THE VOTE FOR FREMONT AND DAYTON. 299 display of readiness to repel an ima- | pension. His body was conveyed to Harper's Ferry, and delivered to his widow, by whom it was borne to her far northern home, among the mountains he so loved, and where he was so beloved." ginary foe were enacted. The time seemed an hour to the impatient spectators; even the soldiers began to murmur-" Shame!" At last, the order was given, the rope cut with a hatchet, and the trap fell; but so short a distance that the victim continued to struggle and to suffer for a considerable time. Being at length duly pronounced dead, he was cut down after thirty-eight minutes' sus There let it rest forever, while the path to it is worn deeper and deeper by the pilgrim feet of the race he so bravely though rashly endeavored to rescue from a hideous and debasing thraldom! XXI. THE PRESIDENTIAL CANVASS OF 1860. THE vote polled for Fremont and | sentatives Keitt, of South Carolina, Dayton in 1856 considerably exceed- and Edmundson, of Virginia, doubted the solid strength, at that time, of less contributed also to swell the Rethe Republican party. It was swelled publican vote of the following Auin part by the personal popularity of tumn. Mr. Sumner had made an Col. Fremont, whose previous career elaborate speech in the Senate on the of adventure and of daring his ex- Kansas question-a speech not withplorations, discoveries, privations, and out grave faults of conception and of perils-appealed, in view of his com- style, but nowise obnoxious to the parative youth for a Presidential can- charge of violating the decencies of didate, with resistless fascination, to debate by unjustifiable personalities. the noble young men of our country; Yet, on the assumption that its auwhile his silence and patience through- thor had therein unwarrantably asout the canvass, under a perfect tem- sailed and ridiculed Judge Butlerpest of preposterous yet annoying one of South Carolina's Senators, calumnies, had contributed to widen and a relative of Mr. Brooks-he the circle of his admirers and friends. was assaulted by surprise while sitA most wanton and brutal personal ting in his place (though a few minassault' on Senator Sumner, of Mas- utes after the Senate had adjourned sachusetts, by Representative Brooks for the day), knocked to the floor of South Carolina, abetted by Repre- senseless, and beaten, while helpless 6 Cook, Coppoc, Copeland, and Green (a black), were hanged at Charlestown a fortnight after Brown-December 16th; Stevens and Hazlitt were likewise hanged on the 16th of March following. The confederates of Brown, who succeeded in making their escape, were Owen Brown, Barclay Coppoc, Charles P. Tidd, Francis Jackson Merriam, and Osborne P. Anderson, a colored man. 1 May 22, 1856. and unconscious, till the rage of his | ized, however, but New York; where the two swelling by four Sena- Accordingly, the elections of 1857 exhibited a diminution of Republican strength-the eleven States which had voted for Fremont, giving him an aggregate popular majority of over 250,000, now giving but little over 50,000 for the Republican tickets. All the New England States were still carried by the Republicans, but by majorities diminished, in the average, more than half, while that of Connecticut was reduced from 7,715 to 546. So, in Ohio, Gov. Chase was this year reëlected by 1,481, though Fremont had 16,623; while Gov. Lowe, in Iowa, had but 2,151, where Fremont had received 7,784; and Gov. Randall was chosen in Wisconsin by barely 118, where Fremont had received 13,247. No Republican State was actually revolution The Opposition was utterly powerless against this surge; but what they dare hardly undertake, Mr. Buchanan was able to effect. By his utterly indefensible attempt to enforce the Lecompton Constitution upon Kansas, in glaring contradiction to his smooth and voluble professions regarding "Popular Sovereignty," "the will of the majority," etc., etc., he enabled the Republicans, in 1858, to hold, by majorities almost uniformly increased, all the States they had carried the preceding year, and reverse the last year's majority against them in New York; carry Pennsylvania for the first time by over 26,000 majority; triumph even in New Jersey under an equiv 2 Of $300. number-or, at least, soon would be. She has 3 Minnesota chose three Members to the since chosen but two, being entitled to no more House, on the assumption that her population—in fact, hardly to so many-under the Census was sufficient to warrant her in claiming that of 1860. