordance with these views in all 
 cases, except in tlie instances in whicli I voted under your instruc- 
 tions. Those were your votes and not mine." 
 
 Those instructions referred to, against wliicli Mr. Doug- 
 las protested, were afterward repealed by the Illinois Legis- 
 lature, and the course of his colleague, General Shields, 
 and himself, approved. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 On the 13th and 14th of March 1850, Mr. Douglas de- 
 livered his great .speech on the general territorial questions, 
 in which he enunciated the doctrine of which ho has ever 
 since been the distiiiguislied advocate, that it is the true 
 Democratic principle in reference to the territories, that 
 each one shall be left to reguhito its own local and domes- 
 tic alFairs in its own way. Tt was in this speech, when a 
 distinguished Southern senator having said that the South 
 had been deprived of its due share oi' the territories, he 
 responded : 
 
 "What share hud tlie Snudi in the territories? or the North? I 
 answer, None at all. The territories lielong to tlie United States as 
 one people, and are to be disposed of for the common benefit of all, 
 according to the principles of the Constitution. No geographical 
 section of tl)e Union is entitled to any .share of the territories." 
 
 In the same speech he referred to the Ordinance of '87 
 in the following manner: 
 
 " What becomes of tl>o complaint of the senator that the Ordinance 
 of 1787 excluded the youth entirely from that vast fertile region 
 between the Ohio and the ?\lississippi ? That Ordin.-ince was a dead 
 letter. It did not make the country to which it applied free from 
 slavery. The states foi'uied out of the leirifm-y northwest of the 
 Ohio, did not become fi-ee by virtii^" of iho Oidinance, nor in conse- 
 quence of it. Those stales became free by virtue of their own will, 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 97 
 
 recorded in the fundamental laws of their own making. In all 
 republican states, laws and ordinances are mere nullities, unless sus- 
 tained by the hearts and intellects of the people for whom they are 
 made, and by wliom they are to be executed. 
 
 "The Ordinance of 1787 did the South no harm and the North 
 no good. Illinois, for instance, was a slave territory. Even in 1840, 
 there were three hundred and thirty-one slaves in Illinois. How came 
 these slaves in Illinois? They were taken there under the Ordi- 
 nance and in defiance of it. The people of Illinois, while it was a 
 territory, were mostly emigrants from the slaveholding states. But 
 when their convention assembled at Kaskaskia, in 1818, to form the 
 Constitution of the State of Illinois, although it was composed of 
 slaveholders, yet they had become satisfied, from experience, that the 
 climate and productions of Illinois were unfavorable to slave labor. 
 They accordingly made provision for a gradual system of emancipa- 
 tion, by which the state should become eventually free. These facts 
 show that tlic (Ordinance had no practical effect upon slavery. 
 Slavery existed under the Ordinance; and since the Ordinance has 
 been suspended by the state governments, slavery has gradually dis- 
 appeared under the operation of laws adopted and executed by the 
 people themselves. A law passed by the national Legislature to oper- 
 ate locally upon a people not represented, will always remain a dead 
 letter, if it be in opposition to the wishes and interests of those who 
 are to Ijc all'ectc-d by it. 
 
 "lu regard to tlie effect of the Missouri Compromise on the ques- 
 tion of slavery, I do not think that it had any practical effect on 
 that question, one way or another; it neither curtailed nor extended 
 slavery one incii." 
 
 Mr. ])ouj;las was an unsuccessful candidate before the 
 Deuiooratic National Convention, in Baltimore, in 1852, 
 for the nomination for the Presidency. On one of nine 
 ballots he received 02 votes, the highest number given to 
 any candidate for that ballot, out of a total of 2S8 votes. 
 At the Congressional session of 1853-4 he reported, from 
 the Committee on Territories, the celebrated bill to organize 
 the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, which effectually 
 revolutionized political parties in the United States, and 
 formed tlie issues upon which the Democratic and llepub- 
 lican parties became arrayed against each other. 
 
 Tiie passage of this bill caused great excitement in the 
 free states of the Union ; and Mr. Douglas, as its author, 
 was widely and vehemently denounced, and, in many places, 
 was hanged and burned in efBgy. The whole controversy 
 turned on the provision repealing the Missouri Compro- 
 mise, which Mr. Douglas maintained to be inconsistent 
 ^ith the principles of non-intervention, by Congress, with 
 9 
 
98 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. D0UC4LAS. 
 
 slavery in tlie states and territories. After repealing the 
 Missouri restriction, the bill declared it to be the " true 
 intent and meaning of the act, not to legislate slavery into 
 any state or territory, nor to exclude it therefrom ; but to 
 leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate 
 their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to 
 the Constitution of the United States." Whatever diversity 
 of opinion may exist in regard to the correctness of this 
 principle, and the propriety of its application to the terri- 
 tories, it must be admitted that Mr. Douglas has proved 
 J'aithful to it, under all circumstances, and defended it 
 whenever assailed or violated. 
 
 He carried his measure through Congress, in the face 
 of an opposition more fierce and determined than was ever 
 before arrayed against any measure. He was assailed, 
 throughout the North, by every description of indignity. 
 When he reached home, on the 25th of August, he found 
 that measure in even worse favor, and himself threatened 
 with personal violence, notwithstanding which he announced 
 his intention to defend it. At the meeting he was met 
 l)y an armed mob, who, fearing the power of argument, 
 refused to let him be heard. For three hours he stood up 
 before that mob, and defended the South and her states- 
 men ; defended the President; and defended the repeal of 
 the Missouri restriction. But little that he said was allowed 
 to be heard. He was groaned at and hissed, and, by all 
 the means that a mob can find to insult the object of its 
 hatred, he was insulted and assailed. He was not con- 
 quered, though he was denied the privilege of being heard. 
 
 An amusing incident that occurred at the time of this 
 mob ought not to be omitted. When Mr. Douglas appeared 
 upon the stand, he was greeted by the mob that had been 
 organized, with their leaders, ready for violence, and ten 
 thousand strong, with the most unearthly howls. When 
 he commenced to speak, they threw eggs, stones, and clubs, 
 and fired pistols, to create a tumult, and break up the 
 meeting. He maintained his position for four hours ; 
 sometimes appealing to them; then ridiculing; then de- 
 nouncing their cowardice, in combining to put down, with 
 violence and force, a single man, who used no other wea- 
 pons than truth and reason. His efforts were futile. The 
 mob grew supreme; and, having held them at bay, fron\ 
 eight o'clock in the evening of Saturday till past twelve, 
 
 -J 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 99 
 
 in the midst of their imprecations and violence he delib- 
 erately took out his watch, and looking at it, said to the 
 crowd : " It is Sunday morning ; I have to go to church, 
 
 and you may go to h-11.'' lie then retired, pursued 
 
 by the mob, to his hotel. 
 
 In spite of all these demonstrations ; in spite of a thor- 
 ough union of the Know-Nothings and Republicans, Illi- 
 nois, in 1854, elected a Democratic state-ticket and her 
 five Democratic members of Congress. 
 
 Mr. Douglas immediately issued notices, making appoint- 
 ments throughout the State. He appealed to the people to 
 rally in defense of the great principle that every commu- 
 nity should govern itself, in respect to its local and do- 
 mestic afl'aii's. He did not appeal in vain ; the people of 
 Illinois did rally, and, in the I'residcntial election of 185G, 
 gave Mr. Buchanan a Democratic majority on that distinct 
 issue. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 In 1850, Mr. Douglas was again a candidate for the 
 Presidential nomination before the Democratic National 
 Convention at Cincinnati. The higliest vote he received 
 was on the sixteenth ballot, which stood for Mr. Buchanan 
 108, for Mr. Douglas 121, for Mr. Cass 0. In the Con- 
 gressional session of 1857-8, he denounced and opposed 
 with energy and ability the Lecompton Constitution, upon 
 the distinct ground that it was not the act and deed of the 
 people of Kansas, and did not embody their will. 
 
 Before the adjournment of that session of Congress, he 
 returned home to vindicate his action before the people of 
 Illinois, in one of the most excited and well-contested po- 
 litical canvasses ever known in the United States. He had 
 to encounter the determined hostility of the Federal Admin- 
 i.stration and all its patronage, and the powerful opposition 
 of the Ivcpublican party. But he succeeded in carrying 
 the election of a sufficient number of State senators and 
 representatives to secure his return to the United States 
 Senate for six years, from March 4, 1859, by lifty-four votes 
 for him, to forty-six for Abraham Lincoln, his able and dis- 
 tinguished opponent. During the whole of that contest, he 
 
100 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 maintained and defended the doctrine of non-intervention 
 and popular sovereignty, in the same sense in which he 
 previously proclaimed it in Congress. Subsequently, in a 
 debate in the Senate, (February 23d, 1858,) he avowed and 
 defended the same doctrine when assailed by several of the 
 Democratic party. 
 
 Mr. Douglas has been remarkably successful in promot- 
 ing the local interests of his own state during his Con- 
 gressional career. To him, more than to any other indi- 
 vidual, is Illinois indebted for the magnificent grant of 
 lauds which secured the construction of the Illinois Cen- 
 tral Railroad, and contributed so much to restore the credit 
 and develop the resources of the State. lie has always 
 been a warm supporter and advocate of a railroad from 
 the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean, having been a member 
 of the various Committees of Congress on that subject, 
 and being the author of several bills reported by those 
 committees. 
 
 Mr. Douglas's views in regard to our foreign relations, 
 have seldom been in accordance with the policy of the Ad- 
 ministration. He opposed the treaty with England, limit- 
 ing the Oregon territory to the forty-ninth parallel, con- 
 tending that England had no right on that coast, and that 
 the United States shonld never recognize the claim. He 
 opposed the treaty of peace with Mexico, on the ground 
 that the boundaries were unnatural and inconvenient, and 
 that the provisions in regard to the Indians could never 
 be executed. The United States have since paid Mexico 
 $10,000,000 to change the boundaries, and relinquish the 
 stipulations in regard to the Indians. He opposed the 
 ratification of the Clayton and Bulwer treaty, and endeav- 
 ored to procure its rejection, upon the ground, among 
 other things, that it pledged the faith of the United States 
 in all time to come, never to annex, colonize, or exercise 
 dominion over any portion of Central America. He de- 
 clared that he did not desire to annex that country at that 
 time, but maintained that the Isthmus routes must be kept 
 open as highways to the American possessions on the Pa- 
 cific ; that the time would come when the United States 
 would be compelled to occupy Central America, and that 
 he would never pledge the faith of the Republic not to do 
 in the future, in respect to this continent, what its inter- 
 ests and safety might require. He also declared himself 
 
 3HJ 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 101 
 
 in favor of the acquisition of Cuba, whenever the island 
 can be obtained consistently with the laws of nations and 
 tbc honor of the United States. 
 
 Judge Douglas's senatorial career has been one of the 
 most remarkable of any statesmen, living or dead. It h;is 
 been distinguished for great originality, consummate abil- 
 ity, saund logic, and the purest patriotism. As chairman 
 of the Committee on Territories, he developed resources 
 of intellect and profundity of judgment that have ranked 
 him foremost among the greatest expounders of the Con- 
 stitution the country has ever possessed. In every situa- 
 tion in which he has been placed he has revealed com- 
 manding talents, and in his personal history and success, 
 he is the best embodiment of the character of our insti- 
 tutions among all our statesmen living. 
 
 It was this peculiarity that so charmed the Emperor 
 Nicholas, when Judge Douglas visited his Imperial Majesty 
 at St. Petersburg, on his tour through Europe, six years 
 ago, and it is this which makes him the most popular man 
 of his time. 
 
