individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the United States. They furthermore declared that "the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the Territories of the United States for their government," and that in the exercise of that power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the Territories "those twin relics of barbarism -polygamy and slavery." On the other hand, the Democratic convention adopted a skilfully worded platform of principles, the verbiage of which was designed to conceal ideas. The time for outspoken utterances on the all-absorbing subject of slavery evidently had not come. But the platform was an

unmistakable indorsement of the doctrine that the people of Kansas and Nebraska could, as Douglas had said, vote slavery up or down, as they chose. The lines between the two parties were, after all, pretty sharply drawn.

There was a third party in the field that year, its members calling themselves the American party, their principal article of faith being the restriction of the right to vote to native-born citizens, to a great degree, foreigners being allowed to use that right very sparingly. The American party nominated Fillmore and Donelson, Mr. Fillmore being the Vice-President who had succeeded to the Presidential office on the death of General Taylor. There were, of course, many Whigs who did not see that their party was dead; and these were relied on to vote for Fillmore, who was elected with Taylor on the Whig ticket in 1848.

Lincoln, as usual, was an elector from his State, being at the head of the Republican electoral ticket in Illinois. He took an active part in the canvass, speaking from one end of the State to the other, almost continually, through the summer of 1856. His speeches were remarkable for their clearness, closeness of logic, and merciless dissection of the arguments and measures of the proslavery Democracy under the local leadership of Douglas. There was much material for the exercise of his peculiar powers. The South and their Democratic allies in the North were forcing slavery into the Territories, and the work of their creatures in Kansas had deluged that region with blood. At that At that very time the fair young Territory was torn and wounded with civil war. There was a determination to compel the people of the Territory to adopt slavery as the rule, although, under Douglas's specious plea of popular sovereignty, the question was to be left to the whole people to choose between free institutions and slavery. During this campaign, while Lincoln was speaking in one of the southern counties of the State, where the proslavery sentiment was yet strong, a man in the audience called out to him: “Mr. Lincoln, is it true that you entered this State barefoot, driving a yoke of oxen?" Lincoln paused for an instant, as if at a loss whether to take notice of a question so impertinent and so evidently malicious, and then said that he presumed that there were at least a dozen men in the crowd before him by whom he could prove that he did, if this were needful to the case in hand. But, as usual when he

was interrupted, he gathered new force from the cruelty of the attempt to disconcert him, and, rising to his full height, he described with glowing eloquence what freedom had done for him, what it did for any man, and showed how slavery debased and dragged down black and white together; and he asked if it were not natural that he should hate slavery and continue to agitate the question of its final extinction. "Yes," said he, "we will speak for freedom and against slavery as long as the Constitution of our country guarantees free speech, until everywhere on this broad land the sun shall shine and the rain shall fall and the wind shall blow upon no man that goes forth to unrequited toil."

The virulence of the campaign was excessive. In default of arguments with which to overthrow the Republicans, the proslavery party resorted to the most offensive epithets and phrases to hurl at the opposition. Frémont had once headed an expedition to California across the great American plains, and he and his party suffered incredible hardships. He had opened the first trial across the continent, through the then trackless wilderness. His admiring and his enthusiastic followers now called him the "Pathfinder." To them he was a gallant hero. The opposition party called him "a mule-eating Black Republican," and his party was known as the "Woolly-Horse" party, on account of some tales of a woolly horse having been found by the explorers. The election resulted as Lincoln had privately predicted that it would, in the election of James Buchanan. The last fight for freedom had begun,

and the returns showed that every slave State but one had voted for the Democratic candidate. The total number of electoral votes for Buchanan was 174, the following slave States having voted for him: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia. The free States for Buchanan were: California, Illinois, Indiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania. The free States voting for Frémont were: Connecticut, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin; a total of 114 votes against Buchanan's 174. Maryland, a slave State, cast its electoral vote of eight for Fillmore. Thus Buchanan had the votes of fourteen slave States and five free States; Frémont, the votes of eleven free States; and Fillmore, that of one slave State. Reckoning up the number of voters in all the States, we find that Buchanan had, all told, 1,838,169 votes, Frémont had 1,341,264, and Fillmore had 874,534. In Illinois, Bissell, the Republican candidate for governor, was elected, although the electoral vote of the State was given to Buchanan.

Meanwhile, the fight between freedom and slavery still went on in Kansas. The proslavery men, by denying the right of suffrage to the free-State men, managed to elect a Legislature, which assembled at Lecompton, and which was known as "the bogus Legislature." A State constitution was also framed, with the legalization of slavery in it, as a matter of course. The free-State men refused to recognize the

legality of any of these doings, or to participate in the mock elections. They called a mass-meeting of the actual settlers, elected delegates to a constitutional convention, which assembled at Topeka and framed a constitution excluding slavery from the Territory. Thenceforth politicians were known as "Lecompton" or "Anti-Lecompton," as they favored or opposed the proposition to admit slavery into Kansas. The Topeka Constitution was submitted to the people and almost unanimously adopted. The people next proceeded to elect officers under the free-State constitution. The Topeka Constitution was the work of the real people of Kansas, marshalled in numbers. The Lecompton Constitution was voted for by a mere handful of the persons nominally resident in the Territory. Both of these instruments were sent to Washington for the approval of Congress. Robert J. Walker, who had been appointed governor of the Territory by President Buchanan, made haste to go to Washington to protest against the acceptance of the Lecompton Constitution, as he knew it to be false and fraudulent as an exposition of the sentiments and wishes of the people of the Territory. Before he reached the national capital, the President had recommended Congress to accept the Lecompton Constitution. The free-State officers, acting under the Topeka Constitution, were declared guilty of treason and were arrested and lodged in jail. The Legislature was dispersed by the regular army of the United States, acting under the orders of the President. Kansas was to be dragooned into accepting slavery as a State.