cally beyond our reach. But as we cannot deny our responsibility concerning it, so long as it finds protection under the laws of the Federal Government, so we will never cease to war against it so long as the purpose of the Constitution shall remain unaccomplished to secure the blessings of liberty to all within its power.

2. That in following in the footsteps of the fathers of the republic, who regarded FREEDOM the NATIONAL and slavery the sectional sentiment, we best vindicate their claims to enlightened patriotism, and our own to be considered loyal supporters of the government they established; and that opposition to any extension of slavery, and to any augmentation of its power, is clearly the duty of all who respect the doctrine or the practice of the wisest and ablest of the framers of the Constitution.

3. That the attempt now pending in Congress to repeal the enactment by which the vast territory north of the Missouri Compromise line was dedicated to freedom is an outrage upon justice, humanity and good faith; one by which traitorous ambition, confederated with violation of a solemn and time-honored compact, is seeking to inflict upon the nation a deep and indelible disgrace. We denounce the scheme as infamous; and we call upon the people to hold its authors and abettors to the most rigid and righteous accountability.

4. That executive patronage has grown to be an evil of immense magnitude; consolidating the power of the government into the hands of the incumbent of the Presidential mansion to a degree subversive of all proper accountability to the people, and for which there is no adequate remedy short of a transfer of this power from the President to the people.

5. That we are in favor of cheap postage by land and sea; of free grants of land out of the public domain in limited quantities to actual settlers; of harbor and river improvements, National in their charac ter; and of grants by the government in aid of a railroad to the Pacific in such form as shall best avoid the wasteful splendor of government jobs and secure the early completion of the road.

Additional resolutions urged great care in the choice of members of the Legislature, and made several pronounced declarations in reference to matters of State legislation.

A large Committee on Nominations was appointed, and its recommendation of a full State ticket, with Kinsley S. Bingham at its head, was adopted by the Convention, which also appointed a State Central Committee, consisting of S. A. Baker, Samuel P. Mead, Samuel Zug, J. W. Childs, R. R. Beecher, W. W. Murphy and D. C. Leach.

The papers of those days did not make a practice of reporting the speeches at conventions, and the accounts of those made on this

occasion were provokingly meager. We are told that the nominee for Governor was "vociferously called," and made a short speech, which was received with "rapturous applause," but what he said contemporary records fail to state. Henry Barns and H. H. Emmons spoke briefly. Both were given the floor by courtesy as representatives of the Anti-Slavery Whig element. Of the latter speech, and of the desire for union, which found expression at the Convention, the Free Democrat gave this glimpse, in an editorial:

"Mr. Emmons was not prepared to say 'Fellow Free Democrats,' but he was rejoiced in the nominations which had been made, and intimated that at least the nominee for Governor would receive his vote. He was pleased to observe the spirit of liberality and concession which was manifested in the choice of candidates, and in all the action of the Convention. He was heartily with us in our principles and purposes, and so were a vast majority of the Whig party of Michigan. He seemed to hope that there would be but two parties in the State this fall, that all the friends of freedom would be able to stand upon a common platform against the party and platform of the slave propagandists. Mr. Emmons made a masterly speech, and won the hearts of all who heard him. If the Whigs of Michigan will take his ground the days of the Slave Democracy are numbered. The Free Democracy are willing to meet them on the grounds indicated in that speech, as the oft repeated affirmative responses showed.

KINSLEY S. BINGHAM.

"The speeches were of great service to the Convention by opening to the members some view of the advantages which may yet accrue

from a judicious and liberal policy in the District and County nominations; and they were a source of sincere delight, as they indicated a probability of a co-operation of the Whigs in the effort to carry the doctrines of freedom into execution."

This was the first editorial expression by the Free Democrat of a hope of union with the Whigs. Its editor, S. A. Baker, was prominent in this convention. His associate, J. F. Conover, was conspicuous in subsequent movements, and was one of the secretaries of the Republican convention that was held in July following.

The speech of Mr. Emmons was useful, not only, as here indicated, in inspiring the Free Democrats with a hope of union, but also as an indication to the Whigs, from one of their prominent members, of their duty in the existing situation. It voiced the sentiments of thousands of Whigs who had already overcome their natural reluctance to giving up their old organization. The necessities of the situation were gradually bringing others around to the same view, and the unselfish attitude of Mr. Bingham materially aided in bringing them to a rational and politic course. That patriotic and publicspirited gentleman, in an interview with Col. DeLand a few weeks after the convention, not only announced his own willingness to retire, if that would help the cause which he had at heart, but volunteered the statement that he favored the withdrawal of the whole ticket if the liberal Whigs and Democrats could thereby be united. He further expressed the conviction that a union could be formed that would carry Michigan and the entire North.

