* nightly meetings of large numbers of mem- | from any of the United States at the option bers from the slave States, led by Mr. of their owner. Calhoun, to consider the state of things between the North and the South. They appointed committees who prepared an address to the people. It was in this condition of things, that President Taylor expressed his opinion, in his message, of the remedies required. California, New Mexico and Utah, had been left without governments. For California, he recommended that having a sufficient population and having framed a constitution, she be admitted as a State into the Union; and for New Mexico and Utah, without mixing the slavery question with their territorial governments, they be left to ripen into States, and settle the slavery question for themselves in their State constitutions. Mr. Clay in reply, said: "Coming from a slave State, as I do, I owe it to myself, I owe it to truth, I owe it to the subject, to say that no earthly power could induce me to vote for a specific measure for the introduction of slavery where it had not before existed, either south or north of that line. * * If the citizens of those territories choose to establish slavery, and if they come here with constitutions establishing slavery, I am for admitting them with such provisions in their constitutions; but then it will be their own work, and not ours, and their posterity will have to reproach them, and not us, for forming constitutions allowing the institution of slavery to exist among them." Mr. Seward of New York, proposed a With a view to meet the wishes of all renewal of the Wilmot Proviso, in the folparties, and arrive at some definite and lowing resolution: "Neither slavery nor permanent adjustment of the slavery ques- involuntary servitude, otherwise than by tion, Mr. Clay early in the session in- conviction for crime, shall ever be allowed troduced compromise resolutions which in either of said territories of Utah and were practically a tacking together of the New Mexico;" but his resolution was reseveral bills then on the calendar, provid- jected in the Senate by a vote of 23 yeas to ing for the admission of California-the 33 nays. Following this, Mr. Calhoun territorial government for Utah and New had read for him in the Senate, by his Mexico-the settlement of the Texas boun- friend James M. Mason of Virginia, his dary-slavery in the District of Columbia last speech. It embodied the points cov--and for a fugitive slave law. It was ered by the address to the people, preseriously and earnestly opposed by many, pared by him the previous year; the probas being a concession to the spirit of dis-ability of a dissolution of the Union, and union-a capitulation under threat of se-presenting a case to justify it. The tenor cession; and as likely to become the source of more contentions than it proposed to quiet. The resolutions were referred to a special committee, who promptly reported a bill embracing the comprehensive plan of compromise which Mr. Clay proposed. Among the resolutions offered, was the following: "Resolved, that as slavery does not exist by law and is not likely to be introduced into any of the territory acquired by the United States from the Republic of Mexico, it is inexpedient for Congress to provide by law either for its introduction into or exclusion from any part of the said territory; and that appropriate territorial governments ought to be established by Congress in all of the said territory, and assigned as the boundaries of the proposed State of California, without the adoption of any restriction or condition on the subject of slavery." Mr. Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, objected that the measure gave nothing to the South in the settlement of the question; and he required the extension of the Missouri compromise line to the Pacific Ocean as the least that he would be willing to take, with the specific recognition of the right to hold slaves in the territory below that line; and that, before such territories are admitted into the Union as States, slaves may be taken there of the speech is shown by the following ex- * * * * * * * as events are now moving, it will not require the South to secede to dissolve the Union. * * If the agitation goes on, nothing will be left to hold the States together except force." He answered the question, How can the Union be saved? with which his speech opened, by suggesting. "To provide for the insertion of a provision in the constitution, by an amendment, which will restore to the South in substance the power she possessed of protecting herself, before the equilibrium between the sections was destroyed by the action of the government." He did not state of what the amendment should consist, but later on, it was ascertained from reliable sources that his idea was a dual executive-one President from the free, and one from the slave States, the consent of both of whom should be required to all acts of Congress before they become laws. This speech of Mr. Calhoun's, is important as explaining many of his previous actions; and as furnishing a guide to those who ten years afterwards attempted to carry out practically the suggestions thrown out by him. Mr. Clay's compromise bill was rejected. It was evident that no compromise of any kind whatever on the subject of slavery, under any one of its aspects separately, much less under all put together, could possibly be made. There was no spirit of concession manifested. The numerous measures put together in Mr. Clay's bill were disconnected and separated. Each measure received a separate and independent consideration, and with a result which showed the injustice of the attempted conjunction; for no two of them were passed by the same vote, even of the members of the committee which had even unanimously reported favorably upon them as a whole. Mr. Calhoun died in the spring of 1850; before the separate bill for the admission of California was taken up. His death took place at Washington, he having reached the age of 68 years. A eulogy upon him was delivered in the Senate by his colleague, Mr. Butler, of South Carolina. Mr. Calhoun was the first great advocate of the doctrine of secession. He was the author of the nullification doctrine, and an advocate of the extreme doctrine of States Rights. He was an eloquent speaker-a man of strong