 Fathers may point their sons with pride to him as a liv- 
 ing example of the results of early application, diligence, 
 industry, and perseverance. A poor boy, without friends 
 or means, in a then unsettled and semi-barbarous state, by 
 the force of his own inherent powers, he worked his way 
 up to the highest places, and distinguished each by the 
 ability he brought to bear in the performance of duty. 
 
 At this time there is no man in the Union more uni- 
 versally esteemed. He is the idol of the people, and the 
 choice of nine-tenths of his parXy for the Presidency. But 
 he has been most bitterly pursued by members of his own 
 party. 
 
 Judge Douglas was first married on the 7th of April, 
 1847, to Martha Denny Martin, only daughter of Colonel 
 Robert Martin, of Rockingham county, North Carolina. 
 After a happy life of nearly six years, with a husband 
 whose interest was the object of her worldly life, she died 
 at his residence in Washington, on the 19th of January, 
 1853, leaving three children, two boys and one girl, the 
 latter an infant, who survived its mother but a few months. 
 The two boys are now bright, active, and intelligent youths, 
 and reside with their father. 
 
 On November 2Uth, 1856, Mr. Douglas was married, at 
 
102 LIFE OP STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 
 
 Washington, to Miss Aclela Cutts, the beautiful and accom- 
 plished daughter of Hon. James Madison Cutts, long a 
 resident of that city. This marriage was blessed with a 
 lovely daughter, but Ileavon called the blessing away : 
 
 "A rose Willi all its brigliLest leaves yet folded." 
 
 CHAPTER Vll. 
 
 Ip the task were difficult to compress within restricted 
 limits the principal events of other distinguished citizens, 
 whose lives are here recorded, how much less possible of 
 accomplishment to do anything lilie justice to the brilliant 
 statesmanship of one who has been an acknowledged leader 
 of his party and director of its movements, as well as de- 
 fender in times of peril ^nd hours of darkness ; and who, 
 again, meeting the inevitable vicissitudes of elevated station 
 and genius, has been pursued with unrelenting vindictive- 
 ness and fury, to which the fable of Acteon being devoured 
 by his own pack might be considered a fair parallel. No 
 man in this llepublic has more honorably entitled himself 
 to a foremost rank in the nation than Stephen A. Douglas. 
 ^Vithout family or ibrtune, without any of those adventi- 
 tious aids by which men are elevated, like Saul, ahead and 
 shoulders above their fellow-men, he rose from obscurity 
 by his native energy, and a breadth and depth of genius 
 rarely accorded. 
 
 This sketch, imperfect as it is, would be still more so if 
 the following cordial, frank, manly expression from the 
 full-hearted senator from Kentucky wore omitted. It may be 
 pointed to in answer to the abuse and slander and dispar- 
 agement of those who most unnaturally and assassin-like 
 would stab to death Senator Douglas's reputation. Mr. 
 Dixon was a faithful and steadfast friend of Mr. Clay to 
 the last. If he idolized man it was Mr.' Clay ; and if ever 
 there were an honorable heart in man he wears it. Hear 
 what he said, pending the great campaign for senator in 
 Illinois, when the Administration sought to crush out the 
 Tribune of the People, who could not be bought and who 
 defied power : 
 
LIFE OP STEPHEN A. DOOOLAS. ■*► 103 
 
 "Of Judge Douglas, personally, I have a few words to utter which 
 T could not withhold without frreatly wrongiug my own conscience. 
 When I entered the United States Senate a few yeais since, I fouiiu 
 him a decided favorite with the political party then dominant both 
 in the Senate and the country. My mind had been greatly pruju- 
 diced against liim, and I felt uo disposition whatever to sympathize, 
 or cooperate with him. It .soon bcoinic apparent to me, as to others, 
 that he was, upon (he whole, far tlie ablest Democratic member of 
 the hod}-. In the progress of time my re:-pcct for him, both as a 
 {gentleman and a statesman greatly increased. 1 found him sociable, 
 affable, and in the highest degree entertaining and instructive in so- 
 cial intercourse. His power, as a debater, seemed to me unequaled 
 in the Senate. He was industrious, energetic, hold, and skillful in 
 the management of the concerns of his party. He was the ac- 
 knowledged leader of the Democratic parly in the Senate, and, to 
 confess the truth, seemed to me to bear the honors wliich encircled 
 liim with sufliciont meekness. Such v/as tlie palmy state of his rep- 
 utation and popularity on the day that he reported to the Senate 
 his celebrated Kansas and Nebraska bill. 
 
 " On examining that bill, it struck me that it was deficient in one 
 material respect; it did not in terms repeal the restrictive provision 
 in regard to slavery embodied in the Missouri Compromise. This, 
 to me, was a deficiency that I thought it imperiously necessary to 
 supply- I accordingly offered an amendment to that effect. My 
 amenduicnt seemed to take the Senate by surprise, and no one ap- 
 peared more startled than Judge Douglas himself. He iraniediatuly 
 came to my seat and courteously remonstrated against my aincijd- 
 ment; suggesting that the bill which he had introduced was almost 
 in the words of the territorial acts for the organization of Utah and 
 New Mexico; that they lieing a part of the Compromise measures of 
 18o(), he had lioped that I, a known and zealous friend of the wise 
 and patriotic adjustment which had then takeu place, would^iot be 
 inclined to do anything to call that adjustment in question, or 
 weaken it before the country. 
 
 '•I replied that it was precisely because I had been, and was, a 
 firm and zealous friend of the Compromise of 1850, that I felt bound 
 to pci'sist in the movement which I had originated; that I was well 
 satisfied that the Missouri restriction, if not expressly repealed, 
 would continue to operate in the territory to which it had been ap- 
 plied, thus negativing the great and salutary principle of non-inter- 
 vention which constituted tlic most prominent and essential feature 
 of the plan of settlement of 1850. \Ve talked for some time amica- 
 bly, and separated. Somo days afterward Judge Douglas came l-o 
 my lodgings, while I was confined by physical indisposition, and 
 urged me to get up and t^ike a ride with him in his carriage. I ac- 
 cepted his invitation, and rode out with him. During our short ex- 
 cui'sion we talked ou the subject of my proposed amendment, and 
 Judge Douglas, to my high gratification, proposed to me that I should 
 allow him to take charge of the amendment and ingraft it on his ter- 
 ritorial bill. I acceded to the proposition at once, whereupon a most 
 iutorestiag iuterchanse occurred betv/ecn us. 
 
104 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOrOLAS. 
 
 "On this occasion, Judge Douglas spoke to me, in substance, thus: 
 'I have become perfectly satisfied that it is my duty, as a fair- 
 minded national statesman, to cooperate with yon, as pi'oposed, in 
 securing the repeal of the Missouri Compromise restriction. It is 
 due to the South, it is due to the Constitution, heretofore palpably 
 infracted; it is due to that character for condstency -which I have 
 heretofore labored to maintain. The repeal, if we can effect it, will 
 produce much stir and commotion in the free states of the Union for 
 a season. I shall be assailed by demagogues and fanatics there, 
 without stint or moderation. Every opprobrious epithet will be ap- 
 plied to me. I shall be probably hung in effigy in many places. It 
 is more than probable that I may become permanently odious among 
 those whose friendship and esteem I have heretofore possessed. This 
 proceeding may pi'obably end my political career. But, acting under 
 the sense of the duty which animates me, I am prepared to make the 
 sacrifice. I will do it.' [How prophetic !] 
 
 " He spoke in the most earnest and toucliing manner, and I con- 
 fess that I was deeply affected. I said to him in reply: 'Sir, I once 
 recognized you s'..^ a demagogue, a mere party matuiger, selfish and 
 intriguing. I now find you a warm-hearted, sterling patriot. Go 
 forward in the pathway of duty as you propose, and though all the 
 world desert you, I never willJ 
 
 "The subsequent course of this extraordinary personage is now 
 before the country. His great speeches on this subject, in the Senate 
 and elsewhere, have since been made. As a true natio-nal statesman — 
 as an inflexible and untiring advocate and defender of the Constitution of 
 his conntry — as an enlightened, fair-minded, and high-souled patriot, he 
 has fearlessly battled for principle ; he has with singular consistency pur- 
 sued the course which he promised to pursue when we talked together in 
 Washington, neither turning to the right nor to the left. Though 
 sometimes reviled and ridiculed by tliose most benefited by his la- 
 bors, 'lie has never been heard to complain. Persecuted by the lead- 
 ing men of the party he had so long served and sustained, he has 
 demeaned himself, on all occasions, with moderation and dignity ; 
 though he has been ever earnest in the performance of duty, ener- 
 getic in combating and overcoming the obstacles whicli have so 
 strongly beset his pathway, and always ready to meet and to over- 
 throw such adversaries as have ventured to encounter him. lie has 
 been faithful to his pledge ; he has been true to the South and to the 
 I Union, and I intend to be faithful to my own pledge. I am sincerely 
 
 grateful for his public services; I feel the highest admiration for all 
 his noble qualities and high achievements, and I regard his reputa- 
 tion as part of the moral treasures of the nation itself. 
 
 "And now, in conclusion, permit me to say, that the Southern 
 people can not enter into unholy alliance for the destruction of Judge 
 Douglas, if they are true to themselves, for he has made more sacri- 
 fices to sustain Southern institutions than any man now living. 
 Southern men may, and doubtless have met the enemies of the South 
 in the councils of the nation, and sustained, by their votes and their 
 speeches, her inalienable rights under the Constitution of our com- 
 mon country; Northern men may have voted that those rights should 
 
LIFE OP STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 105 
 
 not be ■wrcsLed from us ; but it has I'etnained for Judge Douglas alone, 
 Nonlieiu man as lie is, to throw himself into the " deadly imminent 
 breach," and like the steadfast and everlasting rock of the ocean, to 
 withstand the fierce tide of fanaticism, and drive back those angry 
 billows which threatened to ingulf liis country's happiness. 
 ^ "I have the honor to be, very respectfully and cordially, your 
 friend and fellow-citizen, Arcu. Dixox. 
 
 " IIo.v. IIkxky S. Foote." 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 TiiK Democratic party established the two-thirds rule in 
 their National Convention in 1832. General Jackson was 
 then the nominee of the people, without rep^ard to any Con- 
 vention, lie refused to allow his name to be used in a 
 Convention. IJut it was deemed advisable to nominate a 
 candidate for Vice-President by the delegates of the peo- 
 ple. Martin Van Buren had been rejected as Minister to 
 England by a Whig Senate, and he was named for tlie 
 second place on the Presidential ticket. The National 
 Convention established the two-thirds rule, and under it 
 nominated him. In 183(i he was nominated for President 
 under the same rule. In 1840 he was re-nominated under 
 that rule, and was defeated by General Harrison. In IS-tl, 
 the rule was again re-established, and Van Buren, who had a 
 majority of the votes of the Convention, was defeated by 
 the rule, and President Polk was nominated. In 1848, 
 General Cass was nominated under the rule, and in 1852, 
 he was defeated by it, and General Pierce was nominated. 
 In 185(), Mr. Buchanan was nominated under the rule. In 
 ISGO, after the rule had been regularly adopted, and a por- 
 tion of the Southern members having seceded from the 
 Convention, it was still resolved to adhere to it — General 
 Gushing having ruled that it required two-thirds of the 
 whole number, and not two-thirds of those actually present, 
 as had been decided by Andrew Stevenson, of Virginia, in 
 a previous Convention, to secure a nomination. The Con- 
 vention then, without making a nomination, adjourned to 
 Baltimore, and there, on the second ballot, Mr. I)ougla.s 
 received 181^ votes. It was at this time, on motion of 
 Mr. Clark, of Missouri, that the vote in favor of his noia- 
 
100 LIFE OF STEPHEN A DOUGLAS. 
 
 ination was made unanimous — the body, at that time, con- 
 taining 212 delegates — -and giving him a clear majority 
 of all the votes in the Electoral College. 
 
