Some who opposed mob violence became active abolitionists; others were
led to defend the rights of abolitionists because to do otherwise would
encourage anarchy and general disorder. The same was true of those who
defended the right of petition and the free use of the mails and the
entire list of the fundamental rights of freemen which were threatened
by the crusade against abolitionists. Birney's contention that unless
the slave is freed no one can be free was thus vindicated: the issue
involved vastly more than the mere emancipation of slaves.
The attack made in defense of slavery upon the rights of freemen was
early recognized as involving civil war unless peaceable emancipation
could be attained. So soon as John Quincy Adams faced the new spirit in
Congress, he was convinced that it meant probable war. As early as
May, 1836, he warned the South, saying: "From the instant that your
slaveholding States become the theater of war, civil, servile, or
foreign, from that moment the war powers of the Constitution extend
to interference with the institution of slavery." This sentiment he
reiterated and amplified on various occasions. The South was duly
warned that an attempt to disrupt the Union would involve a war of which
emancipation would be one of the consequences. With the exception
of Garrison and a few of his personal followers, abolitionists were
unionists: they stood for the perpetual union of the States.
This is not the place to give an extended account of the Mexican War. *
There are, however, certain incidents connected with the annexation
of Texas and the resulting war which profoundly affected the crusade
against slavery. Both Lundy and Birney in their missions to promote
emancipation through the process of colonization believed that they had
unearthed a plan on the part of Southern leaders to acquire territory
from Mexico for the purpose of extending slavery. This discovery
coincided with the suppression of abolition propaganda in the South.
Hitherto John Quincy Adams had favored the western expansion of our
territory. He had labored diligently to make the Rio Grande the western
boundary of the Louisiana Purchase at the time of the treaty with Spain
in 1819. But though in 1825 he had supported a measure to purchase Texas
from Mexico, under the new conditions he threw himself heartily against
the annexation of Texas, and in 1838 he defeated in the House of
Representatives a resolution favoring annexation. To this end Adams
occupied the morning hour of the House each day from the 16th of June to
the 7th of July, within two days of the time fixed for adjournment.
This was only a beginning of his fight against the extension of slavery.
There was no relenting in his opposition to pro-slavery demands until he
was stricken down with paralysis in the streets of Boston, in November,
1846. He never again addressed a public assembly. But he continued to
occupy his seat in Congress until February 23, 1848.
* See "Texas and the Mexican War" (in "The Chronicles of
America").
The debate inaugurated in Congress by Adams and others over the
extension of slave territory rapidly spread to the country at large,
and interest in the question became general. Abolitionists were thereby
greatly stimulated to put into practice their professed duty of seeking
to accomplish their ends by political action. Their first effort was
to secure recognition in the regular parties. The Democrats answered
in their platform of 1840 by a plank specifically denouncing the
abolitionists, and the Whigs proved either noncommittal or unfriendly.
The result was that abolitionists organized a party of their own in
1840 and nominated James G. Birney for the Presidency. Both of the
older parties during this campaign evaded the issue of the annexation of
Texas. In 1844 the Whigs again refrained from giving in their platform
any official utterance on the Texas issue, though they were understood
to be opposed to annexation. The Democrats adroitly asserted in their
platform their approval of the re-annexation of Texas and reoccupation
of Oregon. There was a shadowy prior claim to both these regions, and
by combining them in this way the party avoided any odious partiality
towards the acquisition of slave territory. But the voters in both
parties had become interested in the specific question whether the
country was to enter upon a war of conquest whose primary object should
be the extension of slavery. In the North it became generally understood
that a vote for Henry Clay, the Whig candidate, was an expression of
opposition to annexation. This issue, however, was not made clear in the
South. In the absence of telegraph and daily paper it was quite possible
to maintain contradictory positions in different sections of the
country. But since the Democrats everywhere openly favored annexation,
the election of their candidate, James K. Polk, was generally accepted
as a popular approval of the annexation of Texas. Indeed, action
immediately followed the election and, before the President-elect had
been inaugurated, the joint resolution for the annexation of Texas
passed both Houses of Congress.
