THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1852.--The Compromise of 1850 was thought to
be a final settlement of all the troubles that had grown out of slavery.
The great leaders of the Whig and Democratic parties solemnly pledged
themselves to stand by the compromise, and when the national conventions
met in 1852, the two parties in their platforms made equally solemn
promises.
The Democrats nominated Franklin Pierce [1] of New Hampshire for
President, and declared they would "abide by and adhere to" the
compromise, and would "resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out
of it, the agitation of the slavery question." The Whigs selected Winfield
Scotland declared the compromise to be a "settlement in principle" of the
slavery question, and promised to do all they could to prevent further
agitation of it. The Free-soilers nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire.
The refusal of the Whig party to stand against the compromise drove many
Northern voters from its ranks. Pierce carried every state save four and,
March 4, 1853, was duly inaugurated. [2]
THE SLAVERY QUESTION NOT SETTLED.--But Pierce had not been many months in
office when the quarrel over slavery was raging once more. In January,
1854, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois introduced into the Senate a bill to
organize a new territory to be called Nebraska. Every foot of it was north
of 36° 30' and was, by the Compromise of 1820 (p. 274), free soil. But an
attempt was made to amend the bill and declare that the Missouri
Compromise should not apply to Nebraska, whereupon such bitter opposition
arose that Douglas recalled his bill and brought in another. [3]
KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT.--The new bill provided for the creation of two
territories, one to be called Kansas and the other Nebraska; for the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, thus opening the country north of 36°
30' to slavery; and for the adoption of the doctrine of popular
sovereignty.
The Free-soilers, led by Salmon P. Chase, William H. Seward, and Charles
Sumner, tried hard to defeat the bill. But it passed Congress, and was
signed by the President (1854). [4]
[Illustration: GOVERNOR'S MANSION, KANSAS, IN 1857. Contemporary drawing.]
THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS.--And now began a seven years' struggle between
the Free-soilers and the proslavery men for the possession of Kansas. Men
of both parties hurried to the territory. [5] The first election was for
territorial delegate to Congress, and was carried by the proslavery party
assisted by hundreds of Missourians who entered the territory, voted
unlawfully, and went home. The second election was for members of the
territorial legislature. Again the Missourians swarmed over the border,
and a proslavery legislature was elected. Governor Reeder set the
elections aside in seven districts, and in them other members were chosen;
but the legislature when it met turned out the seven so elected and seated
the men rejected by the governor. The proslavery laws of Missouri were
adopted, and Kansas became a slave-holding territory.
THE TOPEKA CONSTITUTION.--Unwilling to be governed by a legislature so
elected, looking on it as illegal and usurping, the free-state men framed
a state constitution at Topeka (1855), organized a state government, and
applied to Congress for admission into the Union as a state. The House of
Representatives voted to admit Kansas, but the Senate would not consent,
and (July 4, 1856) United States troops dispersed the legislature when it
attempted to assemble under the Topeka constitution. Kansas was a slave-
holding territory for two years yet before the free-state men secured a
majority in the legislature, [6] and not till 1861 did it secure admission
as a free state.
PERSONAL LIBERTY LAWS.--In the East meantime the rapidly growing feeling
against slavery found expression in what were called personal liberty
laws, which in time were enacted by all save two of the free states. Their
avowed object was to prevent free negroes from being sent into slavery on
the claim that they were fugitive slaves; but they really obstructed the
execution of the fugitive slave law of 1850.
Another sign of Northern feeling was the sympathy now shown for the
Underground Railroad. This was not a railroad, but a network of routes
along which slaves escaping to the free states-were sent by night from one
friendly house to another till they reached a place of safety, perhaps in
Canada.
[Illustration: RECEPTION AT THE WHITE HOUSE, IN 1858. Contemporary
drawing.]
BREAKING UP OF OLD PARTIES.--On political parties the events of the four
years 1850-54 were serious. The Compromise of 1850, and the vigorous
execution of the new fugitive slave law, drove thousands of old line Whigs
from their party. The deaths of Clay and Webster in 1852 deprived the
party of its greatest leaders. The Kansas-Nebraska bill completed the
ruin, and from that time forth the party was of small political
importance. The Democratic party also suffered, and thousands left its
ranks to join the Free-soilers. Out of such elements in 1854-56 was
founded the new Republican party. [7]
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1856.--At Philadelphia, in June, 1856, a Republican
national convention nominated John C. Fremont for President. The Democrats
nominated James Buchanan. A remnant of the Whigs, now nicknamed "Silver
Grays," indorsed Fillmore, who had been nominated by the American, or
"Know-nothing," party. [8] The Free-soilers joined the Republicans.