 The following is the correct vote on the second ballot : 
 
 BEECKINRIDOE. GDTHRIE. DOUGLAS. 
 
 Maine., ... ... 7 
 
 New Harapshii'e ... ... 5 
 
 Vermont ... ... 5 
 
 Massacliusetts ... ... 10 
 
 Rhode Island ... ... 4 
 
 Connecticut 2 . ... 3^ 
 
 New York ... ... 35 
 
 New Jersey ... ... 2J 
 
 Pennsylvania 10 2i 10 
 
 Maryland ... ... 2.} 
 
 Virginia ... ... ■ 3 
 
 North Carolina ... ... 1 
 
 Alabama ... ... 9 
 
 Louisiana ... ... G 
 
 Arkansas ... ... IJ- 
 
 Missouri ... ... 4J 
 
 Tennessee ... ... 3 
 
 Kentucky' ... li 3 
 
 Ohio .." 23 
 
 Indiana ... ... 13 
 
 Illinois ... 11 
 
 Michigan ... ... G 
 
 Wisconsin ... ... 5 
 
 Iowa ... ... 4 
 
 Jlinnesota ... ... 4 
 
 Breckinridge, lO.V; Guthrie, 4; Douglas, ISl.}; whole vote given, 
 196. About twenty declined voting. 
 
 Regular delegates wore present from G-eorgia, and their 
 hearty sympathies were with Douglas, but a point of honor 
 prevented them casting their votes. South Carolina, which 
 chooses Presidential Electors (eight votes) by her Legisla- 
 ture, and not by popular vote, sent no delegates to the 
 Convention. The only other states not represented were : 
 Florida, 3 votes; Mississippi,?; Texas, 4; California, 4; 
 and Oregon, 3. Total electoral vote of states not present 
 in the Convention, 29 votes ! 
 
 The withdrawal of that portion of the delegates who 
 wei'e unwilling to cooperate with the majority, and their 
 resolving themselves into a separate Convention, was in- 
 tended to defeat the effect of the nomination of Mr. 
 Douglas, and is regarded by many as another step toward 
 
LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 107 
 
 the catastrophe which every patriot has so earnestly sought 
 to avert — a dissolution of the Union of this great con- 
 federacy. 
 
 Upon being informed of his nomination, Mr. Douglas 
 responded in the following letter, signifying his acceptance : 
 
 "Washington', .June 27. 
 
 "GEXTLE>rE.\: In accordance with the verbal assurance which I 
 gave you wlien you placed in my hands the authentic evidence of 
 my nomination for tlie Presidency by the National Convention of the 
 Democratic party, I now send you my formal acceptance. 
 
 " Upon a careful examination of the platform of principles adopte4l 
 at Charleston and ruaffirmed at Baltimore, witli an additional reso- 
 lution, which is in perfect harmony with the others, I fuid it to be 
 a faithful embodiment of the time-honoreil principles of tlie Demo- 
 cratic party, as the same was proclaimed and understood by all 
 parties in the Presidential contests of 1818, '^)2, and '5G. Upon look- 
 ing into the proceedings of the Convention also, I find that the nom- 
 ination was made witli great unanimity, in tlie presence and with the 
 concurrence of more than two-thirds of the whole number of dele- 
 gates, and in exact accordance with the long-established usage of 
 the parly. 
 
 " My inllexible purpose not to be a candidate nor accept the nom- 
 ination under any contingency except as the regular nominee of the 
 National Democratic party, and in that case only upon condition 
 that tlie usages as well as the principles of the party should be 
 strioily a<Ihered to, had been proclaimed for a long time and become 
 well known to the country. 
 
 "These conditions having all been complied with by tlie free and 
 voluntary action of the Democratic masses and their faithful repre- 
 sentatives, without any agency, interference, or procurement on my 
 part, I feel bound in honor ami duty to accept the nomination. 
 
 "In taking this step I am not unmindful of tlie i-esponsibility it 
 imposes; but- with fii-m reliance upon Divine Proviilence, I have the 
 I'ailh that ihe people will comprehend the true nature of the issues 
 involved, and eventually maintain the right. The peace of tlie 
 country and tlie perpetuity of the Union have been put in jeopardy, 
 by llic attempt to interfere with and to control the domestic affairs 
 of the people in the territories, through the agency of the Federal 
 (iovcrnment. If the power and the duty of Federal interference is 
 to be conceded, two hostile sectional parties must be the inevitable 
 result — the one intlaming the passions and ambition of the Nortii, 
 and the other of the South, and each struggling to use the Federal 
 power and authority for the aggrandizement of its own section, at 
 the expense of the equal rights of the other, and in derogation of 
 those fundamental principles, the principles of self-government, 
 wliich were tirmly established in this country by the American Rev- 
 olution as the basis of our entire Republican system. 
 
 " During the memorable period of our polit-ical history, when the 
 advocates of Federal intervention upon the subject of slavery in tlio 
 
108 LIFE OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, 
 
 territories had well nigh precipitated the country into revolution, 
 the Northern Interventionists demanding the Wilinot Proviso for the 
 prohibition of slavery, and the Southern intei'vcntiouists, though few 
 in number, and without a single representative in cither House of 
 Congress, insisting upon Congressional legislation for the protection 
 of slaveiy, (in opposition to the wishes of the people, in either case,) 
 it will be remembered that it required all the wisdom of a Clay, and 
 a Webster, and a Cass, supported by the conservative and patriotic 
 men of the Whig and Democratic parties of that day to devise and 
 carry out a line of policy which would restore peace to the country 
 and stability to the Union. The essential, living principle of that 
 polic}', as applied in the legislation of 1858, was and now is, non- 
 intervention by Congress with slavery in the territories. 
 
 "The fair application of this just and equitable principle restored 
 harmony and fraternity to a distracted counti-y. If we now depart 
 from that wise and just policj'^ which produced these happy results, 
 and permit the country to be again distracted and precipitated into 
 revolution by .a sectional contest between Pro-slavery and Anti- 
 slavery interventionists, where shall we look for another Clay, an- 
 other Webster, or another Cass to pilot the ship of State over tlie 
 breakers into a haven of peace and safety ? 
 
 " The Federal Union must be pi'eserved ; the Constitution must bo 
 maintained inviolate in all its parts; every right guaranteed by tho 
 Constitution must be protected by law in all cases where legislation 
 is necessary to its enjoyment; the judicial authority in the Consti- 
 tution must be sustained, and its decisions implicitly obeyed and 
 faithfully executed; the laws must be administered and the consti- 
 tuted authorities upheld, and all unlawful resistance to these things 
 must be met with firmness, impartiality, and fidelity, if we expect to 
 enjoy and transmit unimpaired to our posterity that blessed inheri- 
 tance which we have received in trust from the patiiots and sages of 
 the Revolution. 
 
 " With sincere thanks for the kind and agreeable manner in which 
 you have made known to me the action of the Convention, I have 
 the honor to be, very respectfully, your friend. and fellow-citizen, 
 
 "S. A. Douglas.-"' 
 
LIFE OF HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON. 
 
 The subject of this brief skctcli is a native of Geor- 
 f^ia, and was born in Burke county in that State, September 
 18th, 1812 ; and is, therefore, in the furty-cighth year of 
 liis age. lie received a liberal education ; and, unlike most 
 prominent young men of his day, vvlio sought the refine- 
 ments of education at Northern colleges, he graduated at 
 the University of Georgia, in 183-i. lie chose the practice 
 of law as a profession, and soon became quite successful. 
 In 1811 he was a Presidential elector on the Democratic 
 ticket, and aided in casting the vote of Georgia for Mr. 
 Polk. In 1818 he was appointed to fill a vacancy in the 
 United States Senate. The following year he was elected 
 a judge of the Superior Court of the State of Georgia; 
 and, very soon afterward, was made governor, which sta- 
 tion he filled with signal ability, and to the public inter- 
 est, which he guarded with sedulous care. 
 
 Mr. Johnson is not an ultra politician, but has always 
 been devoted to the Union, and a stanch su])porter of the 
 ('oustitution. He was a delegate to the National Conven- 
 tion that assembled at Charleston, and was freely spoken 
 of in connection with the Vice-Presidency; but he refused 
 to permit the use of his name, being anxious, if Georgia 
 should be thus honored, that Alexander II. Stephens should 
 be the nominee. I^^flbrts have been made to identify him 
 with the seceders, who followed the lead of Alabama and 
 i^lississippi in retiring froaa the Convention, upon the 
 refusal to incorporate in the Platform a slave-code for the 
 territories; but his speech at Washington, June 2Gth, 
 accepting the nomination, by the National Democratic 
 Committee, upon the declination of the Honorable Ben- 
 jamin Fitzpatriek, gives an emphatic denial to any such 
 imputation. 
 
 n09) 
 
110 
 
 LIFE OF HERSOHEL V. JOHNSON. 
 
 Mr. Johnson sustained the Compromise measures of 
 1850 ; and, unlike many of the Southern politicians, who 
 agreed to the principle contained in the Kansas-Nebraska 
 act, that " the people of the territories be left perfectly free 
 to regulate their own institutions in their own way, sub- 
 ject to the Constitution of the United States," but now 
 disclaim it, and insist that the right of government rests 
 in Congress, and that the Constitution restricts the sover- 
 eign power in Congress to the mere protection of slavery 
 in the territories. No, he speaks like a national man, as 
 all will say who read his remarks made at Washington on 
 the 2Gth of June, when informed that Mr. Fitzpatrick had 
 declined, and that he had been substituted for the Alabama 
 senator. We have seen, no letter of acceptance ; but after 
 so significant a speech, a letter of acceptance might well 
 be considered supererogatory, although the mode has not 
 been universally adopted. 
 
 HERSCIIEL V. JOIIXSON. 
 
 Since Mr. Johnson's acceptance of the nomination lor 
 the Vice-Presidency, he has been assailed, in his own 
 State, with great virulence. He has been repeatedly burned 
 in effigy, as recreant to the South, by those who sympa- 
 thized with the bolters from the Convention. lie is warmly 
 sustained, however, by an intelligent and active press; and 
 such indications of malicious resentment are very properly 
 
LIFE OF IIERSCHEL V. JOHNSON, 111 
 
 characterized as mean exhibitions of rowdyism, it is not 
 a little singular that the two candidates upon the regular 
 Democratic ticket should have been similarly treated, but 
 from antagonistic causes : Mr. Douglas having been burned 
 in effigy on account of his participation in the repeal of 
 the Mis.souri Compromise restriction, and Mr. Johnson 
 because he would not entertain the sectional opinions of 
 Southern politicians, and unite in the policy of dismember- 
 ing the Democratic party. 
 
 The following speech, delivered at Wa.shington, June 
 2G, 18G0. on accepting the nomination, will explain his 
 position, and must close this very imperfect sketch: 
 
 "Mr. Ciiaikman, Gextlemex of tue National Demo-1 
 cRATic Party, ani> Fellow-Citizens : J 
 
 "I was taken by surprise when I received a Iclefiraphic message in 
 Baltimore, at three o'clock this day, that the Hon. Dcnjarain Fitzpat- 
 rick had declined the nouiiuatiou tendered him by the Democratic 
 (Jonvention, and that it was demanded of me to accept it. It is 
 known to many of you tliat my name was freely mentioned in Balti- 
 more in connection with this nomination, and that I persistently re- 
 fused to gouutenance it, but invariably argued that if Georgia were 
 to be thus honored, it was due to another of her sons most distin- 
 guished for his talents and great public services. 
 