intellect. His speeches were plain, strong, concise, sometimes impassioned, and always severe. Daniel Webster said of him, that "he had the basis, the indispensable basis of all high characters, and that was unspotted integrity, unimpeached honor and char acter!" In July of this year an event took place which threw a gloom over the country. The President, General Taylor, contracted a fever from exposure to the hot sun at a celebration of Independence Day, from which he died four days afterwards. He was a man of irreproachable private character, undoubted patriotism, and established reputation for judgment and firmness. Ris brief career showed no deficiency of political wisdom nor want of political training. His administration was beset with difficulties, with momentous questions pending, and he met the crisis with firmness and determination, resolved to maintain the Federal Union at all hazards. His first and only annual message, the leading points of which have been stated, evinces a spirit to do what was right among all the States. His death was a public calamity. No man could have been more devoted to the Union nor more opposed to the slavery agitation; and his position as a Southern man and a slaveholder his military reputation, and his election by a majority of the people as well as of the States, would have given him a power in the settlement of the pending questions of the day which no President without these qualifications could have possessed. In accordance with the Constitution, the office of President thus devolved upon the Vice-President, Mr. Millard Fillmore, who was duly inaugurated July 10, 1850. The new cabinet, with Daniel Webster as Secretary of State, was duly appointed and confirmed by the Senate. The bill for the admission of California as a State in the Union, was called up in the Senate and sought to be amended by extending the Missouri Compromise line through it, to the Pacific Ocean, so as to authorize slavery in the State below that line. The amendment was introduced and pressed by Southern friends of the late Mr. Calhoun, and made a test question. It was lost, and the bill passed by a twothird vote; whereupon ten Southern Senators offered a written protest, the concluding clause of which was: "We dissent from this bill, and solemnly protest against its passage, because in sanctioning measures so contrary to former precedents, to obvious policy, to the spirit and intent of the constitution of the United States, for the purpose of excluding the slaveholding States from the territory thus to be erected into a State, this government in effect declares that the exclusion of slavery from the territory of the United States is an object so high and important as to justify a disregard not only of all the principles of sound policy, but also of the constitution itself. Against this conclusion we must now and for ever protest, as it is destructive of the safety and liberties of those whose rights have been committed to our care, fatal to the peace and equality of the States which we represent, and must lead, if persisted in, to the dissolution of that confederacy, in which the slaveholding | appearance in national politics in 1840, when States have never sought more than a presidential ticket was nominated by a equality, and in which they will not be party then formed favoring the abolition of content to remain with less." On objection being made, followed by debate, the Senate refused to receive the protest, or permit it to be entered on the Journal. The bill went to the House of Representatives, was readily passed, and promptly approved by the President. Thus was virtually accomplished the abrogation of the Missouri compromise line; and the extension or non-extension of slavery was then made to form a foundation for future political parties. slavery; it had a very slight following which was increased ten-fold at the election of 1844 when the same party again put a ticket in the field with James G. Birney of Michigan, as its candidate for the Presidency; who received 62,140 votes. The efforts of the leaders of that faction were continued, and persisted in to such an extent, that when in 1848 it nominated a ticket with Gerritt Smith for President, against the Democratic candidate, Martin Van Buren, the former received 296,232 The year 1850 was prolific with disunion votes. In the presidential contest of 1852 movements in the Southern States. The the abolition party again nominated a Senators who had joined with Mr. Calhoun ticket, with John P. Hale as its candidate in the address to the people, in 1849, for President, and polled 157,926 votes. united with their adherents in establishing This large following was increased from at Washington a newspaper entitled "The time to time, until uniting with a new Southern Press," devoted to the agitation party then formed, called the Republican of the slavery question; to presenting the party, which latter adopted a platform enadvantages of disunion, and the organi- dorsing the views and sentiments of the zation of a confederacy of Southern abolitionists, the great and decisive battle States to be called the "United States for the principles involved, was fought in South." Its constant aim was to influence the ensuing presidential contest of 1856; the South against the North, and advoca- when the candidate of the Republican ted concert of action by the States of the party, John C. Fremont, supported by the former section. It was aided in its efforts entire abolition party, polled 1,341,812 by newspapers published in the South, votes. The first national platform of the more especially in South Carolina and Abolition party, upon which it went into Mississippi. A disunion convention was actually held, in Nashville, Tennessee, and invited the assembly of a Southern Congress. Two States, South Carolina and Mississippi responded to the appeal; passed laws to carry it into effect, and the former went so far as to elect its quota of Representatives to the proposed new Southern Congress. These occurrences are referred to as showing the spirit that prevailed, and the extraordinary and unjustifiable means used by the leaders to mislead and exasperate the people. The assembling of a Southern "Congress" was a turning point in the progress of disunion. Georgia refused to join; and her weight as a great Southern State was sufficient