Buchanan was elected. [9]
DRED SCOTT DECISION, 1857.--Two days after the inauguration of Buchanan,
the Supreme Court made public a decision which threw the country into
intense excitement. A slave named Dred Scott had been taken by his owner
from Missouri to the free state of Illinois and then to Minnesota, made
free soil by the Compromise of 1820. When brought back to Missouri, Dred
Scott sued for freedom. Long residence on free soil, he claimed, had made
him free. The case finally reached the Supreme Court of the United States,
which decided against him. [10] But in delivering the decision, Chief-
Justice Taney announced: (1) that Congress could not shut slavery out of
the territories, and (2) that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was
unconstitutional and void.
THE TERRITORIES OPEN TO SLAVERY.--This decision confirmed all that the
South had gained by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Compromise of 1850,
and also opened to slavery Washington and Oregon, which were then free
territories.
If the court supposed that its decision would end the struggle, it was
much mistaken. Not a year went by but some incident occurred which added
to the excitement.
[Illustration: LINCOLN'S LAW OFFICE IN SPRINGFIELD.]
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE.--In 1858 the people of Illinois were to elect a
legislature which would choose a senator to succeed Stephen A. Douglas.
The Democrats declared for Douglas. The Republicans nominated Abraham
Lincoln, [11] and as the canvass proceeded the two candidates traversed
the state, holding a series of debates. The questions discussed were
popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, and the extension of slavery
into the territories, and the debates attracted the attention of the whole
country. Lincoln was defeated; but his speeches gave him a national
reputation. [12]
JOHN BROWN AT HARPERS FERRY.--In 1859 John Brown, a lifelong enemy of
slavery, went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with a little band of followers,
to stir up an insurrection and free the slaves. He was captured, tried for
murder and treason, and hanged. The attempt was a wild one; but it caused
intense excitement in both the North and the South, and added to the
bitter feeling which had long existed between the two sections. [13]
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860.--The Democrats were now so divided on
the slavery issues that when they met in convention at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1860, the party was rent in twain, and no candidates were
chosen. Later in the year the Northern wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas
for President. The Southern delegates, at a convention of their own,
selected John C. Breckinridge.
Another party made up of old Whigs and Know-nothings nominated John Bell
of Tennessee. This was the Constitutional Union party. The Republicans
[14] named Abraham Lincoln and carried the election. [15]
SUMMARY
1. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to settle the slavery issues, and
the two great parties pledged themselves to support it.
2. But the issues were not settled, and in 1854 the organization of Kansas
and Nebraska reopened the struggle.
3. The Kansas-Nebraska bill and the contest over Kansas split both the
Whig party and the Democratic party, and by the union of those who left
them, with the Free-soilers, the Republican party was made, 1854-56.
4. In 1857 the Supreme Court declared the Missouri Compromise
unconstitutional, and opened all territories to slavery.
5. In 1858 this decision and other slavery issues were debated by Lincoln
and Douglas.
6. This debate made Lincoln a national character, and in 1860 he was
elected President by the Republican party.
[Illustration: SCHOOLHOUSE IN THE MOUNTAINS, USED BY BROWN AS AN ARSENAL.
Contemporary drawing.]
FOOTNOTES
[1] Franklin Pierce was born in New Hampshire in 1804, and died in 1869.
He began his political career in the state legislature, went to Congress
in 1833, and to the United States Senate in 1837. In the war with Mexico,
Pierce rose from the ranks to a brigadier generalship. He was a bitter
opponent of anti-slavery measures; but when the Civil War opened he became
a Union man.
[2] The electoral vote was, for Pierce, 254; for Scott, 42. The popular
vote was, for Pierce, 1,601,474; for Scott, 1,386,580; for Hale, 155,667.
[3] Stephen A. Douglas was born in Vermont in 1813, went west in 1833, was
made attorney-general of Illinois in 1834, secretary of state and judge of
the supreme court of Illinois in 1840, a member of Congress in 1843, and
of the United States Senate in 1847. He was a small man, but one of such
mental power that he was called "the Little Giant." He was a candidate for
the presidential nomination in the Democratic conventions of 1852 and
1856, and in 1860 was nominated by the Northern wing of that party. He was
a Union man.
[4] For popular opinion on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, read Rhodes's
_History of the U. S._, Vol. I, pp. 461-470.
[5] Proslavery men from Missouri and other Southern states founded
Atchison, Leavenworth, Lecompton, and Kickapoo, in the northeastern part
of Kansas. Free-state men from the North founded Lawrence, Topeka,
Manhattan, Osawatomie, in the east-central part of the territory.