 "This was my earnest desire, and the desire of the delegation of 
 which I was a member. But the Convention in its wisdom deemed it 
 best to nominate a statesman of Alabama. It was entirely satisfac- 
 tory. Alabama is (he child of Georgia, and the mother cordially 
 responds to any compliment bestowed upon her daughter. These are 
 the circumstances under which I have been assigned this di-^tin- 
 guished position, and which demand that discrimination should yield 
 to the voice of duty. 
 
 "The National IJomocratic partj' is in n peculiar condition. It is 
 assailed in the house of its professed friends, and threatened with 
 overthrow. The country is in a peculiar condition. It is on the 
 eve of a sectional coullict, whicli may sweep down all political 
 parties, and terminate in a dissolution of the Union. It is the duty 
 of patriots and statesmen to unite in averting these threatened calam- 
 ities. 
 
 " It may not be inappropriate to refer to the circumstances which 
 imperil the National Democracy. The Alabama delegation went to 
 the Convention at Charleston, instructed to demand the incorporation 
 into the platform of the parly the proposition that Congress should 
 intervene for the protection of slavery in the territories, and to with- 
 draw if the demand should be refused. It was refused, and I think 
 properly refused. That delegation did retire, and with them a large 
 portion of the delegation from the cotton slates. Why should tliey 
 have retired? The record shows that if they had remained at their 
 
112 LIFE OP HERSCHEL V. JOHNSON. 
 
 post, they had the power to prevent the nominatiou of any candidate 
 who might be obnoxious to the South. 
 
 " Thus reduced by the secessions, tlie Convention adjouraed to Bal- 
 timore, and requested the States to fill the vacancies in their respect- 
 ive delegations. The Convention reassembled on the 18th. The 
 seceding delegations were returned — some accredited to Richmond, 
 and others to Baltimore, by the way of Richmond — instructed to make 
 the same demand, and withdraw if it be refused. Delegates were 
 appointed in Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia, by the National Dem- 
 ocrats of those states, to fill tlie vacant seats of tlio seceders. Those 
 of Alabama and Louisiana were admitted, and the seceding dele- 
 gales rejected, and. the seceding delegates from Georgia were admitted 
 to seats, and they all took umbrage at the decisions of the Conven- 
 tion, touching the various contests for seats. They retired, organized, 
 and nominated candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency. 
 And they claim to be the National Democracy of the United States. 
 
 "Now, if they were actuated by principle, if it was their purpose, in 
 good faith, to obtain the recognition of the principle of Congressional 
 protection for slavery in the territories, v.'hy not wait until a proper 
 time to bring that subject before the Convention, and then, according 
 to their instructions, withdraw from the body ? The reason is pal- 
 piable; they were waging war against a distinguished man, not for 
 the maintenance of principle. They were willing to jeopardize the 
 integrity of the Democratic party, and tlie triumph of its cherished 
 principles, rather than see its will proclaimed in the nomination of 
 its favorite. Admitting for the sake of argument, Mr. Douglas to 
 be as obnoxious as the.y allege he is, yet there never was a time 
 when the South, united, could not liave defeated liis nomination. 
 Why, then, should they have seceded ? Why not remain at tlieir 
 post? AVhy seek to dismember and destroy the party? 
 
 " I question not the patriotism of any, but the people will hold 
 them responsible sooner or later for all the ills that may flow from 
 their errors. I said the demand for CongressioTial intervention was 
 propei'ly rejected at Charleston. And why do I say so? Because 
 it was the agreement between the North and the South that the 
 slavery agitation should be removed from tlie halls of Congress, and 
 the people of the territories be left perfectly free to regulate their 
 domestic institutions in their own way, subject to the Constitution 
 of the United States. This was the principle of the Compromise 
 measures of 1850, and practically applied to the Nebraska-Kansas 
 act in 1854. It was adopted by the great political parties of the 
 United States in 1852. It triumplicd in the election of Franklin 
 Pierce in that year, and James Buchanan in 1856. It is perhaps 
 the best ground of compromise between the North and the South 
 which human ingenuity can devise. 
 
 "It is understood by the people of all sections, and by it the Demo- 
 cratic party, at least, of all sections should be willing to abide. It 
 gives advantage to neither section over the other, because it refers all 
 questions of dispute between them as to Congressional or territorial 
 power over the subject of slavery to the final arbitrament of the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States. It is, therefore, safe for the North, 
 
LIFE OF HERSCHEL V. JOHXSON. 113 
 
 and safe for the South. Its practical working is not without satis- 
 factory results. Wliere the people of a territory desire slave labor, 
 and the soil and climate are suited to it, slavery will go; where 
 these conditions do not exist, it will not go. That finds an illustra- 
 tion in New Mexico, where slavery is established, and this in tliose 
 territories where it is excluded. Only a few days ago, propositions 
 to repeal the slavery laws of New Mexico, on the one hand, and 
 the antislavery laws of Kansas on the other, were made and re- 
 jected in the Senate of the United States. 
 
 " Suppose these propositions, or either of them, had prevailed, is it 
 not certain that the country would have been thrown into the wildest 
 excitement? But by their rejection, non-intervention was practi- 
 cally adiiered to, and tiie public mind is satisfied and quiet. Let us 
 maintain it firmly and faithfully. We are bound to it by every con- 
 sideration of interest and obligation of compact. Its abandonment 
 will prove fatal to the National Democratic party, and ultimately to 
 the Union itself. It will drive the South into intense sectionalism, 
 and the North into the ranks of the Clack Republicans. 
 
 "I do not say every man of the North, for I know that the great 
 body of the Northern Democracy will remain true to the Constitution, 
 despite the overwhelming flood of its relentless cohorts. But I mean 
 that the free-labor states would not be able to return a single mem- 
 ber to eitlier house of Congress friendly to the Constitutional riglits 
 of the South. 
 
 "I trust that this condition of things may never exist; but if it 
 should, I know of no way by which the Union can be saved. 
 Hence, the doctrine of Congres.siunal intervention, as advocated by 
 the new-born seciional pnrty, is fraught with peril to the country. 
 
 " The nuesiion is now distinctly presented to the people, whether 
 they will adhere to the doctrine of non-intervention, or whether they 
 will abandon it; whether they will reopen the slavery agitation, 
 by reijuiring Congress to take jurisdiction over it, or whether they 
 will give repose to the public mind, and security to the Union, by 
 leaving it where the Compromise leaves it — to the free action of the 
 people of the territories, under the Constitution of the United States. 
 The issue is fairly made up. It is intervention or nou-intervention. 
 Its decision involves the destinies of this great Republic, and the 
 highest interests of the civilized world. Compared with it, the as- 
 piiations of men and the fate of political parties sink into utter 
 insignificance. Where shall we look for deliverance from these 
 threatened evils? 
 
 ''It has been the mission of the Democratic party of the Union, 
 in a thousand perils, to rescue our country from impending calami- 
 ties. Its past career abounds with heroic passages, and is illus- 
 trated with the most glorious achievements in the cause of Consti- 
 tutional liberty. It is the party of Jefferson, and Madison, and 
 Jackson, and Polk, whose administrations constitute grand epochs 
 in our national historj-. It is the partj' of the Constitution. I look 
 to it with confidence. Where else shall the patriot look in these 
 times of political defection and sectional agitation ? Let its integrity 
 be permanently destroyed, and the doctrine of non-intervention 
 
 10 
 
 _J 
 
114 LIFE OF IIERSCIIEL V. JOHNSON. 
 
 overtlirown, and then the best hopes of the statesman may well be 
 clouded with gloom and darkness. 
 
 " It is to maintain these, that I consent to take the position now 
 assigned me, and welcome the consequences of personal good or 
 personal ill which that position may bring. 
 
 "Nothing else could induce rae to brave the detraction which it 
 invites, and incur the heavy responsibility which it imposes. I have 
 nothing to add but the expression of my profound thanks for the 
 honor so unexpectedly conferred upon me, and my cordial acknowl- 
 edgment for the flattering terms in which I liave been notified of my 
 nomination. Whatever may be honorably done, I shall cheerfully do 
 to maintain the integrity of the party and the triumph of its 
 principles." 
 
LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 
 
 Up to the present period no man in the United States 
 has had as successful a political career as Vice-President 
 Breckinridge. At the age of thirty-fivo, he was chosen to 
 the second office in the government, with the contingency 
 of occupying the first. Ilis predecessors in office had 
 attained a ripe age before invested with the honors which 
 he so gracefully wears. John Adams was tifty-four; Jeffer- 
 son, fifty-three; Aaron Burr, forty-four; George Clinton, 
 sixty-five; Elbridge Gerry, sixty-nine; Daniel D. Tomp- 
 kins, forty-three; John ('. Calhoun, forty-three; Martin 
 Van Buren, fifty; Richard M. Johnson, fifty-seven; John 
 Tyler, fifty-one; George M. Dallas, fifty-three; Millard 
 Fillmore, forty -eight; William H. King, sixty-six. Jlis 
 whole career has been eminently fortunate, and he might 
 well adopt the terse language of Cassar, "I came, I saw, 
 I conquered." 
 
 Mr. Breckinridge was born at Lexington, Ky., January 
 16th, 1821, and is, consequently, now in his fortieth year. 
 His grandfather was the distinguished dolin Breckinridge, 
 who, as the friend of Thomas Jefferson, was intimately as- 
 sociated with the celebrated Virginia and Kentucky reso- 
 lutions of 17SS-9. His maternal graiullatlier was Samuel 
 iStanhope Smith, President of Princeton College. His 
 father, Joseph Cabell Breckinridge, was the eldest of five 
 brothers, the youngest of whom, James, died before he 
 arrived at man's estate. lie was an amiable gentleman, 
 of cultivated taste and agreeable manners, but was not re- 
 garded as extraordinarily gii'ted. The highest distinction 
 he reached was an appointment of Secretary of State, a 
 rather unimportant oliicc, under the administration of Gov- 
 
 aio) 
 
IIG 
 
 LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 
 
 ernor Adair. He died when his only son, Jolin 0., was a 
 child, leaving a widow, who still survives, and three daugh- 
 ters. John C. Breckinridge received the greater part of 
 his education at Center College, Danville, Ky., of which his 
 
 brother-in-law, Rev. Dr. John C. Young, was President, 
 although he was for a short time at Princeton. He read 
 law in Lexington, and at an early age was admitted to the 
 bar. He took up his residence in Scott county, and rep- 
 resented that county in the Legislature, as soon as he 
 was Constitutionally eligible. Like many young men who 
 strike out for a new field of labor and enterprise, he pushed 
 his fortunes to the Northwest, and spent a couple of years 
 at Burlington, Iowa, but the hx)Uie-feeling sat heavily upon 
 him, and he returned to Lexington, where he has continued 
 to reside ever since. 
 
 During the Mexican war, Mr. Breckinridge received the 
 appointment of jMajor of Infantry from Governor Owsley, 
 under the second requisition for the service from Ken- 
 tucky, and was the only Democratic appointment made by 
 the Governor. He was on the line of duty between Vera 
 (/ruz and the City of Mexico, but was in no engagement 
 
LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 117 
 
 He tlistinp;uislied himself, however, as the counsel of Gen- 
 eral Pillow, in the court-martial of that ofliicer. 
 