The popular vote was almost equally divided between Whigs and Democrats.
Had the vote for Birney, who was again the candidate of the Liberty
party, been cast for Clay electors, Clay would have been chosen
President. The Birney vote was over sixty-two thousand. The Liberty
party, therefore, held the balance of power and determined the result of
the election.
The Liberty party has often been censured for defeating the Whigs
at this election of 1844. But many incidents, too early forgotten by
historians, go far to justify the course of the leaders. Birney and Clay
were at one time members of the same party. They were personal friends,
and as slave holders they shared the view that slavery was a menace to
the country and ought to be abolished. It was just fourteen years before
this election that Birney made a visit to Clay to induce him to accept
the leadership of an organized movement to abolish slavery in Kentucky.
Three years later, when Birney returned to Kentucky to do himself what
Henry Clay had refused to do, he became convinced that the reaction
which had taken place in favor of slavery was largely due to Clay's
influence. This was a common impression among active abolitionists.
It is not strange, therefore, that they refused to support him as a
candidate for the Presidency, and it is not at all certain that his
election in 1844 would have prevented the war with Mexico.
Northern Whigs accused the Democrats of fomenting a war with Mexico with
the intention of gaining territory for the purpose of extending slavery.
Democrats denied that the annexation of Texas would lead to war, and
many of them proclaimed their opposition to the farther extension of
slavery. In harmony with this sentiment, when President Polk asked for a
grant of two million dollars to aid in making a treaty with Mexico, they
attached to the bill granting the amount a proviso to the effect that
slavery should forever be prohibited in any territory which might be
obtained from Mexico by the contemplated treaty. The proviso was written
by an Ohio Democrat and was introduced in the House by David A. Wilmot,
a Pennsylvania Democrat, after whom it is known. It passed the House
by a fair majority with the support of both Whigs and Democrats. At the
time of the original introduction in August, 1846, the Senate did not
vote upon the measure. Davis of Massachusetts moved its adoption but
inadvertently prolonged his speech in its favor until the hour for
adjournment. Hence there was no vote on the subject. Subsequently the
proviso in a new form again passed the House but failed of adoption in
the Senate.
During the war the Wilmot Proviso was the subject of frequent debate
in Congress and of continuous debate throughout the country until
the treaty with Mexico was signed in 1848. A vast territory had been
acquired as a result of the war, and no decision had been reached as
to whether it should remain free or be opened to settlement by
slave-owners. Another presidential election was at hand. For fully ten
years there had been ever-increasing excitement over the question of
the limitation or the extension of slavery. This had clearly become
the topic of supreme interest throughout the country, and yet the two
leading parties avoided the issue. Their own membership was divided.
Northern Democrats, many of them, were decidedly opposed to slavery
extension. Southern Whigs with equal intensity favored the extension of
slavery into the new territory. The platforms of the two parties were
silent on the subject. The Whigs nominated Taylor, a Southern general
who had never voted their party ticket, but they made no formal
declaration of principles. The Democrats repeated with colorless
additions their platforms of 1840 anti 1844 and sought to win the
election with a Northern man, Lewis Cass of Michigan, as candidate.
There was, therefore, a clear field for a party having fully defined
views to express on a topic of commanding interest. The cleavage in the
Democratic party already begun by the debate over the Wilmot Proviso was
farther promoted by a factional division of New York Democrats. Martin
Van Buren became the leader of the liberal faction, the "Barnburners,"
who nominated him for President at a convention at Utica. The spirit of
independence now seized disaffected Whigs and Democrats everywhere
in the North and Northwest. Men of anti-slavery proclivities held
nonpartizan meetings and conventions. The movement finally culminated
in the famous Buffalo convention which gave birth to the Freesoil party.