Mr. Bingham also suggested that the Anti-Nebraska editors of the State should have a conference to see if they could find a basis of common opposition to slavery aggression. Following this interview there were conferences with Jacob M. Howard, Zachariah Chandler, William A. Howard, A. S. Williams, E. A. Wales, Henry Barns and others. A meeting of editors was then called at the Detroit Tribune office in March. It was attended by Henry Barns and Joseph Warren, of Detroit; Z. B. Knight, of the Pontiac Gazette; George A. Fitch, of the Kalamazoo Telegraph; H. B. Rowlson, of the Hillsdale Standard, and C. V. DeLand, of the Jackson Citizen. Even yet the prospect of such a combination as would present an invincible front to the common foe, was not considered very bright. Mr. Warren, however, was enthusiastic and declared in favor of the plan of disbanding both the old parties and forming a new one, with a new name, this plan, which he had before this outlined in his paper, he consist

To

ently adhered.

Mr. Fitch followed in an editorial in the Kalamazoo Telegraph of April 26, declaring that the old parties had outlived their usefulness, and that an imperative necessity existed for the organization of a new political party. In the course of the article

he said: "We cannot look to any other movements of the old parties in reference to the Nebraska bill and questions touching slavery that bring any promise of success, nor to any class of old brokenwinded, broken-down politicians; but we may look with a strong hope of success to see these measures consummated by the honorable and active young men of the State, those who have not trimmed their sails to catch every breeze which has swept across every political sea; those who have not acted for years as the mere weathercocks of public opinion, but active and untiring young men who shall enter with assurance and vigor into the field-those capable of grasping the questions of the time, and wringing from them their meanings-a little after the Young America' order, if you please. We therefore advise the holding of a Young Men's Independent State Convention, irrespective of party, at an early period, to express their opinions upon the leading questions which now agitate the masses of the people of this and other states, to advise and consult together, and to adopt such plans for future action as their consultation would give rise to."

Most of the other Whig papers of the state gradually fell into line. The spring elections also helped in the movement. In New Hampshire and Connecticut anti-Administration tickets were elected, although the opposition to the Democracy had not yet crystalized into perfectly coherent organizations. Still greater encouragement had come from a local election within our own borders. In Grand Rapids

the Eagle, formerly a Whig paper, had expressed its approval of the chief objects of the Free Democracy, its editor, Aaron B. Turner, taking the ground that the Whig party had reached the end of its career, and that there must be a reorganization, upon broader principles of freedom and equal rights, to renew the struggle against the Democratic party. After the February Convention the Eagle promptly put up the Free Democratic ticket, but urged a movement for another and joint Convention, an abandonment of the Whig organization, a new party and new life upon popular ground. It also strongly urged that a beginning be made right at home, in the city nominations, for the spring election. Mr. Turner, personally, was at the front of this movement, and he was joined by a number of leading Whigs, some Democrats who had become dissatisfied with the attitude

of their own party, and the leaders of the Free Democracy, who had before this perfected a strong local organization under the name of the Free Democratic Club. A kind of free-for-all City Convention was held, Wilder D. Foster, one of the most active members of the club was, against his protest, nominated for Mayor, and elected. This sweeping success, in a Democratic City, of an opposition not yet half organized, was accepted as an omen of what a well-equipped and cohesive party might accomplish in the State as a whole.

As the Free Democrats had, all along, been the most ready to make overtures for a union, while the Whigs had been rather coy of accepting such advances, so the former were the first to take a practical step in that direction. This was in a call, issued by the State Central Committee, which had been appointed in February, for a mass convention to be held in Kalamazoo, June 21. As an illustration of the perfervid and hortatory style of address to which the intense excitement of the period led the call is worth reproducing in full. It is as follows:

FELLOW CITIZENS-A fearfully momentous question is agitating the American people: It is whether within the forms of the Constitution (which were designed to establish and extend the blessings of liberty), the scope and intent of that instrument shall be subverted and its whole power exerted to promote and extend the system of slavery which prevails in some of the states of the Union.

Step by step within a third of a century have the enemies of freedom advanced, at first cautiously, but with increasing boldness,— and step by step have its friends been driven back, until, by the crowning perfidy of the passage of the Nebraska bill, the Constitution is subverted, and that system which, at the organization of our government, begged for a temporary existence, has become the great controlling power of the Nation. SLAVERY IS RAMPANT IN THE CAPITOL. It makes and unmakes Presidents, and its Presidential tools buy and sell the representatives of the people like chattels in market. There is no lower depth that the Nation can reach but one; and that is, that the people, by adopting the act of their representatives in Congress, shall voluntarily consent to share this degradation. PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN! can it be that this foul scheme will receive your sanction?

Can it be that the immense region about to be organized as the Nebraska and Kansas Territories, in which FREE institutions ought to be allowed an unquestioned right, which right, moreover, has been bought and paid for by concessions which have introduced three slave states in the Union; can it be that Freemen after they have bought their own domain shall be compelled to submit to the robbery of that which was their own by nature and by purchase?