 Returning home, it was made his melancholy though 
 pleasing task to deliver an address at the capital, on the 
 rc-interment of the hravc Kentuckians who fell at the 
 battle of Buena Vista, whose remains were brought to the 
 capital cemetery from their foreign graves. In 1851 he be- 
 came a candidate for Congress, to which he was elected, and 
 re-elected at the expiration of his first term. His oppo- 
 nents were distinguished. gentlemen. General Leslie Combs 
 and Ex-Governor llobert P. Letcher, and the district was 
 supposed to be impregnable. lie canvassed it with his 
 competitor on each occasion, most assiduously, and such 
 was the impression made by his eloquence and genial man- 
 ners, that he carried the people away with him, much to 
 the astonishment and chagrin of the other party. 
 
 The first distinction gained in Congress by the young 
 Kentuckian, was a review of the Democratic Review, in 
 Jlarch, 1.S5LJ, which, among other distinguished members of 
 the Democratic party, had denounced General William 0. 
 Butler, as an "old fogy." As Mr. Douglas was not assailed 
 by the Review, -Mr. Rrockiuridge rather implied that it was 
 his organ, to which 31r. Richardson, of Illinois, gave an 
 emphaUc and positive denial; and 3Ir. E. C Marshall, of 
 California, poignantly and ably defended the Review against 
 the trenchant thrusts of his kinsman. 
 
 On the oOth of June in the same year, Mr. Breckin- 
 ridge introduced the resolutions in respect to the memory 
 of Mr. Clay, who had died the day previous, and pro- 
 nounced a glowing eulogy upon the great statesman. He 
 said: 
 
 "If 1 were to write his cpit;ipli, I would inscribe, as the highest 
 eulogy, on the stone which shall mark liis resting-place : ■ " Here lies 
 a man who was in the public service lor filty years, and never attempt- 
 ed to deceive his countrymen.' " 
 
 In the Thirty-second Congress, Mr. Breckinridge aided 
 in securing an appropriation for the completion of a ceme- 
 tery near the city of Mexico, in which the remains of the 
 American officers and soldiers, who fell in battle, or died in 
 or near the city, might be interred. lie also advocated an 
 appropriation for a weekly mail to the Pacific, and urged 
 that it should be let to the lowest bidder. 
 
118 LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDQE. 
 
 On tlie IGtli of March, 1852, Honorable Joshua R. Gid- 
 dings, in a speech on the Compromise measures and Fugitive 
 Slave Law, denied that the Federal Government had power 
 to pass laws by which '' to compel our officers and people 
 to seize and carry back fugitive slaves." Mr. Breckinridge 
 pushed him into an enunciation of his extreme doctrines, 
 and said: 
 
 " Against the impotent raving of his bafSed fanaticism, I place 
 the plain -words of the Constitution. To his coarse and offensive lan- 
 guage I have no reply." 
 
 During the discussion in relation to the Democratic Re- 
 view, Hon. D. K. Cartter asked what he considered some 
 impertinent question, when Mr, Breckinridge retorted, so as 
 to turn the laugh against him : 
 
 " I did not suppose the gentleman from Ohio would omit a favor- 
 able opportunity to ring himself into the debate, and say something 
 that might go upon the record." 
 
 In March, 1854, Mr. Breckinridge, as a member of the 
 Thirty-third Congress, participated in the discussion of the 
 famous Nebraska bill. It was during this debate that the 
 difficulty with Mr. Cutting, of New York, took place. On 
 the 21st of March, Mr. Richardson, desiring to reach the 
 Nebraska bill, which he had previously reported, moved 
 the House to go into Committee of the Whole on the state 
 of the. Union, which motion was lost, but the bill was at 
 last reached by title in the regular routine of business. 
 Every one felt as if a crisis had arrived. Mr. Richardson 
 and Mr. Cutting rose together, the former moving to refer 
 the bill to the Committee on Territories, while the latter 
 wished it to go to the Committee of the Whole. Mr. Rich- 
 ardson said his purpose was to amend the bill, and that 
 Mr. Cutting's course would kill it. Mr. Cutting persisted 
 in his motion, which he supported by a speech, disclaiming 
 any disrespect to Mr. Richardson as chairman of the Com- 
 mittee on Territories, and stating that the subject had been 
 already discussed and elaborated by that committee. He 
 was opposed to putting it again through the circuitous 
 mode of referring it to them, and having it on the Speak- 
 er's table as it was to-day. The North was in a state of 
 
LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 119 
 
 civil insurrection since the introduction of the bill, and he 
 thought it was a time, not for parliamentary tactics, which 
 give rise to suspicion, but for full, frank, and manly dis- 
 cussion. He was in vain appealed to, and would not with- 
 draw, and his motion having carried, he clinched the vote, 
 by moving to reconsider and then laying the motion on 
 the table. 
 
 Mr. Millson, of Virginia, having brought up the Ne- 
 braska matter in a discussion on the Indian Appropria- 
 tion bill, on the 23d of March, was followed by 3Ir. Hunt, 
 of Louisiana, " two enemies of the bill," having precipi- 
 tated the debate on the House. Mr. Breckinridge made 
 some severe reflections on the course of Mr. Cutting. "The 
 gentleman may be for the bill," said he, '-but his voice is 
 that of an enemy." He warned the friends of the meas- 
 ure from following the member from New York, whose 
 course was calculated to kill it, and preferred to have a 
 score of open enemies, to a professed friend, who struck 
 in the manner he did. On the 27th 3Ir. Cutting replied 
 at great length, and with severe causticity. A scene of 
 excitement ensued. The difficulty was carried out of the 
 House, and a duel was confidently anticipated, the prepar- 
 atory steps for such an interview having been taken. On 
 the 81st, however. Honorable William Preston informed 
 the House that Mr, Cutting had left the matter in the 
 hands of Colonel Monroe, of New York, and General 
 Shields, United States senator from Hlinois; and Mr, 
 Breckinridge had referred to Colonel Hawkins, of Ken- 
 tucky and himself; and he was authorized to state that a 
 settlement had been cfloctcd honorable and satisfactory to 
 both parties. In behalf of both gentlemen, he apologized 
 to the House for the infringement of the rules during the 
 excitement of the debate. 
 
 In his speech of the 23d, Mr, Breckinridge declared 
 himself in favor of perfect non-intervention, and said he 
 would not vote for the bill if it proposed to legislate slav- 
 ery into Kansas and Nebraska, He said: 
 
 "The riglit to establish involves the correlative right to prohibit; 
 and denying both, I would vote for neither. I go further, and 
 express the opinion that a clause Ufjislatinf/ slavery into those Tcrritorkt 
 would not command one SoiUhern vote in this House." 
 
 Alluding to the restriction of 1820, he said the effect of 
 
120 LTPE OF JOHN 0. BUECKINRIDGE. 
 
 the repeal of the former was " neither to establish nor 
 TO exclude, but to leave the future condition of 
 the territories dependent wholly upon the action 
 
 OP THE inhabitants, SUBJECT ONLY TO SUCH LIMITATIONS 
 
 AS THE Federal Constitution may impose." 
 
 "Sir: I care notliing about refined distinctions or the subtiUies of 
 verbal criticism. I repeat the broad and phiin proposition, that if 
 Congress may intervene, on this subject, it may intervene on any other; 
 and, having surrendered the principle and broken away from Con- 
 stitutional limitations, you are driven into the very lap of arbitrary 
 power. By this doctrine you may erect a despotism under the 
 American system. The whole theory is a libel on our institutions. 
 It carries us back to the abhorrent principles of British colonial 
 authority, against which we made the issue of Independence. I have 
 never acquiesced in this odious claim', and will not believe that it 
 can abide the test of public scrutiny." 
 
 Mr. Breckinridge was offered, by President Pierce, the 
 mission to Spain ; but family matters induced him respect- 
 fully to decline the honor. He was a delegate to the Cin- 
 cinnati Convention, in June, ISS-G ; and after the nomina- 
 tion of Mr. Buchanan, (he casting his vote for Mr. Douglas 
 until his name was withdrawn,) his own name was pro- 
 posed by General Lewis, of Louisiana, as a candidate for 
 the Vice-Presidency. He gracefully appealed to have his 
 name withdrawn. Mr. Smalley, of Vermont, thought that 
 no Democrat had a right to refuse liis services at the call 
 of his country. At the first ballot, Mr. Breckinridge had 
 fifty-one votes; being second on the list — General Quitman 
 being first, who had received fifty-nine votes. On the 
 second ballot Mr. Breckinridge was nominated. The scene 
 that ensued is thus described: 
 
 "The names of otlier candidates were withdrawn, and the whole 
 poll went for John C. Breckinridge; at which the Convention rose, 
 and, with waving of handkerchiefs and the loudest vocal demon- 
 strations, directed its attention upon tlie tall and graceful delegate 
 from Kentucky, who had been so unexpectedly nominated for so 
 exalted a post. It Avas long before the demonstration subsided so 
 as to allow a word to be heard. At last the commanding figure of 
 Mr. Breckinridge stood fronting the mighty throng. It certainly 
 was a time to try a young man. He spoke bricHy and becomingly. 
 The result just announced was unexpected, and his profound grati- 
 tude was without words. He gave the Convention the simple 
 thanks of a true heart; and expressing his appreciation of their 
 
LIFE OF 30UN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 121 
 
 first choice, and linkinj^ his humble name with that of the tried 
 statesman of Pennsylvania, cordially indorsed the platform, and 
 sat down, amid the booming of cannon, and the vociferous applause 
 of tlie multitude outside, breaking iu upon and almost overpowering 
 the loud cheers within the hall." 
 
 Three days afterward he made a speech to his friends 
 and ucighbors, at Lexington, in wliich he said: 
 
 "The whole power of the Democratic organization is pledged to 
 the following projiositious: That Congress shall not interpose upon 
 this subject in (he states, in the territories, or iu tlie District of 
 Columbia; (hat tJie people of each territory sliall dctorniino the 
 questio«i for themselves and be admitted into the Union upon a 
 footing of perfect equality with the original states, without dis- 
 crimination on account of the allowance or prohibition of slavery.'' 
 
 lie was elected Vice-President, having received one hun- 
 dred and seventy-tliree Electoral votes, being a majority 
 of fifty-nine over hi.s competitor, Honorable Wm. L. Day- 
 ton. As President of the Senate, he took the chair early 
 in the first session of the Thirty-Fifth Congress, December, " 
 1857; and, with some intermission, on account of sickness 
 in his family, presided during that stormy session. • 
 
 Mr. IJreckinridge made one of his finest and most effect- 
 ive speeches at Florence, Kentucky, on the 24th of July, 
 1858, in which he reviewed the slavery question up to 1820, 
 when intervention against the slave states commenced, fol- 
 lowed by the \Vilmot proviso, lie showed how the slaverv 
 (juestion had killed off the old Whig party, and how tlio 
 American party had been unable to survive the same issue. 
 The Democratic party, he contended, was entirely conserv- 
 ative. It was based upon the Constitution and the right'^ 
 of citizens and states. It alone had survived the ai>ita- 
 tion, and was now vital and unconquerable. 
 
 In the great struggle in lUinois between Senator Douglas 
 and the l-fepublicans, aided and comforted by the friends 
 and satellites of the Administration in that State, the sym- 
 pathies of Mr. lireckinridge were with Mr. Douglas; and 
 although he did not indorse the senator's course with re- 
 gard to the Lecompton Constitution, in the session just 
 closed, he desired his success, " being the leader of the 
 Democracy of Illinois in their present fight against Black 
 Kepublicanism." 
 11 
 
122 LIFE OP JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 
 
 On the removal of the Senate from the old hall to the 
 new one, Vice-President Breckinridge made a most feeling 
 and eloquent address, which was greatly admired for its 
 chaste and classic beauty, and teeming with historic recol- 
 lections that render it most acceptable to the student of 
 the past. 
 