[6] In 1856 border war raged in Kansas, settlers were murdered, property
destroyed, and the free-state town of Lawrence was sacked by the
proslavery men. In 1857 the proslavery party made a slave-state
constitution at Lecompton and applied for admission, and the Senate (1858)
voted to admit Kansas under it; but the House refused. In 1859 the Free-
soilers made a second (the Wyandotte) constitution, under which Kansas was
admitted into the Union (1861).
[7] The breaking up of old parties over the slavery issues naturally
brought up the question of forming a new party, and at a meeting at Ripon
in Wisconsin in 1854, it was proposed to call the new party Republican.
After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, a thousand citizens of
Michigan signed a call for a state convention, at which a Republican state
party was formed and a ticket nominated on which were Whigs, Free-soilers,
and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. Similar "fusion tickets," as they were
called, were adopted in eight other states. The success of the new party
in the elections of 1854, and its still greater success in 1855, led to a
call for a convention at Pittsburg on Washington's Birthday, 1856. There
and then the national Republican party was founded.
[8] The American party was the outcome of a long-prevalent feeling against
the election of foreign-born citizens to office. At many times and at many
places this feeling had produced political organizations. But it was not
till 1852 that a secret, oath-bound organization, with signs, grips, and
passwords, was formed and spread its membership rapidly through most of
the states. As its members would not tell its principles and methods, and
professed entire ignorance of them when questioned, the American party was
called in derision "the Know-nothings." Its success, however, was great,
and in 1855 Know-nothing governors and legislatures were elected in eight
states, and heavy votes polled in six more.
[9] The electoral vote was, for Buchanan, 174; for Frémont, 114; for
Fillmore, 8. The popular vote was, for Buchanan, 1,838,169; for Frémont,
1,341,264; for Fillmore, 874,534. James Buchanan was born in Pennsylvania
in 1791, was educated at school and college, studied law, served in the
state legislature, was five times elected to the House of Representatives,
and three times to the Senate. In the Senate he was a warm supporter of
Jackson, and favored the annexation of Texas under Tyler. He was Secretary
of State under Polk, and had been minister to Great Britain.
[10] The Chief Justice ruled that no negro whose ancestors had been
brought as slaves into the United States could be a citizen; Scott
therefore was not a citizen, and hence could not sue in any United States
court.
[11] Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, February 12, 1809, and while
still a child was taken by his parents to Indiana. The first winter was
spent in a half-faced camp, and for several years the log cabin that
replaced it had neither door nor wood floor. Twelve months' "schooling"
was all he ever had; but he was fond of books and borrowed Aesop's
_Fables_, _Robinson Crusoe_, and Weems's _Life of Washington_, the book in
which first appeared the fabulous story of the hatchet and the cherry
tree. At nineteen Lincoln went as a flatboatman to New Orleans. In 1830
his father moved to Illinois, where Lincoln helped build the cabin and
split the rails to fence in the land, and then went on another flatboat
voyage to New Orleans. He became a clerk in a store in 1831, served as a
volunteer in the Black Hawk War, tried business and failed, became
postmaster of New Salem, which soon ceased to have a post office,
supported himself as plowman, farm hand, and wood cutter, and tried
surveying; but made so many friends that in 1834 he was sent to the
legislature, and reelected in 1836, 1838, and 1840. He now began the
practice of law, settled in Springfield, was elected to Congress in 1846,
and served there one term.
[12] For a description of the Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858, read
Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 314-338.
[13] Many persons regarded Brown as a martyr. Read Whittier's _Brown of
Ossawatomie_, or Stedman's _How Old Brown took Harper's Ferry_. Read,
also, Rhodes's _History of the U. S._, Vol. II, pp. 383-398.
[14] The platform of the Republicans adopted in 1860 (at Chicago) sets
forth: (1) that the party repudiates the principles of the Dred Scott
decision, (2) that Kansas must be admitted as a free state, (3) that the
territories must be free soil, and (4) that slavery in existing states
should not be interfered with.
[15] The electoral vote was, for Lincoln, 180; for Douglas, 12; for
Breckinridge, 72; for Bell, 39. The popular vote was, for Lincoln,
1,866,452; for Douglas, 1,376,957; for Breckinridge, 849,781; for Bell,
588,879. Lincoln received no votes at all in ten Southern states. The
popular votes were so distributed that if those for Douglas, Breckinridge,
and Bell had all been cast for one of the candidates, Lincoln would still
have been elected President (by 173 electoral votes to 130).