to cause the failure of the scheme. But the seeds of discord were sown, and had taken root, only to spring up at a future time when circumstances should be more favorable to the accomplishment of the object. the contest of 1840, favored the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia and Territories; the inter-state slave trade, and a general opposition to slavery to the full extent of constitutional power. Following the discussion of the subject of slavery, in the Senate and House of Representatives, brought about by the presentation of petitions and memorials, and the passage of the resolutions in 1836 rejecting such petitions, the question was again raised by the presentation in the House, by Mr. Slade of Vermont, on the 20th December 1837, of two memorials praying the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and moving that they be referred to a select committee. Great excitement prevailed in the chamber, and of the many attempts by the Southern members an adjournment was had. The next day a resolution was offered that thereafter all such petitions and memorials touching the Although the Congress of the United abolition of slavery should, when preStates had in 1790 and again in 1836 sented, be laid on the table; which resoluformally declared the policy of the govern- tion was adopted by a large vote. During ment to be non-interference with the States the 24th Congress, the Senate pursued the in respect to the matter of slavery within course of laying on the table the motion to the limits of the respective States, the sub-receive all abolition petitions; and both ject continued to be agitated in conse- Houses during the 25th Congress continued quence of petitions to Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, which was under the exclusive control of the federal government; and of movements throughout the United States to limit, and finally abolish it. The subject first made its the same course of conduct; when finally on the 25th of January 1840, the House adopted by a vote of 114 to 108, an amendment to the rules, called the 21st Rule, which provided:-"that no petition, memorial or resolution, or other paper, pray ing the abolition of slavery in the District | The first political parties in the United of Columbia, or any state or territory, or States, from the establishment of the fedethe slave-trade between the States or ter- ral government and for many years afterritories of the United States, in which it wards, were denominated Federalists and now exists, shall be received by this Democrats, or Democratic Republicans. House, or entertained in any way what- The former was an anti-alien party. The ever." This rule was afterwards, on the latter was made up to a large extent of 3d of December, 1844, rescinded by the naturalized foreigners; refugees from EngHouse, on motion of Mr. J. Quincy Adams, land, Ireland and Scotland, driven from by a vote of 108 to 80; and a motion to home for hostility to the government or for re-instate it, on the 1st of December 1845, attachment to France. Naturally, aliens was rejected by a vote of 84 to 121. sought alliance with the Democratic party, Within five years afterwards-on the 17th which favored the war against Great September 1850,-the Congress of the Britain. The early party contests were United States enacted a law, which was ap- based on the naturalization laws; the first proved by the President, abolishing slavery of which, approved March 26, 1790, rein the District of Columbia. quired only two years' residence in this On the 25th of February, 1850, there country; a few years afterwards the time was presented in the House of Representa- was extended to five years; and in 1798 tives, two petitions from citizens of Penn- the Federalists taking advantage of the sylvania and Delaware, setting forth that war fever against France, and then being slavery, and the constitution which per- in power, extended the time to fourteen mits it, violates the Divine law; is incon-years. (See Alien and Sedition Laws of sistent with republican principles; that 1798). Jefferson's election and Demoits existence has brought evil upon the cratic victory of 1800, brought the period country; and that no union can exist with back to five years in 1802, and re-inforced States which tolerate that institution; and the Democratic party. The city of New asking that some plan be devised for the York, especially, from time to time became immediate, peaceful dissolution of the filled with foreigners; thus naturalized; Union. The House refused to receive and brought into the Democratic ranks; and consider the petitions; as did also the crowded out native Federalists from conSenate when the same petitions were pre-trol of the city government, and to meet sented the same month. this condition of affairs, the first attempt The presidential election of 1852 was the at a Native American organization was last campaign in which the Whig party appeared in National politics. It nominated a ticket with General Winfield Scott as its candidate for President. His opponent on the Democratic ticket was General Franklin Pierce. A third ticket was placed in the field by the Abolition party, with John P. Hale as its candidate for President. The platform and declaration of principles of the Whig party was in substance a ratification and endorsement of the several measures embraced in Mr. Clay's compromise resolutions of the previous session of Congress, before referred to; and the policy of a revenue for the economical administration of the government, to be derived mainly from duties on imports, and by these means to afford protection to American industry. The main plank of the platform of the Abolition party (or Independent Democrats, as they were called) was for the non-extension and gradual extinction of slavery. The Democratic party equally adhered to the compromise measure. The election resulted in the choice of Franklin Pierce, by a popular vote of 1,601,474, and 254 electoral votes, against a popular aggregate vote of 1,542,403 (of which the abolitionists polled 157,926) and 42 electoral votes, for the Whig and Abolition candidates. Mr. Pierce was duly inaugurated as President, March 4, 1853. made. Beginning in 1835; ending in failure in election of Mayor in 1837, it was revived in April, 1844, when the Native American organization carried