 During the last winter, the Kentucky Legislature elected 
 Mr. Breckinridge to the United States Senate, in the place 
 of Mr. Crittenden, whose term will expire on the 4th of 
 March, 1861. 
 
 The National Democratic Convention assembled at Bal- 
 timore, on the 16th of June, in conformity to adjournment 
 at Charleston; having failed to harmonize, a portion of the 
 delegates withdrew, and uniting with those who were refused 
 admittance to seats in the Convention, held a session at the 
 Maryland Institute, where they nominated Mr. Breckin- 
 ridge for the Presidency, and General Joseph Lane for the 
 Vice-Presidency, upon a platform reflecting a south-side 
 view of Democratic principles. 
 
 Upon receipt of the intelligence, Mr. Breckinridge 
 was serenaded at his residence in Washington, when, in 
 response to repeated calls, he appeared and addressed his 
 friends. 
 
 He said he felt deeply this manifestation of friendly re- 
 gard, and accepted it as an approval of the proceedings at 
 Baltimore, by which the National Democratic Convention' 
 presented his name and that of his gallant and honored 
 friend, General Lane, as candidates for President and Vice- 
 President of the United States. The heart would be cold 
 and insensible, indeed, that did not throb with gratitude 
 at such an exhibition of the confidence of his countrymen. 
 He felt it, and felt it deeply, and did not affect to conceal 
 it. 
 
 lie had ,se(!n, with feelings of pain, the divisions and dis- 
 turbances which occurred in the Democratic Convention, 
 and had hoped to see in the end that these evils would be 
 averted. 
 
 His friends knew that he would not for an instant per- 
 mit his name to stand in the way of fraternal harmony. 
 He knew well that there were gentlemen of the North and 
 South, of experience and ability, who were better fitted 
 than himself for such a trust. But, without referring in 
 detail to the proceedings at Baltimore, he would add that 
 
LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKIXBIDGE. 123 
 
 the Convention which assembled at Man/land Institute teas 
 comjiosed, in his ojxinion^ of the KationnI Democracy of the 
 United States. 
 
 AVhen he learned, though with reajret, that his name had 
 been presented to the country, he did not fake hnuj to de- 
 termine thot he icould not inranhj ahnndnn them. lie under- 
 stood that some persons occupyini^ hiijjh positions, enter- 
 tained the belief that the Xational Democratic party is a 
 disunion party, and intend to break up the union of these 
 states. lie had read the resolutions adopted by that Con- 
 vention with a great deal of care. There was nothing in 
 the character of that Convention, or the gentlemen who 
 composed it, or, if he might be allowed to add, in the character 
 of the nominees, to justify it. Instend of breaking up the 
 Union, we intend, he said, to strengthen and to lengthen it. 
 
 One of the resolutions declared the equality of the states 
 in all the common territories, under our common Constitu- 
 tion. But no man is a disunionist who wants to preserve 
 the Union on the great principle of the Constitution and 
 the equality of the states. 
 
 Another resolution, instead of breaking up the Union, 
 seems to pledge, by the power of organization, to unite its 
 difFercnt parts by iron liands. fie hoped this would be 
 speedily and grandly realized. He saw nntliing sectional 
 .there, from any of the states. Our pence has never been 
 disturbed, except when these principles have been departed 
 from. 
 
 AVith regard to himself, when the Convention selected 
 him as one of its candidates, looking at his humble ante- 
 cedents and place of abode, it gave to the country a per- 
 sonal and geographical guarantee that its interest was in 
 the Union. 
 
 He alluded to his distinguished associate, General Lane. 
 
 It sometimes happened that men are placed in a position 
 where they are reluctant to act and expose themselves to 
 censure, if not to execration they do not merit. But we 
 must be prepared for such occurrences in this life. All 
 men can move forward with dignity and purpose, to pur- 
 sue that course. He conceded to others the same good 
 purpose he claimed for himself. 
 
 Without acrimony and animositj', he accepted the nomina- 
 tion tendered, him, and should quietly, firmly, and, he hoped 
 bravely, accept the responsibility imposed upon him. He 
 
124 LIFE OP JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 
 
 cherished the hope that Providence will lead us out of our 
 civil disasters, and, in his good time, conduct us to tran- 
 (£uillity and peace. 
 
 "Democratic National ConvexTion, ■) 
 Baltimore, Md., June 23, 1860. f 
 "SiK: I am directed by vote of the Democratic Natioual Conven- 
 tion, to inform you that you have been this day unanimously nomin- 
 ated by it as the candidate of the Democratic party for the office of 
 President of the United States, and, in their behalf, to request you 
 to accept the nomination. I beg leave, at the same time, to inclose 
 you a copy of the resolutions adopted by the Convention as the 
 political platform on which the party stands. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, vei-y respectfully, 
 
 " C. CusHi.VG, President." 
 
 " Washington City, .July 6, 1860. 
 
 "Dear Sir : I have your letter of the 23d ultimo, by which I am 
 officially informed of my nomination for the office of President of 
 the United States by the Democratic National Convention lately 
 assembled at Baltimore. 
 
 "The circumstances of this nomination will justify me in refer- 
 ring to its personal aspect. 
 
 " I have not sought nor desired to be placed before the country for 
 the office of President. AVheu my name was presented to the Con- 
 vention at Charleston, it was witlidrawn by a friend, in obedience to 
 my expressed wishes. My views had not changed when the Conven- 
 tion reassembled at Baltimore, and when 1 heard of the diflferences 
 which occurred there, my indisposition to be connected prominently 
 with the canvass was confirmed and expressed to many friends. 
 
 " Without discussing the occurrences which preceded the nomina- 
 tions, and which arc, or soon will be, well understood by the country, 
 I have only to say that I approved, as just and necessary to the pres- 
 ervation of the national organization and the saci-ed right of rep- 
 resentation, the action of the Convention over which you continued 
 to preside; and thus approving it, and having resolved to sustain it, 
 I feel that it docs not become me to select the position I shall occupy, 
 nor to shrink from the responsibilities of the post to which I have 
 been assigned. Accordingl.y, I accept the nomination from a sense 
 of public duty, and, as I think, uninfluenced in any way by the al- 
 lurements of ambition. 
 
 "I avail myself of this occasion to saj', that the confidence in my 
 personal and public character implied by the action of the Conven- 
 tion, will always be gratefully remembered; and it is but just, also, 
 to my own feelings to express my gratification at the association of 
 my name with that of my fi-iend General Lane, a patriot and soldier, 
 whose great services in the field and in council entitle him to the 
 gratitude and confidence of his countrymen. 
 
 " The resolutions adopted by the Convention have my cordial ap- 
 proval. They are just to all parts of our Union, to all our citizens, 
 
LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 125 
 
 native aud naturalized, and they form a noble policy for any admin- 
 istration. 
 
 "The questions touching the rights of persons and property, -H-hich 
 have of late been much discussed, find in these a Constitutional 
 solution. Our Union is a confederacy of equal sovereign stales, for 
 the purposes enumerated in the Federal Constitutiou. Whatever tlio 
 common government holds in trust for all the states, must be eujoyed 
 eijually by each. It controls the territories in trust for all the states. 
 Nothing less than sovereignty can destroy or impair the rights of 
 persons or property. The territorial governments are subordinate 
 and temporary, and not sovereign ; hence they can not destroy or 
 impair tlie riglits of persons or property. While they continue to be 
 territories, they arc under the control of Congress, but the Constitu- 
 tion nowhere confers on any branch of the Federal Government the 
 povfcr to discriminate against the rights of the suites or the property 
 of their citizens in the territories. It follows that the citizens of all 
 the states may enter the territories of the Union with their property, 
 of whatever kind, and enjoy it during the territorial condition with- 
 out let or hinderance, either by Congress or by subordinate territorial 
 governments. 
 
 " These principles How directly from the absence of sovereignty 
 in the territorial governments, and from the equality of the states. 
 Indeed, they are essential to that equality, which is, aud ever has 
 been, the vital principle of our Constitutional Union. They have 
 b<jen settled legislatively — settled judicially, aud are sustained by 
 right reason. They rest on the rock of the Constitutiou — they will 
 preserve the Union. 
 
 " It is idle to attempt to smother these great issues, or to misrepre- 
 sent them by the use of partisan phrases, which are misleading and 
 delusive. The people will look beneath such expressions as -Interven- 
 tion,' 'Congressional Slave Code,' and the like, and will penetrate to 
 the real questions involved. The friends of Constitutional eijuality 
 do not and never did demand a ' Congressional Slave Code,' nor any 
 otlier code in regard to property in the territories. They hold the 
 doctrine of non-interveution by Congress or by a Territorial Legisla- 
 ture, either to establish or prohibit slavery ; but they assert (fortified 
 by the highest judicial tribunal in the Union) the plain duly of the 
 Federal Government, in all its departments, to secure, when neces- 
 sary, to the citizens of all states, the enjoyment of their property in 
 the cotnmon territories, as everywhere else within its jurisdiciion. 
 The only logical answer to this would seem to be to claim sovereign 
 power for the territories, or to deny that the Constitution recognizes 
 property in the services of negro slaves, or to deny that such prop- 
 erty can exist. 
 
 " Inexorable logic, which works its steady way through clouds and 
 passions, compels the country to meet the issue. There is no evasive 
 middle-ground. Already the signs multiply of a fanatical and grow- 
 ing party, which denies, that under the Constitution, or by any other 
 law, slave property can exist; and ultimately the struggle must 
 come between this party and the National Democracy, sustained by 
 all the other conservative elements in the Union. 
 
126 LIFE OF JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 
 
 "I think it will be impossible for a cn,ndid mind to discover hos- 
 tility to the Union or a taint of sectionalism in the resolutions 
 adopted by the Convention. The Constitution and the Union repose 
 on the equality of the states, ■which lies like a l)road foundation 
 underneath our whole political structure. As I construe them, the 
 resolutions simply assert this equality. They demand nothing for 
 any state or section that is not cheerfully conceded to all the rest. It 
 is v/ell to remember that the chief disorders which have afflicted our 
 country have grown out of the violation of state equality, and that 
 as long as this great principle has been respected we have been 
 blessed with harmony and peace. Nor v/ill it be easy to persuade 
 the country that resolutions are sectional which command the sup- 
 port of a majority of the stales, and are approved by the bone and 
 body of the old Democracj', and by a vast mass of conservative 
 opinion everywhere, without regard to party. 
 
 "It hasbceti necessary, more than once in our history, to pause 
 and solemnly assert tlie trae character of this government. A mem- 
 orable instance occurred in the struggle which ended in the civil rev- 
 olution of IJSOO. The llepublicans of that day, like the Democracy 
 of this, were stigmatized as disunionists ; Init they nobly conducted 
 the contest under the Constitution, and saved our political system. 
 I5y a little Constitutional struggle it is intended to assert and estab- 
 lish the equality of the states, as the only basis of union and peace. 
 When this object, so national, so Constitutional, so just, shall be 
 accomplished, the last cloud will disappear from the American sky, and 
 with common hands an^l hearts, tlie states and the people will unite, 
 to develop the resources of the wliole country, to bind it together 
 witli the bonds of intercourse and brotherhood, and to impel it 
 onward in its great career. 
 
 "The Constitution and the equality of the states! These are the 
 symbols of everlasting union. Let tliese be the rallying cries of the 
 people. 
 
 " i trust that this canvass will be conducted without rancor, and 
 that temperate arguments will take the place of hot words and pas- 
 sionate accusations. 
 
 " Above all, 1 venture humbly to liope that Divine Providence, to 
 whom we owe our origin, our growth, and all our prosperity, will 
 continue to protect our beloved country against all danger, foreign 
 and domestic. 
 
