the Whig party of the United States as a settlement, in principle and substance, of the dangerous and exciting questions which they embrace, and so far as they are concerned we will maintain them, and insist upon their strict enforcement until time and experience shall demonstrate the necessity for further legislation to guard against the evasion of the laws on the one hand, or the abuse of their power on the other, not impairing their present efficiency; and we deprecate all further agitation, whenever, wherever or however the attempt may be made; and we will maintain the system as essential to the nationality of the Whig party and the integrity of the Union."

The Free Soil Convention met at Pittsburg, August 11, nominated Senator John P. Hale, of New Hampshire, for President, and George W. Julian, of Indiana, for Vice-President. Its platform consisted of twenty-two planks, of which eleven related to the slavery question. One of these denounced, in detail, the whole series of Compromise Measures of 1850, followed by the declaration: "That no permanent settlement of the slavery question can be looked for except in the practical recognition of the truth that slavery is sectional and freedom. national; by the total separation of the General Government from slavery and the exercise of its legitimate and constitutional influence on the side of freedom; and by leaving to the states the whole subject of slavery, and the extradition of fugitives from service.” Another of the declarations was, "That to the persevering and importunate demands of the Slave Power for more slave states, new slave territories, and the nationalization of slavery, our distinct and final answer is, no more slave states, no slave territory, no nationalized slavery, and no National legislation for the extradition of slaves."

Another clause distinctly announced the principle of "the Higher Law" in the declaration, "That the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 is repugnant to the Constitution, to the principles of common law, to the spirit of Christianity, and to the sentiments of the civilized world; we therefore deny its binding force on the American people, and demand its immediate and total repeal.”

Upon some subjects of National interest, aside from slavery, the platform took ground so far in advance of its time, that even the progressive Republican party did not hold the same positions till ten years later. It was an able and patriotic document, but cut little figure in the campaign, for the Free Soil vote was only 156,149, not much more than half what it had been four years earlier.

As between the Democrats and Whigs the campaign was spirit

less, and the result a decisive Democratic victory. In the Electoral College Pierce and King had 254 votes, and Scott and Graham only 42. The popular vote was Democratic, 1,601,474; Whig, 1,386,578. The Thirty-third Congress, elected mainly at the same time, had in the Senate 38 Democrats, 22 Whigs and two Free Soilers; in the House 159 Democrats, 71 Whigs and four Free Soilers. The Michigan vote on President was, for Pierce, 41,842; Scott, 33,971, and Hale, 7,237. Its Congressional delegation was all Democratic. Lewis Cass and Charles E. Stuart represented the State in the Senate.

Of the condition and prospects of the country at this time Horace Greeley said in his "American Conflict": "The finances were healthy and the public credit unimpaired. Industry and trade were signally prosperous. The tariff had ceased to be a theme of partisan or sectional strife. The immense yield of gold in California, during the four preceding years, had stimulated enterprise and quickened the energies of labor, and its volume as yet showed no signs of diminution. And though the Fugitive Slave Law was still denounced and occasionally resisted by Abolitionists in the free states, while Disunionists still plotted in secret, and, more openly, prepared in Southern commercial conventions, there was still a goodly majority in the South, with a still larger in the North and Northwest, in favor of maintaining the Union and preserving the greatest practical measure of cordiality and fraternity between the free and slave states, substantially on the Compromise of 1850."

If the Democrats, as a party, had been sincere in their assertion of the purpose to resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress, "the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt might be made," this pleasant picture of peace and prosperity might have continued, with Democratic supremacy, for many years; but overconfident in their strength, and not comprehending the depth of feeling in the North, they speedily renewed the agitation.

At the last session of the Thirty-second Congress a bill was introduced to organize the territory west of Iowa and Missouri into a single Territory, to be called the Territory of Platte. It was reported from Committee as a bill to organize the Territory of Nebraska. Although the Territory was large, and the population increasing, many Southern members opposed the bill, and it was reported adversely to the House by the Committee of the Whole. A motion to table it was

lost, and it was passed and sent to the Senate, where it remained, at the end of the session, among the bills not acted upon.

At the opening of the Thirty-third Congress Senator Dodge, of Iowa, introduced a similar bill, which was referred to the Committee on Territories. It was subsequently reported by that Committee, when Senator Dixon, of Kentucky, offered an amendment, providing that the Act of 1820 should not be so construed as to apply to the Territory contemplated by this act, nor to any other Territory of the United States. Senator Dixon was a Whig, and was charged by the Washington Union, the Democratic organ, with taking this course in order to divide and disorganize the Democratic party. To this charge he replied on the floor of the Senate: "Sir, I merely wish to remark that upon the question of slavery I know no Whiggery, and I know no Democracy. I am a Pro-Slavery man. I am from a slave-holding State. I represent a slave-holding constituency. I am here to maintain the rights of that people, whenever they are before the Senate."