New York city for its Mayoralty candidate by a good majority. The success of the movement there, caused it to spread to New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In Philadelphia, it was desperately opposed by the Democratic, Irish and Roman Catholic element, and so furiously, that it resulted in riots, in which two Romish Churches were burned and destroyed. The adherents of the American organization were not confined to Federalists or Whigs, but largely of native Democrats; and the Whigs openly voted with Democratic Natives in order to secure their vote for Henry Clay for the Presidency; but when in November, 1844, New York and Philadelphia both gave Native majorities, and so sapped the Whig vote, that both places gave majorities for the Democratic Presidential electors, Whigs drew off. In 1845, at the April election in New York, the natives were defeated, and the new party disappeared there. As a result of the autumn election of 1844, the 29th Congress, which organized in December, 1845, had six Native Representatives; four from New York and two from Pennsylvania. In the 30th Congress, Pennsylvania had one. Thereafter for some years, with the exception of a the small vote in Pennsylvania and New York, Nativism disappeared. An able writer of that day-Hon. A. H. H. Stuart, of Virginia-published under the nom-de-plume of "Madison" several letters in vindication of the American party (revived in 1852,) in which he said: "The vital principle of the American party is Americanism-developing itself in a deep-rooted attachment to our own country-its constitution, its union, and its laws to American men, and American measures, and American interests-or, in other words, a fervent patriotismwhich, rejecting the transcendental philanthropy of abolitionists, and that kindred batch of wild enthusiasts, who would seek to embroil us with foreign countries, in righting the wrongs of Ireland, or Hungary, or Cuba-would guard with vestal vigilance American institutions and Ameriran interests against the baneful effects of foreign influence." amendment was not agreed to; and the bill finally passed without it, on the 25th May, 1854. the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The bill was tabled in the Senate; to be revived at the following session. In the Senate it was amended, on motion of Mr. Douglas, to read: "That so much of the 8th section of an act approved March 6, 1820, (the Missouri compromise) *** which, being inconsistent with the principles of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the States and Territories, as recognized by the legislature of 1850, commonly called the Compromise measures, is hereby declared inoperative and void; it being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, 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." It was further amended, on motion of Senator Clayton, to prohibit About 1852, when the question of slavery" alien suffrage." In the House this in the territories, and its extension or its abolition in the States, was agitated and causing sectional differences in the country, many Whigs and Democrats forsook their parties, and took sides on the questions of the day. This was aggravated by the large number of alien naturalized citizens constantly added to the ranks of voters, who took sides with the Democrats and against the Whigs. Nativism then re-appeared, but in a new form-that of a secret fraternity. Its real name and objects were not revealed-even to its members, until they reached a high degree in the order; and the answer of members on being questioned on these subjects was, "I don't know" which gave it the popular name, by which it is yet known, of "Knownothing." Its moving causes were the growing power and designs of the Roman Catholic Church in America; the sudden influx of aliens; and the greed and incapacity of naturalized citizens for office. Its cardinal principle was: "Americans must rule America"; and its countersign was the order of General Washington on a critical occasion during the war: "Put none but Americans on guard to-night." Its early nominations were not made public, but were made by select committees and conventions of delegates. At first these nominations were confined to selections of the best Whig or best Democrat on the respective tickets; and the choice not being made known, but quietly voted for by all the members of the order, the effect was only visible after election, and threw all calculation into chaos. For a while it was really the arbiter of elections. On February 8, 1853, a bill passed the House of Representatives providing a territorial government for Nebraska, embracing all of what is now Kansas and Nebraska. It was silent on the subject of So far as Nebraska was concerned, no excitement of any kind marked the initiation of her territorial existence. The persons who emigrated there seemed to regard the pursuits of business as of more interest than the discussion of slavery. Kansas was less fortunate. Her territory became at once the battle-field of a fierce political conflict between the advocates of slavery, and the free soil men from the North who went there to resist the establishment of that institution in the territory. Differences arose between the Legislature and the Governor, brought about by antagonisms between the Proslavery party and the Free State party; and the condition of affairs in Kansas assumed so frightful a mien in January, 1856, that the President sent a special message to Congress on the subject, January 24, 1856; followed by a Proclamation, February 11, 1856, "warning all unlawful combinations (in the territory) to retire peaceably to their respective abodes, or he would use the power of the local militia, and the available forces of the United States to disperse them." Several applications were made to Congress for several successive years, for the admission of Kansas as a state in the Union; upon the basis of three separate and distinct constitutions, all differing as to the main questions at issue between the contending factions. The name of Kansas was for some years synonymous with all that is lawless and anarchical. Elections became mere farces, and the officers thus fraudulently placed in power, used their authority only for their own or their party's interest. The party opposed to slavery at length triumphed ; a constitution |