 '• I am, with great respect, your friend, 
 
 "John C. Breckinridge. 
 
 " The Hon. C. Cusiiing, 
 
 " President of the Democratic National Convention. 
 
 Mr. Breckinridge married ati accomplished and amiable 
 dauglitcr of the llev. Mr. Birch, a Presbyterian minister, 
 and also a member of the same Church, which her husband 
 usually attends, although not a communicant. 
 
 The eyes of the great pi>litical party, with one wing of 
 
LIFE or JOHN C. BRECKINRIDGE. 127 
 
 which he is now identified, have been long- turned on Mr. 
 Breckinridge as a future candidate for the Presidency, and 
 doubtless he looked forward to tliat summit of ambitious 
 hope, but at a more distant day than his friends have as- 
 signed him, and to the attainment of which he might justly 
 liavc supposed some other time might be more propitious. 
 liut he (lid not feel at liberty to decline the nomination, 
 and must now abide the consequences, which may or may 
 not continue his life of prosperity, or end in his political 
 demise. In either event, whatever may betide, the peace 
 and happiness of the nation are involved in this contest, 
 and are connected with his fate. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 
 
 Joseph Lane, second son of John Lane and Elizabeth 
 Street, was born in North Carolina, on the 14th of Decem- 
 ber, 1801. When he was three yenrs old his father mi- 
 grated to Kentuc-ky and settled in Henderson county. He 
 was taught enrly to shift for himself, and had few advant- 
 ages beyond the simple rudiments of edur-ation. In 181G, 
 when but fifteen years old, he went to live in Warwick 
 coxinty, Indiana, where he became clerk in a mercantile 
 house, and when in his nineteenth year he married and 
 settled on the banks of the Ohio river, in Vanderburg 
 ! county, not far from Evansville. In 1822, then barely 
 eligible, he was elected to the Indiana Legislature, repre- 
 senting the counties of Vanderburg and Warwick. The 
 1 hospitality of his house is well remembered by river men 
 
 especially, who many times shared it when their boats 
 stranded on a bar near his residence. He was a river man 
 himself, and for many years acted as a pilot on the Ohio 
 and Mississippi rivers. For a period of twenty-four years 
 ! he has served the people, in one or the other branch of the 
 
 ' ' Legislature, being an active, vigilant, and intelligent mem- 
 I ber, who was always governed by a sense of right and duty, 
 1 and who scorned to resort to the merely expedient. 
 
 A large Democratic Convention assembled at Indianapo- 
 
 j lis; at the time there were two vacancies on the bench of 
 
 . I the Supreme Court of the State, the terms of Judges Dewy 
 
 i and Sullivan having expired. Colonel Lane, although a 
 
 warm and consistent Democrat, ffivored the renomination 
 
 of the former judges, and was opposed to the attempt to 
 
 j] bring the Judiciary within the influence of party. He 
 
 Ij supported General Jackson in 1824, '28, and '32, and was 
 
 ' ' an active and zealous friend of Mr. Van Buren in 183G 
 
 and 1840, and in 1844 supported Mr. Polk. 
 
 : ! (128) 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL JOSEPU LANE. 
 
 129 
 
 In the spring of 1S-4G the war with Mexico broke out, 
 and a call being made upon Indiana for volunteers, Lane, 
 then a member of the State Senate, resigned his seat and 
 entered the company of Captain Walker as a private. 
 
 r!K?»FR \r, .TdSKPH I. 
 
 When tho regiment met at the place! of rcndezvoup. New 
 Albany, .losoj)h Lane was taken from the ranks and ma<lc 
 Colonel, and in a few days he received a commission from 
 I^residcnt I'ulk of Brigadier-(ieneral. On the i)th of July 
 he wrote, accepting the commission, and on, the twenty- 
 fourth of the same month, he wasiat tbo T?razoV with the 
 three regiments forming his brigade. lie made strenuous 
 efforts to engngc in active service, but had to remain sev- 
 eral months in garrison on the Hio Grande, during wliicli 
 time he had the misfortune to lose a number of his men, 
 who fell victims to disease incidental to the climate. lie 
 was a vigilant and attentive officer, and while command- 
 ant at Saltillo, was the first to communicate to the Com- 
 mander-in-Chief the disastrous intelligence of the capture 
 of IMajor (iainess command. After tlie battle of Monte- 
 rey, (lenoral Lane was ordered to join (icneral Taylor. 
 General Lane was third in command, and served on the 
 
130 LIFE OP GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 
 
 left wing in the famous battle of Buena Vista, which was 
 fought on the 22cl and 23(1 of February, 1847. On the 
 23d, he opened the second day's fight, on the plain, where 
 he was attacked by a force of four or five thousand in- 
 fontry, artillery, and lancers, under General Ampudia, 
 while his own force was reduced to four hundred men. An 
 eye-witness thus describes the scene: 
 
 " Nothing could exceed the imposing and fearful appearance of the 
 torrent, of assailants, which at this moment swept along toward the 
 little band of Lane. The long lines of infantry presented a contin- 
 ued and unbroken sheet of fii-e. But their opponents, though few in 
 numbers, were undismayed, and defended their position with a gal- 
 lantry worthy of the highest praise. Several times 1 observed the 
 Mexican lines galled by the American musketry and shattered by 
 the fearful discharges of O'Brien's battery, break and fall back; but 
 their successive formations beyond the ridge, enabled them to force 
 the men back to their position, and quickly replace those who were 
 slain." 
 
 The conduct of Lane in this battle has been extolled in 
 glowing terms. The Indiana and Kentucky regiments 
 suffered severely. The New Orleans Delta tlius describes 
 him : 
 
 " When the grape and musket shot flew as thick as hail over and 
 througli the lines of our volunteers, who began to waver before the 
 fiery storm, their brave general could be seen fifty yards in advance 
 of the line, with an arm already shattered by a musket ball, stream- 
 ing with blood, and mounted on a noble charger, which was gradu- 
 ally sinking under a loss of blood from five distinct wounds. A 
 brave sight indoed was this!" 
 
 General Wool, writing to Lane, May 23d, regrets that he 
 is about to lose his valuable services; and on the 7th of 
 July, he says : 
 
 " I have seen you in all situations — at the head of your brigade, 
 in the drill, and in the great battle of the 22d and 2od of February; 
 and in the course of my experience, I have seen few, very few, who 
 behaved with more zeal, ability, and gallantry in the hour of danger." 
 
 General Taylor, in his report, says: " Brigadiei'^-General 
 Lane (slightly wounded) was active and zealous throughout 
 the day, and displayed great coolness and gallantry before 
 the enemy." 
 
LIFE or GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 131 
 
 His brigade was ordered to New Orleans in the Juno 
 following, there to be disbanded. On his return liome, lie 
 was greeted with a warm welcome, and public festivals were 
 held at New Albany and Evansvillc. He had but a brief 
 season of repose in the bosom of his family, Avhen he was 
 ordered to join General Taylor's line, from which he was 
 transferred to that of General Scott, and reached Vera 
 Cruz on the IGth of September, 1847. On the 20th, he 
 set out with two thousand five hundred men for the city of 
 Mexico. At Jalapa, this force was increased by Major 
 Lally's colitmn of one thousand men, and at Pcrote, by a 
 company of mounted riflemen, two companies of volunteer 
 infantry, and two pieces of artillery. At this time, Colo- 
 nel Childs was closely besieged by Santa Anna, at Puebla; 
 and gallantly defended that place. General Lane marched 
 to his relief fought the Mexican general at Huamantla, 
 and drove him from the field ; for which victory he was 
 brevettcd Major-General. He reached Puebla on the 12th 
 of October, and compelled General Rea to retire, thus 
 raising the siege, greatly to the delight of the little garrison 
 who had undergone such privations and behaved so gal- 
 lantly. 
 
 On the 19th, Lane pursued Kea, and at Santa Isabella, 
 about thirteen miles from Puebla, he met the 3Icxican ad- 
 vance-guards. A running fight was kept up for four miles, 
 when, the enemy being well posted on a hill within a mile 
 and a half of Atlixco, a severe fight ensued; and the Mex- 
 icans were driven into the town, where large quantities 
 of arms and munitions were destroyed. On the 29th, he 
 fought the first battle, at Tlaseala, and on the 10th of No- 
 vember he met Kea and Terrcjon at the same place, where 
 he re-captured a train of thirty-six wagons belonging to 
 merchants in Mexico and Puebla, who, for this service, 
 presented him a superb sword. On the 22d, with Colonel 
 Hays, Captain Lewis, and Lieutenant Field, and one hun- 
 dred and fifty horse, and one gun, he surprised Matamoras, 
 where was collected a large amount of Mexican supplies, 
 and one thousand men strongly posted in a fort mounted 
 with artillery. Here he lost one man, while eighty of the 
 enemy fell, and he had the gratification of releasing twenty- 
 five American prisoners. On his return, the 24th, the 
 enemy, emboldened by Lane's small force, and being in the 
 proportion of eight to one, made a stand at Galaxa, and 
 
132 LIFE OP GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 
 
 the Americans were wavering under tlieir galling fire, when 
 Lane sprang from his horse, unlimbered the gun, turned 
 it against the Mexicans, and fired it with his lighted cigar. 
 The "greasers" were soon scattered. 
 
 lie reported himself to General Scott, on the 18th of 
 December, at the city of Mexico, and was received with 
 marked consideration. He had leave to take three hundred 
 men, and, with Hays, Polk, and Walker, pursue the guer- 
 rillas under the notorious Zcnobia. In this expedition he 
 very nearly succeeded in capturing Santa Anna, and did 
 obtain hi^ sword at Tehuacan. On the 23d of January, he 
 marched into the city of Orizaba, containing twenty thou- 
 sand inhabitants, while the enemy marched out at the other 
 side. He next took Cordova, and the third day dispersed 
 the command of Colonel Falcon, whom he encountered in 
 the mountains. He returned to the capital on the 10th of 
 February, having been absent but twenty-four days, during 
 which time he had confiscated a large quantity of govern- 
 ment property to the United States, and released a number 
 of American prisoners. 
 
 The particulars of the effort to take Jarauta, a notorious 
 robber-chief, are interesting, but are not deemed necessary 
 to this narration, although they show the indomitable 
 energy and activity of General Lane. The battle of Tehual- 
 taplan was the last fought in Mexico during that war. 
 Jarauta was wounded, but escaped. Colonel Montano and 
 Padre Martinez, a bosom-friend of Jarauta, were among 
 the killed. 
 
 General Lane returned home about the 1st of August, 
 184:8, and on the 18th, he received the unsolicited ap- 
 pointment of Governor of Oregon, and set out for his post 
 on the day following that (the 28th) on which he received 
 his commission. Plis march across the continent was a 
 hazardous and desperate one, but nothing could subdue 
 his energy or daunt his determination. On the 2d of 
 March, 18-49, he arrived safely in Oregon City, costing the 
 government nolhinc/, besides which he contributed largely 
 to the subsistence of the troops, with the products of his 
 rifle, he being the hunter and pilot of the party. 
 