Senator Douglas did not wish discussion on this issue forced immediately, and therefore had the bill referred back to his Committee on Territories. He subsequently reported it, amended so as to create the two Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, and with the provision that all questions pertaining to slavery in the states, to be formed from these territories, should be left to the action of the people thereof, through their appropriate representatives, and that the provisions of the Constitution and laws of the United States in respect to fugitives from service, should be carried into faithful execution in all the organized territories, the same as in the states.

The bill, as introduced, had the stipulation, "That the Constitution and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within said territory as elsewhere in the United States.” To this the amended bill added the following reservation: "Except the section of the Act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which was superceded by the principles of the legislation of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measure, and is declared inoperative."

But even this was not strong enough to suit those who hoped to make slave states of the new territories. After a hot debate Senator Douglas proposed the following in place of the reservation above quoted: "Except the section of the Act preparatory to the admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6, 1820, which, being inconsistent with the principle of non-intervention by Congress with slavery in the states and territories, as recognized by the legislation in

1850, commonly called the Compromise Measure, 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."

This was adopted by a vote of 35 to 10. That it was not intended to mean what it said, was clearly demonstrated immediately afterwards, for Senator Chase, of Ohio, moved to add to the above the following: "Under which the people of the Territory, through their appropriate representatives, may, if they see fit, prohibit the existence of slavery therein." This was rejected by a vote of 36 to 10, thus showing that so far as the territories were concerned the doctrine of "Popular Sovereignty" was a pretense and a sham-that the people of the territories were not to be allowed to prohibit slavery, previous to their admission as states. Further contest in the Senate was hopeless, and the bill passed on the morning of March 4th, by the decisive vote of 37 to 14.

In the House the measure was fought with more vigor, and at first with some hope of compassing its defeat. A separate bill had been there introduced, but the Senate bill was substituted for it, and, by a parliamentary trick, its opponents were prevented from offering amendments. The discussion upon it was long and acrimonious, but it finally passed, by vote of 113 yeas to 100 nays. The affirmative vote consisted of 101 Democrats, of whom 44 were from the North, and 12 Whigs, all of whom were from the South. The negative vote consisted of 44 Northern Democrats, 44 Northern Whigs and three Free Soilers. The bill went back to the Senate, nominally as a House bill, but in reality the Senate measure, finally passed that body May 26, and was signed by President Pierce, May 30. The Northern Whigs, it will be noticed, finally voted solidly against the measure, but the non-committal attitude of their party in previous campaigns had prevented their having members enough to make their votes effective. The passage of the measure sealed the fate of the Whigs as an organization, and hastened the concentration of anti-slavery sentiment in a new party.

This brief narration of events can convey but a faint impression of the excitement with which the men of the North watched their course. The long discussion of the Compromise Measures and of the Kansas Nebraska bill had taught them many things, not only with regard to

Southern aggressions in the interest of slavery, but with the evils of slavery itself. The literature of the period was intense. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," which probably had a deeper and more widespread influence on opinion than any other story of economic and social life that was ever written, was published during this period of discussion, first as a serial in Dr. Gamaliel Bailey's Washington paper, the National Era, and afterwards in book form. The paper mentioned, and many other political newspapers, made the KansasNebraska bill and kindred matters the chief topics of discussion, and a number of religious papers gave them scarcely less attention.

The Anti-Slavery element in the North had accepted the admission of Missouri even with the Compromise, with reluctance. That measure for admission had passed by 76 votes from slave states, and only 14 from free states, making 90. The negative votes were 87, all from the free states. The South, in the admission of that state with slavery in its Constitution, had reaped all the benefit of the Compromise, and now violated its spirit and repudiated its force. That instrument had dedicated the territory which it covered to freedom forever, and now it was proposed to make it perpetually slave. The Compromises of 1850 again had been accepted as a finality, and both the great parties had so declared in their conventions not two years previous to this time. Yet a new agitation had been immediately begun, and in the debates in this Congress the purpose had been made manifest, to admit no more free states to the Union unless an equal number of slave states could come in; a purpose, further than this to carry slavery into all the territories. 1850 the North had yielded enough. day of Compromises was past. The time for organizing a new party had come, and Michigan was to take the lead in that work.

In the legislation of 1820 and It would yield no more. The