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. ocal organization; bring over Minnesota by a close vote; and swell their majority in Ohio to fully 20,000. They were beaten in Indiana on the State ticket by a very slender majority, but carried seven of the eleven Representatives in Congress, beside helping elect an anti-Lecompton Democrat in another district; while Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, chose Republican tickets as of late had been usual with them-by respectable majorities, and the last named by one increased to nearly 6,000. California and Oregon still adhered to Democracy of the most pro-Slavery type, by decisive majorities. Illinois was this year the arena of a peculiar contest. Senator Douglas had taken so prominent and so efficient a part in the defeat of the Lecompton abomination, that a number of the leading Republicans of other States were desirous that their Illinois brethren should unite in choosing a Legislature pledged to return him, by a vote substantially unanimous, to the seat he had so ably filled. But it was hardly in human nature that those thus appealed to should, because of one good act, recognize and treat as a friend one whom they had known for nearly twenty years as the ablest, most indefatigable, and by no means the most scrupulous, of their adversaries. They held a sort of State Convention, therefore, and presented ABRAHAM LINCOLN as a Republican competitor for Mr. Douglas's seat; and he opened the canvass at once,* in a terse, forcible, and thoroughly "radical" speech, wherein he enunciated the then startling, if not absolutely novel, doctrine that the 4 At Springfield, Ill., June 17, 1858. 301 Union cannot permanently endure half Slave and half Free. Said Mr. Lincoln: "If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to Slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this Government cannot permanot expect the Union to be dissolved-I do nently endure half slave and half free. I do not expect the house to fall-but I do expect that it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of Slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the pubthe course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new-North as well as South." lic mind shall rest in the belief that it is in This almost prophetic statement, from one born in Kentucky, and who had been known, prior to the appearance of the Dred Scott decision, as a rather conservative Whig, was put forth, more than four months before Gov. Seward, as if under a like premonition of coming events, said: 5 "These antagonistic systems are continually coming into closer contact, and collision results. "Shall I tell you what this collision means? They who think that it is accidental, unnecessary, the work of interested or fanatical agitators, and therefore ephemeral, mistake the case altogether. It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and United States must and will, sooner or later, enduring forces; and it means that the become either entirely a slave-holding nation, or entirely a free-labor nation. Either the cotton and rice-fields of South Carolina and the sugar plantations of Louisiana will ultimately be tilled by free labor, and Charlesgitimate merchandise alone, or else the ryefields and wheat-fields of Massachusetts ton and New Orleans become marts for le 5 At Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 25, 1858. by their farmers to slave culture and to the and New York must again be surrendered | State ticket of their own men, adopted the expedient of selecting their candidates alternately from the tickets of the two great parties-of course, powerfully aiding that which must otherwise have been beaten through Mr. Lincoln, in his brief Springfield speech, furnished the shortest and sharpest exposition ever yet given of the doctrine vaunted as 'Popular Sovereignty,' viz. : "This necessity [for a popular indorsement of the policy embodied in the NebraskaKansas bill had not been overlooked; but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of Squatter Sovereignty,' otherwise called 'sacred right of self-government;' which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted, in this attempted use of it, as to amount to just this: That, if any one man choose to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object." Mr. Douglas promptly joined issue; and an oral canvass of unequaled interest, considering the smallness of the stake, was prosecuted by these capable and practiced popular debaters, before immense audiences of their fellow-citizens, up to the eve of the State Election. In the event, Mr. Douglas was successful, securing 54 to 46 of the members of the Legislature, and being promptly reëlected by them; but the candidates favorable to Mr. Lincoln had a plurality of the popular vote." The Elections of 1859 were not especially significant, save that, in New York, what remained of the " American" party, instead of nominating a 6 For Lincoln, 124,698; for Douglas, 121,130; Lincoln's plurality, 3,568. But over 4,000 Democratic votes were scattered and lost, in obe The 25,000 votes thus cast elected three of the Democratic candidates by majorities of 328 to 1,450; while the Republicans placed on the "American ticket" had majorities ranging from 45,104 to 49,447; and one Republican candidate was chosen over the joint vote of both the adverse parties. In this "balance-of-power" movement of the Americans was foreshadowed the "Fusion" electoral tickets of 1860. The indignant, scornful rhetoric wherewith Mr. Webster had scouted the suggestion, that Slavery might possibly be established in New Mexico, and spurned the idea of " reënacting the laws of God" by prohibiting it there, had scarcely died out of the public ear, when the Legislature of that vast