 The Indians of Oregon, about fifty tribes, kept the white 
 settlements in constant apprehension, and annoyed them 
 by their depredations. In 1850, a formidable outbreak 
 took place on llogue river. Lane took the field in person, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 133 
 
 and collecting a force among the miners and a few officers 
 and men of the regular army, he came up with the savages 
 at Table liock, and chastised them severely. The Territorial 
 Lcgi.slature of Oregon passed resolutions of thanks for his 
 energy and services. The people chose him their delegate 
 to Congress, in which capacity he served until Oregon was 
 admitted as a state, when he took his seat in the Senate, to 
 which he had been elected. The Oregon bill being debated 
 tlic lUth of February, 1859, €rovernor Lauo contended that 
 tlie population of the territory was sulliciont to entitle her 
 to adnii.ssion. On the llith she was admitted into the sis- 
 terhood of states. An incident of that day may be nar- 
 rated as characteristic of the man. A Massachusetts rep- 
 resentative having inquired whether, if Oregon should be 
 admitted, and he (Jjane; should have u voice in the other 
 end of tlio Capitol, would he vote to relieve Kansas of the 
 cfTcct of the English bill; he replied that he had not come 
 there to make any bargains. He was an honest man ; and 
 if he should be permitted to go into the Senate, he would 
 exercise a sound judgment promjtted by u strong desire to 
 promote the general prosperity and welfare of the country. 
 He hoped that his official action might be the guarantee 
 that he would do in all matters what he believed to be 
 
 The Democratic State Convention of Indiana, which as- 
 sembled at Indianapolis, February lf4th, 1852, lornially 
 presented his claims to the Presidency, pledging the vote 
 of the State for him; and he has elsewhere been favorably 
 regarded for that high office. On the 23d of June, ISGO, 
 when the delegates in whole or in part seceded from the 
 Baltimore Democratic Convention, and assembled sepa- 
 rately, representing the States of Virginia, North Carolina, 
 i^lissouri, California, Oregon, Florida, Louisiana, Missis- 
 sippi, Texas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Arkansas, they 
 nominated 31r. Hreckinridgo I'or the Presidency on the first 
 ballot, he receiving 81 votes and Daniel S. Dickinson, 2-4. 
 Those who cast their votes for Mr. Dickinson withdrew 
 them and gave them to Mr. Breckinridge. Mr. Green, of 
 North Carolina, nominated General Joseph Lane, of Ore- 
 gon, for Vice-President. A motion to nominate him by 
 acclamation was lost; but, a ballot being taken, he received 
 every vote. 
 
 Mr. Cushins addressed General Lane a note similar to 
 
134 LIFE OF GENERAL JOSEni LANE. 
 
 tliat wliich he sent to Mr. Breckinridge, and received the 
 following response : 
 
 "Washington, June 30, 1860. 
 "Hon. Caleb CtrsniXG, Presidmi: 
 
 "I haTe tlie honor to acknowledge the receipt of the communication 
 you make in behalf of the Democratic National ConTention, at 
 which, you inform me, that, on the 23d, I was unanimously nomin- 
 ated by that body for the office of Vice-President of the United 
 States, with the request that I should accept the nomination. 
 
 "The platform adopted, and of wRich you inclose me a cop.y, meets 
 with my hearty approval, as it embodies what I have been contend- 
 ing for as the only means of stopping sectional ambition, by securing 
 to all equality and Constitutional rights, the denial of which has led 
 to the present unhappy condition of public afi'aii'S. Compromises on 
 Constitutional principles are ever dangerous, a.nd I am rejoiced that 
 the true Democracy has seen fit to plant a firm foot on the rock of 
 truth, and to give the people an opportunity to vindicate (heir regard 
 for each others' rights. Non-intervention on the subject of slavery, 
 I may emphalically say, is the cardinal m.axlra of the Democracy. 
 Non-intervention by Congress, and non-intervention by Territorial 
 Legislatures is fully stated in the first resolution of the adopted 
 platform. In vain would we declare the former without insisting 
 upon the latter, because to permit Territorial Legislatures to prohibit 
 slavery, or by unfriendly legislation to invalidate property, would 
 be granting powers to the creature or agent which it is admitted do 
 not appertain to the principal order or power that creates, besides 
 which it would be fostering an element of ngitatiou in the territories 
 that must necessarily extend to Congress, and the people of all 
 the states. Being the right, of every citizen to enter the common 
 territory, with whatever property he legally possesses, it necessarily 
 devolves upon the Federal Government the duty to protect this right 
 of the citizen, whenever and wherever assailed or infringed. The 
 Democratic party honestly meets this agitating question which is 
 threatening to sever and destroy this brniliurliood of states. It does 
 not propose to legislate for the extension of sliivery, nor for its re- 
 striction, but to give to each state and to every citizen all that our 
 forefathers proposed to give, viz.: perfect equality of rights, and 
 then to commit to the people, to climate and soil, the determination 
 as to the kind of institutions best fitted to their requirements in their 
 Constitutional limits, and declaring as a fundamental maxim that 
 the people of a territory can only establish or prohibit slavery when 
 they come to form a Constitution preparatory to tlieir admission as a 
 state into the Union. If happily our principles shall prcvnil, an era 
 of peace and harmony will be restored to our distracted country, 
 and no more shall we be troubled with the agitation of this danger- 
 ous question, because it will be removed as well from the Territorial 
 Legislatures as well as from the halls of Congress, when we shall 
 be free to turn our attention to more useful issues. The motive of 
 our growth in national greatness, our Union must be preserved, but 
 this can only be done by maintaining the Constitution inviolate 
 
LIFE OP GENERAL JOSEPH LANE. 135 
 
 in nil its provisions and guarantees. The judicial authority, as 
 provided by the Constitution, must be maintained, and its decisions 
 implicitly obeyed, as well in regard to the right of property in the 
 territories as in all other matters. Hoping for success, and trusting 
 in the truth and justice of the principles of our party, and in that, 
 Divine Providence that has watched over us and made us one of the 
 great nations of the earth, and that we may continue to merit Divine 
 protection, I respectfully accept the nomination so unanimously 
 conferred on me, and cordially indorse the platform adopted by the 
 Convention. 
 
 " 1 have the honor to lie, sir, with much respect, 
 
 " Your friend and obedient servant, 
 
 "Joseph Lanb." 
 
THE DOUGLAS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 
 
 Held first in Charleston, Ai'bil oOth, and after- 
 ward IN Baltimore, June 18th. 
 
 THE CANDIDATES. 
 
 For President — Stephen A. Douglas, of Illinois. 
 
 For Vice-Prcsuhui — TIersohel V. Johnson, of Georgia. 
 
 THE PLATFORM. 
 
 Resolved, That we, the Democracy of the Union, in Con- 
 vention assembled, hereby declare our atlirmation of the 
 resolutions unanimously adopted and declared as a platform 
 of principles by the Democratic Convention at Cincinnati 
 in the year 1850, believing that Democratic principles are 
 unchangeable in their nature when applied to the same 
 subject-matter, and we recommend as our only further res- 
 olutions the following : 
 
 That inasmuch as differences of opinion exist in the 
 Democratic party as to the nature and extent of the 
 powers of a Territorial Legislature, and as to the powers 
 and duties of Congress, under the Constitution of the 
 United States, over the institution of slavery within the 
 territories ; 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic party will abide by the 
 decision of the Supreme Court of the United States over 
 the institution of slavery within the territories. 
 
 Resolved, That it is tlic duty of the United States to 
 afford ample and complete protection to all its citizens, at 
 home or abroad, and whether native or foreign born. 
 
 Resolved, That one of the necessities of the age, in a 
 
 military, commercial, and postal point of view, is speedy 
 
 communication between the Atlantic and Pacific States, 
 
 and the Democratic party pledge such Constitutional enact- 
 
 13(3 
 
BRECKINRIDGE PLATFORM. 137 
 
 ment as will insure the construction of a railroad to the 
 Pacific coast at the earliest practicable period. 
 
 Resolved^ That the Democratic party are in favor of the 
 acquisition of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall 
 be honorable to ourselves and just to Spain. 
 
 Kesolced, That the enactments of State Legislatures to 
 defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave law are 
 hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and 
 revolutionary in their eflFect. 
 
 THE ANTI-DOUGLAS DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION, 
 
 Held first in Charleston, S. C, April oOth, then in 
 Richmond, Va., June IItu, and afterward in Balti- 
 more, June 23d. 
 
 For Premhnl — JoilN C. BRECKINRIDGE, of Kentucky. 
 For Vice- President — JosEPH Lane, of Oregon. 
 
 thl; platform. 
 
 Resolved, That the platform adopted by the Democratic 
 party at Cincinnati be afliruicd, with the following explan- 
 atory resolutions : 
 
 1. That the government of a territory organized by an 
 act of Congress is provisional and temporary, and during 
 its existence all citizens of the United States have an equal 
 right to settle with their property in the territory, without 
 their rights, either of person or property, being destroyed 
 or injured by Congressional or territorial legislation. 
 
 2. That it is the duty of the Federal Government, in all 
 its departments, to protect the rights of persons and prop- 
 erty in the territories, and wherever else its Constitutional 
 authority extends. 
 
 8. That when the settlers in a territory have an ade- 
 
 (juate population to form a State Constitution, the right 
 
 of sovereignty commences, and being consummated by their 
 
 admission into the Union, they stand on an equality with 
 
 12 
 
138 BRECKINRIDGE PLATFORM. 
 
 the people of other states, and a state thus organized 
 ought to be admitted into the Federal Union, whether its 
 Constitution prohibits or recognizes the institution of 
 slavery. 
 
 Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor of the 
 acquisition of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall 
 be honorable to ourselves and just to Spain, at the earliest 
 practicable moment. 
 
 Resolved^ That the enactments of State Legislatures to 
 defeat the faithful execution of the Fugitive Slave law are 
 hostile in character, subversive of the Constitution, and 
 revolutionary in their effect. 
 
 Resolved, That the Democracy of the United States rec- 
 ognize it as the imperative duty of this Grovernment to pro- 
 tect the naturalized citizen in all his rights, whether at 
 home or in foreign lands, to the same extent as its native- 
 born citizens. 
 
 Whereas, One of the greatest necessities of the age, in a 
 political, commercial, postal and military point of view, is 
 a speedy communication between the Pacific and Atlantic 
 coasts, therefore, be it 
 
 Resolved, That the National Democratic party do hereby 
 pledge themselves to use every means in their power to 
 secure the passage of some bill, to the extent of their 
 Constitutional authority, by Congress, for the construction 
 of a Pacific Railroad from the Mississippi river to the 
 Pacific Ocean, at the earliest practicable moment. 
 
HOW CONGRESS ELECTS. 139 
 
 now CONGRESS ELECTS THE PRESIDENT AND 
 VICE-PRESIDENT. 
 
 The House of Representatives has nothing whatever to 
 do with the election ol" a Vice-President, nor the Senate 
 with the election of a President, the powers of each body 
 are distinct and entirely independent of the other. 
 
 If no President be chosen by the electors, the House of 
 Representatives may choose the President, their choice 
 being restricted to the persons having the highest numbers, 
 not exceeding three on the list of those voted for for Pres- 
 ident. 
 
 If no Vice-President be chosen by the electors, the Senate 
 shall choose a Vice-President from the two highest numbers 
 on the list of those voted for for Vice-President, 
 
 If the House fails to elect a President before the 4th of 
 March next following, then the Vice-President, whether 
 elected by the electors or by the Senate, shall act as Presi- 
 dent. 
 
 The rule or manner of voting under which the Senate 
 chooses a Vice-President, is exactly the reverse of that of 
 the House in choosing a President — each being the reverse 
 of the general principle or basis upon which the respect- 
 ive bodies are organized. The House representing the 
 people, and ordinarily voting per capita, vote for President 
 by the states, the representation from each state having one 
 vote, and a majority of all the states being necessary to a 
 choice. The Senate, representing the states — in theory, at 
 least, and the manner of electing senators — votes for Vice- 
 President [icr capita, each senator being entitled to a vote, 
 and a majority of all the senators being necessary to a 
 choice. 
 
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