PAGE THE FIELD OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, MAY 2, 1863. 176 THE FIELD OF CHANCELLORSVILLE, MAY 3, 1863. 180 GRANT'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND BY PER MISSION FROM CHURCH'S "LIFE OF GRANT" 340 The Fight for the Republic The Inauguration of President Lincoln THE March 4, 1861 HE repeal of the Missouri Compromise, in 1854, and the opening of the Territory of Kansas to immigration in a way that practically invited fierce contention between the pro-slavery and the antislavery men, gave rise to the Republican party. The distinctive principle of that party was, that the system of slavery should not be disturbed in the States where it existed, but that Congress should prohibit its extension into the Territories. Several years earlier Abraham Lincoln had clearly set forth this principle as his own view of the contest that so long agitated the country, and he consistently adhered to it. On the other hand, Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, representing the extremists of the South, did their utmost to force the system upon Kansas; while Senator Stephen A. Douglas, author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, which abolished the compromise, endeavoured to introduce a supposedly conciliatory policy by means of his doctrine of "popular sovereignty." This was to the effect that a Territory should be thrown open to immigration, and the settlers, when they had become numerous enough, should determine by popular vote whether its soil should be devoted to slave labour or to free labour. This proposal ignored the fact that, after such an election, those who were in the minority would be practically compelled to abandon their investments and leave the State. The only alternative was an armed conflict, and such a conflict, reddening the soil of Kansas, intensified political feeling throughout the country, converting much of it into implacable hatred. The Presidential election of 1856, in which John C. Frémont, the Republican candidate, received a very large vote and perhaps would have been elected but for the American or "Know-nothing" party, which polled nearly a million ballots-increased at once the alarm of the pro-slavery men and the confidence of the antislavery men, and appeared to fire the whole land with passion and prejudice. Statesmanship was degraded and journalism was vulgarized to an extent that makes a serious blot on our history. If the Republican ticket had been successful, the revolt of the South would have come then, instead of four years later. In the whole discussion the most notable event was a joint debate between Lincoln and Douglas, in seven Illinois towns, which took place midway between two Presidential elections (1858). The power that Lincoln displayed in this debate and in subsequent speeches in the great cities, together with the fact that he had enunciated over and over again the proposition that became the central principle of his party, made him the logical candidate in 1860, and he was nominated at Chicago, in May, on the third ballot. Hannibal Hamlin, Senator from Maine, was nominated for VicePresident. |