The delegates of all political persuasions united on the one principle
of opposition to slavery. They adopted a ringing platform closing with
the words: "Resolved, That we inscribe on our banner 'Free Soil, Free
Speech, Free Labor, and Free Men,' and under it will fight on, and
fight ever, until a triumphant victory shall reward our exertions." They
accepted Van Buren as their candidate. The vote at the ensuing election
was more than fourfold that given to Birney in 1844. The Van Buren
supporters held the balance of power between Whigs and Democrats in
twelve States. Taylor was elected by the vote of New York, which except
for the division in the party would have gone to Cass. There was no
longer any doubt of the fact that a political force had arisen which
could no longer be ignored by the ruling parties. One of the parties
must either support the new issue or give place to a party which would
do so.
A political party for the defense of liberty was the fulfillment of the
aspirations of all earnest anti-slavery men and of all abolitionists
not of the radical Garrisonian persuasion. The national anti-slavery
societies were for the most part limited in their operations to the
Atlantic seaboard. The West organized local and state associations
with little reference to the national association. When the disruption
occurred between Garrison and his opponents in 1840, the Western
abolitionists continued their former methods of local organization. They
recognized no divisions in their ranks and continued to work in
harmony with all who in any way opposed the institution of slavery. The
political party was their first really effective national organization.
Through party committees, caucuses, and conventions, they became a part
of the forces that controlled the nation. The older local clubs and
associations were either displaced by the party or became mere adjuncts
to the party.
The lines for political action were now clearly defined. In the
States emancipation should be accomplished by state action. With a few
individual exceptions the leaders conceded that Congress had no power
to abolish slavery in the States. Upon the general Government they urged
the duty of abolishing both slavery and the slave-trade in the District
of Columbia and in all areas under direct federal control. They further
urged upon the Government the strict enforcement of the laws prohibiting
the foreign slave-trade and the enactment of laws forbidding the
interstate slave-trade. The constitutionality of these main lines of
action has been generally conceded.
Abolitionists were pioneers in the formulation of political platforms.
The declaration of principles drawn up by Garrison in 1833 and adopted
by the American Anti-Slavery Society was of the nature of a political
platform. The duty of voting in furtherance of the policy of
emancipation was inculcated. No platform was adopted for the first
political campaign, that of 1840; but four years later there was an
elaborate party platform of twenty-one resolutions. Many things had
happened in the eleven years intervening since the declaration of
principles of the American Anti-Slavery Society. In the earlier platform
the freedom of the slave appears as the primary object. That of the
Liberty party assumes the broad principle of human brotherhood as the
foundation for a democracy or a republic. It denies that the party is
organized merely to free the slave. Slaveholding as the grossest form of
despotism must indeed be attacked first, but the aim of the party is to
carry the principle of equal rights into all social relations. It is not
a sectional party nor a party organized for a single purpose. "It is not
a new party, nor a third party, but it is the party of 1776, reviving
the principles of that memorable era, and striving to carry them into
practical application." The spirit of '76 rings, indeed, throughout
the document, which declares that it was understood at the time of the
Declaration and the Constitution that the existence of slavery was in
derogation of the principles of American liberty. The implied faith
of the Nation and the States was pledged to remove this stain upon the
national character. Some States had nobly fulfilled that pledge; others
shamelessly had neglected to do so.
These principles are reasserted in succeeding platforms. The later
opponents of slavery in their principles and policies thus allied
themselves with the founders of the republic. They claimed the right to
continue to repeat the words of Washington and Jefferson and those of
the members of the Virginia Legislature of 1832. No new doctrines were
required. It was enough simply to reaffirm the fundamental principles of
democracy.
The names attached to the party are significant. It was at first
popularly styled the Abolition party, then officially in turn the
Liberty party, the Freesoil party, and finally the Republican party.
Republican was the name first applied to the Democratic party--the party
of Jefferson. The term Democrat was gradually substituted under the
leadership of Jackson before 1830. Some of the men who participated
in the organization of the later Republican party had themselves been
Republicans in the party of Jefferson. They not only accepted the name
which Jefferson gave to his party, but they adopted the principles which
Jefferson proclaimed on the subject of slavery, free soil, and human
rights in general. This was the final stage in the identification of the
later anti-slavery crusade with the earlier contest for liberty.