who had been elected in 1852, an event occurred which greatly aroused the country, and broke up old party ties. This was the introduction and passage by Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, repealing the famous Missouri Compromise of 1820. Large numbers of Democrats, especially throughout all the Northern States, refused to sustain this measure, and the Democratic party, so triumphant in 1852, almost everywhere met with disastrous defeat in the elections of 1854. This defeat would, doubtless, have been even more disastrous but for the fact that the disruption of parties, caused by the elections of 1852 and the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, had been too recent to allow the organization of a permanent political party. There appears to be a temporary necessity for a "make shift" organization, and this was found in the "Know Nothing" party. Of a narrow creed and with secret workings, it was necessarily of short duration.

Meantime, the anti-slavery discussion of the Abolitionists had been doing its perfect work. The Abolitionists had for many years received the hearty moral sympathies of many of the purest and ablest men in the old Whig and Democratic parties. The literature and the best journalism of the country were long thus in moral sympathy with what was generally denounced in political circles as "crazy fanaticism." A novel of great literary merit and wonderful popularity-Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin"-had taught the people to

believe in the gross political immorality of slavery. And hence there was a logical fitness, and apparent national necessity for the formation of a party to be built upon the broad basis of freedom. And it was upon this broad basis, large numbers of people being now ready therefor, that the Republican party was organized early in 1856. The application of the doctrine was not in the abolition of slavery, but in its confinement to the localities in which it then existed. This involved no breach of fundamental law, and tended to accomplish two great benefits: First, the dedication of our vast Western domain to freedom; secondly, the destruction of the political despotism of the Slave Power. The first great triumph of the party was in the admission of Kansas as a free State; and this was a most refreshing demonstration-that the political despotism of the Slave Power had received a mortal wound.

FULLY ORGANIZED AT PHILADELPHIA.

But before this the party had been regularly organized in national convention. Much, also, had been done toward its organization in some of the states during the years 1854 and 1855. Its first national convention was held at the city of Pittsburgh, Penn., February 22d, 1856. An address written by Henry J. Raymond, the editor of the New York Times, was adopted, but no nominations were made. The regular nominating convention assembled at Philadelphia, on the following 17th

of June, a fortnight after the Democratic party had nominated James Buchanan and John C. Breckinridge for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, at a convention held in the city of Cincinnati. Over the Philadelphia convention the Hon. Henry S. Lane, of Indiana, presided. It was a large, enthusiastic and harmonious gathering. John C. Fremont, of California, was nominated candidate for President, and Wm. L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President, each on the first ballot. The convention also adopted a platform of which the following is a copy:

PHILADELPHIA PLATFORM OF 1856.

"This Convention of Delegates, assembled in pursuance of a call addressed to the people of the United States, without regard to past political differences or divisions, who are opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, to the policy of the present Administration, to the extension of slavery into free territory; in favor of admitting Kansas as a free State, of restoring the action of the Federal Government to the principles of Washington and Jefferson, and who propose to unite in presenting candidates for the office of President and Vice-President, do resolve as follows:

Resolved, that the maintenance of the principles promulgated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Constitution is essential to the preservation of our republican institutions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the States, and the union of the States, shall be preserved.

"Resolved, That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a self-evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object and ulterior designs of our Federal Government were to secure these rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our republican fathers, when they had abolished Slavery in all our national territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for the purpose of establishing Slavery in any territory of the United States, by positive legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial

legislature, of any individual or association of individuals, to give legal existence to Slavery in any territory of the United States, while the present Constitution shall be maintained.

"Resolved, That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign power over the territories of the United States for their government, and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of barbarism-Polygamy and Slavery.

"Resolved, That while the Constitution of the United States was ordained and established by the people in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample provisions for the protection of life, liberty and property of every citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have been fraudulently and violently taken from them-their territory has been invaded by an armed force-spurious and pretended legislative, judicial and executive officers have been set over them, by whose usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the Government, tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced-the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed-test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been imposed as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding officethe right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury has been denied the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures has been violated—they have been deprived of life, liberty, and property without due process of law-that the freedom of speech and of the press has been abridged-the right to choose their representatives has been made of no effect-murders, robberies, and arsons have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been allowed to go unpunished-that all these things have been done with the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present Administration, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union, and Humanity, we arraign the Administration, the President, his advisers, agents, supporters, apologists and accessories, either before or after the facts, before the country and before the world, and that it is our fixed purpose to bring the actual perpetrators of these atrocious outrages, and their accomplices, to a sure and condign punishment hereafter.

Resolved, That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a State of the Union, with her present free Constitution, as at once the most effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil strife now raging in her territory.

'Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that might makes right,' embodied in the Ostend Circular, was in every respect unworthy of American

diplomacy, and would bring shame and dishonor upon any Government or people that gave it their sanction.

"Resolved, That a railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most central and practicable route, is imperatively demanded by the interests of the whole country, and that the Federal Government ought to render immediate and efficient aid in its construction, and, as an auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route on the line of the railroad.

Resolved, That appropriations by Congress for the improvement of rivers and harbors, of a national character, required for the accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens."

cans.

THE CAMPAIGN.

The action of the convention was heartily sustained by the Republican party, which had now become well organized in all the non-slaveholding States, and numbered many adherents in the border slave States. The campaign was characterized by great enthusiasm on the part of the RepubliTheir journals were crowded with accounts of mass meetings in various parts of the country. The current events in Kansas, in a state of civil war, were calculated to arouse the public feeling to the highest pitch; and, in fact, did so. So when the election came on, in November, it was found that Fremont and Dayton had carried all the New England States, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and large popular votes in all the other Northern States. The popular votes of the Republican party, at its first presidential election numbered 1,341,264. James Buchanan, the Democratic candidate, was chosen President, but Millard Filmore, the "American" candidate, received the vote of Maryland and nearly nine hundred