Territory proceeded, at its session in 1859, to do the very thing which he had deemed so inconceivable. Assuming the legal existence of Slavery in that Territory, in accordance with the Dred Scott decision, the Legislature proceeded to pass "An act to provide for the protection of property in slaves," whereby severe penalties were provided for "stealing," or "enticing away" said property, or "inciting" said property to "discontent" or "insubordination." The spirit of this notable act is fairly exhibited in the following provisions: dience to directions from Washington-Mr. Douglas's apprehended return being exceedingly distasteful to President Buchanan. SLAVERY LEGALIZED IN NEW MEXICO. "SEC. 10. Any person may lawfully take up or apprehend any slave who shall have run away, or be absenting himself from the custody or service of his master or owner, and may lawfully use or employ such force as may be necessary to take up or apprehend such slave; and such person, upon the delivery of such slave to his master or owner, or at such place as his master or owner may designate, shall be entitled to demand or recover by suit any reward which may have been offered for the apprehension or delivery of such slave. And, if no reward have been offered, then such person so apprehending such slave shall, upon the delivery of such slave to his master or owner, or to the sheriff of the county in which such slave was apprehended, be entitled to demand and recover from such owner or master the sum of twenty dollars, besides ten cents for each mile of travel to and from the place where such apprehen sion was made. "SEC. 11. If any sheriff of any county within this Territory shall fail or refuse to receive with proper care any runaway slave so offered to him for safe-keeping, by such person apprehending the same, or his agent, such sheriff shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined in a sum not less than five hundred dollars to the use of the Territory, shall further be liable to the owner of such slave for his value, recoverable by civil suit, and shall be ineligible for reelection to the said office. "SEC. 20. Any slave who shall conduct himself disorderly in a public place, or shall give insolent language or signs to any free white person, may be arrested and taken by such person before a justice of the peace, who, upon trial and conviction, in a summary manner, shall cause his constable to give such slave any number of stripes upon his or her bare back, not exceeding thirtynine. "SEC. 21. When any slave shall be convicted of any crime or misdemeanor, for which the penalty assigned by law is, in whole or in part, the fine of a sum of money, the court passing sentence on him may, in its discretion, substitute for such fine corporal punishment, or branding, or stripes. "SEC. 26. No slave shall be permitted to go from the premises of his owner or master after sunset and before sunrise, without a written pass, specifying the particular place or places to which such slave is permitted to go; and any white person is authorized to take any slave who, upon demand, shall not exhibit such pass, before any justice of the peace, who, upon summary investigation, shall cause such slave to be whipped with not more than thirty-nine stripes upon his or her bare back, and to be 303 committed to the jail, or custody of a proper officer, to be released the next day, on demand and payment of costs by the owner or master." Another act passed by the same Legislature, "Amendatory of the law relative to contracts between masters and servants" (peons), has this unique provision, which might have afforded a hint to South Carolina in her worst estate: "SEO. 4.-No Court of this Territory shall have jurisdiction, nor shall take cognizance, of any cause for the correction that of their duties as servants; for they are conmasters may give their servants for neglect sidered as domestic servants to their masters, and they should correct their neglect and faults; for, as soldiers are punished by their chiefs, without the intervention of the civil authority, by reason of the salary they enjoy, an equal right should be granted those persons who pay their money to be served in the protection of their property; Provided, That such correction shall not be inflicted in a cruel manner, with clubs or stripes." These acts were directly inspired from Washington, and were enacted under the supervision and tutelage of the Federal officers stationed in the Territory. Some of these were personally slaveholders; others were only anxious to commend themselves to the notice and favor of their superiors; and it was easy for them to persuade the ignorant Mexicans, who mainly composed the Legislature, that such acts would cause the heavenly dews of Federal patronage to fall in boundless profusion on the arid, thirsty hills of their Territory. And, while the number of slaves held in New Mexico might never be great, its salubrity, and the ease wherewith a mere subsistence is maintained there, might well have commended it to favor as a breeding-ground of black chattels for the unhealthy swamps and lowlands of Arkansas and Louisiana. In any case its sub |
